of its pages, that the light beaming therein may illumine our understandings, elevate our minds, and guide our feet with safety through these times of trouble. We deeply regret that the disciples of Jesus should so jointly, and for so long a period, have allowed the writings of the holy Prophets to have remained without investigation; as if their meaning was for ever sealed, or could only be known when the events were fulfilled: we are glad to find there are some noble exceptions; we are glad to see deeprooted prejudice giving way-men resolved to be guided alone by the greatest amount of evidence; we hail with joy the fact that many are now applying themselves to these subjects, who, but a short time ago, regarded us as vain, visionary, fanatics! We believe this change, this imitation of the disciples of old,-this desire to understand the prophecies, has been created by THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES, which are now speaking in tones of thunder-waking up a lethargic church from the death-like sleep, destroying, with one blast, those pleasing phantoms in which she has so long indulged, yet at the same time deceived herself. The stoutest hearts are beginning to tremble "for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming upon the earth." It is pleasing and consoling at these times to peruse the testimony of Daniel. that prophet who was "greatly beloved" by the Lord;-he had revealed unto him events which reached from the time then being, until the Son of Man came in the clouds of heaven, to reign for ever with all his saints upon the earth;-he was favoured with a pamoramic view of the kingdoms of this world; they were displayed to him with exact minuteness;-he saw the rise, the character, and the fall of nations. He had witnessed the destruction of the temple of God, and one captivity of his people-in vision he beheld another-he saw the temple rebuilt, and again destroyed-his people again collected, and again scattered-wandering over the earth, a proverb, a by-word, among all nations, without a priest and a sacrifice throughout all generations. He looked on the scenes of darkness, change, and confusion of his own times, and even those which characterise these days-he beheld the sufferings of the saints of God-their privations, persecutions, and death-the dark and hell-born apostacy, which, like a fatal plague, wherever it goes, strews its path with the slain of thousands-he sighed over the miseries entailed upon mankind, by the tyranny, the oppression, the uncurbed will of this Despot who magnified himself in his heart against the Prince of Princes, who wore out the saints of the Most High, and thought to change times and laws of the Most High-as he gazed upon these dark and fearful scenes, a thrill of horror ran through his frame-he fainted-fell prostrate on the earth, and was sick certain days. He saw the four great universal monarchies of the earth-he beheld the Babylonian supplanted by the Medo Persian-the Medo Persian by the Grecian-the Grecian by the Roman;-he beheld this last trample underfoot the "Prince of the Host," "and cast down of the host and stars to the ground, and stamped upon them." He marked the cruel, the tyrannic sway with which it bore rule over the earth-he saw it arrive at the zenith of its power-he saw its glory fade, its strength depart, its universality destroyed and rent into ten* divisions; he saw these in vain league, combine, intermarry, and with deep laid policy strive to establish and perpetuate their kingdoms;-he saw their wisdom turned into foolishness; petty animosities and jealousies causing their fields to be desolate, their cities burned, and their lands stained with blood. He saw that it was no more possible for these ten kingdoms again to unite in one universal monarchy, than it is for iron and clay to amalgamate and form one solid compact. While the world was torn and rent with these divisions, he beheld them smitten by an heavenly power, so that they became like the chaff of the summer threshing-flour, carried away by the winds, so that no place was found for them. With them he saw pass away every vestige of the Roman, Grecian, Medo Persian, and Babylonian powers. On the territory he saw established a kingdom, which was never to be removed; set up by the Lord of heaven. "Twas Eden restoredthe eternal and undefiled inheritance which can never fade away-the dwelling place of the saints-that city, to which our father Abraham constantly looked, "whose builder and maker is God." In that kingdom is to be celebrated the marriage supper of the Lamb. There will be guests from all climes, and of every age-Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, and all saints. It is there where the Saviour of men will drink of the fruit of the vine new in his Father's kingdom. Glorious era to contemplate! still more so because we know that soon the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ!! Even so, come, Lord Jesus. "Come, then, and added to thy many crowns And thou hast made it thine by purchase since, MACHIAVEL states, that between the years A. D. 359 and 483, Western Rome was divided into the following kingdoms:-1. The Huns in Hungary, A. D. 356. 2. The Ostrogaths in Mysia, 377. 3. The Visigoths in Pannonia, 378. 4. The Franks in France, 407. 5. The Vandals in Africa, 407. 6. The Sueves and Alans, in Gascoine and Spain, 407. 7. The Burgundians in Burgundy, 407. 8. The Herulü and Rugü in Italy, 476. 9. The Saxons and Angles in Britain, 476. 10. The Lombards in Germany, 483. And overpaid its ransom with thy blood. Thy saints proclaim thee King, and in their hearts Dipt'd in the fountain of Eternal Love. Thy saints proclaim thee King, and thy delay Would creep into the bowels of the hills And flee for safety to the falling rocks." In a future number we may continue this article, and speak more fully on the above subjects. Lincoln. H. CLARKE. ADVERSITY. THE principal virtue of prosperity is temperance; of adversity, fortitude; which in morals is reputed the most heroic virtue. Prosperity belongs to the blessings of the Old Testament, adversity to the beauties of the New; which are in reality greater, and carry a clearer revelation of the Divine favour. Yet, even in the Old Testament, if you listen to David's harp, you will find more lamentable airs, than triumphant ones: and the pencil of the Holy Spirit hath more diffusely handled the afflictions of Job, than the felicities of Solomon. Prosperity passes not without abundance of fears and troubles; adversity likewise is not without its comforts and hopes. Certainly, virtue bears some similitude to some precious odours; which are most fragrant either incensed or crushed: for a prosperous fortune doth best discover men's vices, but an adverse one their virtues. Essays on Man in his Primitive State, and under the Patriarchal, Jewish, and Christian Dispensations.-No. IV. PRIMITIVE STATE.-No. IV. [CONTINUED FROM PAGE 78.] ADAM, after his exile from Eden, begat a son in his own image, and after his own likeness. Naked, defenceless, and imbecile, the infant man commences his mortal career. The circumstances under which he makes his appearance upon the stage are incomparably more unpropitious than those amidst which his original progenitors made their entrance. Reason in its zenith, enthroned in the unpolluted temple of a sentient body, controlled all the actions of the animal nature of the illustrious progenitors. But the infant man feels the rod before he sees it. His delicate and unprotected body smarts beneath the very elements upon which he must live, and with which he must wage an interminable war while his heart is able to react. Upon the first invasion of the elastic fluid, his lungs heave, and with sighs and tears, the little sufferer begins his pilgrimage to the tomb. He feels before he reasons. He cries before he smiles. His first idea of ease, improperly denominated pleasure, is drawn from animal gratification. Thus his appetites and passions are first called into action by an unavoidable necessity. He remains, for months and years, almost a mere animal in all his impressions, feelings, desires, pains, and pleasures. The mind, by a wise accommodation to its companion, is not permitted to put forth its energies; the body is yet deficient in physical strength to sustain its activities. This law of our nature gives a fearful odds to all animal propensities in the future struggles between reason and passion. Hence the old complain of the sallies of youthful appetites, while the young lament the rigorous restraints of maturer years. Were there no other difference between Adam in Eden and any of his natural descendants, than what arises out of his disparity in the commencement of life; this alone would constitute an immense dissimilarity between him and any of his posterity. Adam, when he first opened his eyes, was in the zenith of his mental faculties; but twentyone years of our time must pass in the turmoil of passion, appetite, and reason before we can safely trust a human being to the keeping of his own reason. As sensation first, and reflection afterwards, give man all his simple ideas or first views of things; so the symbols or types of all his ideas are the material objects around him. By comparing these objects with one another, by abstracting, classifying and compounding their qualities or properties he forms all the complex ideas of which he is possessed. So that all his simple ideas are the images of things which do exist, and he has not a single idea, the archetype or pattern of which is not to be met with, in the materials around him. His imagination may create a great many new forms, but the materials out of which it creates these new forms were originally presented him in the great magazine of nature. He may now fancy a tree, the roots of which are iron, the trunk and branches of which are brass, the leaves of which are silver, and the fruit of which is gold. But had he not obtained by sensation or observation the idea of a natural tree, he never could have imagined this unnatural one. The inlets of all human knowledge are the five senses. Reflection upon the ideas thus acquired gives birth to new ones, akin, however, to those received by sensation. Imagination may now combine these ideas without any restraint but its own power. It may associate those ideas with, or without regard, to natural fitness, congruity, or consistency. It may create a Polyphemus or a Centaur; but it cannot create an idea perfectly new. As human skill and human power may new modify, but cannot create a particle of matter; so the imagination may vary or new modify the ideas acquired by sensation, but cannot create a new one. And here ends the chapter of all human science. Revelation opens a new world, a new order of relations, and gives birth to new ideas, which, as the great apostle to the nations says, "The eye of man never saw, the ear of man never heard, nor the heart of man ever conceived." But this commences a new chapter in human knowledge. The first chapter contains all natural knowledge. The second, all supernatural. These things premised, we proceed to the consideration of the patriarchal age of the world. However numerous the ages may be imagined, or however diversified in their character, yet as respects man's religious relations they are scripturally distinguished into three. And these may be fitly styled the Patriarchal, the Jewish and the Christian. The Patriarchal continued from Adam to Moses; the Jewish, from Moses to the Messias; and the Christian from the Messias till now, and is never to be surperseded by another. Religion is one and the same thing in all ages of the world as respects its distinguishing character and design. And a good man has been essentially the same sort of a being in all ages, and under all the instituted acts of religion which have ever been preached by divine authority. Faith, or confidence in God according to the developement of his character, has always been the basis and controling principle of all religious homage. A good man has ever been the man who paid a just regard to all the relations in which he stood to God and man. The principles of all true piety and humanity are as invariable as God himself. But the developement of the divine character, and of all our relations to God and each other, has been progressive, and not consummated at once. Like the path of the just that shines more and more to the perfect day, has been the development of the character of God and the extent of human relations and obligations. Thus the patriarchal age was the star-light of the moral world; the Jewish age was the moon-light; the ministry of the harbinger the twilight: and the Christian age the sun-light of the moral world. If any object to this gradual and progressive exhibition of spiritual light: and impertinently ask why these things should so be; let him ask the heavens and the earth, why at one time the stars only are visible-at another the moon -and at another the sun. Let him ask the earth why there is first the tender germ; next the vigorous shoot; next the opening blossom; and by-and by the mature fruit. Let him ask why God did not give us the milk and the honey as he gives the dew and the rain, or the baked loaves as he sends the hail and the snow. Let him ask rather why he has shown any kindness to a race of beings so ungrateful in their nature, and so desirous to exclude him from the honour of creating or of governing the universe of which we are a part. Of one thing we are certain, that the distribution of the globe into oceans and continents, into islands and lakes, into different latitudes and climates, into hills and vallies, mountains and plains; the year into seasons, and the moral world into ages or different economies, is all of the same character, |