sacred office. But before this thing could terminate, and the subject be at rest, and the people satisfied that the priesthood was given to Moses and to Aaron, and to the seed of Aaron forever, it was neeessary that God should vindicate the fact by further severity, because on the morrow there arose a great murmuring against Moses and his brother Aaron, in which they alleged that they had killed the Lord's people, insinuating that they had done it of themselves by some art or device of which they were possessed, more than the people knew of, thinking probably it was a necromantic power by which they had effected it. But while this vile slander and mockery of God's power was fermenting among them, for they were rising en masse against Moses and Aaron, there went out from the Lord suddenly a great plague, for Moses saw that the people at a distance were melting away, and he hastened Aaron with a censer and fire in it, to the place where they were dying; and he stood between the living and the dead, and made atonement. But before this was accomplished, there was slain fourteen thousand seven hundred of the ple who had thus sinned against God in this matter. Numbers, 16, 14.

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We observe, as the sixth instance, that of the Israelites there fell twenty-three thousand in the wilderness at once, by the bite of fiery serpents, because they sinned by murmuring against God and against Moses, his

servant.

Our seventh instance of God's severity against enormous sinners, is demonstrated in the discomfiture of the Assyrian host, who came against the Jews in the reign

of Hezekiah. The Assyrians had for their king Sennacherib, whose palace and city royal was the great Nineveh of antiquity, to whose inhabitants the prophet Jonah once preached repentance. But this Assyrian king, while he, with his immense army, was encamped against the city of Jerusalem, boasted that he and his predecessors, kings of the Assyrians, had destroyed the Gods of all the earth; he, therefore, defied and reproached the God of the Jews, who is the true and only wise God. But God, in order to vindicate his name, and to impress his fear upon those heathen nations, and likewise to save Jerusalem, wherein is Mount Zion, the city of the great king, which is beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, sent out an angel in the night, and slew of the Assyrians, who had blasphemed his great name, one hundred and eighty-five thousand men. 2 Kings, 19, 35.

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Many more instances might be noted, wherein God has shown, that if the inhabitants of the earth become altogether incorrigible, or a portion of them, that they stand in imminent danger of being destroyed by the angel of his power, after the same example.

The character of the era which will be ushered in at the close of the next century, demand the universal absence of all sinful persons, because it is to be a holy Sabbath to the Lord, a rest from the toils and woes occasioned by the introduction of sin--a time when the unutterable joys of a close fellowship with the Father of Spirits is to take place. Therefore, the wicked at that moment must be removed by power divine, after the same supernatural manner as above recited. "For

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what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial, or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said, I will dwell with them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." 2d Corin. 6, 14, 15, 16. Wherefore it is evident a separation must then take place, of a more decisive character than could well be accomplished at the time when Paul wrote to the Corinthians; but, as it is written, the tares must grow with the wheat till the time of the harvest-which harvest will then have arrived in the most sublime and essential manner, for then will be fulfilled these words of Christ, And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. These are the wicked who then shall mourn, not with a godly sorrow for their sins, but with horror and despair at the approach of their Judge, though at that time, when He shall thus come, we may not look for the general judgment, that cannot arrive till after the Millennium; but at that time also shall be fulfilled another communication the Saviour made to his disciples, which was, that at that time, when all the wicked tribes of men shall mourn, when they see the Son of Man coming, &c. that He will send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of hea

ven to the other. Matth. 24, 31. This then is the first resurrection.

The prophet Isaiah has spoken very similar to the view given by St. Matthew. Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at his word. Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified; but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed. Isaiah 66, 5. But the momentous period is rapidly hastening, it is even at the door, when God will arise to shake terribly the earth; and after the former examples of severity against incorrigible sinners, he will begin to do, but immensely more terrible and general, for now the glittering sword of his wrathful power shall be unsheathed, and the adversaries cut asunder. For the Lord shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war, he shall cry, yea roar, he shall prevail against his enemies. Isaiah 42, 13. And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die, but the third shall be left therein. Zech. 13, 8 "A whirlwind shall be raised up from the ends of the earth. The evil shall run from nation to nation. The whole earth shall be devoured by the fire of my jealousy. He shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. And the slain of the Lord shall be many, from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth. According to their deeds accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies." For behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be as stubble ; and the day

that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. Mal. 4, 1. Upon which I remark, that this verse of Malachi clearly contemplates a time when the wicked shall have no abiding place on the whole globe. The only and proper place for men who are bad, to have root and branch in, is the earth; therefore from the earth, where they root their affections, and branch out their plans of happiness, they must be finally rooted out. But respecting the righteous, it is said, and very pertinently too, as I apprehend, respecting the Millennium, So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. And they shall go forth and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me, for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched. Isa. 66, 24. This last verse by Isaiah as clearly points out the destruction of the wicked from among the righteous, as does Malachi; because he says they, referring to those who shall worship Him, in verse 23, shall look upon the carcases of the men who have transgressed against Him; from which it is evident, that both conditions are to be accomplished on the earth. Again, from the following remark of Isaiah, we gather, that the righteous are to have a twofold cause of rejoicing, namely, because He shall then sever between the good and the bad; and that it is not in relation to the great and last judgment day that the prophet speaks, we instance the qualification of his words, namely, that then their bones shall flourish, which idea may be considered as illustrative, both of the resurrection of the righteous dead,