believers dwelling upon our earth will then be afflicted by some awful though not miraculous visitation-a visitation accomplished by the common laws of nature. For in the 13th verse it is said, that immediately upon the glorious triumph of Christianity, "In the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven." On this astonishing and triumphant revival of the Christian religion, and this immediate and tremendous convulsion of nature, with its destructive consequences, the affrighted remnant of the unconverted, who escaped this awful visitation, could no longer resist such irresistible evidence of its truth, became converts to Christianity, and gave glory to the God of heaven.

And this great event was there in triumph celebrated: "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." And it must not pass unnoticed its being recorded in the 8th chapter, immediately subsequent to the relation of the angel offering much incense with the prayers of all saints, upon the golden altar which was before the throne; and that the smoke or cloud of the incense which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. That the angel took the censer, and filled it with the fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth; and there were voices, and thunderings,

and lightnings, and an earthquake;-extremely confirmatory of the truth of our figurative comment, as it appears highly probable that the occasion on which the angelic minister was so specially gifted with much incense, to offer with the prayers of all saints, was that of the glorious revivification of Christianity; because in the verse subsequent to that which recites the ascension of the witnesses in a cloud, and the verse subsequent to that which recites the ascension of the prayers of all saints in a cloud, the occurrence of the same awful and special judgment is very distinctly predicted as ordained to take place: "In the same hour that the witnesses ascended, there was a great earthquake." (xi. 13.) "In the same hour that the prayers of all saints ascended from out of the angel's hand, he took the censer and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth, and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.”

And at the final consummation of all prophecies, this we have now contemplated will receive a full, perfect, and literal fulfilment. On the last awful day, the Faithful and True Witness will himself descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God,-call forth with a loud voice his much beloved members from out of the sleep of death, to gloriously ascend in clouds, and meet their Lord in the air, and be for ever joined in indissoluble union to their adored Head. (1 Thess. iv. 16, 17.)

Should our readers concur with us in feeling assured that the Old Testament vision and the

New Testament vision are one and the same vision; that the first is depictive of the glorious Trinity, and that the character of the two witnesses, as depicted in the second, is exactly correspondent to those of God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, Scripture itself has graciously condescended to supply us with images conveying ideas by material similitude that such an union as three in one, though utterly beyond the reach of man's unassisted reason to discover, may still be. And as a clearness of conception adds much to the comfort of our petitions, the Christian may, when addressing God in prayer, lift up the eye of faith unto the threefold candlestick; to the transcendent glory of the great Triune luminarybehold the Son presenting, the Father granting, the Holy Ghost conveying, the blessings prayed for down all below.

upon

CHAPTER VII.

WE now proceed to remark that that very eminent writer, Dr. Blair, gives us the following caution : "Not to imagine that our present discoveries unfold the whole influence of the death of Christ. That this great event is connected with causes into which we cannot penetrate-that it produces consequences too extensive for us to explore. In all things we see only in part; and here, if any where, we see also through a glass darkly."*

But we must here request our readers to recollect the high illumination thrown over this (as Dr. Blair appreciates it, dark and mysterious) subject, by the observations resulting from our inspection of the Mosaic symbols. By these, should our conception of these wonderful symbols be esteemed just, it appeared that the universe is separated into three distinct divisions: first, our probationary heavens; secondly, the holy place, or intermediate heavens; and, thirdly, the sanctum sanctorum, or third and highest heavens ;that one high heavenly pontiff on earth, prefigured by the high legal priest, presideth over

* Vol. i. Sermon V.

the whole; and that his see includes the universe of God;-that all the offerings presented by the legal institutions were only shadowy emblems of the one perfect offering He offered on the cross ;that should any of the intelligent probationaries inhabiting our heavens have deviated from the perfect prescribed path, that access was opened to them, in like manner as to us, unto the one cleansing laver, and participation of the propitiatory benefit procured by the spotless sacrifice stretched on the brazen altar, tendered unto them, that no probationary being could gain admission to the second and third heavens, without a passport from the great high heavenly Priest over God's own house above;--that He alone could unbar the one celestial gate that opens into heaven; and that an interest in his merits is essential for all erring probationers.

But the result of our last research having now ascertained that the rank of the illustrious being who died upon the cross was nothing less than that of Almighty God's own Son, one with his Almighty Father, would, independent of Dr. Blair's remarks, and the information derived from the Old Testament, most powerfully lead unassisted reason to suspect, that the effect of the propitiation procured through his most precious death, would be more commensurate with the greatness of the Almighty being who died upon the cross, than that of saving a remnant of the inhabitants of our poor little globe, and that it would extend its influence far far beyond the limits of our world. For we must repeat, that when we lift