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xii. INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS.
Christian Church. The whole political and moral aspect
of almost every country on the face of the globe, and
particularly of every country where Christians have had
influence, has been surprisingly transformed ; and even
the human mind itself, throughout, as far as is known,
all the great families of man,-has undergone a most
conspicuous change. Is it not reasonable to suppose, that
these wonderful occurrences may have been in part over
ruled, and in part produced, by the immediate agency of
Divine Providence, with reference to the accomplishment
of its purposes of mercy, in the establishment of the new
dispensation of genuine Christianity, predicted under the
figure of the New Jerusalem ?-that judgments are pre
ceding to remove obstructions out of the way, and that
beneficial influences also are in operation to prepare
for its reception ? Most assuredly, the most decided
opposer of the doctrines now proposed as those of the
New Jerusalem, cannot deny, that if a New Jerusalem is
ever to appear in the form of a New Church among men,
no times wearing more of the character which may
reasonably be expected to mark the era of its commence
ment have ever yet been known, and none can be
reasonably looked for hereafter in which that character
shall be more strikingly displayed.
There is much, then, which gives an antecedent pro
bability to the opinion, that, as the predictions relative to
the new state of the Lord’s Church among mankind, of
which the New Jerusalem is a figure, must be fulfilled at
some time or other, the present is actually the time
appointed by Infinite Wisdom and Goodness for that
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