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ferences of the Prophetic Inquirer. ency. It shall be my attempt then

It may be my feebleness of apprehension which hinders me from at once yielding to them; for I am perfectly contented to rank myself among the moles and bats alluded to by. But for that reason I am only the more desirous to be enlightened, and shall truly welcome any suggestions which may help to dissipate my darkness." The Inquirer will do me the justice to observe, that I do not deny the personal advent of our Saviour before the Millennium; though I have not yet learned to feel the force of the arguments by which, in his six inferences, he seeks to

prove that doctrine. If he will either put them in a more convincing point of view, or suggest others, the cogency of which I may be better qualified to discern, I shall be truly thankful for his instruction.

D. D.

THOUGHTS ON THE MILLENNIUM.

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer. The question of prophetic inquiry is one which of late has so much agitated, and continues to agitate, the mind of the religious public, that I venture to offer a few suggestions respecting it. When ministers preach from the pulpit, and publish in print, that after the lapse of a few years the Saviour will personally descend upon earth, and the dead bodies of the saints will arise to reign with him for the space of a thousand years, and that there will at that time be a renovation of the natural world; and when the commencement of this event is definitively fixed, it surely becomes a subject for the serious consideration of the private Christian. Though it be allowed that such views may be harmlessly, if temperately, entertained, yet, when they are enforced with the same authority as the grand truths of Revelation, and when their rejection is almost deemed a heresy, it is to be apprehended that they may be gaining an undue ascend

to prove, that the opinions which
are held by some modern Millen-
narians are unscriptural, or at least
very doubtful. To the Jews, who
looked for a temporal Messiah,
Christ declared, “My kingdom is not
of this world:" and no supposition
can be more visionary than that
the glorified saints should leave their
abode in heaven, and again inhabit
this lower world, which would be a
diminution of their bliss, so long as
sin in any degree, and therefore
imperfection, should be permitted
to exist; for we are told, that, even
after this golden age of Christianity,
an almost universal apostacy will
take place. Still more incongruous
would it be, that the Saviour him-
self, after having taken upon him
the nature of man, and having ac-
complished the object of his incar-
nation and suffering, and having
ascended on high, there to reap the
fruits of his victory over sin and
death, should again resign his seat
to which he has been exalted at the
right hand of his Father. Such a
method of procedure is contradictory
to the whole scheme of God's pro-
vidence in the church, and, if such a
term may be employed, is a bathos
in divinity. As individual
any
ber of Christ's mystical body, who
has made the highest attainments in
holiness, is only comparatively holy
so long as he remains in the pre-
sent life, so the state of the church
collectively will be only compa-
ratively blessed, during the Mil-
lennial period, in a more purified
existence than it has ever previ
ously enjoyed. The Millennium,
therefore, without derogating from
its glory, will resemble only the
threshold of the palace, the in-
closure of the holy city, or the pre-
parations of the bride for the mar
riage-supper of the Lamb. That
the first resurrection alluded to by
St. John, in Rev. xx, has a spiritual.
and not a literal signification, may
be reasonably inferred, not only
because the souls of the saints are
mentioned without reference to

mem

66

their bodies, and because the style of the whole book is figurative, and from an examination of the context, an explanation of which the reader may see in the commentaries of Scott, Brown, Doddridge, Henry, and Guyse, but also from its comparison with other parts of the sacred volume. In John v. 25, we read, <6 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live." That Christ here refers to a resurrection from sin, is evident from his speaking in the present tense, now is," as well as in the future, "the hour is coming," and from the agreement of the verse with the preceding, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life; and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." The first and spiritual resurrection is here contrasted with the second and literal resurrection, which is described in the following verses: "The hour is coming in which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation." In Rom. xi. 15, St. Paul observes of the Jews, who will be recalled prior to the Millennium, "For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?" by which we may understand that they will be aroused from spiritual slumber; and which answers to the vision of dry bones in Ezek. xxxvii. In 1 Cor. xv. the Apostle is opposing some who denied the resurrection of the dead: "Every man in his own order; Christ the first fruits, afterward they that are Christ's at his coming: then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father.' Here, the "coming of Christ," and "the end," are synchronical, or at

least immediately succeed each other; and through the whole of this chapter we shall perceive, that he is speaking of one literal resurrection, which shall take place" at the last trump." Again, in 1 Thess. iv. 13, he is endeavouring to administer consolation to. mourners who had been bereaved of their re

latives. "For we say unto you, by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep: for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive, and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we be ever with the Lord." That this passage relates to the consummation of all things, is clear; for it is expressly affirmed that the saints shall be ever with the Lord above, and therefore by no interpretation can denote that they shall reign with him below. It is more than probable that the scene of the last judgment will be in the air or clouds, or in some portion of the universe which is intermediate between heaven and earth; and the Apostle seems to make use of this language, as if it would detract from the dignity of the person, and the sublimity of the subject, to conceive that the Being who, though once "despised and rejected of men,” will then manifest himself in the character of a glorified Sovereign, "with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment upon all," should ever again stoop so low as to set his foot upon this globe. Had any other. literal resurrection been contemplated by the Apostle, he would no doubt have insisted on it specifically in writing to the Corinthians and Thessalonians; in the one case, as an additional argument, if it were needed, to confute gainsayers, and, in the other, if agreeable to the Divine will, as a fresh source of

66 com

ON THE SECOND ADVENT.

Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer.

comfort to the afflicted. We read in the Old Testament of Christ's appearance to Jacob in the form of an angel, wrestling with him; and on another occasion in the fiery furnace; both which appearances were prior to his humiliation; but since his ascension into heaven we do not find that he has ever been personally visible upon earth, which is a ground for believing that he will never again so appear. The present aspect of affairs would lead us to conclude, without transgressing the bounds of sobriety, that we are on the eve of important events; and that "the sure word of prophecy, whereunto we do well to take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place," will receive its gradual fulfilment. By the expression, ing of the Lord," which is used by David, Isaiah, Zechariah, Malachi, and by Christ himself and his Apostles, seems primarily intended his providential coming in the infliction of judgments upon the enemies of the church, and in its increase by the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit. As he may be said to have come at the destruction of Jerusalem and the calling of the Gentiles, and in the deliverance of his people from Pagan persecution in the reign of Constantine, and in the subsequent propagation of the Gospel, which were attended with great opposition from satan, in like manner will he come in the dissolution of the Papal and Mohammedan powers, the conversion of the Heathen and Jewish nations, and the peaceful establishment of his kingdom, when Jews and Gentiles "shall be one fold, and there shall be one Shepherd;" which are all typical of his first coming in person at the last day to pass sentence on the righteous and the wicked; at which coming "the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat: nevertheless now, according to his promise, look we for a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."

F. S.

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There are probably but few Millenarians of the present day, who would agree in "Omega's" statement of their expectations (Christ. Observ. Oct. p. 597) of "a reign in the city to be literally let down out of heaven." I am no believer in such a city, nor indeed in a reign of "a thousand years" only. That period very possibly means the "one great day of the Lord," as Mede supposes, bounded by the first and limited by the second judgment; but, to reconcile it with the chronological periods of Daniel, is probably more limited in time than a thousand natural years. If considered in its symbolical character, it must be understood as "the great and terrible day of the Lord," "the day which cometh as a thief in the night,' both of Peter and St. John, or else must be taken as a prophetical period in the sense of all other chronological periods, and as meaning 360,000 years. It is more reasonable however to conclude with Daniel, that "Blessed is he that cometh to the thousand three hun dred and five and thirty days," and to assume that the two judgments which the prophet denounces of the Papal and Mohammedan powers, precede the expiration of those days; and as Daniel speaks of no subsequent judgment, that the glory and blessedness of the last days will be everlasting; and the kingdom be possessed "for ever, even for ever and ever;" or literally, that "they shall possess the kingdom until the world, and the world of worlds;" a kingdom coeval with the reign of the King of kings, and Lord of lords," or Prince of princes, or God of gods, and therefore eternal; as both Nebuchadnezzar and Darius, taught by the Spirit of God, in opposition to their own kingdoms, have declared it.

But I would justify the Millenarians in their belief of an extraordinary dispensation beyond the

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power of human achievement, and therefore properly said to be "from heaven;" "a kingdom cut out with out hands," superseding the inonarchies of the world, as do "the new heaven and new earth" those of the old dispensation which "pass away and are no more found;" or, to divest them of their symbolical appellations, as does "the great and holy empire succeed to the dominion of the "great Roman empire" and "the great papal empire;" the "great and holy city" uniting in itself the conjoint symbols of both the other cities. Some of the sentiments of Ben Ezra's volumes, lately translated and republished by Mr. Irving, from which Omega" seems to have collected his opinions of the Millenarians (though the work is in many respects admirable), are not perhaps tenable on Scripture grounds; nor are they held by all those, or perhaps any of those, who avow themselves Millenarians.

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With the views of " A Prophetical Inquirer" I generally coincide; but there are some difficulties connected with "the second personal advent of our Lord," which seem to have escaped the range of his comprehensive mind. Of the second personal advent, I do not doubt; but whether the revelation of God our Saviour will be, as clothed with humanity, visible to the eye, or in his glorified state, as "the Shechinah," does not fully appear in the Divine record, which can be the only standard of appeal. When transfigured before his disciples on Mount Tabor, "his face shone as the sun," and a bright cloud overshadowed them, as if his appearance had been too effulgent for mortal eye; and when he ascended into heaven from the mount of Olives in the presence of a greater number of his disciples, " a cloud received him out of their sight:" and that He does "come in all the glory of his Father," and that He is to "come in like manner as they had seen him go into heaven," is clearly revealed. It

is therefore more probable that he
ascended also in the glory of the
Father; that is, transfigured before
them, and that when He comes the
second time, it will be as
"the
Shechinah," and not visibly in hu-
man form.

The prophecy by Ezekiel of a
new and a future dispensation-as
appears evident from the distribution
of the land, the dedication of "the
holy portion" by the twelve tribes,
and the new law, temple, and city,
the children of Israel having then
put away their abominations from
them, however carnal such sug-
gestions may appear to some
minds-
3-seems to favour this view
of the subject; as "the glory of
the Lord" then comes by the
way of the East, and "the earth
shined with his glory." This
glory of the Lord
did not

64

enter the second temple, but cannot, when it does come, be distinguished from "the Shechinah" of the temple of Solomon.

The reference to Zech. xii. 9, 10, after the restoration of Judah (not of the Tribes), and after the deliverance from the assault of all nations which come up against Jerusalem, may be deemed a declaration of what shall take place, rather than a positive fulfilment of the promise; because that promise is extended to all Israel, even as the covenant of a "new heart;" but after a second deliverance, in which all the tribes seem concerned, "his feet shall stand in that day on the mount of Olives." (Zech. xiv. 4.) And this synchronizes with the declaration of God by Ezekiel, when the Twelve Tribes are in possession of the land, the "stick of Joseph" having been joined with the "stick of Judah," and made one in the land : when he says, "This is the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet;" and this, after "the glory of the Lord from the earth' has entered the temple, which was to be dedicated by the twelve tribes to the Lord God of Israel. Such an event may be sup

posed better to accord with the second advent than Zech. xii. 9, 10; and it agrees with many other prophecies, as the Gog and Magog, both of Ezekiel and St. John, for Ezek. xxxvii. 26-28. agrees with Rev.. xxi. 3, the fulfilment of which takes place after the creation of the new heaven and earth, and refers to the great and holy city having "the glory of God in it." The darkening of "the sun, moon, and stars" (Matt. xxiv. 29, 30), synchronising with the sixth seal, and consequently with the overthrow of the dragon, beast, and false prophet, and also with the papal judgment of Daniel, is but "THE SIGN of the Son of Man in heaven, coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory," and does not therefore necessarily imply his immediate and personal presence. On the contrary, it may be inferred, that he raises up instruments to execute his purposes of judgment, and, like David with Joab, or the peaceable Solomon after the wars of David, comes only to enjoy the fruits of the victory; the instrument on this occasion being the Elijah who slays the priests of Baal before the rise of "the Sun of Righteousness." The papal judgment of Daniel, which is also the first judgment of St. John, for this judgment is on those who have "the mark of the beast" (Rev. xx), synchronising also with Rev. iv., does not therefore seem absolutely connected with the immediate second advent of the Lord, as will otherwise be evident; and the going forth of the mighty Conqueror (Rev. xix.) as well as the Judge of Daniel, may be taken rather as symbolical appearances, not denoting his presence, but the process of his judgment, and the state of his kingdom. It is only when announced as " GOD," or the Mighty One, which occurs, I believe, only once in the Apocalypse, and then as seated on the throne, and ruling over all in opposition to the demons of "gold, silver, brass, iron, wood, and stone," that He can

be considered positively present; but this is at the second judgment. I will attempt briefly to assign the reasons which lead me to this conclusion.

"THE FATHER judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to THE SON, that all men should honour THE SON, even as they honour THE FATHER." He therefore who is symbolically represented on the throne of Daniel, as "the Ancient of Days" (for it would be absurd to apply literally this highly symboli cal vision), cannot be God the Fa ther, but "the Father of the eternal age," who is "the Child born, and the Son given" (Isa. ix. 6); and if this position be correct," the Son of Man" is then to be considered symbolically, not positively, present for the papal judgment, which is the darkening of the sun, moon, and stars, is only "the sign" of his coming; and his being there represented as enthroned must be considered symbolically also.

But it is an important question, bearing on the positions of "A Prophetical Inquirer," whether "the Son of Man" is" the Father of the eter nal age," and then to be considered as seated on the throne, whether symbolically or not. He who receives the kingdom from "the Son of Man," and is "like unto the Son of Man," or synonymously is the rul ing power of "the saints of the Most High" (as man being the emblem of a ruling power), cannot be CHRIST, who is himself then symbolically seated on that throne, as "the Father of the eternal age," according to the authority committed to Him, as THE UNIVERSAL JUDGE. I confess that these inquiries cause me to doubt the truth of many opinions which now occupy the mind of the Christian world, but which have been received and adopted, as I believe, with the sanction of ages, without proper inquiry. Indeed, in a geographical point of view, the symbol of the metallic image, or those of the four beasts which represent the site of

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