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On the Contents of the Book of Revelation * No . IV . HAVING , in the preceding Essays , [ pp . 42 , 113 and 317 , ]
gone through those periods that are past , we have now arrived at those parts of the Revelation which are to us of the greatest importance , being that period in which we live . Chap . xiv . giving a description of Jesus and the church of the first-born , opens with the sounding of the seventh and last war trumpet , and consequently with the rise of the second beast , mentioned in the last Essay . This chapter is , therefore , at the head of those scenes in which God is
manifesting unto men that he has now taken into his own hands his great power , that by it he may compel the kingdoms of this world to become the kingdoms of our God mid his Messiah . This most admirable scene is descriptive of the characters of those who
are appointed torule the nations—of that church which , taught by the apostles and martyrs , shall establish upon earth a kingdom that shall swallow up all the kingdoms of this world . These characters are free from every
stain of idolatry : wimout considering consequences they obey Jesus alone : where he goes they go , and stop where he stops : his precepts and his actions are their law , and his will is their delight : their words are sincerity , and their consequent actions are faultless before God * Chap . xiv . 6 , 7- A messenger , flying rapidly , proclaims the gospel to all nations , commanding to prepare
• • • i " 1 . - ¦ * against impending judgment , by giving glory to God the Creator . Ver . 8 . A second messenger follows him , proclaiming the fail of Babylon , i . e . the overturning of the whole Western Roman Empire .
Vers . 9—11 . He is followed by a third messenger proclaiming the certain temporal desolations and eventual destruction of the empires of this world , connected with the beast , and of the equal certainty of those who
will uphold them being the partakers in their punishment . These three messengers do not come from the heaven of power to execute judgment , but rapidly fly in succession , proclaiming to all in and
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under power the coming judgments , and the reason why they are sent , that the one true God , the Creator and Preserver of all , may have that homage from man" : which is his right . This chapter is an introduction to the pouring out of the phials , which may
be considered as the seven periods of succeeding judgments , which are announced as taking place under the seventh trumpet , to break to pieces the fourth empire of Daniel . This introduction so closejy corresponds with the message delivered to the sixth state of the church , that it will most properly come in liere .
Chap . iii . 7—13 . The Philadelphian church , or the church of brotherly love , that state of Christianity which followed the Sardinian or Reformed church , whose state closed with the political * events which took
pjace , when one tenth part of the Roman empire fell by a political earthquake in 1791 . This church is foretold by Daniel , in his last chapter , as lasting seventy-five years , or the period between the 1 £ fiO and 1335 \ ears , and to be divided into two
periods of thirty and forty-five years : the first period overturning the governments of the Western Rome , and closing- with the first restoration of a part of the nation of Israel , and the forty-five years for preparing the Eastern nations for those events that are
to take place at the grand restoration of Israel . This period of Christianity corresponds with the title given to this church . The present state of sects and parties among Christians is more complete in the essential of true
Christianity , fraternal affection and mutual kindness , than has been before since the Ephesian Church state . Its next character is , " / have placed before tkee an open door which none cab shut "
JLook at the state of religion in Europe , and the universal spread of the Scriptures , and say if God has not indeed opened a door for divine truth in all nations . The next character
of the Christian church at this period is , that she has but little strength , but has not denied the name of God . Compare this with the message of the angel in chap . xiv . 7 , to proclaim the Divine unity and creatorial greatness . How few wer £ they-who , in J 79 U did not ascribe to the creature the
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4 l 6 On the Contents of the Book of Revelation . No . IV .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1819, page 416, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1774/page/16/
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