| 593 have succeeded each other from the days of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon, until the days of Victoria 1, on the throne of Britain, so sure will that portion be fulfilled which is yet future, and which relates to the casting down of thrones, the termination of the political and religious establishments of the earth, and the setting up of a new and universal kingdom, under the immediate administration of the Messiah and his saints.
Connected with the ushering in of this new era will be the restoration of Judah and Israel from their long dispersion. They will come home to their own land, and rebuild Jerusalem and the cities of Judea, and rear up the temple of their God. This city will be the seat of empire for the eastern world and all the surrounding nations for the next thousand years at least. (See Zechariah 14)
This restoration will take place by a series of miracles, signs, wonders, revelations, judgements [judgments], &c., which will far exceed the dispensation of Moses and the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage. (Jeremiah 16th; Ezekiel 20th; Isaiah 11th; Ezekiel 36th to 39th inclusive.) With this revolution will be connected the resurrection of the saints that have slept. See Daniel xii. 2; Job xix, 25, 29, 27; Rev. xx.
A physical change also awaits the earth at this time. The mountains will be thrown down, the valleys exalted, the rough places will become smooth and the crooked places straight, the barren deserts fruitful, and the parched ground well watered and even the beasts of prey will be wrought upon by the spirit of God-will lose their thirst for blood, and become perfectly harmless, feeding on vegetable food only.
Isaiah and others have written upon all these things so extensively that it would be needless for me to give the quotations in this place. Connected with this restitution will be judgments and signs in heaven above and earth beneath, which will distress the nations by famine, pestilence, sword, tempests, hail, earthquakes, floods, and whirlwinds, and which will finally terminate in a fire, as fatal to all the proud and them that do wickedly, as the flood of Noah and the fire that fell upon Sodom. Then as Noah was a survivor of a world destroyed, and himself and family the sole proprietors of the earth, so will the saints of the Most High possess the earth and its whole dominion, and tread upon the ashes of the wicked. (See Isaiah xxiv, 1st to 6th; Malachi last; Luke xxi, 25 to 36; Joel ii.)
Having laid before your Majesty a faint description of that great revolution which awaits the world, I now come to the second part of my subject, viz. --
THE TIME OF ITS FULFILMENT [FULFILLMENT]
The Apostles were in expectation of its immediate fulfilment [fulfillment], while Jesus was yet with them, until he taught them better. They inquired of him, saying, "Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom of Israel?" But he answered them, saying "It is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father hath put in his own power." As much as to say, that it was no part of their mission, and was not to be fulfilled in their day. So, being corrected in this thing, the Apostle Peter afterwards informs us (Acts iii.) that the heavens must receive Jesus Christ until the times of restoration of all things spoken of by the Lord, by the holy prophets, and that at the times of restitution God would send him again. Jesus himself speaks of the same time when he says, (Luke xxi.) "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. Paul also comes to the same point of time, (Romans xi.)-"Blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fulness [fullness] of the Gentiles is come in."
These texts all have an allusion to one and the same time, viz., the revolution of which we have spoken.
The Lord, (Luke xxi.) after speaking of the signs of his coming says, "When ye see these things begin to come to pass then know that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand," and then says that the generation who are witnesses of these signs beginning to come to pass will not pass away till all shall be fulfilled, including his second coming and kingdom.
Now the kingdom of God here spoken of, cannot possibly allude to the kingdom of God which was set up in the days of the Apostles, for that kingdom was already at hand when the Saviour [Savior] predicted these things, and was set up immediately after his resurrection, and without the signs, spoken of in the 21st of Luke, having come to pass. Therefore he must have alluded to the kingdom of which
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