may examine our ways, repent, and reform; that thus the Divine displeasure may be averted, and that conftitution, which has fecured to this empire fo many blessings, to which most other nations are strangers, may be purified and strengthened, and by these means be continued to our pofterity. I do therefore most fervently pray, that God may fucceed this feeble attempt, and bless us, and all men, with peace.. Newbury, CONTENTS. Page Second Inquiry, respecting the two Witnesses when, where, and by whom flain the length of time intended by the three days and a half, during which they are to lie politically dead-and PREVIOUS THOUGHTS. THE kingdom which God was to fet up under the Meffiah, according to the prophets, was to be a kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy. Unto us a Child is born the government shall be upon his shoulder. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together. He shalb Speak peace to the heathen, who have long been the prey of destroyers, and of one another. If we contemplate the principles of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, they promise fair to produce the enjoyment of all that which the prophets predicted. But where is the effect? The annals of the Christian world, as well as those of the Pagan, discover to us little more than the history of ambition, superstition, and bloodshed. The career of this kingdom began in piety towards God, and in love and peace to all mankind. But systems of error, superstition, and oppression, foon interrupted its progress, and perverted its principles. Christianity has been converted into a system of commerce, and those called the minifters of Christ, have been a corporation of traders, in the fouls and liberties of mankind. Were I to attempt to define the character of Antichrist, I should fay, It is all that which opposes itself to the kingdom of Christ, whether it flow from the ecclefiaftical or civil powers. The civil conftitutions of nations, as well as the ecclesiastical, fo far as they accord with, or have a tendency to promote, that pride and that ambition which lead to oppreffion, persecution, and war, are antichristian. Whatever in religion is destructive of union among Chriftians, which leads to domination over confcience, to hinder free enquiry after truth, or any way oppresses and persecutes men for matters cognizable only by God, is antichristian. Wherever † Ifa. ix. 6, 7. Ixv. 25. Zech. ix. 10. B there there is intolerance; wherever we find conditions of communion among Christians imposed, which Christ hath not clearly enjoined; wherever creeds and modes of worship are enforced by human power, and men are made to forfeit any of their civil rights, or are stigmatized on these accounts, there is that spirit which is not of God. Wherever one Chriftian, or fect of Christians, affumes the feat of authority and judgment in the church of Chrift, whether they call for fire to destroy those who diffent from them, or only exclude them from their communion and affection, there is a portion of that spirit of Antichrist which has fo long opposed itself to the benign principles of the kingdom of the Prince of Peace, has been the cause of fo many evils to humanity, and the occafion of making the inconfiderate esteem the amiable religion of Jesus, as a source of mischief instead of benevolence! Alas, how much of this spirit remains amongst us all! How few have learned that + in Jesus Christ circumcifion is nothing, and uncircumtifion is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God. But we are affured from the scriptures, that all these ufurpations and antichristian principles shall have an end; and that the gospel shall produce the various happy effects which are predicted. The religion of Christians shall then no longer confist in ‡ meat and drink, but in righteousness, peace, and joy; the practice of justice, the cultivation of harmony, and the diffusion of happiness. The question is, When may we hope to see these predictions accomplished? Long have a pious few had their eyes fixed on the promises of God with ardent expectation, and been crying, How long, O Lord, ere thou wilt avenge the blood of thy faints, and create Jerufalem a quiet dwelling place, and Zion the joy of all the earth? Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly! Behold I come at an hour when ye think not! bleffed is he that watcheth. Some fuppofe, that all our inquiries about the time of the accomplishment of the predictions relative to the downfal of Antichrift, which is to prepare the way for the peaceful kingdom of the Redeemer, are in vain. If fo, wherefore is it faid, Bleffed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy? Rev. 1.3. Here is wisdom, let him that hath understanding count the num' of the beast. xiii. 18. 7 †1 Cor. vii. 19. ‡ Rom xiv. 17. Though |