be  represented  as  a  wheel  of  various  rings  one  within  another,
and  some  less  than  others  :  each  one  going  round  but  once,  the
lesser  ones  finishing  their  revolution  soonest,  and  each  beginning
at  the  creation  of  the  old  heavens  and  earth,  which,  in  some  re-
spects had  dififerent  beginnings  ;  one  when  Adam  was  created  ;
another  in  Noah's  time;  the  settling  of  the  world  after  the  build-
ing of  Babel,  and  another  at  the  establishment  of  the  Jewish
state.  And  tlie  revolution  of  each  wheel  ends  in  an  end  of  the
world,  and  a  day  of  judgment,  and  a  creation  of  new  heavens  and


NOTES  ON  THE  BLBLE.  405

a  new  earth  ;  the  last  wheel  finishes  its  revolulit)ii  at  ihe  comings  of
Christ,  and  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  and  overlhrow  of  the
heathen  empires  that  followed,  when  the  world,  in  a  sense,  came  to
an  end,  and  there  was  a  day  of  judgment.  This  began  at  the
creation  of  the  Jewish  state  in  the  tiuie  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and
Jacob,  and  xyloses,  and  Josluia,  and  the  total  aposlacy  of  the  Gen-
tile world  to  heathenism.  The  next  wheel,  which  is  larger,  began
its  revolution  at  Noah's  coming  out  of  the  ark,  and  the  building  of
Babel,  and  the  dispersing  of  the  nations,  and  the  settling  the  w  orld
from  thence  ;  wlikh  is,  as  it  were,  another  beginning  of  the  world,
and  ends  at  the  destruction  of  Antichrist,  or  the  spiritual  Babylon,
and  Satan's  visible  kingdom  on  earth,  (which  began  in  the  build-
ing of  Babel,)  and  the  commencing  of  the  glorious  times  of  the
church.  This  is  another  end  of  the  v.'orld,  and  daj'  of  judgment,
and  building  of  the  new  heavens  and  new  earth.  The  third  and
greatest  wheel  begins  its  revolution  at  the  creation,  and  finishes  it
at  Cl'.rist's  second  coming  tojudge  the  world,  and  destroy  heaven
and  earth,  in  a  literal  sense.
