LIBRARY OF THE University of California. Mrs. SARAH P. WAI SWORTH. Received October, 1894. .Accessions No,S^^S^ - Class No. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/christssecondcomOOdavirich CHEIST'S SECOID COMING WILL IT BE PRE-MILLENNIAL ? REV. DAVID BROWN, A.M., i> ST. JAMES' FREE CHURCH, GLASGOW. QT'A PROPTER, QUI DIGIT DOMINUM f /TIDS USSE VENTUKUM OPTABILIUS LOQUITUR, SEXl PEEICl/LOSIUS PALLITUR. UTINAM ERGO SIT VERUMj QUIA ERIT MOLESTUM 81 NON VERUM QXn AUTEM DIGIT DOMINUM TARDIUS ESSE VENTURUM, ET TAMEN CREDIT, SPERAT. AMAT EJUS ADVENTUM, PROPECTO DE TARDITATE EJUS ETIAMSI PALLITUR, FELICITER PALLITUR HABEBIT ENIM MAJOREM PATIENTIAM. SI HOC ITA ERIT ; MAJOREM L^TITUM SI NON ERIT. AC PER HOC. AB EIS QUI DILIOUNT MANIFEST ATIONEM DOMINI ILLE AUDITUB 8UAVIU8. ISTI OlrOITUR TDTIUS Au«C8tiv. Epist. CXCIX. NEW YORK: ROBEKT CARTER AND BROTHERS, 530 BROADWAY. 1879. 3Y, 61 ^yj CONTENTS. PssrAcB, ..---•' -Xf PART L THE SECOND ADVENT. % CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. Opening Remarks, ------•. Pre-millennial Theory stated, - - - . - 4 Diversities not taken into account, - - - - « 5 Prejudices in favour of the Pre-millennial Advent, - . 7 against it, ---... 9 Irrelevant Matter, -------9 CHAPTER II. Christ's second afpearino the church's blessed hope. Scriptural Proofs of this, ------ 14 Not his Coming to Individuals at Death, - - - • 20 CHAPTER III. THE HOPE OF THE ADVENT IN RELATION TO THE QUESTION OP TIMK. Objection: Looking for Christ's Coming is impossible, on suppo- sition of any certain intervening Period of a Thou- sand Years, ...... 26 iv CONTENTS. Plausibility of this Objection, and necessity of examining it, - 26 EarpJanation : There is every reason to believe that the com- mencement and the close of the Latter Day will be shrouded in such obscurity as to leave the same uncertainty overhanging this as all the great periods of the Divine Economy, - - 28 The Objection tested by Facts — Rollock -Rutherford, - 29 Robert Wodrow, ------ 32 Bearing of these Facts, ------ 33 The Objection founded on a narrow induction of Scripture Pas- sages, and opposed to the spirit of a large and important class of Divine Testimonies, ------ 33 Examples of passages announcing the work to be done, and the ex- tensive changes to come over the face of the Church and of Society, between the two advents, all implying length of time, 34 Christ's Commission to his Disciples, - - - 34 Parables of the Tares and Wheat, the Net, the Mustard seed, the Leaven, ----- 34 Transfer of Kingdom of God from Jews to Gentiles, - 35 Degeneracy to characterize the Maturer Periods of the Church, or Christianized society, - *- - 36 Christ in Heaven till Restitution of all Things, - - 37 Parables which intimate that He will be away a long time —that He will tarry, ----- 39 That He will wear out the patience of all but "God's Elect," and try even them to the uttermost, - 41 The Thessalonian excitement on the subject of Christ's Coming, 42 How treated by the Apostle, ----- 43 Import of the Apostolic warning, - - - - 44 Distinction between events and periods, - - - 45 Unavailing, - - - - -AG Early Chiliasts— Lactantius, - - - 47 Excitement in regard to Christ's Coming— its Evils, - - 48 Difference between Feverish Expectation and the Patience of Hope, 50 CHAPTER IV. TH« CHURCH, OR MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST, COMPLETE AT HIS COMING. The three preceding chapters preliminary to the proper question ot this volume namely, Whether the Second Advent will be Pre-millennial or >vill introduce a Kingdom of Men in the CONTENTS. ^ flesh ruled over by Christ and glorified Saints for a thousand years, -.------53 The Scripture evidence against this Theory to be arranged under a series of Propositions, . . . . - PROPOSITION FJRST: The Church will be absolutely COMPLETE AT ChRISt's CoMING, - - - 53 They that are Christ's at his Coming, - - - 54 Presentation of the Church at his Coming, - - 57 The opposite view destitute of support, - - - 62 The bearing of this, - - - - - - 63 What do the Pre-millennialists say to this? - - 64 It divides them into two classes, - - - - 64 F'irst Class — admit that the Church is complete when Christ comes — Examples — Homes, - - 65 Burnet, - .... 66 Perry, ------ 67 buhchell, ----- 70 Remarks on this Class, ----- 71 Second class, embracing nearly all modern Pre-millen- ' nialists — dejir/ that the Church is complete when Christ comes— Remarks on this Class, - - 73 Their inconsistency, - - - - 74 Summary, --------81 Supplementary Remarks— In reply to Mr. Bickersteth, the DvJce qf Manchester, and Mr. A. Bonar, - - . - 82 CHAPTER V. ALL THE MEANS OF GRACE, AND AGENCIES OF SALVATION, TERMINATE AT THE SECOND ADVENT. PROPOSITION SECOND : Christ's Second Coming will ex- haust THE OBJECT OF THE ScRIPTURES, - - 101 Object of the Scriptures as regards Saints, - - - 101 as regards Sinners, - - 103 Objection answered, ------ 104 PROPOSITION THIRD : The Sealing Ordinances will dis- appear AT Christ's Second Coming, - - - 105 Baptism, - - - - r - - 106 The Lord's Supper, _ . - - - 108 The forego ng Conclusions admitted by Mr. Brooks, - - 109 Bv Mr Bickerstcth, - 112 a2 Ti CONTENTS. pAaa ByDr.M'Neae, - - - - . - 113 Summary, --------114 CHAPTER VI. THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. PROPOSITION FOURTH : The Intercession op Chiist, and THE Work of the Spirit, for Saving Purposes, WILL cease at the Second Advent, - - 116 Chhist's Intercession, - - - - - H3 Work OF the Spirit, - . - II9 Both terminate at Second Advent, - - - 121 Extracts from Pre-millennialists in confirmation of this, 122 Summary, --------123 CHAPTER Vll. THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST — ALREADY IN BEING — ITS MILLENNIAL ESSENTIALLY THE SAME WITH ITS PRESENT CHARACTER — ITS ORGANIC FORM UNCHANGED. Pre-millennial Theory of Christ's Kingdom, - - - 126 PROPOSITION FIFTH: Christ's Proper Kingdom is al- ready IN being; COMMENCING FORMALLY ON HIS Ascension to the Right Hand of God, and con- tinuing UNCHANGED, BOTH IN CHARACTER AND Form, till the Final Judgment, - - - 130 Explanations, - , _ - . _ 130 Apostolic Views of Christ's Kingdom, - - . 134 Same Ground taken by Pre-millennialists and Unbelieving Jews, -...--. 136 Lord and Christ, 138 Throne of David, - - - - - - 139 The Priest upon his Throne, - - - - 141 The Lamb in the Midst of the Throne, - - - 142 The Key, and Throne, and House of David, - - 143 The Prince of Life, ------ 146 The Times of Restitup'on, - - - - - 147 The Disciples' View of the Second Psalm, - - - 149 The Prince and Saviour, ----- 151 Apostolic Commentaries on the Hundred and Tenth Psalm, 152 The Kingdom to be delivered up— What it is, • - 154 CONTENTS. TU The Last Enemy Destroyed, - - - - 158 Delivering up of the Kingdom — What it is, - • - 160 What it is not, - - 162 CHAPTER VIII. THE ENTIRE CHURCH '* MADE ALIVe" — EITHER BY RESURRECTION OR TRANSFORMATION — AT CHBISt's COMING. Cveriasting Continuance of the Fleshly State, - - - 167 Mr. Bickersteth, ... - - . 168 Mr. Dirks, 170 Mr. Brock— Mr. Lord, 171 tlemarks on this View, ------ 172 PROPOSITION SIXTH: When Christ comes, the whole Church of God will be madk alive at once — the Dead by Resubbection, and the living, imme- diately thereafter, by Transformation ; their "Mortality being swallowed up of Life," - 176 Proof of this, --..--- 177 Objection, - 179 Reply, 180 Supplementary Remarks — in reply to Mr. H. Bonar, - - 183 CHAPTER IX. RifcaURRECTION OP ALL THE WICKED AT THE COMING OF ChRIST PROPOSITION SEVENTH: All the Wicked will rise FROM THE Dead, or be "made alive," at the Coming of Christ, ----- 193 A prior Resurrection of the Righteous — but one direct passage alleged for it, - - - - - - 190 Presumptive arguments in favour of it examined, - - 192 Resurrection of Believers peculiar to themselves, - - 192 Dutch Remonstrants, ----- 193 Attaining to the Resurrection from the Dead, - - 195 Mr. Birks' view of this, - - - « - 196 Resurrection of, and from, the dead, - . - 198 Righteous and Wicked " awake" together, - - - - 199 All in the Graves come forth together, - - - - 201 The view which Pre-millennialists take of this not tenable, - 202 The great White Throne, 206 The Book of Life— A// . Dalla, 20'' viii CONTENTS. Mr. Lord— Mr. Birks—Dr. Hill, The Dead, small and great, - The " other Book," - Summary, - . - - 203 210 213 216 CHAPTER X. BAME SUBJECT CONTINUED: THE MILLENNIAL RESURRECTION"- LITERAL OR FIGURATIVE ? Presumptions against the Literal Sense, - - - . Nine Internal Evidences that the Millennial Resurrection is not Literal but Figurative : — First and Second Arguments, Third Argument, Fourth Argument, Fifth Argument, Sixth Argument, Seventh Argument, - Eighth Argument, Ninth Argument, Summary, - - - - 219 231 232 233 239 240 241 244 254 258 CHAPTER XI. JUDGMENT OP RIGHTEOUS AND WICKED TOGETHER — AT CHRIST's COMING. Pre-millennialists spread the Judgment over the whole Thousand years, - - 260 Mr. Brooks' view of it, - - - - - 261 Mr. Dallas' view of it, - - - - - 263 Medc, Bickersteth, Birks, ----- 265 Remarks on these views of the Judgment, _ - - 266 PROPOSITION EIGHTH: The Righteous and the Wicked WILL BE Judged together, and both at the Coming of Christ, 268 Simultaneous Judgment — Scriptural proof of it, - - - 269 Summary, -------- 288 CHAPTER XXL THE CONFLAGRATION, AND THE NEW HEAVENS AND NBW EARTH AT THE COMING OF ClIRIST. Fina,J Conflagration, ------ 292 CONTENTS. Mr. Burgh's view ot it, - - - Mr. EllioWs and Mr. A. Bonar's view of it, Universality of it, - - - - - All-involving, all-reducing, ----.- New Heavens and New Earth — Peopled by whom 7 - - No Sinners in the New Heavens and New Earth, PROPOSITION NINTH: At Christ's Second Appearing "the Heavens and the earth that are now," being dissolved by fire, shall give place to " New Hea- vens AND A New Earth, wherein dwelleth Righte OCSNESS," without ANY MIXTURE OP SiN — GOOD UNAL- LOYED BY THE LEAST EVIL, - - - - - Summary of whole preceding Argument, - - - - 294 296 298 302 305 306 308 309 PART II. THE MILLENNIUM. CHAPTER I the MILLENNIUM — HOW BROrOHT ABOUT. Dr. MNeile, Mr. Brooks, Mr. Ti/so, Mr. Ogilvy— Remarks on their views, Messrs. Bonar, - - . > Their views tried by the Redeemer's words, All Nations brought in before Christ comes, Mr. H. Bonar and Dr. Bogue, Missionary effort paralysed, - - - Judgments— Effusion of the Spirit, Christ's personal appearing -Miracles, Church's present resources all-sufBcient, - 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 CHAPTER 11. NATURE OP THE MILLENNIUM — NOT A STATE OP UNMIXED RIGHTEOUSNESS. A Millennium without Sin pirtured by Pre-mill*nnialist8, But not believed in, - 325 329 CONTENTS. Tares in the Field during the Millennium, - Not gathered out till end of Millennium, - Parables illustrating Christ's kingdom, Why the Millennium is not in them. Millennium belongs to the mixed state of the Church, 330 331 332 333 334 CHAPTER III. NATURE or THE MILLENNIUM — JUST THE PULL DEVELOPMENT OF THE KINGDOM OP GRACE IN ITS EARTHLY STATE. Nebuchadnezzar's Vision, - - - Mede on this Vision, - - - The Stone becoming a Mountain, - Our Lord's Parables regarding the kingdom The Kingdom wins the victory. The Victory — its nature, Daniel's Vision, - - - . The two Visions compared, - Judgment of Antichrist — What, Wherein d'fferent from last Judgment, Universal dominion given to Christ, Kingdom given to the Saints, Substance of the Visions, - - - Destruction of Antichrist gradual, - The Warfare not carnal, - - - The Victory— slow but sure. The eventual Triumph, Note — in reply to Mr. H. Bonar, 335 336 337 338 339 340 342 343 344 347 348 350 351 352 353 354 356 356 CHAPTER IT. KG MILLENNIAL REVIVAL OP JEWISH PECULIARITIES. lewish Literalism— its Christian advocates, - 359 Mr. Fry, - 360 Mr. Freemantle, - . - - - 361 Mr. Pym, - 362 Messrs. Bonar — Remarks, - - • - 363 Lteralism at a stand, . . • • . 364 Handle given to the Jew, - - - - • 365 Literalism self-contradictory, - - « . 366 Liteianesn contradicts the New Testament, - 368 CONTENTS. Jewish Peculiarities for ever gone, - Jewish Ceremonies still expected, - Increase Mather on the Ceremonies, Ezekiel's Temple, - - - - The Beggarly Elements, - - - Antiquated Shadows, _ . - Admirable views of the Duke of Manchester, Summary, - - - - - Pau 369 376 371 372 373 374 375 379 CHAPTER V. NO MILLENNIAL MIXTURE OF FAITH AND 610HT. This as set forth by Mr. Brooks, ... - - 380 Mr. Elliott, .381 Mr. Lord— Mr. Birks, 382 Dr. M'Neile, Mr, Bickersteth, Mr. Maitland, - - 383 Faith and Sight— Grace and Glory, - - - - 384 Incongruity of this, as expressed by Perry, ... 385 T'Mr. H. i?onar— The pavilion-cloud, - - - - 386 Either way — wheiner Ohnsi visible or invisible to mortal men — alike objectionable, ---.-- 387 CHAPTER VI. WAY OF SALVATION NO LESS NARROW DURING THE MILLENNIUM THAN NOW. Dr. M'NeUe, Mr. MaUland, Mr. Wood, Mr. Brooks, - - 390 Remarks — Millennial Rest, ------ 391 Strait Gate— Narrow Way, 392 Few find it, 393 Lust of Flesh and Eye, and Pride of Life, will need resistance then even as now, ------ 394 Summary, ------.- 396 CHAPTER VII. MILLENNIAL BINtHNO OF SATAN — WHAT IT IS NOT, AND WHAT IT IS. He that committeth Sin is of the Devil, - - - - 399 Satan stripped of the power of Death over, and bruised under, none but believers, ------ 400 Bearing of these Truths - - - - - - 403 Xii CONTENTS. Faos Binding of Satan— What it is, - - - - - 403 Apocalyptic language illustrative of this—" Satan's Sea.^' or " Throne," - - - - - - 403 Satan "cast out— His place not found"— Fall of Paganism denoted, -----_. 404 This Victory—How obtained, - - . 406 f.>ymbolic language of the Apocalypse, - - . 408 Satan's Defeat in Antichrist's destruction, - - - 409 Meaning then is, No party for Satan during the Millennium, - 410 How effected, - - - - - - -411 Supplementary Remarks — in reply to Mr. H. Bonats 1. Extent of Satanic Restraint, ----- 412 Durham^ ------- 413 Vitringa, - - - - -. - 4^4 2. How Satan will be restrained, - - . - 416 Apocalyptic phraseology on this point, - - - 417 Human Instrumentality, - - - - . 41a This view sustained by Christ hij*r:se'f, - - - 419 Confirmatory Extracts — Andreas^ Paraug, - - 420 Durham^ - - - - - - - 421 Edwards, - - - - - - - 422 Yet not ur^ed cunfiucnuy, ----- 423 CHAPTER VTII. LEADING FEATURES OF LATTER DAY — ITS CLOSE, AND THE "LITTLE SEA- SON" TO SUCCEED IT, UP TO THE LORD's PERSONAL APPEARANCE. In what sense the Latter Day is to be viewed as in the Prophecies, 424 Leading Features of the Latter Day : Universal diffusion of revealed Truths - - - 425 Universal reception of true religion, and unlimited subjec- tion to the sceptre of ChT~ist, . . - _ 426 Universal peace, ------ 428 Much spiritual power and glory, - - - - 431 In-brivging of all Israel, ----- 433 Ascendency of truth and righteousness in human affairs^ - 437 Temqioral Prosperity, ----- 439 Setting of the Millennium Sun, ----- 440 The decline gradual, ..---. 441 Satan at length let loose, ------ 442 The " little season," - - - - - - 443 Nature and Extent of the " Deception," • - • - 44^1 CONTENTS. X111 The Assault— its object, Vastness and confidence of the enemy, The last Crisis, . . - The Consummation, - - - Christ at length comes to Judgment; 445 446 447 448 449 PART III OBJECTIONS. Objection First, -----.. 453 Second, -----.. 4(j2 Third, 472 Fourth, ------- 476 Fifth, 47a Sixth, - - - - - - - 481 Seventh, ------- 483 Other Objections— General Reply, ----- 485 Principle of these Objections — exaggerated views of difference he- Useen the present and the millennial era, . - _ 495 Grand distinctions held forth in New Testament — Natithe and Grace — Grace and Glory ; and corresponding to these, the First and Second comings of the Church's Lord, - 486 Why the Millennium is in the Apocalypse only, - - - 435 Uncertainty of commencement and close of latter day [also of " little season" to follow it], and, consequently, of the period of ChrisVs coming, ------ 486 The " soons" and "qiicklies" of Scripture, - - - 487 CowciasioN, - .-.--•- 481 PREFACE. Iif sending forth a New Edition of this Volume, I would devoutly acknowledge the favourable recep- tion given to the first. The communications re- ceived from England, Ireland, and America, as well as from different parts of Scotland, leave no room to doubt that it has found its way to the parties for whom it was chiefly designed, and accomplished to a considerable extent the objects for which it was undertaken ; and believing, as I profoundly do, that the doctrine maintained in this book is in harmony with the mind of God as revealed in his word, I have felt the obligation which its acceptance imposes to make the present edition as perfect as possible. I will not trouble the reader with explanations of the tardy appearance of this edition, after the book has been so long out of print, and a reprint repeatedly called for. So long as replies ^o it were issuing from the press — and the last of them has not been many months before the public — it would scarcely have been respectful to send it forth Eigain just as it w«i(j. XVI PREFACE. Independently of this, the stated calls of a city charge, so unfavourable for continued labour in any tieiu but its own, have occasioned numerous interruptions, the effect of which, in an occasional oversight,* and a tendency in some places to repetition — not easily avoided when at times one is compelled to write by snatches — the reader will perhaps kindly excuse. For the same reason I venture to ask the indulgence of my esteemed opponents, should 1 have omitted to notice any thing of consequence advanced by them. I think I have not ; — indeed if I have erred at all, most readers will think it is on the other side : but so extensive is the ground, and so endless are the details into which one is apt to be drawn in hand- ling this question, that when confining myself, as I found it indispensable to do, to the leading points under each successive head, it is possible that I may not have noticed every thing which is thought to have force on the other side. No one, however, can fail to see that the question is suspended upon the points on which I have chiefly dwelt. With regard to the alterations, omissions, and aoditions in this edition, they are so numerous that it would be difficult {o specify them. In order to make room for the large additions which the present * As — p. 210, note, lines 2, 3 (but these only), for which I have to crave Mr. Elliott's indulgence — the eye having caught for the mo- ment a different ohai)ter. PREFACE. XVll state of the controversy had rendered necessary, I have omitted every thing which I thought could he spared without injuring the main argument, as also, with certain exceptions, whatever might be questioned by those who are at one with me on the principal points of the controversy. In some cases I have done this with reluctance, having seen no reason to change my mind on the points and passages referred to ; but as large omissions were indispen- sable in the view of so much additional matter, it was plain that these were the places where they ought to be made. Another expedient for saving space has been to throw into foot-notes whatever could be spared from the text, and to print in small type the numerous extracts from authors on both sides, and such quotations from Scripture as are brought forward as proofs. In point of arrangement, I think the book considerably improved ; all that belongs distinctively to the subject of the Millennium being separated from what relates more strictly to the Second Advent, and such Objections as did not seem to fall naturally under any of the points discussed in these two divisions, being put by themselves at the end. The matter thus falls asunder of itself into Three Parts— The Second Advent; The Mil- leimium; Objections. Most of the Second Part, and not a littl? of Part First, is new; and while 62 XVm PREFACE. every paragraph has been carefully revised, a f»ill half of the whole appears now for the first time. One omission, inadvertently made in the first edition, has been amply supplied in this. By means of the full Table of Contents, the General Index, the Index of Texts, and Index of Authors, the reader, it is hoped, will have no difficulty in finding- any thing he wishes to turn to in the volume. An apology is due here to the scholar for the absence of all but the circuwfiex and the aspirate in the Greek — a plan hastily adopted at first, to save trouble in correct- ing the press, and continued, after its awkwardness was fully perceived, only for uniformity's sake. The replies with which I have been favoured are not few. In addition to a small tract by Mr. Wood, a volume by Mr. Scott, a chapter of the sixth edi- tion of Mr. Bickersteth's "Signs of the Times," the Duke of Manchester has honoured me with a pretty full reply, in a lengthened appendix to hig " Finished Mystery ;" Mr. A. Bonar has published " Redemption Drawing Nigh" in reply to me ; and Mr. H. Bonar, besides the reference to my book, though not by name, throughout the greater part of his " Prophetical Landmarks," has reviewed it in three long articles in the Preshyterian Review^ and, since the cessation of that periodical, has em- bodied the srbstance of these articles, with very PREFACE. XIX large additions, in a volume issued a few months since, entitled, "The Commg and Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ; being an Examination of the Work of the Rev. D. Brown on the Second Coming of the Lord."* From some of these repHes I have received vahiable hints, particularly from the Duke ofManchester's volume, in which a close and acute study of Scripture is observable. I have endeavoured to weigh ever}^ argument in these replies dispassion- ately, and I fondly hope I have not transgressed the limits of Christian courtesy in my remarks on them. Some expressions in the former edition, which have been objected to on this ground, I have expunged ; others, even after they were printed, have been altered, lest they should convey to the reader more than they were meant to express ; and if once or twice I have used strong language in reference to the startling, and, as it appeared to me, perilous ground which some are prepared to occupy in defence of tfieir theory, it has been with the single and well-weii^hed purpose of marking the feeling which I think such speculations ought to awaken, and I claim from the esteemed brethren to whom these remarks apply, the credit of being actuated by no unbrotherly feeling toward themselves. * The titles of the works quoted are given, once at least, with suf" ficient fulness for reference. Up to p. 180, the references to " Mr. H. Bonar" are to his '• Landmarks ;" after that, his recent book UavJLg only then appeared, i\\e references are to it. XX PREFACE. On the mode of conducting this invesligation, some remarks have been made by Mr. H. Bonar, in the Preface to his last work, which, as they affect the whole structure of this volume, and may prejudice some against it by whom he is justly respected, I shall be excused for noticing here. Mr. Bonar would ar- range not only his own materials, but mine too. On such matters hardly two people are found exactly to agree. That my plan is abstractly the best I am so far from affirming, that if I were free to follow my own taste, it would be perfectly different from what it is. It is because I thought the method actually adopted the most suitable for embracing all the mul- tifarious aspects of the question in a luminous man- ner, and with some degree of completeness under each head, that I selected it. Mr. Bonar should, at least, have correctly reported what my plan was, which he is far from having done. He represents me as occupying the first half of my book with " the inferential and theological difficulties of the pre-mil lennial scheme, leaving its scripturalness to the last."* The answer to this is more simple than pleasant — It is not the fact. I prove, for example, from Scripture, that the Church, in the most absolute * Passages have even been quoted and reiterated from Waterland, by which I am represented as imitating the Socinians, who elude the Scripture evidence for the Trinity by taking refuge in the natural im- possibiLily of the do-^^trine. — (Mr. H. Bonar, p. 70, from Mr. "Wood's Affirm. Answ.) PREFACE. XXI sense of that term, will be completed when Christ comes ; and so the theory which tells us that it will not, inasmuch as a large portion of Christ's redeem- ed people will have to be converted, trained and per- fected after he comes — is unscriptural. I hardly think it right to treat this as a inere " inferential" argu- ment — a " theological difficulty.*' Again, I prove from Scripture that the Resurrection and the Judgment of all mankind will be simultaneous ; and so the theory which breaks up both of these into fragments, separat- ed by a thousand years, and makes no provision for any resurrection and judgment at all of the myriads who people the earth during the millennium, is unscriptural. If this is to be run down as mere inferential reasoning, I am afraid that very few arguments, even in Mr. Bonar's own books, would escape condemnation, and that the strongest argu- ments In the Socinian and Popish controversies would have to be set down on the same ground. I have purposely avoided all such remarks on the writings of my brethren on the other side, and could have wished that Mr. Bonar had done the same. It has been said, too, strangely enough, that. I have nothing but negative opinions to maintain. " I miss," says Mr. Bonar, " the building up of his own system, for which there is no space allowed, and in behalf of which no direct and positive proof XXll PREFACE. texts are urged.' Here also I have just to say — It is wholly iacorrect. " My system" is, that Christ " will come to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe," when that prayer of Hia shall be answered, " Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory." Mr. Bonar's system is, that he will come to be glorified in but a portion of his saints, and admired only in so many of them that believe as have lived before the millennium — the rest to be brought in by degrees after Christ comes, and to remain in the flesh as subjects of the former class. i\.gain, it is my object to prove that the king- dom of grace will continue till there shall not be one soul more to gather in, embracing within its ample bosom the state of the Church, millennium and all, " till the heavens be no more." In a word, it is the object of this book to show that " the heavens and the earth that are now" shall continue so long as sin and death remain, that is, not only to the end of the millennium, but of the " little season" of degeneracy and rebellion that is to succeed it ; and after that^ I "look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness" — unmixed with " any thing that defileth ;" while Mr. Bonar belie\'es there will be sin and death for a thou- ,-j sand years after the new heavens and the new earth FREFACE, XXm shall hate been created. The positive and the nega- tive of these, and all such propositions, may easily be made to change sides, according to the form in which they are put ; but nothing is gained by such verbal processes, and Mr. Bonar should not insist that I shall shape my conclusions according to no formula but his own. " Bring out," says he, " all the passages of Scripture in which the millennium is placed first." But what if 1 show that the naming of this period in no book of Scripture but the Apo- calypse, and its being only implied in other parts of the New Testament, is just v)hat we should expect , if my view of it be correct? In that case the method suggested to me will not strike one as the happiest. In fact, perceiving the drift of these criticisms, I have puposely altered my phraseology, so as to keep more clearly and constantly before the reader the only thing in this controversy for which I was induced to take it up, and which it has been my one object to show — that the theory of a kingdom of mortal and sinful men in the new heavens and new earth, under the government of Christ, after he shall have come in his glory, and of a company of glorified eaints along with him, is, in every light in which it can be viewed, unscriptural and pernicious. Every thing about the millennium is incidental to this, so far as the present volume is concerned. XXIV PREFACE. Since the publication of my former edition, there has been some able writing on the same side. I would particularise a long article entitled,' " Modern Millennarianism," in the British (Quarterly Review for February, 1849. " The Spiritual Reign, by Clemens" (second edition, 1849), is one of the few lay pro- ductions on this question that will repay perusal. May the Lord keep the eye of his Church on " That Day" when He shall be " revealed from hea- ven in flaming fire," to the terror of his enemies and the joy of his waiting people ; when " from His Face the earth and the hci^veiis shall flee away, and no place shall ' ; h\n^ Um them;" but instead of them shall be ^nevv heavens and a new earth, where- in dwelleth righteousness," and " the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." If this be our habitual attitude, it wiL matter comparatively little " whether He shall come in the second watch," as one class think, " or come in the third or fourth watch," as others think ; for in either case, " when he cometh, we shall open to him immediately !" Glasg )w, October 1, 1849. CHRIST'S SECOND COMING, &C. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. The question to be discussed in this volume seems periodi- cally to agitate the Church. In times of general excite- ment, of extensive change, of pervading uneasiness and trial, this question invariably rises to the surface. On what principle this is to be accounted for, and how it bears on the merits of the controversy, it would be premature, in these opening paragraphs, to hazard an opinion. The fact, however, is as unquestionable as it is worthy of notice. The struggles of the primitive Church forced it up, and kept it alive ; with the battles of the Reformation it revived ; in the exciting times of the English commonwealth it took a pretty prominent place among the multitudinous questions which distracted the Church ; in a word, the first French Revolution — startling Europe, intellectually as well as po- litically, from the sepulchral repose of the last century, shaking the old continent to its centre, and impregnating the entire social system with new elements both of good and of evil — woke it up, and set inquiring minds to work upon A 2 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. it, to an extent unknown before. While some, carried away by the unparalleled success of modern missions, hastily anti- cipated the peaceful subjugation of the world to Christ, others were hurried into the opposite extreme, of pronoun- cing all missionary exertions next to hopeless, without the personal appearing, and the immediate agency of Christ. Since then, the changes in public affairs, both political and ecclesiastical, have been too organic and exciting to allow of this question going to rest ; and if the prophet's inquiry, " O my Lord^ what shall he the end of these things ?" has been acquiring increased interest from year to year, as each new feature in the times more startling than another has developed itself, we may safely predict that the convulsions of the past year, with all their appalling and wide-spread effects — of which we have yet probably seen but few — will only deepen the excitement which keeps alive this question : " men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth." At such a time emphatically, " we do well to take heed to the sure word of prophecy, as to a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day-star arise ic our hearts." But all the more does it behove us to see that the light that is in us be not darkness. Great Mistakes have undeniably been committed by the students of prophecy from age to age ; mistakes which time — that infallible ex- pounder of the Divine counsels — has in every case ulti- mately detected, but not till, in many instances, they had wrought confusion and every evil work. Certainly, the Thessalonians, " shaken and troubled in mind" by parties who persuaded them that " the day of Christ was at hand, even at the doors," were mistaken ; nor was the mistake dealt with, in the exercise of apostolic fidelity, as a perfectly harmless one. It is notorious, too, that a large number of the primitive Christians, for three centuries, fell into the sam€ INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 3 mistake, expecting the struggles in which they were engaged to issue in the personal appearing of their Lord, and " the first resurrection" of his martyred witnesses. The militant did, indeed, become a triumphant Church, but in a very different sense from what was expected. The martyred tes- timony of Jesus " lived and reigned," but the martyrs them- selves lived not. The Gospel slew the great red dragon — - Paganism was defeated in the high places of the field — Christianity ascended the throne of the Caesars : that was the reality contemplated in the Word, but which the enthu- siasm of so many had led them to misinterpret. The same mistake, nevertheless, has been again and again committed — never with imperfect punity, and sometimes with conse- quences truly deplorable. One day, however, the Redeemer will assuredly come in person. Is that day, then, now " at hand, even at the doors ?" or, " shall that day not come until" certain events, yet far in the future, have prepared the way for it ? A momentous question truly ; yet not precisely the question which I am to discuss. What I have to investigate is not when, hut for what purposes, the Redeemer will come. Some appear to think that all the difference of opinion on the second advent is about its nearness or distance. The sooner they undeceive themselves on this the better. For my own part, if that were all, I should let the subject alone. To me, the coming of the Lord should be as dear as to any whose views about his coming I am to examine. To " love his appearing" is not the monopoly of a section of hia friends. To enter the lists, therefore, with those who think he is at the doors, with the mere view of showing that he is not. though it may at times become a necessary duty, to pre- vent disappointment,* is not the most agreeable of tasks. * Sed et illi quibus dicebat apostolus, Non cito Tnoveamini mente^ qucun isfistet dies Domini, diligebant uLque adventum Domini : nee eos hoc dt* 4 PRE-MILLENNIAL. THEORY STATED. A very different task, however, is mine. Certain events, yet future, are expected on all hands to take place upon earth — for example, the subjugation of the whole world to Christ. If, then, he is to come before this, he may even now be at the doors ; whereas, if he is not to come till after this, it cannot, of course, be quite so near. So far, therefore, the question of timo is involved ; but quite indirectly and subordinately. What we have mainly to do with is the events. According as these are expected before or after the coming of Christ, will be the character and complexion they assume in our eyes. If after his coming, he will be expected to re-consti- tute the mortal state., and establish a terrestrial kingdom, illuminated by the beams of his glory ^ and pervaded by the sense of his visible presence. Is this, then, what we are taught to look for ? The system, in short, which I am to bring to the test of Scripture is briefly this : That the fleshly and sublunary state is not to ter- minate VflTH the SECOND COMING OF ChrIST, BUT TO BE THEN SET UP IN A NEW FORM ; Vi^HEN, WITH HIS GLORIFIED SAINTS, THE REDEEMER WILL REIGN IN PERSON ON THE THRONE OF DaVID AT JERUSALEM FOR A THOUSAND YEARS, OVER A WORLD OF MEN YET IN THE FLESH, EATING AND DRINKING, PLANTING AND BUILDING, MARRYING AND GIVING IN MARRIAGE, UNDER THIS MYSTERIOUS SWAY. This is Pre-millen?iialism, or — as the early fathers, and after them the Reformers and our elder divines, termed cens doctor gentium ab illsi dilectione frangebat, qua ut inflammarentur volebat ; et ideo nolebat ut crederent eis, a quibus audiebant instare diem Domini, ne forte cum transisset tempus quo eum crediderant esse ven- turum, et venisse non cernerent, etiam cetera fa.'iaciter sibi promitti ar- bitrantes, et de mercede fidei desperarent. Non ergo ille diligit adventum Domini qui eum asserit propinquare, aut ille qui asserit non propinquare ; Bed ille potius, qui eum sive prope sive longe sit, sinceritate fidei, firmi^ tate spei, ardore caritatis exspectat. — August. Epist. cxcix. 15. DIVERSITIES NOT TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT. 5 it — Ckiliasm ; that is, the expectation of a thousand years reign upon earth after the second coming of Christ.* In the above statement I have expressed only the funda- mental principle of the system, to which nearly all the expect- ants of the pre-millennial advent would subscribe, keeping clear of the points on which they are divided. I have said, for example, that they expect the saints^ in glorified bodies, to be associated with Christ in his millennial reign; but what saints is not agreed. The early chiliasts — so far as I have been able to gather their views — thought that those whom Christ will find alive at his coming would be left be- low during the thousand years, and only such as had died before his coming would appear with him in glory. A few in modern times are of the same opinion, postponing the change of the living saints till the end of the millennium. But the great majority of modern pre-millennialists hold that the saints of both classes — the dead by resurrection, and the living by instantaneous transformation — will appear with Christ in glory at the beginning of the millennium.! Again, I have said they look for a reign over a world of men in Jiesh and blood ; but what men is not agreed. The moderns, for the most part, expect the restoration of the Jews to Palestine, and their supremacy over the nations of the earth ;| while the early chiliasts appear to have held, with their opponents, that Christianity had for ever * Hi autem qui spiritales sunt, istos ita credentes ;^tXtaoTaf appel- lant Graeco vocabulo ; quos, verbum e verbo exprimentes, nos possumus Milliarios nuncupare.— August. De Civit. Dei, lib. xx. cap. vii. 1. 'KiXiaarai, quos nos dicere possumus Milliarios. — Hieron. in Esa. Ixv. 22, 23. t Mr. Burgh limits the saints of the first resurrection to sufferers for Christ, in contradistinction from believers at large. — Lectures on the Second Advent, and Exposition of the Book of Revelation. t Certain American writers have lately revived the old opinion, that the millenniai.. earth will be A^hoUy in possession of the glorified saints A3 DIVERSITIES NOT /aKEN INTO ACCOUNT. abolished Jewish peculiarities j and though, in spite of this, they were termed Judaisers, this was not, so far as I can observe, because they contended for any millennial supremacy of Jews over Gentiles, but because their system Judaised Christianity itself. In a word, I have said they expect a reign upon earth of Christ and his glorified saints ; but whether actually upon the earth, or only over and hover- ing above it, in the air, and whether visibly or invisibly — whether the ruled will see their rulejs, and, if so, to what extent, whether fully or but partially, whether always or only at times — is by no means agreed. These and other points of difference I have purposely avoided in my statement of their doctrine. Even in the sequel, they will be noticed only in so far as they affect the common element — the essence of the system ; I mean, the expectation of a mortal and sublunary state after the second advent — of a glorified and fleshly stale of humanity, as constituting the upper and lower departments of one and the same millennial kingdom. This is the doctrine which, by the light of God's Word, 1 have undertaken to examine. Some may think it of small consequence whether this system be true or false; but no one who intelligently surveys its nature and bear- ings can be of that opinion. Pre-millennialism is no barren speculation — useless though true, and innocuous though false. It is a school of Scripture interpretation ; it impinges upon and affects some of the most commanding points of the Christian faith ; and, when suffered to work its unim- peded way, it stops not till it has pervaded with its own genius the entire system of one's theology, and the whole tone of his spiritual character, constructing, I had almost said, a Mr. Burchell, in his Midnight Cry, which did not appear till this sheet was in type, takes the same viev. PREJUDICES. 7 world of its own ; so that, holding the same faith, and cherishing the same fundamental hopes as other Christians, he yet sees things through a medium of his own, and finds every thing instinct with the life which this doctrine has generated within him. Let us not, however, prejudge the question. There is danger of this on both sides. On the one hand, there are certain minds which, either from constitutional tempera- ment, or the particular school of theology to which they are attached, have tendencies in the direction of pre-millen- nialism so strong, that they are ready to embrace it almost immediately co7i amore. Souls that burn with love to Christ — who with the mother of Sisera, cry through the lattice, " Why is his chariot so long in coming 1 why tarry the wheels of his chariots?" and with the spouse, " Make haste, my Beloved, and be thou like to a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of spices" — such souls are ready to catch at a doctrine which seems to promise a much earlier appearing of their beloved Lord than the ordinary view. " I have heard," relates an honest and warm- hearted pre-millennialist of the Commonwealth time, " I have heard of a poor man who, it seems, loved and longed for Christ's appearance, that when there was a great earthquake, and when many cried out the day of judg- ment was come, and one cried, ' Alas ! alas ! what shall I do V and a third, ' How shall I hide myself V &c., that poor man only said, ' Ah ! is it so ? Is the day come ? Where shall I go ? Upon what mountain shall I stand to see my Saviour V "* How deeply we sympathize with this feeling will by-and-by appear. It is for such as feel thus, more than for any others, that I have undertaken * Christ's Appearance the Second Time for the Salvation of 2?c- lievers. [By John Durant] 1653. Hatchard's Reprint, p. 119. Lond, 1829. b IN FAVOUR OF THE PRE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. this investigation. — There are next, your curious and rest- less spirits who feed upon the future. These are charmed with the multifarious details of the millennial kingdom, They are in their very element when settling the order in which the events shall occur, separating the felicities of the kingdom into its terrestrial and celestial departments re- spectively, sorting the multitudinous particulars relating to the Ezekiel and Apocalyptic cities — and such like studies. For such minds, whose appetite for the marvellous is the predominant feature of their mental character, and who live in a sort of unreal world — for these, the confused and shadowy grandeur of a kingdom of glory upon earth, with all that relates to its introduction, its establishment, its administration, and its connexion with the final and un- changing state, opens up a subject of surpassing interest and riveting delight — the very food which their peculiar temperament craves and feeds on. And, to mention no more, there are those who seem to have a constitutional tendency to materialize the objects of faith, and can hardly conceive of them save as more or less implicated with this terrestrial platform. Such minds, it is superfluous to ob- serve, will have a natural affinity with a system which brings the glory of the resurrection-state into immediate and active communion with sublunary affairs, and repre- sents the reign of those who neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven, as consisting in a mysterious rule over men in the flesh, who eat and drink, buy and sell, plant and build, marry wives, and are given in marriage. To set about proving to per- sons of this cast of mind that pre-millennialism will not stand the test of Scripture, is like attempting to rob them of a jewel, or to pluck the sun out of the heavens. To such minds, any other view of the subject is perfectly bald and repulsive, while theirs is encircled with a glory that AGAINST THE PRE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT. 9 excelleth. To them it carries the force of intuitive percep- tion ; the J feel — they know it to be true. But are there no a^i/z-premillennial tendencies, which require to be guarded against ? 1 think there are. Under the influence of such tendencies, the inspired text, as such, presents no rich and exhaustless field of prayerful and de- lighted investigation ; exegetical inquiries and discoveries are an uncongenial element ; and whatever Scripture inti- mations regarding the future destinies of the Church and of the world involve events out of the usual range of human occurrences, or exceeding the anticipations of enlightened Christian sagacity, are almost instinctively overlooked or softened down. Such minds turn away from pre-millen- nialism just as instinctively as the others are attracted to it. The bare statement of its principles carries to their mind its own refutation — not so much from its perceived un- scripturalness as from the absurdity which it seems to carry on the face of it. They have hardly patience to listen to it. It requires an effort to sit without a smile under a grave exposition and defence of it. If they undertake to refute it, it is a task the irksomeness of which they are unable to conceal, and their unfitness for which can scarcely fail to appear. Let us try to avoid both extremes, inves- tigating reverently the mind of the Spirit. Much irrelevant discussion has been mixed up with the question of the pre-millennial advent, and arguments have been advanced on both sides which originate in confused apprehensions of the whole subject. Some pre-millennialists, for example, seem to think that the belief in a personal advent is confined to themselves, and that those who repudiate a pre-millennial advent are not expecting their adorable Lord in person at all. Surely BO gross a misrepres3ntation does not require to be pro- iO IRRELEVANT MATTER. tested against. It is the time, and consequently the objedSj of the Redeemer's coming that are in question — not its reality. Another misconception relates to the final destiny of the present physical system — " the heavens and earth which are now." That these are not to be annihilated, but to furnish the elements out of which " the new heavens and the new earth" are to emerge, after the gene- ral conflagration, is zealously maintained by most modern pre-millennialists, as part of their system, and as what their opponents may be expected to repudiate. But this is quite a mistake. In point of fact, the primitive and the earlier English advocates of that doctrine seem to have taken other views of the final abode of the redeemed ; while, in our own day, neither do all of them affirm it, nor is it denied by all their opponents. Mr. Tyso, for example, insists that after the thousand years' reign of Christ upon earth, he and his people will take their leave of it for ever; while Dr. Urwick of Dublin, writing against the pre-millennial doctrine, maintains, at some length, that the eternal abode of the glorified Church is to rise out of the ashes of this present earth. So does Mr. Fairbairn, in his able work on the Typology of Scripture, and seve- ral others.* Some minds shrink from this latter opinion, as tending to carnalize, or at least to lower, our views of the celestial state. But may not such sensitiveness spring from an unconscious confounding of the present wretched state with that which is expected to take its place ? May there not be in it some tincture of that morbid spiritualism, which shrinks from the very touch of materialism, as if separation from it in every form would be the consumma- tion of happiness 1 May not the Gnostic element — of the * The literature of this question, in the Augustan age of theology may be seen in De Moor (Coram. v.\ Marck. Corap.) xxxiv. § 30. IRRELEVANT MATTER. 11 essential sinfulness and vanity of matter — be found lurk- ing beneath it ? Certainly, if the earth was implicated in the curse, it is natural to expect that it should share in its removal. Certainly, the glorified bodies both of the Re- deemer and the redeemed derive their elements from the dust of this ground, which will thus — in their persons at least — for ever endure. And if it be no degradation to the Son of God to take it into his own person, " as the First-born from the dead" — if the dust of this ground is capable of becoming a " spiritual" and a " glorious body," meet vehicle for the perfected and beatified spirit, the sharer of its bliss in the immediate presence, and the in- strument of all its activities in the service, of God and the Lamb — it does seem hard to conceive how the very system which has furnished all these elements of incorrup- tion, and spirituality, and beauty, and glory — when its present constitution shall be dissolved, and when new and higher laws shall be stamped upon it — should be incapable of furnishing a congenial abode for the glorified Church. Nor is it easy to make any thing else out of Paul's singu- larly interesting and noble announcements regarding the deliverance of a groaning creation from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Rom. viii. 19-23), or fairly to interpret the celebrated prediction of Peter (2 Pet. iii. 10-13), otherwise than as intimating that " the new heavens and the new earth," physically considered, will be the same which God origi- nally created for the abode of men — when it shall have undergone an igneous, as it has already undergone an aqueous, transformation. Nor let any one ask, Of what consequence is it whether the one opinion or the other be the correct one ? For if this be what the Spirit has seen fit so specifically to reveal, it must be worthy of being held fast by us ; and whatever view we take of it will 12 IRRELEVANT MATTER, necessarily give its hue to all other statements of Scripture regarding the earth. But be all this as it may, the reader will now see that it does not divide the advocates from the opponents of the pre-millennial advent. The ultimate destiny of our pre- sent physical system, is a question on which neither party are unanimous amongst themselves, and which may safely be regarded as an open qitestian. CHAPTER 11. Christ's second appearing the church's blessed hope. Pre-millennialists have done the Church a real service, by calling attention to the place which the second advent holds in the Word of God and the scheme of divine truth. If the controversy which they have raised should issue in a fresh and impartial inquiry into this branch of it, I, for one, instead of regretting, shall rejoice in the agitation of it. When they dilate upon the prominence given to this doctrine in Scripture, and the practical uses which are made of it, they touch a chord in the heart of every simple lover of his Lord, and carry conviction to all who tremble at his word ; so much so, that I am persuaded nine-tenths of all who have embraced the pre-millennial view of the second advent, have done so on the supposition that no other view of it will admit of an unfettered and unmodified use of the Scripture language on the subject — that it has its proper interpretation and full force only on this theory. Assertions to this effect abound in the writings of all modern pre-millennialists. But the fact of the scriptural prominence of this doctrine, and their inference from this as to the time and the objects of it, must not be confounded. On the former, we are cordially at one with them ; on the latter, we are directly at issue with them. And believing, as we do, that the clearing of these preliminary points will go far with many to settle the whole question, we think that a chapter on each of them will not be mis-spent. B 14 Christ's second appearing With them we affirm, that . the Redeemer's second APPEARING IS THE VERY POLE-STAR OF THE ChURCH. That it is so held forth in the New Testament, is beyond dis- pute, Let any one do himself the justice to collect and arrange the evidence on the subject, and he will be sur- prised — if the study be new to him — at once at the copious- ness, the variety, and the conclusiveness of it. It is but a specimen of that evidence that we can give here. Is it careless sinners, then, or lax professors, that are to be warned ? " What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, with hia angels ; and then he shall reward every man accord- ing to his works." (Matt. xvi. 26, 27.) " The Lord is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night." (2 Pet. iii. 9, 10.) " Every man's work shall be made manifest : for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire." (1 Cor. iii. 13.) " Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ung6131y**sinners have spoken against him." (Jude 14, 15.) " Behold^ he cometh with clouds ; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him : and all kin- dreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen." (Rev. i. 7.) Is it SAINTS that are to be stimu- lated to a fearless testimony for Christ, to patient buffering 15 for his sake, to hope, to constancy, to heavcnly-mindedness — to universal duty ? " Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God " (Luke xii. 8.) " Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you : but rejoice, inasmuch a»ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings ; that, wlmt his glory shall be revealed^ ye may be glad also with exceeding joy." (1 Pet. iv. 12, 13.) " Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord." (James v. 7.) " Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ^ (I Pet. i. 13.) " Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burn- ing ; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait far their lord, when he will return from the wedding ; that, when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching." (Luke xii. 35-37.) " And now, little children, abide in him ; that when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming." (1 John ii. 28.) " When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify there- fare your members which are upon the earth." (Col. ill 4, 5.) " It doth not yet appear what we shall be : but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like him ; 16 for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in Him {e^' avrco, in the coming Ke- deemer) purifieth himself, even as He is pure." (1 John iii. 2, 3.) " The crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righte- ous Judge, shall give me at that day : and not to mo only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.^* \2 Tim. iv. 8.) " Our conversation is in heaven ; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ." (Phil. iii. 20.) " That which ye have (already) hold fast till I come." (Eev. ii. 25.) When the Thessalonian converts turned to God from idols, it was on the one hand " to serve the living and true God ;" and on the other. " to wait for his Son from heavenP (1 Thess. i. 9, 10.) This " waiting for Christ" was the distinguishing excel- lence of the Corinthians : " Ye come behind in no gift ; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ : who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.''^ (I Cor. i. 7, 8.) This last passage suggests a class of texts, in which the second advent is placed in a light peculiarly interesting. As the Church never dies, and all that are in Christ be- tween the two advents are viewed as one continuous living body, so in the case of them all — whether dying before or found alive at his coming — grace is represented as termi- nating in glory, without an allusion to aught as coming between.* Thus : — * Homines omnium aetatum conjunctim unum quiddara repraesen- tant : fidelesque jam oiim expectantes, habentesque se loco illorum, qui victuri sunt in adventu Domini, pro eorum persona locutisunt. . . Una- qujeque generatio, quae hoc vel illo tempore vivit, occupat illo vita) sua THE CHURCH'S BLESSED HOPE 11 " Occupy till I come." (Luke xix. 13.) " The very Grod of peace sanctify you wholly : and I pray God your whole spirit, and soul, and body, be pre- served blameless u7ito the coming of our Lord Jesv^ Christ.'' (1 Thess. v. 23.) " Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until t/ie day of Jesus Christ.'" (Phil. i. 6.) " And this I pray, that ye may be without offence, till the day of Christ." (Phil. i. 9, 10.) " God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain sal- vation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live to- gether with him." (1 Thess. v. 9, 10.) " As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come." 1 Cor. xi. 26.) Delightful thought ! that the close of the believer's career is to be regarded as merging in the solemnities of the second advent — that the beams of his Lord's glory should be seen brightening the horizon of his present abode. The last companies of the disciples shall be sitting, per- chance, at his table — their hearts burning within them, as the bleeding love of his first advent rises before their view, and longing for the daybreak of his second appearing. They scarce venture to hope that the time for the flight of the shadows has come. Yet remembering those endeared words, " As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come," the question steals across them. What if it should be even now ? Scarcely has the thought taken possession of them, when, lo ! a strange sensation is felt by them all. The spirit of tempore locum eorum, qui tempore alventus Domini victuri sunt.-- Bjtnqkl., ad 1 Thess. iv. 15. b2 i8 Christ's second appearing each glows and brightens as never it had done before. Each looks to his fellow, as if to ask, What is this 1 It k " The Day-Star arising in their hearts !" (2 Pet. i. 19.) In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, their Lord is with them ! It is Himself He has come at last, in the glory of his second appearing, and themselves and the poor earthly tables at which they sit, are transfigured into shining guests and a table never to be drawn ! There is still another class of texts — the most delightful, perhaps, of all, and certainly the most telling upon the heart — in which the widowed condition and feeling of the Church, while her Lord is absent from her in the heavens, are brought to view. And from whom do we get this idea in its perfection 1 Is it from the Apostles expressing the feeling which His absence created in the hearts of his loving people ? No ; it is from Christ himself, intimating what he expected at their hands — taking it for granted that they would not be able to do without him. " And they said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees, and thy disciples fast not ? And he said unto them. Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast while the bridegroom is with them 1 But -the days will come when the Bride- groom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days. No man putteth a piece of a new gar- ment upon an old," &c. (Luke v. 33-39.) Would it be incongruous in the Church to mourn and feel desolate in the presence of her Lord ? Not less incongruous, it seems, is it not to cherish the feeling of desolation in his absence. And both are such incongruities as confounding the seasons of fasting and feasting, as putting a piece of a new garment upon an old, as putting new wine into old bottles, and pre- ferring new wine to old. Still more touchingly does this thought find vent in his lasi discourse with his disciples, as 19 he sat with them at the communion .table in the upper room of Jerusalem, the night before he suffered. As he broke to them, by little and little, the sad news that he was about to leave them, he poured forth the richest con- solations in the views of it — " staying them with flagons, and comforting them with apples." But he had no wish to carry this too far ; and Jesus will think it an abuse of his consolations, if we have learned from them to do without him. Written communications and tokens of affection from the absent One are dear to affection — but only when himself cannot be had. Christ's word, and the seals of his love conveyed to our hearts "by the blessed Spirit, are inexpressibly dear to his loving people — but only in the absence of himself. And never do we please Christ so much as when we " refuse to be comforted," even with his own consolations, save in the prospect of his Personal Retur7i. " Do ye inquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me, and again, a little while, and ye shall see me ? Yerily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice : and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in travail, hath sorrow, because her hour is come : but as soon as she is delivered, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore, have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from youP (John xvi. 19-22.)* * Felix, inquam, ilia anima quae quotidiegemitet luget, quiaauctorenj omnium mundi Salvatorem Christum non videt. Ipsa profecto ridebit in die novissimo, et gaudens gaudebit in aeternum cum Chrisio. Ilia vero quffi non gemit de Christi abscessii, videat ne irrefragabiliter ploret in ejusdem Christi adventu. Ilia sponsum sponsa suuin non simat, qu£B pro desiderio ilium videndi aliquo tempore non suppirat. . . . Scio et certus sum, quod absterget Deus omcsci lachrymam ab oculi* 20 Christ's second appearing But some will say, What though we admit all this ? The second coming of Christ is still an event which will not lake place till the end of the world. Holding it, there- fore, as an undoubted truth, we must, in the mean time, look to events nearer home. The dzaih of any individual is, to all practical purposes, the coming of Christ to that individual. It is his summons to appear before the judg- ment-seat of Christ. It is to him the close of time, and the opening of an unchanging eternity, as truly as the second advent will be to mankind at large. On this I submit the following remarks : — Firsts It is at once conceded that there is a perfect an- alogy between the two classes of events — Christ's second coming, with its concurrent circumstances and final issues, on the one hand : and the death of individuals, and all its consequences to those individuals, on the other. Nor can the application to the latter, in their proper place and subordinate sense, of the warnings suggested by the former, be reasonably objected to. It is, in fact, hardly possible to resist it. It comes spontaneously.* Still, however, it is in the way of analogy alone that texts expressive of the one can or ought to be applied to the other. It can never be warrantable, and is often danger- ejus, cum venerit dies nuptiarum Christi et ecclesiae, tempore illo quo fuerint virgines introductae in thalamum regis aeterni. Sed quomodo ab oculis tuis absterget lachrymas, si pro ejus amore non gemis et ploras? — Bernard, in Caena Domini, Serm. ix. * Quod (that the day of the Lord will come as a thief) unusquisque debet etiam de die hujus vitae suae novissimo formidare. In quo enim quemqueinvenit suus novissimus dies, in hoc eum comprehendet mundi novissimus dies : quoniam qualis in die isto quisque moritur talis in die illo judicabitur Imparatum autem inveniet ilia dies, quern inparatum inveniet suae vitae hujus ultimus dies. — August. Ep. cxix. 2,3. Par est ratio judici rum incertaeque obitus horae, quavis aetata, ac die? novissimi. — Benoei id Matt. xxiv. 42. NOT HIS COMING TO INDIVIDUALS AT DEATH. 21 ous, to make that the primary and proper interpretation of a passage which is but a secondary, though it may be a very legitimate and even irresistible application of it. Second^ It is not enough that we believe the doctrines of Scripture numerically, so to speak. We must believe them as they are revealed — in their revealed collocations and bearings. Implicit submission to the authority of God'a Word obviously includes this. If, then, Christ's second appearing, instead of being full in the view of the Church, as we find it in the New Testament, is shifted into the background, while other anticipations are advanced into its room, which, though themselves scriptural, do not occupy in Scripture the place which we assign to them, are we " trembling" at the authority and the wisdom of God in his Word, or are we not rather " leaning to our own un derstanding ?" " Let not your heart be troubled, (said Jesus to his sorrowing disciples) : In my Father's house are many mansions : I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go away" — What then ? ' Ye shall soon follow me ? Death shall shortly bring us together V Nay ; but " If I go away, / will come again and receive you unto mynHf ; that where I am, there ye may be also." (John xiv. 1- 3.) " And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel ; which also said. Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven, this same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall" — What 1 Take you home soon to himself, at death ? Nay, but shall ■" so come in like man- ner as ye have seen him go into heaven." (Acts i. 10, 1 1.) And how know we that, by jostling this^ event out of its scriptural place in the expectations of the Church, we are not, in a great degree, destroying its character and power as a practical principle ? Can we not believe, though un- able to trace it, that God's methods are ever best ; and that 22 Christ's second "appearing as in nature, so perhaps in revelation, a modification by ua of the divine arrangements, apparently slight, and attended even with some seeming advantages, may be followed by a total and unexpected change of results, the opposite of what is anticipated and desired ? So we fear it to be here. But this leads to our last remark on this point. Third, The coming of Christ to individuals at death — • however warrantably we may speak so, and whatever pro- fitable considerations it may suggest — is not fitted for tak- ing that place in the view of the believer which Scripture assigns to the -second advent. This is a proposition of equal interest and importance. It would bear to be established and illustrated in detail. A hint or two, however, may suffice. 1. The death of believers, however changed in its cha- racter, in virtue of their union to Christ, is, intrinsically considered, not joyous, but grievous — not attractive, but repulsive. It is the disruption of a tie which the Creator formed for perpetuity — the unnatural and abhorrent divorce of parties made for sweet and uninterrupted fellowship. True, there is no curse in it to the believer ; but it is the memorial of the curse, telling of sin, and breach of the first covenant, and legal wrath. All the ideas, therefore, which death, as such, is fitted to suggest, even in connex- ion with the better covenant, are of a humiliating kind. Whatever is associated with it of a joyous nature is derived from other considerations, by which its intrinsic gloomi- ness is, in the case of believers, relieved. But the Re- deemer's second appearing is, to the believer, an event of unmingled joyousness, whether as respects the honour of bis Lord, which will then be majestically vindicated before the world which had set it at nought, or as respects hia own salvation, which will then have its glorious comple- tion. How, then, should the former event be fitted to awaken feelings, I say not equally intense, but even of the NOT HIS COMING TO INDIVIDUALS AT DEATH. 23 same order, as tlie latter ? In connexion with liis second appearing, the believer is privileged to regard his own death as bound up with the Redeemer's triumph, and a step to his final victory with Him. But as a substitute for it — as being to all practical 'purposes (as they say) one and the same thing with the expectation of the Redeemer's appearing, this looking forward to one's own death will be found very deficient in practical effect. 2. The bliss of the disembodied spirits of the just is not only incomplete^ but, in some sense, prinate 2in^ fragmentary^ if I may so express myself Each believer enters on it for himself at his own death. His spirit is with Christ, resting consciously under his wing from the warfare of the flesh, and tranquilly anticipating future glory : " He shall enter into peace ; they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness." (Isa. Ivii. 2.) But at the Redeemer's appearing, all his redeemed will be collected together, and perfectly, publicly, and simul- taneously glorified. Is it necessary to point out the in- feriority, in practical power, of the one prospect to the other, or to indicate the superior class of ideas and feelings which the latter is fitted to generate ? 3. To put the expectation of one's own death in place of the prospect of Christ's appearing, is to dislocate a beautiful jointing in divine truth — to destroy one of its finest collo- cations. Here it is, as expressed by the apostle : " The grace of God which bringeth salvation, hath appeared unto all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world ; looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might re- deem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a pi^cu- liar people, zealous of good works." (Tit. ii. 11-14.) Here 24 Christ's second appearing both comings of Christ are brought together ; the first in "grace" — the second in "glory;" the first "bringing sal- vation" — the second, to complete the salvation brought. To the first we look back by faith — to the second we look forward by hope. In the enjoyment of the fruit of the first, we anticipate the fulness of the second. Between these two the apostle here beautifully places the Christian's present holy walk. These are the two pivots on which turns the Christian life — the two wings on which believers mount up as eagles. If either is clipped, the soul's flight heavenward is low, feeble, and fitful. This is no casual collocation of truths. It is a studied, and, with the apostle, a favourite juxtaposition of the two greatest events in the Christian redemption, the first and the last^ bearing an intrinsic relation in their respective objects. " As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after tl]is the judg- ment ; so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many ; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation." (Heb. ix. 27, 28.)* "If so be that we sufi"er with him, that we may * The point of this beautiful passapje is missed, I suspect, by most readers, as it certainly is by many commentators. It is not the saint's solemn anticipation of "death" and "judgment," as events common to him with all mankind. It is the sinner's " fearful looking for of judg- ment" — which the work of Christ is designed to dispel. In the one verse, "death" and "judgment" are held up as the two great stages of the curse of the law. In the other verse, we have the corresponding st?ges oi redemption from the curse, which Christ accomplishes by his two ad- vents; at his^rs^. "bearing the sins of many," and when he comes the second time, "appearing without sin unto salvation." "As man (saya Dr. Owen on this passage) was to die once legally and penally for sin, by the sentence of the law, and no more ; so Christ died, suffered, and offered Dnce, and no more, to bear sin, to expiate it, and therefore to take away death, so far as it was penal. And as after death, men must appear again rhe second time io judgment, to undergo condemnation thereon ; so after hia once offering to take away sin and death, Christ shall appear the second time, io free us from judgment, and to bestow on us eternal salvation," NOT HIS COMING TO INDIVIDUALS AT DEATH. 25 be also glorified together." (Rom. viii. 17.) And who does not see that the comfort and the profit of this collo- cation in our own minds is as great as is the beauty of it in the text of Scripture ? All is thus made to centre in the Person of Christ — the contemplations and the affections of the believer travelling between his Abasement and his Exaltation, and finding in Jesus, under both aspects to- gether, a completed salvation.* Bengel, with characteristic terseness and felicity, gives the same view in two lines : Otiroi, sic, i. e.. Christus liberavit nos a morte et ju- dicio; tametsi ut mors, sic judicium, nominetenus reinanet. * The reader will find a similar view of the coming of Christ in Dr. Urwick's interesting work on the Second Advent, though on this impor- tant head the illustration might with advantage have been fuller, in ■ series of popular discourses. CHAPTER III. THE HOPE OP THE ADVENT IN RELATION TO THE QUESTION OF TIME. We have seen that Christ's second coming is the Church's " blessed hope." Its place in the Christian system, and in the Church's view, is over against his first coming, as its proper counterpart. As " once in the end of the world he hath appeared to put away sin, by the sacrifice of himself,'* so, " to them that look for him, shall he appear the second TIME, without sin unto salvation." As the grace of the one coming is received by faith, so the glory of the other is apprehended by hope ; and thus, between the Cross and the Crown, the believer finds all his salvation and all his desire. With reference to the former, his attitude is that of broken- hearted sweet recumbency ; with reference to the latter, that of glad yet humble expectancy. On the one hand, he de- termines to " know nothing save Jesus Christ and him crucified ;" on the other, he is found in the ranks of " all them that love his appearing." Very good, says the pre-millennialist ; but the question is. With which theory of the second advent does all this accord ? When a man believes that Christ's second coming may take place at any time — that he may come just now, for aught that we know, quite as readily as a hundred or a thousand years hence — one can understand how he should set himself to " look" and " wait" and " watch" for him. " not knowing when the Mastei of the house may come, at OBJECTION EXPLANATION. 37 even, or at midnight, or at cock-crowing, or in the morn- ing." But will the Church be brought up to this expec- tant attitude by telling her that a whole millennium, not yet begun, must run its course ere Christ appear ? And does not this blunt the edge of such texts as the following : — " The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night" — " The Judge standeth at the door" — " Behold, I come quickly ?" " Our ignorance," says Mr. Bickersteth, " of the day and hour when Christ comes seems inconsistent with any certain intervening period of a thousand years."* To the same purpose, Mr. Dalton.f the Duke of Manchester.^ and most other writers on the same side. Mr. H. Bonar admits the possibility of longing, of waiting, and even of look- ing for Christ's coming, on the common view of it, but strenuously denies the possibility of watching for it on that view.^ That this is plausible, I freely admit. In fact, if there be plausibility in the system at all, it lies here. I have felt it necessary, therefore, to weigh it again and again ; but at every fresh examination I have found it more specious than solid. That it is entirely fallacious, may be shown by a variety of considerations. One remark, however, I must request the reader to bear in mind throughout the whole of this discussion. I attach no importance, in this argument, to the precise period of a thousand years. It occurs nowhere in Scripture but in one solitary passage. There are reasons for taking it definitely and literally ; but, to some these reasons appear * Guide to the Prophecies, p. 66, seventh edition, t Lent Lectures, by English Clergymen (" Second Coming," &c.), pp. 95, 96, second edition. I Finished Mystery, i)p. 277-28L § Prophet "sal Landmarks, p. 88, &c 28 BEGINNING AND END OF LATTER DAY UNCERTAIN. slender. They think it means just a long indefinite period ; agreeing with us, however, as to its being yet to come. Be it so Wherever I speak of the millennium, or " thou- sand years," let them understand their own " indefinite period," or bright " latter day," to precede the coming of Christ ; and my argument will remain the same. Then, as to its being yet to come, let no one suppose I expect that the beginning and end of this period will be so dearly diS' cernible as to leave no room for doubt upon any mind. On the contrary, I think there can hardly be a doubt that it will follow the law of all Scripture dates in this respect — of Daniel's " seventy weeks," and of the " twelve hun- dred and sixty days'^ of Antichristian rule. The begin- ning and end of the former of these periods, though a long past one, is even yet a matter of some controversy, while the beginning and end of the latter period is confessedly unsettled. Why, then, should we suppose that it must be otherwise with the millennial period ? If the first stages of it should be marked only by the rising beams of the Sun of Righteousness over the darkness and disease, the dis- order and confusion, the wretchedness and ruin, which they are destined to chase away ; and if its last stages should be characterized by nothing but the waning bright- ness and decaying spirituality of its religious character — all being outwardly unchanged, and nothing wanting but the animating spirit — like " the glory of the Lord," which took its gradual departure from the first temple, hovering over the threshold of the house, then going up from the midst of the city and resting for a moment on the mount of Olives, as if to take a last lingering look of its wonted abode, and finally disappearing from the scene, to make way for the judgments of an incensed God : — if, I say, the commence- ment and the close of the latter day should be thus inten- tionally shrouded in obscurity, and the same uncertainty OBJECTION TESTED BY FACTS — ROI.LOCK, ETC. 29 overhang this as all the great periods of the divine economy, would it not be worthy of Him who, in his ways as in Him- self, is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever ? With this explanation, I proceed to examine this new theory of " watching" for Christ's coming, as incompatible with the ordinary view of the second advent. And, 1. Can anything be more arbitrary than the distinction attempted to be drawn between longing^ waiting^ and looking for Christ, on the one hand, and watching for him, on the other? Doubtless, these terms express distinct shades of thought and feeling ; but the state of the soul in them all is so nearly the same, that it is scarcely conceiva- ble how any doctrine that destroys one of them should ad- mit of the exercise of the other three. Beyond question, all scriptural exercises of heart towards a coming Redeemer must stand or fall together. 2. This alleged impossibility of watching for Christ's coming, on the ordinary view of it, involves a serious charge against the Christianity of the major part of the Christian Church, almost from the age of the apostles downwards. An extract or two from the fathers of the Scottish Church, for which we are indebted to Mr. A. Bonar,* will suffi- ciently illustrate this remark. " Few in Scotland," Mr. Bonar truly observes, "held the pre-millennial view, but they loved the Lord's appearing." " Why," says Principal Rollock, " should not the hope of Christ's returning comfort our souls, and make them rejoice ? How happy is that man who earnestly looks and waits for the blessed and glorious coming again of the Lord to judgment, for that hope shall comfort and uphold him in all his troubles and distresses." " when," writes the seraphic Rutherford, " will we meet ? how long is it to the dawning of the marriage- ♦ Redemption Drawing Nigh, pp. 21, &c. c2 30 Christ's coming viewed as day ! sweet Jesus, take wide steps ! O my Lord, come over mountains at one stride ! O my Blessed, flee as a roe or young hart upon the mountains of separation. if he would fold the heavens together like an old cloak, and shovel time and days out of the way, and make ready in haste the Lamb's wife for her husband ! O hea- vens, more fast ! O time, run, run, and hasten the mar- riage-day ; for love is tormented with delays ! . . . . Look to the east : the day-sky is breaking. Think not that Christ loseth time, or lingereth unsuitably The Lord's bride will be up or down, above the water, swimming, or under the water, sinking, until her lordly and mighty Redeemer and Husband set his head through these skies, and come with his fair court to rid all these pleas, and give them the longed-for inheritance." And shall it be said of these men, that, though " they loved their Lord's appearing," they could not possibly " watch for it ?" But it may be replied — These worthies, though they were not pre-millennialists, interposed no definite millen- nium between their own day and the day of Christ's appearing. Whether they did or not, I know not. There is, probably, little means of knowing what their views were of the latter-day period. But there is not a particle of evidence that they had any such views of the iiearness of Christ's coming as pre-millennialists assert to be indis- pensable to watching for it. The contrary, indeed, seems evident enough from Butherford's language in the very extract which we have given. What else can be gathered from his passionate wish that the Lord would " take wide steps, come over mountains at one stride, fold the heavens together like an old cloak, and shovel time and days out of the way," but that he looked upon the actual period of Christ's coming as identisal with the end of time itself? BOTH NEAR AND FAR AWAY. 31 And yet we find him longing, waiting, looking, and watching too, for his Lord's appearing, as if it had been the very next event which was to happen. And truly, to him, it was the next event ; for as " love is tormented with delays" — to use his own expressive language — insomuch that " one day seems as a thousand year$^^ so hope, which brings near the Beloved Object, makes " a thousand years as one day?^ What, to them that love his appearing, are falls of Antichrist^ and bright latter days^ and whole mil- lenniums of refreshing, in his absence % " Holy Lord," says Bernard somewhere, " dost thou call that ' a little while' in which I shall not see thee % this little is a long little while !" Thus the heart alternates between two very different and seemingly opposite views of the interval between its own day and the day of Christ's appearing. Now it seems long^ and anon it seems short. " The bridegroom tarried" says the Lord himself, in the parable of the virgins. (Matt. XXV. 5.) '' Yet a little while," says his apostle, " and the Coming One will come, and will not tarry." (Heb. X. 37.) {xP''^^i°^'^°^ °^ XP"*"*') To faith and hope it seems near, even at the doors ; to love and longing desire it seems far, far away : to the one it is but " a day," and then he will be here ; to the other it is " a thousand years" — dreary period ! In the one case, " we do with patience wait for it ;" in the other, " tormented with delays," we cry out, with the Psalmist, " But thou, O Lord, how long ?" Wilt thou not shovel Antichrist, ay, and the millennium too — yea, time and days together — out of the way, and " set thy head through these skies," that " so we may be ever with the Lord !" To the above examples of this double way of viewing the Redeemer's coming, I make no apology for adding that of one but lately removed from the Church below, whose 32 OBJECTIONS TESTED BY FACTS ROBERT WODROW. mind seemed to be singularly imbued with the spirit of Christ, while his pen, on devotional subjects, flowed al- most as the oracles of God. I allude to Robert Wodrow* On the subject of united prayer among Christians, he drew up two Memorials (1841 and 1842), very precious, addressed " To the children of God scattered abroad throughout the world, with earnest desires that grace and mercy may be multiplied to them all through the know- ledge of God our Saviour." On the topics for united prayer, having noticed among other things, in the first Memorial, " The conversion of God's ancient people as the most remarkable which is to take place until the coming of Christ, the outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh, the destruction of Antichrist, the utter abolition of idolatry, the universal overthrow of Satan's kingdom, the universal diffusion of the gospel and its blessings," he then says — " Stretching beyond all these great events connected w»th the glory of the latter day, believers should look forward to the kingdom of glory itself, and pray for the coming of that day when Christ shall be revealed in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and tha* obey not the gospel, and when he shall be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe, as it will be then, and not till then, that the divine character and government will be vindicated, the Redeemer's enemies subdued, the number of the elect completed, and their bodies as well as souls redeemed and glorified with him- self Hence we are commanded to be looking for and * Whose Address to the Children of Israel, prepared at the re'iuest of the Jews' Committee of the Church of Scotland, adopted by the jren- eral Assembly of that Church, and translated into nearly all the ( onti nental, and some of the Oriental languages, has probably never aeer surpassed, in point of scriptural character and unction, by any hama» compositi jn. BEARING OF THE FOREGOING FACTS. 33 hasting unto the coming of the day of God ; hence it is the closing prayer of the Church, ' Even so, come, Lord Jesus ;' and hence it should be often the prayer of be- lievers, individually and collectively, ' Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of spices.' " In the second Memorial he says — " Habitually desiring the coming ef the Lord, we shall be naturally led to abound in prayer for the accomplishment of those objects which we have every reason, from the Word of God, to believe, must be fulfilled before that great final event takes place. Glorious things are spoken of the state of the Church in the latter day" — and then follows a charming description of its •' millennial rest." Now, let the reader bear in mind for what purpose we have extracted these passages. Not, certainly, to deter- mine by human authority whether Christ's coming is to precede or to follow this latter day, but to meet the bold assertion, that on this last view of the Redeemers coming it is not possible to watch for it. Such assertions seem better met by facts than by arguments. And unless it is to be alleged that the gifted and holy men whose language we have quoted did not understand their own exercises, the assertion, I think, must be given up as untenable. But the heart of the fallacy has yet to be reached. This novel theory of watching is founded, as I proceed to show, on a very narrow induction of Scripture passages, and stands opposed to the spirit of a large and very important class of divine testimonies. 4. It seems to be taken for granted that the New Testa,- ment has but one future event to hold up to the Church and to the world, namely, the coming of Christ, and even but one aspect of that event, namely, its nearness and the corT responding duty of watching for it But nothing can be n 34 THE EVENTS TO PRECEDE THE SECOND ADVENT. greater mistake. We have seen already for what purposes the New Testament holds forth the coming of Christ, both to saints and to sinners. But other purposes had to be served besides these, which have drawn forth truths of quite another order ; and if the one set of passages, taken by themselves, might seem to imply that Christ might come to-morrow^ or any day (as the phrase is), even in apostolic times, there are whole classes of passages which clearly show that the reverse of this was the mind of the Spirit. I refer to those Scriptures which announce the work to be done^ and the extensive changes to come over the face of the Church and of Society, between the two advents. " All power," said the Redeemer as he was leaving the world, " is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach," or make disciples of "all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teach- ing them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you ; and, lo ! I am with you alway, even unto t/ie end of i/ie world."* (Matt, xxviii. 18-20.) Now is it conceivable, that any primitive Christian should persuade himself that all nations might be thus discipled, baptized, and brought under the discipline of Christ's laws, in his own lifetime, or within the largest space of time that would admit of his watching (according to this new theory) for the coming of Christ to wind all up ? Again, the parables regarding the gospel kingdom manifestly bear in the same direction. " The field," which was to be sown both with tares and with wheat, is " the world" ( * Kotrfioi ) : that is to say, a world-wide kingdom is to be formed, embracing the genuine and the false-hearted * It makes no difference to our present argument, whether atrav here be rendered "world" or "age;" as it is agreed on all hands that the period or state of things denoted by this v 3rd terminates with the second connng of Christ EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD. 35 subjects of Christ under one visible name ; both are to " grow together until the harvest ;" and the harvest is the end of the worldj^* when " the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." The same truth is taught in the parable of the net cast into the sea, that gathered of every kind ; and the same period is fixed for the severance of the good from the bad — " the end of the world." Similar is the import of the parable of the mustard seed, and of the leaven — holding forth the truth as it is in Jesus, in its progressive advancement, till, like a tree springing from the least of seeds, it ultimately over- shadows " the world ;" and, like leaven, working its way through the mass of human society, it at length leavens it all. And could any intelligent Christian in apostolic times — while the gospel had scarce a footing in the world, and its little inch of ground had to be contested even unto blood — rise from the study of these parables with the per- suasion that the whole world might be thus overshadowed, thus leavened, thus externally subjugated to Christ, and the second advent arrive — all in his own lifetime, or even in many lifetimes? I might advert here to those passages which announce the judicial transfer of the kingdom of God from the Jews to the Gentiles, the whole tenor of which was fitted to teach even a primitive Christian, that its duration in Gentile hands, ere the Jews should again be brought in, would bear some proportion to its duration in Jewish hands, before the admission of the Gentiles. " The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a na- tion bringing forth the fruits thereof." (Matt. xxi. 43.) " Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the timei of the Gentiles he fulfilled ." (Luke xxi. 24.) • See note on preceding page. 36 CALLING OF GENTILES INBRIN&ING OF JEWS. " Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of tki Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved." (Rom. xi. 25, 26.) "They asked of him," after his resurrection, " saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time {ev Twxpovcc) tivtm) restore again the kingdom to Israel And he said unto them. It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you : and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jeruaslem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria^ and unto the uttermost part of the earthy (Acts i. 6-8.) The spirit of this last passage is worthy of notice. "While not discouraging the hope of an eventual restoration of the kingdom to Israel, in some sense at least, he represses all expectation of it in their own day, teaching them that, on his departure, they would have other work on handj with which it would rather become them to take up their atten- tion. I might refer also to the frequently predicted degeneracy to characterize the maturer periods of the Church, or Christianized society. "In the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils ; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron ; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth." (1 Tim. iv. 1-3.) " In the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their o\vn selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blas- phemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high- minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God ; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." (2 Tim. iil. 1^.) PREDICTED DEGENERACY. 3? " There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming '? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as tMy were from the beginning of the creation." (2 Pet. iii. 3, 4.) I do not press this class of passages, because, taken bj themselves, I think a primitive Christian, seeing the germs of this degeneracy even then in existence, and " the mystery of iniquity already working," might not unreasonably imagine that the predicted evils might be developed and burst forth in no long time. But, taken in connexion with other passages, such as Christ's commission to Christianise the world, and his parabolic intimations, that, in point of fact, it would be visibly Christianised before his second coming, I think these announcements of apostasy from the faith, and social degeneracy, and contemptuous dis- belief of coming retribution, within the pale of Christianity, were fitted to repress the expectation of such a speedy end of it all as the new theory demands, in order to a possible watching for it. There is still a number of passages, greatly clearer to the same effect, of which one example may suffice for all : — " And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you : whom the heaven must receive until Live thnes of resLitn- tion of all tilings, which God liath spoken by the month of all hii holy prophets since live world began." (Acts iii. 20, 21.) Would any sensible Christian in apostolic times, though unable to tell what might be meant by this " restitution of all things," be encouraged by it to expect the immediate or very speedy return of Christ to the earth ? Would it lead him to think that his Lord, though but just gone^ might be back again forthwith — that, though scarcely away, though the Spirit who was to supply his place while absent had scarcely made his power to be felt, though his gospel had hardly had time to get a footing in the world, though tho 38 CHRIST IN HEAVEN TILL ]l ESTM UTION OF ALL THINGS heathenism of the empire had scarcely felt the blows of the " stone cut out of the mountain without hands," and the darkness that covered the earth had in no sensible degree fled before the beams of the Sun of Righteousness — that, in this state of things, altogether so infantile and immature, the Redeemer might nevertheless cut the matter short, and surprise both the Church and the world by his second coming ? To me this seems incredible. And who will say that, in proportion as one got light on this point, he would be incapacitated for watching for the coming of Christ — that, just as he discerned the true bearing of such announcements, his power to preserve the watchful attitude would neces- sarily diminish 2 What sort of theory of " watching" must that be which can stand only with confused apprehensions of the mind of the Spirit — which required men to mis- take the true scope and intent of the divine intimations regarding Christ's absence in the heavens, and which, just in proportion as they got their eyes opened to the vast work which it was emphatically declared had to be done ere Christ could return, left them under a helpless inability to look out and watch for their Lord ? But it may be said. This is expecting too much from the Christians of early times — as if they could have foreseen that, eighteen centuries after his departure, the Redeemer would be found still in the heavens. I answer, No. I suppose them to know nothing of the future but what they were bound to learn even from the Lord's own words. I know well enough how slow they were to receive the truth on this point. Some may think this was at most an amiable weakness, if not something better. I am not so sure of that ; nor will I concede that those who, trembling at the word of the Lord, gathered from it that he would be long away, loved him and his appearing less than those who, in opposition to it, clung to their own dream of an immediate appearing. CHRIST TO BE AWAY A LONG TIME TO TARRY 39 That the Lord himself gave no countenance to this no- tion of a speedy return, is evident from the parable of T'he Pounds^ which the evangelist tells us was spoken expressiy for the purpose of putting it down. " He added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear. He said, therefore, A certain nobleman went in- to a far country, to receive for himself a kingdo^n, and to return." Then follows an account of the trust committed to his professed " servants," the refusal of his " citizens" to submit to him, and — after full time allowed to the one party to submit to him, and to the other to repent of their rebel- lion — of his return to try and pass sentence upon both (Luke xix. 11-27.) Now, when I say that all this implies length of time, I only say what the evangelist expressly tells us, that Christ meaiit by this parable to teach, namely, that the kingdom of God was not (as they dreamt) imme- diately to appear.* * "The preface to this parable," says Dr. Homes, himself an ardent pre-millennialist, " is a golden key to open its meaning, that we may not rely upon a mere allegory. Christ spake this parable ' because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear.' It doth not deny the appearing of the kingdom — Christ is for it; only, he is against the immediate appearance of it. He must before that go away into a far country, viz., to heaven, and leave talents in trust with his servants, giving them tiine to employ them, and be so long absent that his enemies grow bold enough to send after him with this high affront, ' that they would not have him to reign over them ;' that is, some seeming professors should, by his long absence, grow quite careless of improving the talents, or gifts of endowment, to his honour; and others, by his deluy (as they account it), should become profesr^ed enemies against him." — Resurrection Revealed, d^c, by Natha- niel Homes, D.D. 1654. Reprinted 1833. Pp. 265, 266. "Two false hopes," says Lisco on the Parables, "in particular are pointed at in v. 11; the first, that this kingdom should be immediately, without any farther delay, set up, against which the intiniation in the parable is directed, that it should necessarily be a long time before the return of the nobleman ' Soc—Fairbaim's Translation. 1840. P. 398. 40 CHRIST TO BE AWAY A LONG TIME TO TARRY. I suppose it will be said that all the Lord meant to cor rect was the impression that the kingdom was to be set up " forthwith" {^Trapaxpniia) OH liis reaching Jerusalem, at that very Passover. Unfortunately for this view, the correspond- ing parable of The Talents sets it completely aside, showing that he meant to go much farther than this. There the period between the departure and the return of Christ is expressly called "a long time," (/^fii-a ^£ ^o\vv xp°»""', Matt. XXV. 19.)* Nay, the same truth — the very mention of which is regarded by pre-millennialists with such jealousy, because it breaks down their theory — is expressly taught in the immediately preceding parable of the Virgins : " While the bridegroom tarried (x;po»"^o'""os) they all (wise as well as foolish) slumbered and slept." (Matt. xxv. 5.) Thus the Lord in parables intended to teach incessant watchfulness^ scruples not to warn his disciples against expecting his im- mediate return — openly tells them he would be found tar- T'^ing — intimates that he would be away a long time. And as the express object of these parables was to teach watch- fulness .^ it is perfectly plain, that, to his view, there was no inconsistency between watching for his return and be- lieving that it was not to occur very soon ; and that, though the actual time of it would always be matter of uncertainty before it arrived, it was not to be expected that the interval would be a brief one.f But, according to our new theory ♦ noXwi/, multum. Non est absoluta celeritas adventus Domini. — Bengel, ad Matt. xxv. 19. ^ ^vravda. Seikvvjiv ovk oXiyov top ^ p o v o v eaofievop •ira\ii' rov jieTa^v (the interval between his depnrture and his return:) rovs ixaQriTis aTrayov rov TrpoarSoKav avriKU fidXa 7vat) — agitated — disturbed ; or to be " troubled^^ (^poetaOai — as one is on " hearing of wars and rumours of wars," Matt. xxiv. 6, Gr.), by the assertion, " that the day of Christ was at hand." The thing pointed >j..^ at is such an arrestment of the mind as tends to unnerve it ; a feverish excitement, which tends to throw the mind off its balance, and so far unfit it for the duties of life — as in the rumours of wars of which the parallel passage makes mention — the very opposite of that tranquil and bright expectancy which realizes the certainty rather than the chronology of the Lord's coming. And I would appeal to the whole history of pre-millennialism, whether this fever^ ish excitability has, or has not, been found a prevailing element, and the parent of not a little that is erratic both in doctrine and in practice. Thus have I weighed all that has been advanced to 50 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FEVERISH EXPECTATION prove the impossibility of watching for Christ's coming on the common view of it, or rather on any view of it which does not admit of our expecting it almost any moment. I have done so with a minuteness and at a length which, if the intrinsic force of the objection scarcely demanded, the stress laid upon it by the most recent pre-millennialistsi and its apparent plausibility may well excuse. I think I have shown it to be entirely fallacious ; and not only sOj but that it is the very notion which the apostle charac- terises as feverish, and sets himself to crush, as usurping the place of the tranquil and truly quickening expectation of " our" simultaneous " gathering together unto Him," at his glorious appearing. It is high time that the immense difference between these two expectations should be brought out and realized. Till that be done, one can scarcely obtain a hearing with some ardent minds. They are so afraid of being thrown off their watch for the coming of Christ, that unless they think every thing ripe and ready for his coming to-morrow^ they do not see how they can be kept in the scriptural attitude of " looking for him." Having exposed the fallacy on which this is founded, we shall no more be borne down by the question. How the common view can possibly stand with the Scriptural pro- minence of the Lord's coming, and the required watchful- ness of the church in the view of it ? Holding that to be a settled point, we shall refuse to be again crossed in the open field of Scriptural inquiry. In point of chronology^ " the day of Christ was" not " at hand" in Paul's time, and he was positively fearful lest it should be thought that it was. Some day, of course, it will be chronologi- cally " at hand ;" but, as this involves a question of dates and times — as to which men are liable to mistake, and some in the primitive church did mistake, and had to be told explicitly that they were under a delusion — the apostlo AND THE PATIENCE OF HOPE. 51 would have us not mix up with the great and stirring certainties of the Lord's impending advent any specula- tions, however lawful or even laudable in their own place, about the chronological nearness of it. If it was " at hand" eighteen centuries ago — if, when the beloved dis- ciple was in rapt communication with him at Patmos, Jesus could greet him with the glad announcement, " Behold I come quickly'*'' — and no deception — faith can now, 'precisely as then, echo that disciple's sweet response, " Amen : Even so, come. Lord Jesus." For faith lays hold not on chronological dates or arithmetical calculations — useful though these are in their own place — but on " the Strength of Israel, who will not lie," as he speaks in the promises of his blessed word. What faith believes, hope brings near. To the hope of the believer, even as to the Lord himself, " a thousand years are as one day." Though chronologically far off, if so it should be found — no matter. Faith sees him coming " leaping upon the mountains and skipping upon the hills." And neither, on the one hand, in the spirit of sloth and carnality, which says, " My Lord delayeth his coming," nor, on the other hand, in the spirit of fanatical and excited expectation as to a present appear- ance ; but in that sublime state of mind which the apostle calls " the patience of hope," it is the privilege of faith to say — alike when chronologically far off and chronologi- cally near, and as it were in holy defiance of mere dates, because ready for them all alike — " Make haste, my Beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices !" Song, viii. 14.* * '* St. Peter," says Bishop Hobsley, " tells us, in his second epistle, that the terms ' soon ' and ' late ' are to be very differently understood, when applied to the great operations of Providence and to the ordinary occurrences of human life. ' The Lord,' says he, is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness. One day is with the Lord ai 62 THE PATIENCE OF HOPE. a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.' * Soon' and 'late* are words whereby a comparison is rather intended of the mutual pro- portion of different intervals of time than the magnitude of any one by itself defined ; and the same thing may be said to be coming either soon or late, according as the distance of it is compared with a longer or shorter period of duration. Thus, although the day of judgment was removed undoubtedly by an interval of many ages from the age of the apostles, yet it might in their days be said to be at hand, if its distance from them was but a small part of its original distance from the crea- tion of the world ; that is, if its distance then was but a small part of the whole period of the world's existence, which is the standard in refer- ence to which, so long as the world shall last, all other portions of time may be oy us most properly denominated long or short. There is again another use of the words 'soon' and 'late,' whereby any portion of time, taken singly, is understood to be compared, not with any other, but with the number of events that are to come to pass in it in natural con- sequence and succession. If the events are few in proportion to the time, the succession must be slow, and the time may be called long; if they are many, the succession must be quick, and the time may be called short, in respect of the number of events, whatever be the absolute extent of it. It seems to be in this sense that expressions, denoting speediness of event, are applied by the sacred writers to our Lord's coming. In the days of Messiah the Prince, in the interval between our Lord's ascension and his coming again to judgment, the world was to be gradually prepared and ripened for its end. The apostles were to carry the tidings of salvation to the extremities of the earth: They were to be brought before kings and rulers, and to water the new- planted churches with their blood. Vengeance was to be executed on the unbe- lieving Jews, by the destruction of their city, and the dispersion of their nation. The Pagan idolatry was to be extirpated, — the Man of Sin to be revealed. Jerusalem is yet to be trodden down. The remnant of Israel is to be brought back, — the elect of God to be gathered from the four winds of heaven. And when the apostles speak of that event as at hand which is to close this great scheme of Providence — a scheme in its parts so extensive and so various — they mean to intimate how busily the great work is going on, and with what conjidence, from what they saw accomplished in their own days, the first Christians might expect in dut time theproTnised consummation." — (Serm. I.) CHAPTER IV. THI CHURCH, DR MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST, COMPLETE At HIS COMING. Our preliminary inquiries being now concluded, the way is open for bringing out the mind of the Spirit on the great question at issue, namely, Whether the fleshly state at the second advent, instead of coming to an end, will only be then re-constituted and inaugurated as one of the depart- ments of a millennial kingdom ; — whether, after one por- tion of Christ's people have af)peared with him in glory, for ever beyond the experience of imperfection and the reach of evil, another portion of them will be left below for a thousand years in their mortal bodies, subject to all the imperfections of the life of faith and the state of grace^ as contradistinguished from the glory of the risen and changed saints. The Scripture evidence against this theory I propose to arrange under a series of propositions, the first of which will occupy the present chapter. PROPOSITION FIRST: THE CHURCH WILL BE ABSOLUTELY COMPLETE AT CHRIST'S COMING. If this can be established, the whole system falls to the ground. If all that are to be saved will be brought in be- fore Christ comes, of course there can be none to come in e2 54 "TH£>- THAT ARE CHRIST's AT HIS COMING." after his advent, and in that case the lower department of the expected kingdom disappears. The difficulty here is not to find proof of the point, but any thing like evidence to the contrary. No plain reader of the Bible ever doubts that the Church will be completed ere Christ comes ; not a few even of the pre-millennialists themselves have been constrained to admit it — with what effect upon the sobriety of their own views we shall by and by see ; and even those who deny it give evidence of the extreme weakness of their ground, and virtually concede the point, by admitting that " the Bride" of Christ will be complete, though they contend that the whole number of the saved (whom they distinguish from " the Bride") will not. The following passages are quite decisive : — 1 Cor. XV. 23. "But each party, (l/caaros Je) in his own order: Christ the first-fruits ; afterward they that are Christ's at hi.s COMING." Any one who even glances at this sublime chapter will Bee, that the burden of it is the resurrection of believers in general — of "them that are Christ's," considered as the second Adam. As their death is deduced from their federal relation to the first Adam, so their resurrection is argued from their federal connection with the second. " As in Adam (they) all die, even so in Christ shall (they) all be made alive."* And it is immediately after this that the apostle says, "But each (party) in his own order" — that is, the federal Head and those federally re- * So 1 incline to understand the words, the resurrection of believers being the one only case to which the apostle speaks throughout the chapter. But however this be, my argument from the passage will remain the same, provided it be admitted that the party or parties fede- rally related to the first and second Adams are discoursed of as a wAo/e, and not in fragmentary portions or classes. lated to him — " Christ the first-fruits ; afterward they that are Christ's (the full harvest of them) at his coming." Can any thing be more decisive than this ? What com- mentator explains it otherwise ?* What unbiased reader '^ver understood it otherwise ? Is it not, then, a very bold liberty with the Word of God to say, that only a fractional fart of " them are Christ's" are here spoken of ? — that it means only such of them as shall have lived before the millennium? — that there will be millions of * Nihil, says Luther on this verse, de private resurrectione agitur, quomodo unus atque alter a tnortuis surrexerit, sed dt communi v^surrec- tione, deque iilius caussa et capite, quod est Christus Ipse enim sua hora surrexit, ita nos quoque, ubi hora nostra venerit, quoque resur- gemus et ipsum sequemur. Neque enim ante nos excitare statuit, quam omnes simul quotquot ipsius sumits congregari fueHmtLS. . . . Hoc enim series et ordo postulant, ut ipse primus sit, qui strata via fores (quod dicitur) aperiret et immortalitatem apportaret : Deinde omnia sua mem- bra ordine congregaret, quibus resurrectio ab ceterno destinata est, ut uno die omnes Christiani simul (that is, as the connexion shows, all Christ's members, eternally ordained to life and resurrection) in lucem prodirent quern ipse ordinavit, atque ita cum eo perpetuo viverent Ita Christus in suo, et nos in nostro ordine manemus Neque enim clanculum aut in angulo ista agentur, ut hie unus alibi alius resur- gat, sed propalam, universo mundo inspectante, morte, peccato, et omni- bus acerbitatibus juxta obolitis, et praeter vitam et gaudium perenne nihil erit reliqui. —^narr. in xv. cap. i. Cor. Quemadmodum, says Calvin, in primitiis, totius anni proventus con- secrabatur, ita vis resurrectionis Christi ad nos omnes difFunditur. .... Christus, cujus officium est nobis restituere quae in Adam perdidimus, nobis vitae causa est ; ejusque resurrectio hypostasis et pignus est nos- trae Satis sit nobis, quod nunc in Christo habemus primitias : nobis autem adventus ejus tempus erit ad resurgendum. Paulus, says Bengel, who held in some things with the pre-millennial- ists, loquitur hie de piis, quorum airap^ri, primitiw, Christus est ; atque hi, ut in Adamo omnes moriuntur, sic etiam in Christo omnes vivica- buntur. — 01 rov Xpto-row, qui sunt Christi: Suave polyptoton, Xpioroi, \fnaTov. Christiani sunt quasi appendix tijj anap^is, primitiarum. — Ey Tij irapovaia avrov, in adventu ejus: Tum erit ordo Christianorum, ] Thess. iv. 16. Non alii post alios resurgent illo tempore. 50 '*THEY THAT ARE CHRIST's AT HIS COMING." " them that are Christ's," that will not be " made alive' (in the sense of resurrection or instantaneous transforma- tion) " at his coming," but remain in their mortal and unglorified state upon earth for at least a thousand years after " his coming" ? There may, for aught that this pas- sage says, be mortal men out of Christy living upon earth after he comes — we shall speak to that by and by — but in Christ there cannot be one. For here we find the whole federal offspring of the second Adam, made alive together — at his coming. As surely as " Christ, the first-fruits" of his covenanted people, '• was made alive in his order, so surely shall " they that are Christ's be made alive in their order — at {sy ) his coming."* * If any thing could add to the strength of the above argument, it would be the replies that have been given to it as it appeared in my first edition. Mr. Bickerstkth's statement, which is not very clear, amounts to this, that nothing is here said of those living '• afler the advent.^' Very true, because there vrill be none. Mr. B. says, 1 Cor. xv. 23 is '• gene- ral." So it is, and it is precisely on this that I found. It makes no separation of " them that are Christ's" from each other — it embraces all that federally belong to the second Adam under one brief denomination, Christ's, and quickens them, not in parcels, hut together, "at his coming." — (Divine Warning, Fourth Edition, p. 312.) Mr. A. BoNAB. " There is surely nothing in 1 Cor. xv. 23, opposed to our view. The scope of the chapter does not deal in the number of saints, as Mr, B, would hint, but simply in the mode and principle of the resur- rection," — {Redemption, p. 130.) That this chapter deals in the number of saints, I never hinted nor imagined. The reality of their resurrection is the main theme of the chapter. In handling tiiis, the apostle opens up " the mode and principle of their resurrection," namely, their federal oneness with Christ as the second Adam ; and, in expatiating on this great topic, he incidentally announces that each has " his own order " of rising — the head and those in union with him-, and that the time of the latter is "at his coming." What has Mr, B, advanced to show that this ought not to be taken absolutely, for the whole body of those in covenant- union with Christ ? Nothing. The Duke of Manchester. "They that are Christ's at his coming, we say, must be limited to those of Christ who shall have died l)efore PRESENTATION OF THE CHURCH AT HIS COMING. 57 The next passage I have to adduce in proof of the com- pleteness of the Church at Christ's coming, is Eph. V. 25-27. " Christ also loved the Church, and gave him- self for it ; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word; that he might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing ; but that it should be holy, and without blemish » It is impossible to doubt what " Church" is here meant, for it is defined by three bright unmistakeable marks within the bosom of the passage itself It is " the Church which Christ loved" from everlasting ; it is " the Church for which he gave himself" in the fulness of time; it is "the Church which he is now sanctifying and cleansing by the word," as " with the washing of water :" — It is this Church, even the whole loved, ransomed, and purified company, which Christ will " present to himself a glorious Church." When ? Clearly at his coming. But should any hesitate about this, I will put it beyond doubt by comparing it that time; excluding those of Clirist who shall be alive at that time, aa also the people of Israel, who will not be Christ's until his coming, and the nations who shall join themselves to the Lord alter he shall have come. This, it will be observed, is the obvious sense, and is no depart- ure from the literal meaning." — {F'mislied Mi/stenj, p. 283.) This just means that, provided we know from othej- passages that there will be saints living in the flesh after the second advent, we must (to make Sc-ipture consistent with itself) limit "them that are Christ's" in this passage, and who are to be made alive at his coming, to such of them as have lived before that time. But I am showing that the whole scope of this chapter, and particularly of the verse I have been dwelling on, em- braces in one federal company all that are or ever shall be Chrlsfs. and makes them simultaneously alive at the coming of their Head. His Grace never touches that part of the argument. I leave this, my first passage, then, to speak for itself, satisfied that its testimony to the completeness of the Church, or the redeemed of the Lord, at his coming, is irrefragable. 58 PRESENTATION OF THE CHURCH TO CHRIST with two or three passages, in which the same delightful truth is expressed, and nearly in the same terms. 2 Thess. i. 10. " He shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe — in that day." The party in this passage is the same as in the former ; there it is "the Church," loved, purchased, and purified from every stain ; here it is " his saints" — " all them that believe." The purpose in view, too, is in both passages the same. In the former passage it is to present it to him- self " a glorious Church" ('"a Jrapaorijajj avTtiv eavTO} evSo^ov\ Calvin takes the allusion to be to the bridal beauty in which she will appear before him.* So Bengel.f And as this same apostle says he had '• espoused " the Corin- thians " to one Husband, that he might present them as a chaste virgin to Christ" hrapOevov ayvriv napaaTtjaai rw Xptorw, 2 Cor. xi. 2), there can be no doubt, I think, that they are correct. And does not the other passage express the same sublime purpose with only a slight diversity of con- ception — " to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe" — to be greeted with " the admiration" and get " the glory" which is his due, when beheld by the side of his spotless and resplendent Church, as its Life, Head, and Husband? Well, and when is this? Why, this shall be the very purpose of his advent. " He shall come!^ to receive this " glory in his saints," this " ad- miration in all them that believe — in that day.'''' This is decisive. As it determines the time of presentation, ♦ Hanc quidem primum sub figura describit, quae argumento conveni- ebat. Ut sit trpeciosa, inquit. Nam sicuti formae elegantia in uxore causa est amoris, ita Christus ecclesiam, Sponsam suam, ornat sancti- tate, ut sit hoc benevolentiae pignus. f Iva TTapaffTntrr] lavTw, ut sisteret sibi ipsi : tanquam Sponso — KvSo^iv^ gloriosam : Ex amore Christi debemus haurire BBStimationem sanctifica* tionis. Q,uae Sponsa contemnit ornatum a Sponso oblatum 1 AT HIS COMING. 59 BO equally the party presented, by definitions not to be mis- understood.* To the same effect Jude says — "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy," &C. (Jude 24, arnaai Karcvoimov tth io^m avTOD tv aya'yKiaaci.') * Mr. Bickersteth and the Duke of Manchester admit that the time of presentation, in the former of these passages, is the second advent, but distinguish between "the Bride" to be then presented to Christ, and the whole number of the saved. In this view, Mr. Bickersteth says, the passage "implies just the reverse to the objection; for when do the Bride and Bridegroom exclude friends, or companions, or servants? The nations of the saved are distinguished and contrasted with the Bride" (p. 312.) "Mr. Brown (says the Duke of Manchester), I appre- hend, supposes that every individual who shall be saved, or who shall derive any benefit ('accompanying salvation') from the work of Christ during all the different dispensations, from the days of Abel down to the last soul who shall be brought into the fold, will form part of ' the Bride, the Lamb's wife,' one of the mystical body of Christ. I do not think that either the language of Scripture, or the character of the dispensa- tions is in accordance with this idea," (p. 284). I shall come by and by to (bis imaginary distinction between the Bride and others belonging to Christ. AH I wish to notice here is the admission of these brethren, that the tiTue of 'presentation is the coming of Christ. Mr. A. Bonar differs doubly from them. He concedes to us that the party to be pre.sented embraces all the redeemed; but he denies that the second advent is the time of presentation. " The idea of the passage is, that the,^naZ issue of his dealings with this Church shall be his present- ing to himself every member of it holy and without blemish, whether these be saints of Patriarchal, Jewish, Gentile, or Millennial times. There is not a word here as to the time of this presentation, so that no- thing can be proved by it," (pp. 130, 131.) I shall leave the reader to judge, whether the time of the Church's glorious presentation to Christ, as here announced, be not that of his second coming, when he has read what I have said on it above. On the other passage (2 Thess. i. lO), Mr. Bickersteth informs us, that the best copies read "all them who have believed," (tois iriarevaaariv) adding that "it is thus expressly retrospective,'^ or meant of those who believe before the advent. We entirely agree with him, because we adtait no believers qfter it. 60 PRESENTATION OF THE CHURCH TO CHRIST Here the thing to be done, and, beyond all doubt, the time' of doing it, are the same as in the two former Similarly, again, does Paul write to the Colossians : — • " And you, that were sometime alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy, and unblameable, and unreproveable in his sight." (Col. i. 22, vapaarijaai Vfias ^yiovs icai a/jco/^ov; Kut ovey/cXr/rovj KaTCvoiTno* aVTOv.) Here the same remark applies, both as to the purpose and the ti7ne. One other parallel I give from the same apostle. " To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints." (1 Thess. iii. 13.)* The presentation of the Church here is to God. even our Father — in the other passages it is by Christ " unto Him- self." But as in both cases it is at his " coming" that this presentation of the Church takes place, it is obvious that one and the same thing, under different aspects, is intended in all. And now, I think it impossible to resist the combined * It is the first part of this verse to which I direct attention, not the last — his coming "with all his saints;" although I have no doubt this means believers. Bengel, without any reason, as I think, takes the term "saints" hereto comprehend angels as w^ll as men; though the men he recognizes in the passage are not a fraction of Christ's people, but the whole body of the elect — ^^elecios e terra." Prebendary Lowth, as Mr. A. Bonar notices, seems to restrict the term exclusively to angels; though the remark, being incidental, and occurring in his Commentary on Zechariah, may have been grounded on slight examination of the New Testament use of the term. Calvin, as might be supposed, understands it exclusively of believing men, and as one company. But, however the term be understood, it will not affect the object for which I quote the verse. AT HIS COMING. 6l fnrre of these passages. One broad magnificent conccptloD pervades them all — The absolute completeness of the Church at Christ's coming, The spotless 'purity in which it will then be presented, "as a chaste virgin," to Christ, The resplendent glory in which, as " the Bride, the Lamb's wife," she shall then be " adorned for her husband," The praise which will redound from such a spectacle to the Redeemer himself. The rapturous admiration of Him which it will kindle, and. The ineffable complacency with which the whole will be regarded by " God, even our Father." Thus have I established the completeness of the Church at Chrisfs coming. I have limited myself to a few passages, on the import of which all commentators, ancient and modern, are agreed ; but it is written as with a sunbeam on the pages of the New Testament, and those who call it in question, are driven to seek support from higlily figura- tive portions of Old Testament prophecy, and from the corresponding book of the New Testament, the Apocalypse. Now it is an old maxim in divinity, that doctrines are not to be built upon prophetic or symbolical scripture* The principle is one of undoubted soundness, and of indispen- sable necessity as a bulwark against the abuse of figurative language. Pre-millennialism, however, is on£ entire product of the reverse of this principle ; and in the case before us, it can produce nothing in proof of the incompleteness of the Church at Christ's coming, but what is studded all over * Yheolog'a prophetica non est argumentaiiva. 62 THE OPPOSITE VIEW DESTITUTE OF SUPPORT. >vith figures. How slender is the support derived even from this source, may be seen in the note below.* * Two passages especially are relied on. The first is, Zech. xiv. 5. " The Lord my God shall come, and all the saints tcitk thee :" (T|^S— Ixx. fier avrov, reading 1532?). The argument from this passage is, that we have here Christ's second coming with all his saints before the millennium, when the number of the saved is confessedly incomplete; and therefore only such of them can be meant as have lived up to that time. Answer (1.) By " saints," some pre-millennialists understand not men but angels, as Deut. xxxiii. 2. In that case the passage has nothing to do with our point. (2.) If meii be meant, the question still remains, I:i what sense is it meant that he "comes," and they with him? That it is his second per- sonal coming, "in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat ; the earth also, and the works that are therein being burnt up." (2 Pet. iii. 10) — is so far from being evident, that the minute details of what is to happen at the time here predicted, as we find them in the context — all in that case to be taken literally— are totally irreconcilable with it. If the prediction relate to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, as the majority of commentators have thought, the coming of the Lord here announced must mean his coming in vengeance to sweep away "those his enemies, that would not that he should reign over them," and to establish on the ruins of a carnalized and hostile Judaism the kingdom of his grace.t Or, if the scene predicted relate to the con- flicts that are to issue in the establishment of the millennial kingdom on the ruins of the antichristian interest, the sense will be very much the same — the saints in the great crisis of his cause, " coming (in plain flesh and blood) to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty." In favour of this sense, I might refer to Rev. xvii. 11 : " These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings ; and they that are with him (/i£r' aurotj) are called, and chosen and faithful :" also to ch. xii. 7. 8, t Luther, who applies this prediction to the destruction of .Jerusalem by the Romans, refers the words before us to the appearance viadefor Christ's interest at that time. " Hoc," says he, " bene et congrue sonat de ex remo die ; sed quia nou convenit antecedens textus, in hac persto sentential, quod Ohristus qui egressus est per Evangelium in bellum, ita quoque vewit per suum Spiritum, cum suis apes- tolis, conscionatoribus, et toto Christianorum coetu, longe alio pacto, (piam cum ▼eniret ex dejserto, cum suis Sanctis, de quo adventu Moses, Deut. xxxii. (xxxiii.) capite, canit." (Enarr. in Cap. xiv.. Proph ZachJ THE BEARING OF THIS. 03 If then, Christ, when he comes the second time, is to reign on the earth for a thousand years, it will not be over 11: "Michael and his angels fought, and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not : And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb;" &c., where Christ's soldiers, in the war against Paganism, are first represented as "the angels of Michael," and then seen to be just believing men fighting the good fight of faith, and coming off more than conquerors, through him that loved them. If any thing like this be the sense of the passage in Zechariah, it has no bearing on the glorified state. (3.) The whole context of this passage is highly figurative, and in volved in difficulty, as is evident from the diversities among commenta tors ; and it shows great poverty of proof to build upon such a passage, in a question confessedly of vast moment, on which the New Testament abounds in the plainest statements. The other passage is from that book of symbols, the Apocalypse, chap. Xix. 6-9 :— "And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia; for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be gla(J and rejoice, and give honour lo him ; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be ar- rayed in fine linen, clean and white ; for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me. Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God." The argument here is, that the marriage of the Lamb with his Bride, or the Church, is said to take place immediately after the fall of Anti- christ, or before the millennium, when the number of the elect will cer- tainly not be complete. In reply to this, it may be enough to say that this cannot be the eictual consummation of the Marriage between Christ and his Church in glory, because in the two last chapters of this book (which most of my opponents agree with me in referring to the everlasting state) the Church is described as "descending," after the millennium is all over, "as a bride adorned for her husband ;" and it is rather awkward to suppose a bridal preparation and a presentation of the parties to each other a thousand years after the union has been consummated.* " Christ's marriage with his Church," savs Durham, " is three ways spoken of in Scripture : 1. As it cometh by the oflFer of the gospel, wherein many are espoused, * Bengel.— 'ETot/iaocK lavrijy, paravU se, i. e. coepit parare se, uf ireniarevKO, iiyaiTQva, ijXiri/ra, nactus aumjidem.^ 6fc. Dk ntjptiis istis, vide c. xxi 2, 9 a». 64 WHAT DO THE PRE-MILLENNIALISTS SAY TO THIS ? believing men still left in their mortal bodies upon eartii. it will not be over the tribes of Israel in a converted state, nor over a converted Gentile world. Living Christianity will have disappeared from the earth : The number of the elect accomplished, the whole body transfigured, and thus prepared, as a Bride adorned for her Husband, " will with gladness and rejoicing have been brought — will have entered into the King's palace." This is " our gathering TOGETHER UNTO HIM,"* this is " THE UNIVERSAL CONCOURSE AND ASSEMBLY OF THE FIRST-BORN REGISTERED IN HEAVEN," f for which preparation is now making, and to which every believer is in spirit already joined. What do the pre-millennialists say to this ? It divides them into two classes : one class boldly avowing the com* pleteoess of the Church before the millennium, and doing their best, by various adjustments of their system, to avoid the harsh consequences which flow from it ; while the other class, recoiling from the conclusions, take refuge in a denial of the premises from which they flow — affirming that the and by faith engaged to him. — (2 Cor. xi. 2.) Thus it hath been since Christ's days ; his marriage was then, and many were and are invited. — (Malt. xxii. &c.) 2. As it is consummated and perfected at the end, when the queen is brought to the king, and abideth with him for ever. — (Ps. xlv.) 3. There is an intervening step, when the fulness of tiie Gentiles and the Jews sliall be brought in together, that is, marrying eminently, because it is the grafting again of the old branches, and the bringing back of a divorced wife, for a time forsaken And, as in scripture, there is a threefold resurrection — 1. By the gospel, which was and is alway (John V. 14) ; 2 At the end, which is general, as the first is partial ; 3. When Jews and Geutiles shall come in together, which is (Rom. xi ) as life from the dead, which is between the two former — so may we consider the Church's marriage, which is the same with the resurrection, in a threefold consideration also. It is not the first nor the second marriage that is mentioned here ; for it is, in a singular way, such a marriage as was not before, and the last end is not intended here ; for the last marriage doth not comprehend an accession to the militant Church, as this doth here, going along with tlie Pope's overthrow before ihe end." — (.Commentary ufton the Book of the Revelation, 1653, ad he.) * ' H/iwi' STTKTVvaybiyr] tt: avrov. 2 Thess. ii. 1. + Tlavriyvpii gai CKK^ricrta n^ioTOTOKOiv ev ovpapoTs aTtoycypa^nevoiv. Heb. xii. 23. TWO GREAT DIVISIONS ON THIS POINT. 65 Church, so far from being complete at Christ's coming, will have an accession of myriads of believers after his coming, from among the Jews and Gentiles over whom he is to reign. Let us try it both ways, and see where we are on either «up. position. First : Let us hear one or two of the former class — who place the Reign upon cafth after the completion of all the elect. Homes^ a contemporary of Mede, two centuries ago, placed the conflagration, the creation of the new heavens and new ^rth, the resurrection of all the deceased, and the change of all the living saints — embracing the whole number of the elect — before the millennium. " In that new creation," says he, " Christ restores all things to their perfection, and every believer to his ; to the end that all believers may jointly and co-ordinately rule over the whole world, and all things therein, next under Christ their Head. I say flZZ, and* not a part only, as some unwarily publish. And I say jointly, and not one part of saints to usurp authority over the rest, as many dream. And co-ordinately, all upon equal terms, not some saints to rule by deputies made of the rest of saints, as men seem to interpret."* But will there be no other men on the new earth besides these risen and changed saints — to perpetrate the rebellion and suffer the perdition predicted, at the end of the thou- sand years ? Yes, myriads ; but all unconverted and incon- vertible. None but "open and obstinate ungodly men" being destroyed by the conflagration, the rest will be '• re- served out of the fire to be an appendix of the new creation, as Lactantius, Sixtus Senensis, and Dr. Twisse understand." These, " by virtue of the Adamic covenant, shall be restored in soul and body to the natural perfection which Adanc had in the state of innocency ; but being mutable, they ♦ Resurrection Revealed, ut supra, p. 279. r3 66 FIRST CLASS HOMES BURNET. shall fall, when in like manner they are assaulted by Satan. Out of these shall spring the brood of Gog and Magog." " The Church, bemg now as heaven on earth, the false-hearted spawn of future Gog and Magog shall be remote on earth, near their future hell. . . . But if these hypocrites were nearer the Church, they might perhaps be converted'? We answer, No; for it is (if we may use that word) the fate of the millenary period, I mean, God's righteous peremptory sentence, that as all that time there shall be no DEgeTierating of believers, so no more REgenerating oj any unbeliever s^'*'- Burnet^ a little later, in his celebrated " Theory of the Earth" agrees with Homes as to the time of the conflagra- tion, the new heavens and new earth, and the completion of the elect to reign, in a resurrection state, on the new earth. "Neither," says he, "is there any distinction made, that I find, by St. John, of two sorts of saints in the millennium, the one in heaven (in resurrection bodies), the other upon earth (in a mortal state). This is such an idea of the millennium as to my eye hath neither beauty nor foundation in Scripture. "t But whereas, according to him, all the wicked are to perish in the conflagration, he has to reproduce them, one * Page 282. Also Appendix, No. II. The editor of this reprint of Homes — Mr. Brooks — says, in a note to one part of the chapter from which we quote, that "in the Appendix it will be seen that he (Homes) is aware of the distinction between the saints of the resurrection and those who remain in the flesh." — (P. 286.) If, by " those who remain in the flesh," Mr, B. means " those saints,'' or Christians — which is the plain sense of his words — it is not correct. t Theory of the Earth, book iv. ch. 7. Second edition, 1691. . Tliough Burnet refers here to the view of Piscator and others, who took the millennial reign of the risen saints to be in heaven, the reader will observe that what he characterizes as void of beauty and Scripture foundation, is simply the distinction of two sorts of saints in the mitlenr nium. FIRST CLASS PERRY. 67 way or other, to " compass the camp of the saints and the beloved city" at the end of the millennium (Rev. xx. 7-9), and to be consumed in their mad assault upon immortal men. " This," says he, " is a common difficulty to all (that is, all-premillennialists, for it is their system alone which creates the difficulty) ; and every one must contribute their best thoughts and conjectures towards the solution of it." The reader will smile at Burnet's own solution of it, if new to him. "It seems probable," says he, "that there will be a double race of mankind in the future earth, very different from one another. The one born from heaven, sons of God and of the resurrection, who are the true saints and heirs of the millennium : the others born of the earth, sons of the earth, generated from the slime of the ground and heai, of the sun, as brute creatures were at first. This second progeny, or generation of men, in the future earth, I understand to be signified by the pro- phet under these borrowed or feigned names of Gog and Ma- gog."* Perry^ early in the last century, thus emphatically ex- presses himself on the completion of the elect before the personal advent and reign on earth : — " It is certain that when Christ personally comes from heaven will be the time of the open solemnization of the marriage glory between Him and the Spouse; and, if so, then the bride must be ready against that time, as it is expressed in this text, * And his Wife hath made herself ready ; ' which cannot be if they are not all converted before Christ comes. For this I think is un- deniable, that by the * Wife,' ' Bride,' or " Spouse ' of Christ, the whole Elect must be understood How can it be thought that Christ, when he comes from heaven to celebrate the mar- riage-feast between himself and his people, that he should have a lame and imperfect Bride ; as she must be, if some should be with Christ in a perfect glorified state, and some of his mystical ♦ Ch. 10. >>^> ^^ ,.--^ ^ .^. ^^miSi 68 FIRST CLASS PERRY. body at the same time in an imperfect and ungl( rifled condi- tion 1 " * Perry, however, went further than this ; not only deny- ing the existence of saints in the flesh during the millennium, but even of men at all in the flesh durino; that period — the earth being, according to him, in exclusive possession of men in the resurrection-state during the millennium. A pleasant theory, truly ; but how, according to it, did he get the last conflict after the millennium brought about (Rev. xx. 8, 9) ? " This," says he, " seems to me to be the knottiest text throughout the whole Bible in relation to this glorious time." In his attempts to solve it, he first rejects the or- dinary view — of the spiritual glory of the latter day teruii- nating in an extensive outbreak of human corruption (that is not a glorious enough view of the millennium for those who hold the Personal Reign) : Next, he rejects the now prevalent view among pre-millennialists, of two classes of saints — the one perfect, immortal, glorified, and reigning ; the other unglorified, mortal, imperfect, and ruled over, having also mixed up with them a multitude of unconverted professors, who are at last to attack the rest and perish in the attempt. Homes' view he then rejects — of " some, not in the covenant of grace, preserved for the " pre-mil- lennial "burning of the world, and restored unto an Adamitical state of innocence" — as a thing to him unintel- ligible.! He admits, indeed, that a remnant of the wicked may be preserved from the conflagration, who may " be left to multiply in some of the outside parts or borders of the earth," far enough from seeing or beholding the glory * The Glory of Christ's Visible Kingdom in this World. By Joseph Perry, pp. 225, 226. Northampton, 1721. t " By what means these will be cleansed, if not in the covenant of grace, from that original pollution which the whole posterity of Adam is polluted with, I am at a loss to know." — (P. 406.) FIRST CLASS IN PRESENT DAY. 69 of Christ and the saints during the time of " that glorious reign," and renewed to no Adamitical state. But he gives a number of reasons against even this view, and ventures finally on one of his own. " which he knows is out of the common road of almost all expositors ; and that is, that the Grog and Magog who will arise at the end of the thousand years, to compass the camp of the saints, will consist of the number of all the wicked when raised out of their graves /" — (P. 409.) He is aware that " this, by reason of its being altogether new, may seem strange, sound harsh, and appear altogether incredible unto many." But he " earnestly entreats the reader" to weigh his rea- sons for it, especially as he only humbly propounds it for the clearing of the darkest point in the pre-millennial scheme. His reasons are sensible and convincing, as against the other theories of his pre-millennial brethren ; but in favour of his own view, I shall not trouble the reader with them. In a word, and coming down to our own day. Dr. M'Neile thus refers to those pre-millennialists whom he had found maintaining the completeness of the Church at Christ's coming : — "It is objected again, that tlie mystical body of Christ shall be completed at his second advent, and consequently admit of no inci'ease, and that therefore the nations of the earth subsequent to that event cannot be brought into a Christian state ;" for, " since they fall after the millennium, it is necessary to limit the nature of their blessedness during the millennium to an Adamic state — an Adamic state of innocent creature-ship," language uncouth enough certainly, but not more so than the thing it is intended to describe — " from which it is alleged they may fall, as our first parents fell."* ♦ Lectures on the Prophecies relative to the Jewish Nation, pp. 185- 189. First Edition, 1830. The Adamic theory put forth a few year? ngo by Mr. Scott, cannot be 70 FIRST CLASS MR. BURCHELL. Lastly, A little work has just appeared by Mr. Burchell, * in which a theory is propounded identical with Perry's except in one particular. The conflagration, the creation of the new heavens and new earth, and the completion of the elect — are all to be pre-millennial : The new earth is to be in exclusive possession of the glorified saints, with their Head in the midst of them, and their millennial bliss undisturbed by the presence of any other men what- ever. " When the Lord God Omnipotent, the Son of man, is come in his glory, then all flesh comes to its end ; the earth, with all that is therein, must be dissolved in fire. The work of the ministry has ceased ; there are none to seek and save when the Lord has made up his jewels, and is making a full end of his enemies. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming to reign over the renewed earth, with his Church perfected and complete — with all who love his appear- ing, whether they have died in faith, or then remain alive. The thousand years is the Lord's great Sabbath-day, the glorious rest ; when, having finished his gospel work, he will initiate his redeemed in the possession of bliss, and in the unclouded knowledge of an eternity to follow." As to saints living in the flesh after the Lord's coming, " I agree," says he, " in rejecting (I would say abhorring, if it were not that I fear to ofiend many good men) the mixed classed with those which admit the completeness of the Church at Christ's coming. According to him there will be two classes of righteous men in the flesh under the millennial reign of Christ and his glorified saints: — a race of Christians, "upheld from falling by union to Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit;" and a race of '' Adamitlcal men" — as Perry would call them — "freed from all the effects of the fall," particularly " the corrupt nature and original sin," and " restored to the state of holiness and righteousness in which Adam was before the fall" — {how, we are left in the dark) — but who, "having merely Adam's state, and nothing more, will fall as Adam fell."— ("Outlines of Prophe- cy," and " Tht Millennium of the Bible Vindicated." By James Scott, Preacher of the Gospel, 1844, 1845.) * The Midnight Cry; or, the Coming of the Son of Man Considered. By the Rev. Joseph Burchell. 1849. FIRST CLASS MR. BURCHELL. 71 millennium, the half carnal, half spiritual glory drawn out by many." And us to sinners, "the idea," he says, " of a sijmer surviving that day (of Christ's coming) would be absurd, if it were not worse than an absurdity."— (Pp. 3, 4, 50.) But if neither saints nor sinners survive the coming of the Lord before the millennium, whence does he bring the apostate nations, who, at the close of that period, come up against the camp of the saints and the beloved city ? Not from the dead, as Perry does. Yei here he feels the tenderness of his ground. " I well know," he says, " where the chief difficulty lies." His solution of it is certainly new. " The nalions'^ ( »"« «0j/)j)j " who, deceived by Satan, gather themselves together, as the sand of the sea, from the four quarters" or " corners (yuvtatj) of the earth," are evil spirits, " an invisible king* dom, headed by the Serpent, who, during the millennium, are bound at the angles or corners of the earth, at the four winds of heaven, the mysterious starting-point of spirits." (P. 20.) This new idea — of Satan's deceiving himself — T suppose I may leave without comment.* The weight of these testimonies to the absolute com- pleteness of the Church at Christ's coming, lies merely in the quarter from which they come. With any other than pre-millennialists, such statements as we have quoted would be a matter of course ; for none but they have any doubt that Christ will stay in the heavens till all his re- * In this little book, however, of a beloved friend, its readers will easi- ly discern the elegance, refinement, and spirituality which characterise the author. How beautiful, for example, is that reference to the song of the second Coming, as "//le antistrophe of the first Advent." (P. 15) Some fine views of Christ occur here and there ; and though the tone is sometimes a little too authoritative, and not without a tincture of the mystical and the morbid, such spirituality as breathes through the whole is refreshing in these days of S3jularity. 72 REMARKS ON THIS CLASS. deemed be brought in. But when any of them admit this we see at what a sacrifice it is done. It destroys at once the sobriety and credibility of their scheme. What it seems to gain at the beginning^ and during the currency of the thousand years, it more than loses at the end of that period. Bright would be the hope they hold out, of " our gathering together unto Him" at his coming, and reign with him on the earth — none that are " His^^ left behind, but all '• ever with the Lord" — were the prospect not over- cast, and the vessel marred in the hands of the potter, by the introduction of a very different and discordant element at the end of one brief millennium of celestial bliss — even the rush of myriad hosts from all the ends of the earth against what ? against the very glory of the Lord, and the pavilion of his immortal and transfigured people ! It matters little which of the ways of explaining this be adopted — whether, with Homes and Burnet, the rebel multitude be thought to be mortal men ; or, with Perry, the wicked raised from the dead ; or, with Mr. Burchell, evil spirits. The absurdity of all ways of it is alike mani- fest. But those who concede to us that there will be no earthly Church after Christ comes, and yet insist on bringing him from heaven before the millennium, cannot help themselves. As their concession to us deprives them of all materials for bringing about the final conflict.^ they are driven into such extravagant ways of realizing it as only serve to show the hopeless impracticability of their scheme They could avoid their difficulty by denying the completeness of the Church when Christ comes. But to this notion they have as much repugnance as we have ; and rather than fall in with what they regard as abhorrent and in the face of Scripture, they resort to solutions of their difficulty which all but themselves perceive to be extravagant and incredible. It is this then, which gives SECOND CLASS THEIR THEORY. 73 weight to their testimony to the completeness of the Church at the Lord's coming. It is the testimony of those who have every inducement (so to speak) to deny it — who feel themselves shut up to the admission, cost what it may, that when Christ comes — whether before the millennium or not — he will want none of his redeemed. The SECOND class of pre-millennialists consists of those who deny this — embracing nearly all who hold the Personal Reign in our day, and against whose system I chiefly write. According to them, when the apostle says, " They that are Chrisfs (shall be quickened) at his coming," he means not his whole mystical body — the universal family of the redeemed — but only such of them as shall have lived up to the millennium. On this extraordinary liberty I submit the following remarks : — 1. It is a violent, offensive, and perilous departure from the plain meaning of the words, not only here, but in all similar passages of Scripture, in which it is impossible to point out any thing, I say not which demands., but which even admits of a limitation in the sense. 2. This departure from the plain meaning of words comes strangely from the advocates of literal interpretation — who ascribe to this same vicious habit of departing from the literal and obvious sense of Scripture, nearly all the opposition which their doctrine meets with. Those who will allow no latitude in the interpretation of prophetic language — who insist on our taking predictions imbedded in symbol and figure with a literality reckless of conse- quences — are the very persons who take to themselves this prodigious latitude in the interpretation of the most un- adorned statements that can be imagined. The intelligert reader, while he marks this inconsistency, will trace it to the necessities of the case and the difficulties of the systom» o 74 SECOND CLASS Once insert the pre-millennial wedge into the text of Scripture, and a loosening process will commence, the ex- tent of which will depend upon the energy and determina- tion with which it is driven in. 3. Strange to say, the very party who contend for the glorification of only a fractional 'part of Christ's people at his coming, seem at times to forget themselves, and fall in with our views. They cannot part, it seems, with the bright expectation of a perfect, public, and simultaneous glorification of the lohole Church at the Saviour's second appearing ; and they kindle into just ardour at the glorious prospect — as if their system did not cut it up by the roots. " how glorious," exclaims sweet old Durante already quoted, " will that salvation be, when all the heirs of sal- vation shall meet together ! Now, all are not saved ; the whole body now is in trouble for a part. Then all the children of the Father shall meet together in their Father's presence ; they shall come from the east and west, from north and south, and sit down in that kingdom ; yea, and then all saints shall be sweetly conjoined. Jewels scattered are not so resplendent ; but joined in some rich pendent, O how glorious are they ! In that day Christ will gather up all his jewels — he will bring in every saint into one — gather them into one great jewel, one precious pendent, which shall jointly lie in his own bosom. Now a saved soul sighs and cries, Where is Israel ? — where is Judah ? When will the Lord save them ? Why, poor hearts, you shall all meet at that day — ^be saved with an universal salvation ; and so be all of you with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the patriarchs, prophets — all the apostles and martyrs ; yea, all that fear God, small as well as great. All, always, altogether in the presence of your Saviour ! — surely, then^ you will say, that salvation is very sweet. Not one saint shall be missing in that day ; but all shall altogether meel^ THEIR INCONSISTENCY. .75 and enjoy the salvation of Christ then, so universal shall it be."* Now these statements are very pleasant upon our principles. We can cordially respond to them, and take the full comfort of them. But what are we to make of them upon the pre-millennial doctrine — " All the heirs of salvation meeting together in their Father's presence," at the beginning of the thousand years — " not one saint missing in that day" 1 But perhaps this is more the language of ardour than of accuracy, and of an age when the doctrine of the pre- millennial advent was not so well understood in its mani- fold bearings as it is now ? Hear, then, Mr. Bickersteth. — hear him, not giving vent to his feelings in loose language, but calmly and didactically delivering what he takes to be the testimony of Scripture on this point. In his chapter on the " Period of the Second Coming," the following is the fifth of what he calls " The New Testa- ment Statements bearing on this subject :" " One glorious HOPE IS SET BEFORE THE CHURCH, in the Ncw Testament. f This hope is set before us collectively and in common. It is not to be given separately and at different periods ; but it is a glory belonging to the Church, to be given to it as a corporate body, and at a particular period — the coming of our Lord ; and while it is to be the one object of hope of all the Church in every age, it is to be enjoyed together as one body. For this all are to be looking. "J Then follow a number of excellent proof- texts. Now, in this statement we perfectly and zealously concur ; but the marvel is, how any man who holds the views which he does can put it * Christ's Appearance the Second Time, ut supra, pp. 51-53. One would think from this extract, that Durant belonged to our Jirst class; out as this is not clear, and some passages seem to look the other way I give it in the above connexion. t The capitals and italics are the author's own. I Practical Guide to tha Prophecies. Fifth edition, p. 80. 76 SECOND CLASS down as a statement of his own belief. If tlie author will unchurch the myriads that are to people the earth during the thousand years — if he will tell us plainly, that the " men who shall then be blessed m Christ" — the " all nations who shall call him blessed" — will not be " blessed" with vital union to him and participation in the blessings of his salvation, we can understand him ; for then he will just rank with our first class, whose views of the " Adamic state of innocent creatureship," in which the millennial nations are to rejoice, have at least the merit of consistency. In such case, he is at full liberty to speak of the glorifica- tion of the Church as being " given to it as a corporate body, and at a particular period — the coming of our Lord ;" for the " corporate body" is then completed — " the Church," by his own hypothesis, " is then entire." But it will not do to take the benefit and the comfort of a simultaneous glorification of the whole Church at the commencement of the millennium, and then to expatiate on the glories of a millennial Church, after that, sojourning on earth for a thou- sand years. Your expectation of the Church's corporate glory at the coming of our Lord is beautiful and soul-stir- ring ; but that expectation is ours^ not yours. You have no right to it, but on one condition — that you unchris- tianize — that you sever from Christ and all his saving benefits — every one of the holy and happy myriads with whom you people and bless the earth during the thousand years. When you have done this, you will then be entitled to kindle at a prospect infinitely superior to even this happy state of things — the prospect of appearing in glory " as a corporate body, and at a particular period, even the coming of our Lord." But while you believe in the Church- state of the millennial nations — in the Christian character of the latter day glory — you do but dazzle your readers with descriptions of a glory never to be realized on your prin THEIR INCONSISTENCY. 77 ciples ; for it is a manifest abuse of language to say, that you expect the Church in its entireness to appear with Christ in glory at his coming. Still, one may say, perhaps even Mr. Bickersteth does not here speak the sentimeuts of his friends. Does so glaring an inconsistency pervade the writings of pre-millen- nialists generally ? Let the reader judge from the follow- ing passages, which I quote from the second volume of Church of England Lectures on the Advent.* ^The first lecture is on " The Manifestation of the Church at the coming of the Lo^:d," from Eph. v. 25-27, " Christ loved the Church," &c., which the authorf interprets quite as absolutely as we ourselves do. " What," says he, " is meant by the Church ? It is composed of all those who have been given to Christ by the Father from eternity. It comprises all those for whom, in an especial manner, Christ gave himself" On " the nature of the manifestation," he remarks, " 1. The Church will be glorious in its complete- ness. Never before shall the whole church have been seen together — then he will have accomplished the number of HIS elect. That prayer will be answered which our Lord offered up just before he was crucified, ' Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one,' &c. — not ONE OP THE Lord's people will be wanting" — and more to the same effect. He then comes to " the time when this shall take place ;" on which, after adducing some very good texts, he says, " These statements positively and distinctly mark the time of the manifestation of the Church to be at the coming of the Lcrd:'—{V]). 5, 7, 8, 12.) The fifth lecture is on " the Lord's Supper as a pledge of the Lord's return" — a subject on which we shall have * The Second Coming of Christ Practically Considered. Nisbet. .844. t Rev. E. Auriol, Rector of St. Dunstan's. g2 78 SECOND CLASS something to say by and by. The following sentence! from this lecture are as destructive of the scheme they are brought to support as any thing we could say on the sub- ject. " The Lord's Supper," says Mr. Brock,* " is a feast. And what a festival will that be when all the sons of God are united at their fatJier^ s table ! . . . Catholicity is another manner in which the Supper of the Lord becomes a pledge to believers of the econd advent. All the Church are made partakers of this ordinance. It is open to believers — to them only, and to each and all of them. Thus it is catho- lic to the Church, exclusive to the world. So will it be as to the future. There shall be an exclusion of all the wicked ; an admission of all the righteous. They, they only, and each and all of them, shall be admitted to the Saviour's presence. Not one of them shall be wanting. Their names have been written in the Lamb's book of life, from the foundation of the world. Their place is prepared, and it cannot be vacant. They are members of his body, WITHOUT WHOM (the least of them) that body would be MAIMED AND INCOMPLETE. All shall appear at the appointed time, and each assist to make up the perfect symmetry and exact proportion of that catholic assembly." — Pp. 122, 126, 127.) In the same strain, and with equal precision, speaks Mr. Grimshawe (the excellent editor of Cowper's Works), in the sixth Lecture, on " the joy of the faithful minister at Christ's coming." The third particular in which this joy will consist is (he says), " the gathering together in glory of all the ransomed Church of Christ — the perfect man — the completeness of Christ in all the members of his mysti- cal body, elect, sanctified, and finally perfected in glory-— the redeemed of every age, tongue, kindred, and people."—* (Pp. 153, 154.) ♦ Chaplain t« -te Bath Penitentiary. THEIR INCONSISTENCY. 19 One other quotation from the eighth Lecture, on " tho hope of the advent, a remedy against superstition," will show the uniformity of strain, and tlie identity, ahnost, of expression, in which all these pre-millennialists speak of the simultaneous glorification of the entire Church at Christ's appearing. " This hope (of the advent, says Mr. Dibdin*) is the hope constantly set before the Church in the word of God But what Church ? ... It is all those who have been chosen in Christ Jesus before the foun- dation of the world. The Church ? it is every one of those who have been, are, or shall be born of the Spirit, and made new creatures in Christ Jesus Till all ivhom the Father hath chosen in Christ out of mankind are born again and justified, the Church will not be complete.''^ —(Pp. 194, 195.) I make no apology for the number of these quotations ; each from a different witness — all from one volume, and that a recent one — expressing, with a clearness and a copi- ousness not to be misunderstood, the fixed belief, and the ardent expectation of those who are now looking for the coming of Christ before the millennium. And what is it ? It is, that the entire Church shall appear with Christ at his coming ; or, to take their own excellent definitions of the Church, that " all those who have been given to Christ by the Father from eternity — all those for whom, in an especial manner, Christ gave himself — all who have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb — every one of those who have been, are, and shall be born of the Spirit, and made new creatures in Christ Jesus" — in a word, " the completeness of Christ in all the members of his mystical body, elect, sanctified, and finally perfected in glory" — all, ail shall appear with Christ at his coming, ♦ Minister of West Street Episcopal Chapel, St. Giles, London. 80 SECOND CLASS — ' " Scripture positively and distinctly marks the time of the manifestation of the Church," thus defined, " to be/' they tell us, " at the coming of the Lord." Well, agreeing with you cordially in all tliis, my simple question is. What will the Jews and Gentiles be, with whom you people the world during the millennium, and over whom you make the glorified Church to reign with Christ? They cannot belong to the elected, the blood- bought, the regenerated, and justified members of Christ's mystical body ; for you have taken all these away from the earth, and out of their fleshly condition, to appear with Christ in glory before the millennium. If your statements are not hopelessly unintelligible, there will not be found, from beginning to end of the thousand years, one of the elect, the redeemed, the regenerate, one believer, one saint upon earth. Whatever may constitute the felicity of that period, it will not be Christianity — it will not be saint- ship. Christ's coming has put an end, by your own show- ing, to the existence of this upon earth and in the flesh. Will you fall back, then^ upon the Adamic theory % You ought to do it. But you will not. On opening your books again, we find you making the millennium the same Christian state that we expect it to be. The Jews, you say, looking on their pierced Saviour^ will repejit and be- lieve^ and be the missionary instruments of the Gentiles' conversion ; and you speak of the spiritual blessedness of that period when " the earth shall be full of tlie knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea" — when '• the king- dom and dominion under the whole heaven shall be given ic the people of the saints of the Most High " — when " men shall be blessed in Christ (with salvation, of coarse) and all nations shall call him blessed."* ♦ Se' among others, Bickersteth's Guide, passim. THEIR INCONSISTENCY SUMMARY. 81 Here, then, is the inextricable difficulty into which jour system shuts you up ; and yet you are either unaware of it, or will not face it. You expatiate with equal confidence upon two things, the one of which is destructive of the other. You rejoice that Christ will bring all his people with him, before the millennium. You no less rejoice in the prospect of a world peopled with believing men for a thousand years after his coming ! Let the reader now judge with what clearness pre-millennialists perceive the bearings of their own doctrine, and whether the parts of that doctrine are capable of hanging together as one con- sistent whole. We have thus seen that Christ, at his second appearing, will come absolutely and numerically " with all his saints" — " them that are His ;" and have seen how remarkably this is confirmed by the enthusiastic, though suicidal testi- mony of both classes of pre-millennialists. The first class, building their scheme upon the admission of this great truth, are thereby driven, as we have seen, into extrava- gances which it was unnecessary to refute, because they vanish at the touch. The second class, basing their scheme upon the denial of this truth, seem unable to want its in- spiration ; for thus only can I account for the strain in which they anticipate a prospect which their system re- pudiates. Does not this show, where the weakness of the pre-millennial theory lies — obliging us either to deny the great Scriptural doctrine of the completeness of the Church at Christ's coming, or to believe in a millennium without Christians ? And I venture to affirm, that from this dilemma there is no possible escape, but in the belief which clears all up — that Ohrisfs second coming will not be pre- millcn7iial, that all the glory of the latter day — whether it be a definite or an indefinite period — together with the 82 REPLIES TO THE FOREGOING ARGUMENT. final efforts of the wicked, at the close of it, will precEdBj a7id not SUCCEED the coming of Christ. SUPPLEMENTARY REMARKS. The preceding argument, as it appeared in the first edition of this work, has drawn forth a number of replies, particularly from Mr. Bickersteth, the Duke of Manchester, and Mr. A. Bonar; answers which, in my judgment, ex- pose the weakness of the pre-millennial system, and the looseness of Scripture interpretation which it necessitates, more effectually than most of the arguments employed to refute it. They all distinguish between " the Bride of the I/amb," and the whole number of the saved ; affirming that the one will be complete at his coming, but the other not. Each, however, has his own way of reconciling his readers to this conclusion. Mr. Bickersteth explains, that by " the Church," which is to appear as a complete and corporate body with Christ at his coming, he meant, not all the saved, but only a pe- culiar portion of them, called ' the bride, the assembly of the first-born, the kings and priests unto God, the city ;' "whose privilege is distinct and peculiar — not holiness and blessedness merely^ but these in a peculiar form." And who are to constitute this peculiar portion of the saved ? All who have bdieved up to the commencement of the millen- nium. These alone are the mystical body of Christ. But after they are completed, at the second advent the earth will be peopled by " nations of the saved" in flesh and blood — friends, companions, servants of the Bridegroom — a totally different party from the then glorified Bride. But in what respect different 1 The answer is, that though they have " holiness and blessedness," they have '^ merely''^ that — they have it not in " the peculiar form" of union to Christ as hig mystical body or bride. If one should ask MR. BICKERSTETH DUKE OF MANCHESTER. 83 egain, what other union there is of sinners to Christ, but as " members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones" (Eph. V. 30), the answer we get is a little startling : — '• There may be (says Mr. Bickersteth), and doubtless are^ A THOUSAND STAGES AND VARIETIES OF UNION WITH ChRIST, DISTINGUISHABLE FROM THE GLORl OF THE ChURCH OF THE FIRST-BORN," After this, we need not of course wonder to find the Adamic variety among the multitudinous types of millen- nial humanity — the curious Mosaic which is to adorn the new earth. Accordingly, Mr. Bickersteth thus proceeds : — " In the first place, an Adamic state of innocence is not, as is unguardedly said (he refers to Dr. M'Neile), infinitely inferior to Christian union with God ; for it is a real union and like that of unfallen angels in kind, though a little lower in form." " In every human household (he after- wards says) there are usually four parties — the bridegroom and bride, friends Sind servants.''^* The Duke of Manchester limits the mystical body of Christ still farther — excluding from it not only all the saints who are to live after the second advent, but also all who lived before theirs/ advent, or rather prior to the as- cension of Christ. " The gifts (he says) necessary for forming the Christ mystical were not conferred until after the ascension of Jesus We could not, therefore, say with propriety that the Church under former dispensations was ' Christ.' The Bride is the New Jerusalem Now the great glory of the New Jerusalem is, that it is the abode of Deity. But for the believer to be a habitation of God, is the peculiar glory of the dispensation founded by the apoa- ♦ The Divine Warning to the Church at this Time. Fourth Edition 1846. It is from Part IV., Ch, III., " Answers to some objections,' wlxicli is in reply to myself that I quote, pp. 310, &^G* 84 REPLIES TO THE FOREGOING ARGUMENT. ties, according to the promisej ' He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.' " In what state his Grace expects the Old Testament saints to be, when they rise from the dead to inherit Canaan during the millennium, as he expects them to do — I scarcely know. Probably he distinguishes between m-ere resurrec- tion and glorification, and that inhabiialioii of Deity which he makes the distinguishing privilege of believers under this dispensation.* Mr. Bonar differs materially from both these authors According to him, the millennial saints, will be saints in the same sense as all other saints, whether under this dis- pensation or before it. The only difference will be in their external circumstances. Having none of the trials of pre- ceuing saints, they will not attain to the dignity, reserved exclusively for tried Christians, of being the Bride of Christ. " All saints (says he) redeemed amid toil and tempta- tion, and sorrow and warfare, shall form the Bride at the Lord's coming ; and this Bride shall reign with him a thousand years. Then, as to the saints who shall people earth during these thousand years, they are as really saints, and as simply dependent on this Head, as any of those already in glory. As to state, character, and modes of spiritual life, they are not saints of another stamp from those of the Patriarchal, Jewish, and Grentile days; but, on the contrary, they are converted as they were, live by faith as they did, war with their own corruptions as they, and hang on Christ alone to the last. It is only their circum- stances that are different from former saints. They live during these millennial da3^s with scarcely any, or rather with no opposition at all; without persecution, and with- * The Finished Mystery. Appendix: " Examination of Mr. IJrown'3 Work on the Second Adven:," pp. 284-288. MR. A. BONAR. 83 out Satan's temptations, for he is bound. It seems good, therefore, to the sovereign Grod to make a difference be- tween them and those that lived not in millennial days. The children of the millennium shall be our children." . . . But '' children are not different in nature from the parents. We wholly reject all theories about an Adamic race, or any thing similar ; we maintain that the children of that age shall be found in the miry clay by the sovereign God ; converted by his Holy Spirit ; led to see sin and the Saviour, as we do ; sanctified, probably far more rapidly and thoroughly, yet still by the same Spirit, through the Word, and so prepared for a future eternity." * What fantastic and bewildering speculations are these ! How opposed to the general strain of Scripture ; how desti- tute even of the semblance of support ; how alien from any thing that would occur to an ordinary reader of the Bible ; how contrary to the belief of all churches, and the judg- ment of all commentators, from the beginning ; and, as now put forward by the advocates of the pre-millennial theory, how manifestly are they suggested by the necessities of a system ! A few sentences on each of the three forms in which this alleged distinction between " the Bride^^ and the whole number of the saved is exhibited, in the ex- tracts which I have given, will suffice to justify these reflections. 1. As the Duke of Manchester is aware that he stands almost alone among his brethren, in excluding all who lived before the ascension of Christ from the privileges of '• the Bride," " the New Jerusalem," " Christ " mystical, "the body of Christ," I shall merely say of his scheme, that it is founded on most untenable and dangerous views of the difference between the Old and the New Testa- ment dispensations. Where the real difference lies is one ♦ Redemption, &c., pp. 124, &c. H 86 REMARKS ON of the oldest questions in the Christian Church ; "but while orthodox men have slightlj' differed in their mode of conceiving the characteristics of the two economies, they have ever entertained a common jealousy against those low views of the Old Testament dispensation which would go to strip it of all spiritual vitality^ or make salvation pos- sible by merely external operations of the Spirit. In these low views, when fully carried out, a Manichean tincture was early detected ; they were opposed as heretical ; their defenders all along have been, for the most part, men other- wise unsound : and although there have been from time to time divines, sound in the main, who — either not per- ceiving the full effect of their own statements, or not taking sufficiently inward and ethical conceptions of certain truths, or from kindred causes — have approached too closely to the views of those with whom, in other things, they have no sympathy, we cannot consent, in deference to them, to give up the essential OTiencss of the Church and 'people of God under both dispensations, or admit any such difference be- tween them as to require, or even to tolerate, the exclusion of all the Old Testament saints from the glory which is pre- pared for those of our dispensation.* Why, instead of a question whether they are to share with us. the whole strain * His Grace refers to Archdeacon Hare in support of his distinction, who quotes a long passage from Olshausen, concluding with this state- ment that as "the special work of the Holy Ghost is regeneration," therefore "regeneration belongs essentially to the New Testament, be- cause under this dispensation the Holy Ghost first manifested his specific power."— {Missio7i of the Comforter, ii. 492.) Whether the Archdeacon meant to extend his approval of the extract thus far (in the face of John iii. 6, 7, 10, &c.), is doubtful, from what follows. But, be this as it may, I am not disposed, in a point of this nature, to consider either Hare, ot his author unexceptionable expositors of the general mind of the Church — much as I admire the freshness, the power, the learning, and the ver- satility of the one, and highly as I value the subtle, penetrating, and spiritual, though vejy German, mind of the other. THE DUKE OF MANCHESTER'S SCHEME. 87 of the New Testament language goes merely to show that we shall not be excluded from sharing with them — that we shall come from the east and from the west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (not they with us) in the kingdom of God.— (Matt. viii. 11.) True, "They without us could not be made perfect" (Heb. xi. 40) — that is, without Christ and the Spirit, whose proper economy ours certainly is ; but as this manifestly implies that with us they have all the perfection which we have — that with Christ to save and the Spirit to sanctify them, which they got anticipatively from our dispensation, they are in all respects on a par with us — there is not a shadow of ground for excluding the Old Testament saints from the glory pre- pared for those of our dispensation.* ♦ Istnd— says Calvin, who, on the Christology of the Old Testament, occupied what many would term low ground— quoque scitissiiue eodem loco subjungit (Augustinus), pertinere ab initio niundi ad Novum Testa- mentum filios promissionis, regeneratos a Deo, qui fide per dilectioneni operante obedierunt mandatis, Idque in spe non carnalium, terrenorum, temporalium, sed spiritualium, coelestium, aeternorum bonorum, prae- cipue credentes in Mediatorem : per quem non dubitarunt et Spiritum sibi administrari, ut benefacerent, et ignosci, quoties peccarent. Id enim ipsum est quod asserere in animo fuit, ejusdeiii nobiscum benedictionis in BBternam salutem consortes fuisse omnes sanctos, quos ab exordio mundi peculiariter a Deo selectos Scriptura commemorat Atque hie quoque de Sanctis Patribus annotandum est, ita sub Veteri Testamento vixisse, ut non illic restiterint, sed aspirarint semper ad Novum, adeoque certam ejus communionem amplexi sint. — Insiit. Christ. Rdig. Lib. ii. cap. xi. 10. Nos omnes de plenitudine ejus accepimus. Quid — exclaims Augustin— est, Noso7nnes? Ergo Patriarchae, et Prophetae et Apostoli Sancti, vel ante incarnation^m praemissi vel ab Incarnato missi, omnes nos de plenitu- dine ejus accepimus. Nos vasa sumus, lUe fons est. — Serm. cclxxxix. 5. Ipsum (Christum) martyres in manifesto confess! sunt, quem tunc Machabsei confessi sunt,* mprtui sunt isti pro Ciiristo in evangelio rev- elato; mortui sunt illi pro Christi nomine in lege velato. Christus habet utrosque, Christus pugnantes adjuvit utrosque, Christus corona vit utros* que,— (Serm. ccc. 5. * This Sermon was i-jlivered at the festival of the \ v'lcabean martyrs. 88 REMARKS ON 2. Mr. Bickersteth's " thousand stages and varieties of union with Christ" — for poor sinners of mankind — defy comment. Happily, however, they do not need it. The only wonder is, that speculations so out of the line of all that is sober, on such a subject as union to Christ, and language which even the author himself would find it hard to explain, should be hazarded by one so distinguished for the meekness and gentleness of Christ. The reader, however, when he comes to our chapter on the " Resur- rection," will find this esteemed minister laying down posi- tions quite as startling and repulsive as this. And when he finds that even these novel and unsavoury speculations are advocated, as clearly revealed truths of Scripture, by one of the acutest and most forcible writers on that side — 3Ir. Birks — and by a writer of considerable pow- er and some reading on the other side of the Atlantic — Mr. Lord; when, moreover, he considers how difl&cult it is for those who would work out the pre-millennial scheme to avoid being driven into conclusions of this na- ture, he will see afresh what a wedge this system is, upheaving, when introduced into the text of Scripture, almost every thing which has hitherto been regarded as most fixed and sacred — all that has been "most surely believed among us." Before passing from Mr. Bickersteth here, I will give one brief illustration of the extreme slenderness of the ground on which he rests the weightiest conclusions. " In every human household (he says) or marriage, there are usually four parties — the bridegroom, the bride, friends, and servants ;" and if we do not admit as many " varieties^'' at least of '•'• union with Christ," we are charged with " not only crossing many express statements, but every lesson of analogy." Now, let us see what conclusions this will bring out of a single passage of Scripture : " He thai hath the MR. BICKERSTETH S THEORY. 09 Bride," said the Baptist, " is the Briciegroom ; but the Friend of the Bridegroom^ which standeth and heareth him, rejoicelh greatlj' because of the Bridegroom's voice ; this my joy, therefore, is fulfilled." — (John iii. 29.)* According to Mr. Bickersteth's way of viewing such language, the poor Baptist will not be of '• the Bride" at all. TJiough " the first resurrection," and the millennial glory of the risen saints, is said to be specially designed for suffering believers, this rare example of fidelity, humility, love to the Saviour, and self-sacrifice, will not be found in that class at all, but be seen on the lower platform appropriated to the '■''friends'^ of the Bridegroom ! At this rate the wise virgins who went forth to meet the Bridegroom in the parable (Matt. XXV.), represent not those who are to be " the Bride" at bis coming, but those who merely attend the nuptials as " friends ;" and those who are invited to the marriage- supper (Matt, xxii.), though clothed with the wedding- garment, are, on this principle, to be held as representing a • The Jews thought to kindle in the Baptist a jealousy of his Master — as one who was requiting thp generous testimony he had borne to him by drawing all his disciples away to himself. The reply of that blessed servant and martyr of Jesus, in the words above quoted, I have always thought to be one of the most glorious and affecting of human utterances, and perhaps beyond all the testimonies that ever were borne to Christ. 'The Bride is not mine — why should the people stay with me? Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ : mine it is to point the guilty to the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world — to tell them There is Balm in Gilead, and a Physician there; and shrill I grudge to see them, in obedience to the call, flying as a cloud, and as doves to their windows? Whose is the Bride, but the Bridegiooni's? Enough for me to be the Bridegroom's fiiend — sent by him to negotiate the match— privileged, as an humble instrument, to bring together the SaMour and the souls he is come to Beek and to save, and rejoicing with joy unspeakable to stand by and witne.es the blessed espousi^ls. Say yoU; then, they go from me to Him? You bring me g'ad tidings of great joy ; for He must increase, but I must decn ase : This my joy, therefore^ is fulfilled!' H 2 90 REMARKS ON distinct class altogether from those called " the Bride." I cannot persuade myself that the author would accept these conclusions. But why not ? and where shall we be if we are thus to explain the figures of Scripture ? Who does not see that the Baptist called himself " the friend of the Bridegroom" not to express his personal^ but his official standing in relation to Christ ? and that the same believers are termed " the virgins" in respect of their call to be ready for Christ's coming — the ^^ guests" at the marriage- supper, in respect of the fellowship they hold with him — and " the bride" in respect of their intimate and endearing union to him. In vain, then, are endless " varieties of union with Christ" drawn out of such figu- rative language, and wonderful it is, that from premises so very slender such mighty conclusions should, by any sober writer, be drawn. 3. Mr. Bonar's theory of the distinction between the Bride and the whole number of the saved, has not certainly the repulsive appearance of the other theories we have been noticing. He admits that the Christians who are to people the earth after Christ has descended to it with his completed Bride, will, like ourselves, " be found in the miry clay by the sovereign God, be converted by his Holy Spirit, led to see sin and the Saviour — [Why does he not add, united to Kim by faith, as we are ?'] — sanctified probably far more rapidly and thoroughly, yet still by the same Spirit, through the word, and so prepared for a future eternity." It is something to get footing like this — to get a Christianity that one can understand — for the millennium. Nor will I disturb it by asking, just now, how this Christianity is to be produced in sinful men, with Christ in glory before their eyes, and " the righteous shining forth as the sun" in their very presence. Waiving this for the present — the follow- ing very obvious remarks are enough to show that the MR. sonar's view. 91 theory which Mr. Bonar propounds is without any solid foundation, and is opposed to the whole current of Scrip ture. (1.) When Christ's people are termed his "Bride," his " Spouse" — when they are said to be " espoused" and " married" to him — in a word, when conjugal relations, in- tercourse, and affections are employed to set forth what sub- sists between Him and them, — who, until now, ever doubted that a union common to all believers is intended ? And on what principle can it be maintained that the term " Bride'^ is meant to point, not to that internal, vital union to Christ which is common to all who shall ever believe in him, but to special privileges peculiar to one class of them ? (2.) As the union of all believers to Christ is the same as to its essence, so the future glori/ of them all alike is represented as flowing from that union, and not from any external circumstances in which they may differ from each other. Is it necessary to give proofs of what is so mani- fest ? " Thou hast given thy Son power over all flesh," said Jesus to his Father, " that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory," &c. — (John xvii. 2-24.) Here, all the elect get eternal life from Christ's hands — will any that ever shall believe in him get less ? But here, also, Christ wills that the same elect company be with him where he is, to behold his glory — and can any class of be- lievers have more ? '* This is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me 1 should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. No man can come to me, except the Father, which hath sent tt'3, draw him : and I will raise ©2 REMARKS ON him up at the last day. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my hlood, hath eternal life ; and I will raise him up at the last day. He that eateth my flesh, and drink- eth my blood, dw elleth in me, and I in him."— (John vi. 39, 44, 54, 56.) Who that reads these words can doubt that the elect — drawn to Christ by common supernatural grace, one with Him in common, by mutual inhabitation through the Spirit, and thus saved with a '- common salvation" ( Jude 3), are destined to partake in common of the resurrection, life, and glory of their Head ? " The glory which thougavest me I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are cne.^^ — (John xvii. 22.) "Whom he did foreknow," says Paul, "he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren, [in resurrection and glo?-y surely, as well as every thing else.] Moreover whom he did predestinate [the whole company of the elect], them he also called ; and whom he called, them he also justified ; and whom he justified, them he also glorified. If any man [during the millennium surely, as well as at any other time] have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you."^ (Rom. viii. 29,30; 9, 11.) But why go on ? Who can read the New Testament, and fail to see that all the life, and glory, and fellowship with the Lamb, which any believers shall ever have, is made to flow from the common oneness of all believers with Christ, as Head of his body the Church, and not from the mere " external circumstances" which may distinguish one clasa of them from another ? Not only is there no ground for any such distinction, but the passages which, by a palpable misconception of MR. bonar's view. 93 them, are adduced in support of it, prove just the reverne. For example : — ^^ If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified to- gether," — (Rom. viii. 17.) '■'■Ijwe suffer, we shall also reign with him." — (2 Tim. ii. 12.) Who does not see that in these passages it is not suffer- ing as opposed to unsuffering Christians, but true Chris- tians as opposed to false^ that are here described ? In the one passage, we have but to read the whole verse to see this at once : — "If children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suflfer with him, that we may be also glorified together." Shall we say that the latter clause of this verse is in- tended to limit the former ? and that the apostle's meaning is, that not all the. children of God are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, but only such of them as suffer with him? As well might we say that in the first verse of this chapter, when the apostle says — " There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit," he means that not aU that are in Christ Jesus are freed from condemnation, but only such of them as walk in the Spirit.* , The other passage shows this even more clearly^ when, instead of only the one-half, we read the whole of it : " If we suffer, we shall also reign with him ; if we deny him, he also will deny us." Here are not two kinds of Christians — suffering and un- suffering Christians — both genuine ; but true Christianity * The second clause of both verses is what the critics call epexegetU eal, and not restrictive, of the former— designed to characterise the per- sons mentioned in the first clause. 94 REMARKS ON distinguished from false, by '• fellowship in Christ's Buffer ings, and conformity to his death," as the indispensable pre- lude to participation in his glory and reign. Alas for the system which would set up a Christianity for the millennium, shorn of this essential characteristic, — which would represent it as the same thing in its essence with the Christianity now existing, and that is depicted in the New Testament, yet stripped of what the apostle holds up as part and parcel of it ! If these millennial Chris- tians are to bask in such inward and outward sunshine, as to be strangers to " suffering with Christ," call them not Christians in our — or rather in the New Testament — • sense of the term ; but if " suffering with Christ" is to be common to them with us, notwithstanding the propitious circumstances by which they will be surrounded — why are they not to be " glorified together," with their living Head, according to the indissoluble connexion which the matchless wisdom of the mediatorial system has es- tablished ? It is impossible to answer these questions, or evade the alternatives which they offer. Once moro, 3. Let the vastness of the separation in eternal destiny^ which this theory makes between those ChristiaLS whom they style " The Bride," and the rest of the saved, be ob- served, and its amazing unscripturalness, and purely fanci- ful character, will strike at once the thoughtful mind. " This elect body (says Mr. Bonar) of believers before the millennium is the Bride, and shall be complete at the Lord's com- ing. Not on-e oilier shall be added to this body after the Lord's coming —not oner— {V. 123.) He does not say that those living after this shall join the Bride, and merge into that blessed company, when the thousand years are over — he does not say that their acces- sion to this body shall be merely postponed till the everlast- ing state arrive. He knows well that he has not a ra^ of MR. BONAR S VIEW, 95 Scripture for such an expectation — every text relating to the resurrection and glorification of believers at all being applied by him, and those who held his system, to a resur- rection before the millennium. For aught that Scripture says, therefore — on his way of explaining it — those be- lievers who are to people the earth after the second advent must remain for ever apart from that " Bride that shall be complete at the Lord's coming — to which not one shall be added after his coming — not one." What though there be myriads of men during the millennium, snatched by sovereign grace out of the miry clay, and " prepared " by the Word and Spirit of Jesus " /or a future eternity ?" Over that future eternity a dark veil is drawn ; for his system has 710 Scripture for bringing them ever out of the fleshly and imperfect state which it assigns to them upon earth during the millennium.* Now this seems to me quite as irrational as the other theories I have noticed. The objection to them was, that it made saintship, for sinners of mankind, a different thing under the Old and the New Testament — a diiferent thing before the millennium and after it. The objection to this theory is, that while it makes saintship in every ago the same things it makes the everlasting condition and issues of that saintship a vastly different thing in twa ♦ Perhaps it will be said, What if this should be but one example of the dlferent degrees of glory which all believe there will be in the future state among the people of God 1 The answer is obvious. This is con- founding differences of degree with those of kind. Degrees in glory have always been understood to mean simply higher and lower measures of one and the same state of glory. But it is an abuse of languagn — in its universally understood sense — to apply such phraseology to the mighty distinction which Mr. Bickersteth's theory makes between " the com- pleted bride" associated with Christ in his glory and reign, and (hose left unglorified on the earth, in a state of abiding subjection to the mors &voured portion. 96 REMARKS ON classes of believers — those living before, and those living dming^ the millennium ; and to ground this upon a mere difference in their " external circumstaiices " — what is it but to confound what is essential with what is accidenlal — as if the glorious oneness of the whole body of believers with Christ, in his death and resurrection, in his humilia- tion and glory, had less virtue to bring them all together with their adorable Head, to grace his second appearing — than the adventitious diversity of their outward circumstances to separate them from each other at that bright, transporting day? But what, after all, are those " external circumstances " on which such vast stress is laid, as distinguishing the Chris- tians of the millennium from all other Christians ? " They live," says Mr. Bonar, " during these millennial days, with scarcely any, or rather with no external opposition at all ; without persecution, and without Satan's temptations, for he is bound." Are " external opposition and persecution," then, so bound up with Christianity as it now exists, that it cannot be real without them — that a Christian, whose outward lot is uniformly tranquil and unruffled, though it may be a millennial phenomenon, is one hitherto unheard of — that there can be no living by faith now^ no walking in the nar- row way, no crucifying of the flesh and Iking in the spirit, no occupying till Christ come — nothing, in short, of living connexion with Christ now, that shall give assurance of appearing with him in glory, unless " outward opposition and persecution" be superadded ? Are not battles inly fought, and unseen victories won, in the sphere of the hid- den life, which, in that Eye that looketh not upon the out- ward appearance but upon the heart, are brighter manifes- tations of the grace that bringeth salvation than many a martyrdom ? MR. BONAR S VIEW. 91 " Nor think who to that bliss aspire, Must win their way through blood and fire ; The writhings of a wounded heart Are fiercer than a foeman's dart."* If this be granted, even in one case, the ground of dis- tinction, as far as that goes, is given up. This is so mani- fest, that Mr. Burgh., who takes the same view of outward sufiering as indispensable to participation in the "first resurrection," perceiving that this will necessarily exclude many true Christians from the millennial reign, limits it expressly to those whom he regards as suffering Chris- tians. And this is the only consistent way of holding the theory, t Mr. Bonar, indeed, mentions another ground of distinc- tion — the freedom of millennial Christians " from Satan'o temptations, for he is bound." In a subsequent part of this work, I believe I shall be able to show that this expecta- tion is totally unscriptural — founded on a misapprehension of one single symbolical prediction, contradicted by the uniform tenor of Scripture, and at variance with the whole analogy of faith. But admitting for the present the total absence of Satanic agency during the millennium — if it be allowed, as it seems to be, that the natural heart will be the same then as now, that the grace of God will find men in the same " mire," and be as illustrious in plucking any out of it, that there will be the same war with inward corruption in every Christian, the same inability to do the things that they would, and the same need to " hang upon Christ alone to the last," as there is now — what mighty differ J !ice between them and us can even the absence of * Ckrislian Year. t Ltect. on Revelation^ and Led. on Second Advent. In the latter work, Mr. Burgh is pleased to cut off' from this class those who deny the pre- millennial advent \ Nor is he altogether alone in thia. 1 98 SIMULTANEOUS GLORIl ICATION OF ALL THE ELECT Satan make — what, at least, that should sever those from ua ii: glory who share with us in our deepest struggles ? Thus — survey it in what light we will, and on whatever hypothesis may be framed to account for it — the distinction between one fortion of the elect, ransomed, sanctified, and saved Church, as being exclusively " the Bride of the Lamb," to be associated with him in his glory, and another portion of the same Church, who are not to rise and reign with Him when he comes — is utterly foreign to the Bible and fanciful in its character, unknown to the faith of the Church, and suggested only by the necessities of a system. A tedi- ous and ungenial work it has been to pursue into the shal- lows such poor, unfruitful distinctions as have engaged our attention in these supplementary remarks. Gladly, there- fore, do we now come back to " a place of broad rivers and streams," to repose on the clear bosom of such words as these : — " Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me [all the elect] be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thon hast given me ;" " This is the Father's will, which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day ;" " He shall come to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe ;" " Our gathering together unto Him ;" " They that are Christ's at his coming !" " Even so, come. Lord Jesus !"* ♦ Since writing these supplementary remarks, it has occurred to me that some notice should have been taken of those words on which many build their distinction between the bride and the rest of the saved : Rev. xxi. 24: "And the nations [of them which are saved *] shall walk in the light of it (the New Jerusalem), and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it." It is surpiising, however, that r.ny thing should be made of such a pas- * The words enclosed in brackets (twv (rw^ouepuyv) ^^^ exclmled from the text by all critical editors— by Bengel. Welnteii, Griesbach, Scholz, Larhmann, Tiach tndoify and Tregeiles—a& wanting in MS x ilhority. ^HEN CHRIST APPEARS. 99 Bage. For, as "the kings of the earth bring their glory and honour INTO the New Jerusalem," the state of both must be the same — the receptacle and the things received into it must be homogeneous. If "the kings of the earth" mean potentates living in the flesh, and their "glory and honour" mean their regal wealth and influence, then "the New Jerusalem " into which they enter, bringing this with them, must mean an earthly state of the Church. If, on the other hand, the "New Jerusalem" mean the glorified state of the Church, then "the kings" who bring their glory and honour into it, cannot mean the sovereigns of the earth living in the flesh, nor can their "glory and honour" mean any thing earthly; unless "flesh and blood can inherit the kingdom of God, and corruption inherit incorruption." Accordingly, though com- mentators are divided as to whether the two last chapters of Revelation denote the keatenbj ^ate, or a bright state of the Church upon earthy they agree in applying the whole verse before us to the one or the other of these states, but not to both. Thus Vitringa and others apply it to the Church on earth,* despite the "impudence" which Augustin thought it would require to venture on such a view :t while Durham, March, and the majority of commentators, on the other hand, apply it to the Church in glory, under the idea of a confluence of all that can be conceived of regal magnificence and grandeur to adorn that blessed state.} • Post longa tempora persecutionum, afflictionum, et calamitatum masno numero implerent novum hanc Civitatem Populi Dei, et ad earn consti- tuendam et exornandam undique confluerent ; turn quoque Principes, Regos, Im- peratoree, Chrislo et Ecclesiae ejus servaturi, suam gloriam, majestatem, vires, in earn inferrent ; hoc est, in ejus converterent usum utilitatemque : &,c.—Anakris. ApocaJyps. ad loc. t Nam hoc de isto tempore accipere quo regnat [ecclesia] cum Rege suo mille annis impudentisB nimiae mihi videtiir. De. Civ. Dei., Lib. xx. cap. xvii. t Magis placet, quod est apud Durhamum, tantam fore civitatis hiijus gk)riam, ut pra ilia reges omnes regiiorum gloriam deserant: vel quasi omnes reges omnem Buam conferrent, ut locum su xm gloriosum redderent, sic ut phraxis hsc ad ex- terni emblemalis decua specteL JUiaciUi in Apoc. Comrn. ad loc. CHAPTEK V. ALL THE MEANS OF GRACE, AND AGENCIES OF SALVATION, TERMINATE AT THE SE(JOND ADVENT. We have seen that the whole elect and ransomed Church is complete when Christ comes. If this be correct, we may expect to find the ordained means for the gathering and perfecting of the Church disappearing from the stage — the standing agencies and instrumentalities — the whole economy and machinery of a visible Church-state — taken out of the way. Here then is a test — the fairest and most satis- factory that can be imagined — by which to try the truth of our doctrine. Pre-millennialists maintain that the saving of souls is to go on upon earth after the Redeemer's second appearing. If this be true, we shall find the means of grace surviving the advent. Whereas, if grace has ceased at Christ's coming to flow from the fountain, we shall find that the channels for its conveyance have disappeared too — if the building of mercy has been completed, we may expect to find the scaffolding cleared away. Beginning then with the Means — If it can be shown that both the written Word and the sealing ordinances by which God ordinarily gathers and perfects the Church — having their whole ends and objects exhausted at ChrisVs coming — shall then absolutely cease as means of grace and salvation to mankind, I think it will be clear that all saving of souls is then at an end. OBJECT OF THE SCRIPTURFS. 101 What, then, is the testimony of Scripture on this sub- ject ? The answer to this question forms PROPOSITION SECOND: Christ's second coming will exhaust the object op the scriptures. His coming is the goal of all revelation, its furthest horizon, its last terminus, its Sabbath and haven. Thither are directed all the anxieties which divine truth awakens. Every hope which it kindles and every fear which it excites instinctively points to that awful event, its con- comitants, and its issues, as the needle to the pole. To prepare men for it, as an event future to all whom it addresses^ is what the Bible proposes, and positively all that it undertakes and is fitted to do. The whole force of every reference to Christ's coming in Scripture, as a motive to action, absolutely depends on its being a future event. 1. Look — in the case of saints — at all the incentives to patience and hope, to watchfulness and fidelity, to promp- titude and cheerfulness in the discharge of duty, drawn from the prospect of Christ's coming, and see if they would not be stript of all their power and all their point, on the supposition of its being a 'past event, and as addressed to saints living after it. Take an example or two almost at random : — *' Occupy TILL I come y — (Luke xix. 13.) " Ye do well to take heed to the sure word of prophecy, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and iJve day star arise in our JiearLs." — (2 Pet. i. 19.) " Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord." — (James v. 7.) " Gird up the loins of your mind, bt sober, and hope to the end 102 OBJECT OF THE SCRIPTURES for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ."— (1 Pet. i. 13.) " The Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give the crown of right- eousness at that day to all them that love his wppearingT — (2 Tim. iv. 8.) "Our conversation is in heaven, from whence wc look for the Sar viour."— (Phil. iii. 20.) It is impossible to deny that the attitude of expectancy and preparedness for a future appearing of Christ, is the whole burden of one and all of these passages. Just think how they would sound in the ears of saints living after the advent. " Behold I come quickly" — is the exhilarating announcement of Jesus to those whose eyes long to behold him — " and my reward is with me, to give every man ac- cording as his work shall be." But from what lips shall that delightful response go forth after his coming, " Amen, even so, come. Lord Jesus ?" The Church's hopes and fears and struggles have found their object and end. Be- yond that end we never get in God's Word. It is the goal of all souls travelling from nature to grace, from a lost to a saved state. It is the crisis and consummation of the state of grace, and the whole Bible is constructed upon the principle of its being so. And here, let us recal the scriptural connexion which we found to subsist between the two comings of Christ ; how to the ^race brought by the one we look backward by faith, and forward by hope to the glori/ which is to be brought by the other ; how. between these two events, of unutterable import- ance to the formation and growth of the Christian charac- ter, the believer is thus poised : let this intrinsic connexion and studied juxtaposition of these two doctrines in the Christian system — these commanding events in the work of redemption — be duly weighed, and then let the reader say, whether the theory of a race of outstanding saints, EXHAUSTED BY THE SECOND ADVENT 103 living on earth after the second advent^ does not dislocate this connexion, eviscerate every text which expresses it, derange the whole economy of evangelical motives, subvert the only recognized basis of a Christian character, and in- troduce a principle of inextricable confusion, where order and beauty, symmetry and strength, are seen otherwise to reign. This is strong language. Whether it be too strong, let those who dispassionately weigh the grounds of it determine. 2. Similar remarks may be made upon all those passages in which the second advent is brought to bear upon " the sinners in Zion" — despisers of gospel grace — such as the f )llowing : — * The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power in that day."— (2 Thess. i. 7-10.) . . " The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night," &c. — (2 Pet. iii. 10.) "And this know that if the good-man of the house had known in what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye, therefore, ready also ; for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not." — (Luke xii. 39, 40.) " As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat, they drank, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all: even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed." — (Luke xvii. 26, 27, 30.) Is it necessary to ask whether such warnings would be at all applicable to sinners living after that event, so full of "^ OP TiT- 104 OBJECT OF THE SCRIPTURES. terror to the wicked now. shall have been numbered amongst the things of the past ? Thus, one half of the Scriptures would be inapplicable to saints^ and the other half to sinners^ living after Christ's coming: In other words, the Scriptures as a means of grace, will be fut OUT of date hy the second advent. It is •' a light shining in a dark place u.ntil the day dawn," and nothing more* In reply to this it is urged, that though " the Old Tes- tament was a book written for men before the first advent, and applicable universally to such alone, this did not hin- der the profit we derive from the Old Testament since his first coming."! But this is to mistake, and not at all to meet, my argument. It is not the mere fact that an event is 'past^ that makes the recorded predictions of it and pre- parations for it useless ever after. It were absurd to main- tain this. But it is the nature of the event^ which I say would render the Scriptures inapplicable and useless to any living after it. What is that event ? It is " the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ" — " the day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained " — " the day of judgment and of the perdition of ungodly men, against which day (alone) the heavens and the earth that are now are kept in store" — the day, in fine, of which Himself says : '^ Behold * The Duke of Manchester asks if I include the preached with the written word here; because if so, he "denies that that will cease at Christ's advent, believing from the prophets, that after the Lord comes with fire (Isa. Ixvi. 15), his glory will be declared among the Gentiles (verse 19)."— (P. 290.) Undoubtedly, I say the same of the preached as of the written word. As to the passaige which his Grace adduces from Isaiah, I can hardly conceive it possible that any one should apply the details of that prediction to the second advent. t Mr. Bickersteth {Divine Warning, p. 316). To the same effect, Mr. A. Bonar (p. 127), and the Duke of Manchester (p. 291). SEALING ORDINANCES. 105 I come quickly, and my reward is with me [iter' eftov'j^ to give every man according as his work shall be." How different the bearings of this coming upon men's eternal destinies, from that of his first coming ! Why, in this re- spect, it is just the reverse of it The first coming opened " the door" of grace, which the second coming will ^ shuU^ (Matt. XXV. 10; Luke xvii. 26-30.) The first coming- far from rendering the Old Testament inapplicable, or putting it out of date, for believers under the gospel — only opened out its riches, making it, in some respects, more valuable to us than even to those under whose economy it was written. The old and the new dispensations are, in fact, but one dispensation of grace — the former being pre- paratory to the latter — the latter perfective of the former — both together embracing the infancy and maturity of the same economy of grace. In short, of his first advent the Redeemer expressly says, '• I came not to judge the world but to save the world." Can such a saying be found re- specting his second advent ? No, but the reverse of it continually. Ever is it said that he comes to ^'- judge!^ — never once that be will come to '' save the world." It does not follow, then, that because Christ's first coming — to save — did not supersede the Old Testament, his second coming — to judge — will not supersede both Testaments as means of grace ; but the opposite clearly follows. If the object of the Scriptures be to prepare men for '' that day" which will be the crisis and consummation of the state of grace, surely the arrival of that day must supersede their use PROPOSITION THIRD: THE SEALING ORDINANCES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT WILL D18APPEAR AT CHRIST's SECOND COMING. The very terms of their institution are singularly deci- sive on this point. 106 BAPTISM, AND THE WORK OF THE MINISTRY, I- With respect to baptism, how conclusive are the glo rious words of its institution : Matt, xxviii. 18-20: "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach," or "make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost : teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you ; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." Here we have Christ's commission to establish his kingdom upon earth, the authority on which that commission is based, and a gracious encouragement to undertake and go through with it. The commission is, properly speaking, twofold — missionary and pastoral ; but there is a sort of third intermediate department, holding of both, linking the two together, and forming, if I may so speak, the point of transition between the missionary and the pastoral departments of the work prescribed — I mean that of bap- tizing. " Go, make disciples of all nations" — Subjugate the world to me ; bring all nations to the obedience of faith." This is the missionary work. This done, " Bap- tize the converts in (or into) the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Grhost." Generally speaking, this was to afford the converts an opportunity of making public profession of the faith they had embraced — to be a solemn declaration of their principles and purposes, and their formal separation from a world lying in wickedness. But, more particularly, it was to be God^s solemn investi- ture and public infeftment of believers in all the love of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the communion of the Holy Ghost ; and to be their solemn pledge that they yielded themselves to this triune Jehovah as their God and portion, and would cleare to him in love and obedience as CEASE AT THE SECOND ADVENT. 107 his redeemed people. Thus were they and their seed to be visibly declared the Lord's, and enrolled the disciples of Christ ; arnd being thus formed and org.mized into churches, the Christian ministry immediately assumed a new charac- ter. The missionary aggressor of those that were without now merges into the pastoral overseer of them that are within — whose work is tc train and mature those organized clusters of disciples for glory, or, as here expressed, to " teach them to observe all things whatsoever Christ has commanded us." ' Such, then, is the Commission. The Authority is that of him " to whom all power is given in heaven and in earth" for this very end. And the encour- agement is, " Lo ! I am with you alway, even, unto the end of the world. " (^awTeXeia tov atcoj/oj). At this " end of the world," then, whatever he meant by it, the whole work here described is to cease. Fortunately, we have no need to spend a moment in fixing the sense of this phrase ; for it is agreed on all hands that it denotes the time of Christ^s personal coming* This being the case, what do we learn from this passage ? Why, clearly, That THE WHOLE WORK OF THE MINISTRY, both in itS missionary and pastoral departments — embracing the mak' ing, baptizing, and training of disciples — together with ChrisVs mediatorial Power and Presence, for the dis- charge of it, are to terminate at his second coming. The bare reading of the words makes this as clear as any comment on them could possibly do. Nor let any say, that though the external machinery of tiie Church may be changed, the work of saving souls may still go on. For in this passage, the means and the end, the grace and the channels for con- veying it, the form and the substance^ are plainly bound up with each other. * See pp. 34, 35, where we found that same expression, " the end ol the world," occurring thrice in one chapter in this same sense. 108 II. As to THE Lord's Supper, what can be more conclu sivo than 1 Cor. xi. 26 : " For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup^ ve do show the Lord^s death till he come " 1 That the cessation of this precious and characteristic ordinance of the Christian Church is here intimated, I argue, not so much from the word '• till," as from the manifest design of the statement itself, which was to teach the perpetuity of this ordinance in the visible Church — its continuance as long as there should be a Church upon earth in which to show it forth. According, then, to the apostle's teaching, the visible Church-state and this ordi- nance are to terminate together, and both at Christ's com- ing. And is not this what any one would take for granted, from the nature and intent of the ordinance itself? The Lord's Supper is the symbol of that double attitude of the believer — to which we find ourselves ever recurring — the backward look of his faith and the forward look of his hope — its present crucifixion and anticipated glorification with his Lord. Now this is precisely the note which the apostle strikes. He seems almost to go out of his way to get at this, his favourite collocation. He does not bid them show the Lord's death in the Church '• always, even to the end of the world" — though that had come to the same thing — but he bids them celebrate His death for them, till, as their Life^ they find themselves appearing with him in glory. " Show the Lord's death till he comc''^ — till the aJBfecting be turned into a joyous scene — till the grace ye draw from his first, shall merge into the glory ye receive at his second coming — -till he whose table ye bedew with your tears, in " fellowship with his suflferings and con- formity to his death," shall interrupt your communion and break in upon you with his glory, and swallow up faith in THESE STARTLING CONCLUSIONS ADMITTED. 109 sight; giving you in place of the symbols, the immediate and eternal fruition of Himself Thus, the Lord's Supper will cease to be celebrated after Christ's coming, not be- cause the Lord of the Church has so willed it. but because after that it would be meaningless — because the state of things and the attitude of the beliecing soul, with reference to the two comings of Christ, of which the Lord^s Supper is the ordained and beautiful symhoL shall then have no place. What, then, have we found with respect to these or- dained means of grace 1 Why, that the second advent, come when it may, will put them all out of date. The passages which teach this make no distinction between the means and the end ; they so implicate the grace conveyed with the means of conveying it, that both are seen disap- pearing together at Christ's coming. If. then, there is to be a millennium after that, it cannot be an era of Christianity ; for the whole Christian furniture, and with it all the Christianity that has hitherto obtained has been withdrawn from the earth. The word is inapplicable — it was for a totally different state of things : the ordinances are gone : and the '''•grace which hath appeared unto all men, bringing salvation" — having no more salvation to bring, because "the blessed hope and glorious appearing" to which it points all its possessors as a future event, has become a present and glorious reality — this grace, of which the sacra- ments are but the symbols and exponents, has retired from the field, having accomplished all its objects. These conclusions are sufficiently startling, one should think. But it is not every thing that startles the advocates of this commanding theory. Mr. Brooks, for example, not only admits all that we have said about its putting the Scriptures out of date, but conceives that this very circum- stance furnisbes valuable confirmation of his view of the K 110 OUR CONCLUSIONS ADMITTED idvent. One whole essay, entitled " The approaching New Dispensation," is devoted to this point ; and I have to entreat those who are not hopelessly committed to the doctrine of the pre-millennial advent, to look well in the light of the following extract, whither it is likely to lead them : — " Startling-, then," says Mr. Brooks, "as it may appear to some, yet I apprehend it will be found that the Holy Scriptures would, for t\e most part, be rendered inapplicable to the then existing circumstances of men in the flesh, and that t/iere would need some further revelation from G'jcl* Now, I think it must be allowed, that a state of things which supersedes a portion of divine revelation hitherto enjoyed, and introduces man into a state of 'things which is t/ie consummation of that revealed, has one grand characteristic of a new dispensation." The first of the things which are to *' render the Scriptures for the most part inapplicable," Mr. Brook says, is the bindijig of Satan, and its consequences ; regarding which he tells us, that " All that is written for the comfort of the believer under such circumstances — the promises set before him, to sustain him during the conflict, and the experience of the cloud of witnesses, re- corded for his encouragement, will become comparatively a dead letter — a matter inapplicable to the circumstances in which the Church can, for a thousand years, by any probability be placed. 1 forbear," he adds, after one or two other examples of this kind, " to bring forward many other particulars, which would obviously be rendered nugatory by our Lord\'s personal advent. What I have advanced is sufficient to evince, that the whole character of the Church and of the state of mankind would be so * " To avoid being misunderstood,^! would observe, that when I say the Scriptures would be for the most part inapplicable, I am aware that there are many glorious declarations concerning the divine attributes and conduct (!), which could never lose their power and influence on a regenerate soul." BY MR. BROOKS. Ill altered, tog-ether with their spiritual and religious circumstances, that we should no longer find them portrayed generally in the length and breadth of Scripture; and it would not, perhaps, be too much to say, that the great bulk of what are called practical discmtrses, at present delivered or published, would be as much u^suited t(; the condition of mankind as they would were they aadressed to ihe angels of God! This view of the sub- ject," he continues, " is strikingly confirmed by referring to the past history of the Church, and reasoning from the analogy of the case. Whensoever any great change has been made in its circumstances and condition, it has always been accompanied by a further revelation from God, concerning the dispensation about to be introduced, and containing also some intimations of the dis- pensation to succeed Again, each decidedly marked era in the history of the Church, has not only been accompanied by an increase of revelation, but by a disannulling or superseding of something going before When, therefore, a similar difference shall exist in the use of the New Testament revelation, it will be equally manifest that a new dispensation has arrived, yor will the Scriptures, superseded in the millennium, be devoid of interest or use ; but they will serve in the way of retrospection and memorial ; excepting some very few passages, respecting * the little season,' when Satan shall be loosed — and the events which are to follow." On this memorial use of the Scriptures during the millen- uium, there is the following singular note, which I take the liberty of introducing into the text: — "Thus the manna^ given in the wilderness, ceased on the entering of the Church into the promised land ; but a pot of it was laid up in th£. ark as a memorial /"' * Thus, then, the Scriptures will be " superseded," as being " inapplicable" during the millennium ; and all " practical discourses," founded upon Scripture, will be as " unsuitable as to the angels of God." These Scriptures, however, will not be altogether " devoid of interest or use." * Abdiel's Essays; Investigfitor, vol. ii. 267-270. 112 OUR CONCLUSIONS ADMITTED They will " serve in the way of retrospection and memo- rial," like the pot of manna, when the earth shall be flow- ing with the milk and the honey of a new and more '* appli- cabfe " revelation ! But possibly these are extravagances of Mr. Brooks, alone, unsanctioned by his brethren. If it were so, the inconsistency would be theirs, not his. Certainly, a New Dispensation is what they are all looking for, and per- petually dwelling on ; and it is a necessary part of their scheme, since the millennium they are expecting will be so organically different from any thing now existing, that it would be ridiculous to imagine it realized, save under a new and perfectly unique dispensation. And who can fail to see that a new dispensation necesiia9rjvai^ in the presence of God for us." " And unto them that look for him shall he appear [oipdriaerai) the second time [once for all] without sin, unto salvation." The first and the last appearances are to us : The interme- diate appearance is to God, for us. This intermediate appearance — " in the presence of God for us" — carries into effect the work of his first appearance to us, and prepares the way for his second. As he appeared the first time " to pid away sin by the sacrifice of himself," so he will ap- pear the second time, " without sin^ unto salvation." Now, as the second coming is here represented as crowning the 118 Christ's intv:rcession. whole purposes of the first^ it is plain that the intercession, which is but a continual pleading upon the merit of his death, must be over, for all saving purposes, before he comes. Let the reader now connect this view of Christ's inter- cession with the following :— Heb. vii. 25 : " Wherefore he is able also to save them to the utter- most that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." Taking this expression, " to the uttermost" ("f to nav- reXes) Comprehensively, it may denote that Christ is able to save " completely as to all parts, fully as to all causes, and for ever in duration " — (Owen, ad loc.) But as the contrast here between Christ and the high priests under the law, is made to hinge upon his " ever living" to dis- charge his ofi&ce, while " they were not suffered to con- tinue by reason of death," I think the apostle, by this ex- pression, means perpetuity — to the uttermost case, to the last object, and the last necessities of that object, for whom salvation is designed and required. His people, may, one by one, disappear fron> the stage \ but their In- tercessor liveth. Age after age shall find him at his post. And the last soul that " comes unto Grod by him," shall find him " in heaven itself, there appearing in the presence of God for him," a Priest in perpetuity before the Mercy- Seat. " Till all the ransomed Church of God Be saved to sin no more." The last soul that ever shall be saved will be the fruit of this glorious intercession as well as the first. If these observations be just, they go to settle the whole question. When the Advent arrives, the Intercession is done; and, when the Intercession is done, Salvation is WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 110 done. When Christ appears the second time to us, he will cease to appear in the presence of God for us* 2. The second branch of our proposition, regarding the work of the Spirit, must stand or fall with the first. For * Tn the former edition of this work, I dwelt upon the sphere or locality where the intercession is conducted — " the holy place not made with hands," " heaven itself," '* at the right hand of God ;" affirming that as Christ's going in within the veil corresponds to his ascension from the earth, and session at the right hand of God, so his coming out again, as did the high priest at the close of his work, answers to his glorious return to us at his second advent ; and thus, that the period of his intercession is just the time of his absence from us in the heavens — neither less nor more ; and that, while there is one outstanding soul to be gathered in, he cannot leave his present abode, nor alter his present attitude "in the presence of God for us." I am satisfied that this is correct. But as great pains have been taken to show that it is not so, I will show that my argument from the inter- cession of Christ is not dependent on that particular aspect of it, by waiving it altogether. It has been said, for example, that the locality is of no consequence; that there is nothing to hinder the Redeemer from interceding on eiirth as well as in heaven — on the Mount of Olives as well as at the right hand of God — and that though it was necessary that he should go, it was not necessary for him to staj/ within the veil, even for a moment, with a view to the exercise of his present office as our •' High Priest over the house of God." I believe I could show this to be unsatisfactory and incorrect. But as my argument from the position and the period of the intercession — as intermediate between the two ad- vents—and therefore ceasing necessarily when the second, the consum- mating advent, arrives — is complete without it, I am content to let the other filone. Nor do I enter into the questions which have been raised about the continuance of Christ's intercession, and in what sense, after the whole Church has been gathered and perfected. I will not be drawn into such matters. The proposit'on I have laid down is, that Christ's intercession for saving purposes (by which I mean, the inhringing of sinners and the perfecting of saints), will cease at his second coming ; and this I think I have established. Let me refer the reader to Calvin (Instit. Lib. iii. cap. xx.), Turretin (Theol. Elenct. Loc. xiv. Quaest. xv.), Owen (on Heb. vii. 25, and ix. 24-28), De Moor (Comm. in Marckii Comp. cap. XX. § xxix.), Symington (Atonement and Intercession, pp 348-357.) 120 WORK OF THE SPIRIT. as the mission of the Comforter is through the intercession of Christ, and the continued effusion of the Spirit results from the continual intercession of our High Priest, the second advent, if it bring the latter to a close, must be the terminating period of the former also. The passages which show the connexion of these two things, are such as the following : — John vii. 38, 39 : 'He that believeth on me, out of his belly [the depths of his inner man] shall flow rivers of living water. This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive ; for the Holy Ghost was not yet [given] ; be- cause that Jesus was not yet glorified." Chap. xiv. 26, 17, 26 : "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever ; [even] the Spirit of truth. The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things." Chap. XV. 36: "When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father." Chap. xvi. 7, 14: "It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not awaj'', the Comforter will not come unto you ; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. He shall glorify me : for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." Acts ii. 33 : " Being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this." Tit. iii. 5, 6: " He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost ; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour." Rev. iii. 1 : " These things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God." Chap. V. 6: " And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the Throne, and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the el- ders, stood A LAMB AS IT HAD BEEN SLAIN, haviug scvcn homs and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth," BOTH TERMINATE AT THE SECOND ADVENT. 121 But why quote passages expressly linking the mission and work of the Spirit with Christ's sacerdotal Intercession and regal Glory at the right hand of God ? For it is ad- mitted on all hands, that the whole application of Christ's work in the flesh is accomplished in every one of his peo- ple, from first to last, by the agency of the Spirit, com- municated through his continual intercession. Thus this department of Christ's priestly office holds at once of the purchase and of the application of redemption. The actual salvation of any soul, as it is by virtue of his meritorious death which his intercession pleads, so it is through the agency of his Spirit which that intercession procures. In this intercession the merit of his death and the might of his Spirit find their legal connexion, and by means of it the one passes into the other. There is a continuous presenta- tion of his sacrifice, or of Himself in the virtue of it, in order to a continuous acknowledgment of his right to re- ceive and dispense the Spirit to each of his redeemed in succession, down to the last, when he " appears the second time without sin, unto salvation." This appearing lies, as we have seen, at the other extremity of the Redeemer's work. We have nothing here to do with questions re- garding the active agency of the Spirit, the exercise of in- tercession, and other mediatorial functions of Christ, in the everlasting state. My views on that subject differ in noth- ing, I suppose, from those of others sound in the faith, and of my esteemed opponents in this great question. But it is with the intercession of Christ and the work of the Spirit for saviiig purposes^ or during the period when the saving of souls is going on — that I have exclusively to do here. And this, I think I have shown, is to cease at the secojid comhig of Christ. The force of our reasoning on this head is felt and ad- mitted even by pre-millennialists themselves, whon their L 122 EXTRACTS FROM PRE-MILLENNIALISTS particular scheme of the advent does not happen to require their opposition to it. Take the following proof of this from good Joseph Perry, " an unworthy servant in the work of the gospel," whose pre-millennial system certainly has its own difficulties, as we have seen, though this is net one of them : — " There are some things," says he, " that these last do hold (meaning those who in his day held the views now most preva- lent amongst pre-millennialists), that I cannot by any means assent to ; and that is, when Christ shall be established upon the tlirone of his glory, in his kingdom, and all the. saints with him, in a perfect, incorruptible state of immortality, that then there shall be preaching of the gospel, and conversion-work go forward among the multitude of the nations that shall be found living when Christ cometh, according to the opinion of some good men. I say this is that which I cannot fall in with, but must profess my dislike against, because I cannot believe that the Lord Jesus Christ will come down from heaven, and leave that great work op HIS intercession now at God's right hand, until the whole NUMBER OP God's elect among Jews and Gentiles are convert- ed, AND the mystical BODY OP ChRIST IS COMPLETED. AnD IF SO, where is THERE ANY ROOM FOR CONVERSION- WORK TO GO ON AFTER THIS *?"* The honest man never thought there could be a question about Christ's coming putting an end to his intercession. And what he could not comprehend was, how, when his coming had brought him out from within the veil and put an end to his intercession, his mystical body should still be incomplete, and conversion-work go on as before. So natural is this view of the intercession of Christ, that we find even those to whose system it is fatal, letting it slip from their pen, as if unaware at the moment what they were conceding. For example, in one of the volumes of Glory of Christ's Visible Kingdom, pp, 219, 220. IN CONFIRMATION OF THIS SUMMARY. 123 Lent Lectures on the Second Advent, 1 find Mr. Barker, on Heb. vii. 25, thus expressing himself — "It is absolutely necessary to remember that the word 'ever' signifies continuity ^ not eternity of action; for the office of Christ AS OUR Intercessor will have its close when he has brought ALL HIS PEOPLE WITH HIM." * And whcii wiU that be 1 The whole tenor of the lecture answers, at the time mentioned in his text, when ' the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,' when ' we who are alive and remain shall be caught up . together with the risen in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever bo with the Lord.' " — (1 Thess. iv. 16, 17.) " When Messiah," says the Duke of Manchester, " shall leave the ' Holy of Holies,' where he has now entered, to ' appear in the presence of God for us' — intercession which is peculiar to his BEING IN THE HOLY OF HOLIES, SHALL HAVE CEASED. Coincident with this (he adds), upon resigning the kingdom (that in which he now reigns, but which he will resign at the millennium) to the Fa- ther, he will leave ' the throTie of grace,' on which he shall reign until the effectual application, by the Holy Ghost, of aU his work towards ' the restitution of all things' " "f And now, summing up the argument of these two chap- ters, what have we found ? We have found that when Christ comes, as the Church will then be complete, so the means of grace and the agencies of salvation will then ter- minate. In other words, as there will then be no more souls to be saved J so the whole provision for saving them will be withdrawn. The object of the Scripture will be exhausted ; ♦ The Hope of the Apostolic Church, p. 184. Compare p. 204. 1846. t Horse Hebraicae, p. 90. 1835. In his *' Finished Mystery," his Grace seems to intimate that I have 80 far misunderstood him, as at least to draw a wrong inference from his statement. I regret this, and the more as 1 have not been able to catch the precise import of his explanation. The reader, therefore, will bear in mind that his Grace does not admit the conclusion which his wordi ■eem to suggest. k 124 SUMMARY. both the sealing ordinan:es of the New Testament will dis- appear, and with them the grace which they " signify and seal ;" in a word, the intercession of Christ and the work of the Spirit, for saving purposes, will then terminate. I have not sought to establish one of these positions as a mere in- ference from another. Each of them has been established independently of all the rest. Each of them is thus a check upon the rest, and a test of their soundness. And thus the whole argument on this branch of our subject is cumu- lative ; making it evident, on a number of different but connected grounds, that a millennium after the second advent was never designed, is not provided for, and will not take place. CHAPTER VII. THE KINGDOM OF CHPaST ALREADY IN BEING ITS MILLEN- NIAL ESSENTIALLY THE SAME WITH ITS PRESENT CHARA^- TER ITS ORGANIC FORM UNCHANGED. Two things are in question here — the period and the NATURE of Christ's kingdom and reign. But as the one determines the other, it will be most convenient to handle them together. It is a very glorious and comprehensive branch of our subject. The points embraced under it, how- ever, are of the most multifarious description, the texts with which we are met heaped up with often little or no classification, and the speculations drawn out of them al- most endless. Besides, on no part of the subject are our friends more at variance amongst themselves. When you have disposed of the texts and demolished the views of one writer, you find another untouched, who claims to be heard and tried on his own merits. More than once have I thrown down their books with a sigh, having lost myself in the thicket of texts and contradictory opinions in which I had got entangled, and nearly despairing of being able to bring order out of this mass of confusion. If, however, we can seize on such prominent characteristics of Christ's kingdom ■ and reign as our friends agree on amongst themselves, and bring these to the test of Scripture, the intelligent inquirer will be satisfied, and all that is essential will be gained. The following proposition, then, will be all but univer- l2 126 PRE-MILLENNIAL THEORY OF sally assented to by those whom we oppose : That the proper kingdom and reign of Christ are yet to come ; that the millennium is its period ; that having come the second time before that era. and taken possession of the throne of David in Jerusalem, he will reign there in person for a thousand years, with his risen and changed saints, over the restored and converted Jews in their own land, and through them over the whole Gentile world. Let us hear some of them on the subject. " We maintain," says one, " that Christ has not yet received ANY KINGDOM WHICH HE CAN DELIVER UP. A man Can only law- fully deliver up that which is his own ; but by this theory (meaning Mr. Scott's), Christ is made to deliver up that which is not his OWN, but the Father's. He occupies, no doubt, the Father's throne, being seated there beside him, and that throne he may leave ; . . . but, . . . we are not aware that ever in the New Testament, ' the king- dom^ is used as denoting the present seat of the Fathers power in lieaven" Again : " Now, Christ is only seated upon the Father'3 throne. He is only, as it were, exalted in another's right, and invested with another's power ; but in the day of coming glory, he is to assume HIS OWN SCEPTRE, TO SIT UPON HIS OWN THRONE, and cxcrcisc do- minion in a way which he has not hitherto done. He is to take to himself his great power, as if it had been lying beside him unused, and only in reserve for the day of its full display, when he receives the crown of all the earth." * Here it is very nakedly affirmed that Christ is not now^ nar ever yet has beenyOn any throne of his own — and con&u quently is king as yet in no proper sense of the term ; that his present exaltation is not in his own right — that he is occupying another's throne — swaying another's sceptre — wielding another's power. But may not this be but the rash language of an indivi- dual writer 1 Is the sentiment responded to by the ac- ♦ " Presbyterian Review " of Mr. Scott's " Outlines of Prophecy," Jaa. 1846, pp. 469, and 468, 9. Christ's kingdom. 127 knowledged representatives of the pre-millennial scheme ? Let us see. " Sit thou," says Dr. M'Neile, ' on my right hand until" — when'? when thou wilt leave my right hand and sU on thine own throne .... when he shall have delivered up tlie kingdom which he at present enjoys, where he wields the authority, the universal kingdom of God — the invisible kingdom of providence. When the Lord Jesus shall (in the exercise of his present almighty authority on the Father's throne) have subdued all things unto himself, then shall he be pre- pared to leave the Father's throne, and set up his own kingdom upon the earth as the second Adam * Let us now hear Mr Bickersteth. His chapter on " the Kingdom of Christ" is very vague, and sometimes seems to concede all that we contend for. But to make out the futurity of Christ's proper kingdom is undeniably the main object of his chapter. For, after laying down five characteristics of that kingdom not yet realized, and which show it to be future^ he adds, " There is, however, a pre- paratory and spiritual kingdom already established."! In this case, of course, the kingdom must be organically differ- ent from any thing now existing. For, as yet, only the means of it and the preparation for it exist ; and it is im- possible that the means and the end should both be of the same character, — that the preparation and the thing pre- pared for should not be essentially different.^ * Sermons on the Second Advent, pp. 112-114, 5th edition. t Guide to the Prophecies, pp. 301, 302, 5th edition. t In his " Divine Warning " (p. 311, note), referring to the vagueness which I have ventured to ascribe to his chapter on the Kingdom of Christ, Mr. Bickersteth says, that '* in another work on the promised glory of the Church, he has entered more fully into the subject." F'rom the Duke of Manchester's remarks, I gather that it is the Lent Lectures for 1847 to which Mr. Bickersteth refers. I have read his Lecture in that volume, but cannot find from it that I have given a wrong view of Mr. Bickersteth's notion of the Kingdom. The Duke of Manchester seems to think I have. II so, it is after much pains to ascertain the 128 PRE-MILLENNIAL THEORY OF The Duke of Manchester is equally explicit. " There are two thrones," says he, " mentioned in connexion with Messiah, one, on which he is now sitting, the other, on which he is hereafter to sit. The one the throne of God, the other the throne of David ; the one for a limited, the other for an unlimited period. For want of discriminating between the two, much confusion has been created, and some detriment to all the expressions in Scripture which denote eternity. It may not be amiss to lay down some po- sitions respecting the kingdom of Messiah, for which I refer to Appendix D." Turning to Appendix D, we find the first part of it devoted to proving just what has been expressed in the foregoing quotations, that the present " session or reign of Christ at the right hand of God," is his participation in the Divine government, — • that " his ruling now for God implies his present providential universal presence," — that " the supreme kingdom of God is the one which he gives up on leaving his right hand, and that it is his OWN KINGDOM in which he shall reign, when he appears, for ever and ever." * *' The notion," says Mr. Brooks, " that the kingdom of Christ signifies the present visible Christian Church, or the Christian reli- gion in the hearts of God's people, or both, — and that it has been manifested to the ivorld ever since the establishment of Christianity, — is right one, and I should deeply regret to have mistaken him. But I think I have not. I do not for a moment doubt, as will presently be seen, that Mr. Bickersteth and every one of the writers I quote from, includ- ing his Grace himself, look upon Christ as now exercising saving au- thority, and that in a royal character. But what I wish to show from their own writings is, that as they are looking for another kingdom of Christ to be set up during the millennium, and that his own in a peculiar and emphatic sense, continually reiterated, his present kingdom is not the kingdom of Christ in their view * Horae Hebraicae, pp. 89, 114-116. The capitals are the author's own. I have taken the liberty of combining in one sentence the con- tents of two or three. His Grace objects to my classing this passage along with what I have quoted from " the pre-millennialists, as it was actually directed against them." But I think he will admit, that in so far as it was directed against the ordinary pre-millennial view of the " giving up of the king doni," it illustrates my point nore than the other quotations. Christ's kingdom. 129 in the main erroneous, inasmuch as it mistakes the -means for the end, and substitutes what may be considered as the preparation for the kingdom, for the establishment and manifestation of it." * Nothing can be more explicit than this. It represents quite correctly what we hold, — that the proper kingdom of Christ has been " manifested ever since the establish- ment of Christianity." In direct opposition to this, Mr. Brooks' doctrine is, that we have never yet seen, nor till the millennium shall see, more than a preparation for Christ's kingdom. The establishment and manifestation of it are reserved for '' the thousand years." A little farther on he speaks out, if possible, still more clearly : — '* If," says he, " it shall appear that Christ's kingdom was to be manifested under this present dispensation, then it will be evi- dent that the kingdom was to be nothing more than the prapaga- tio-n of Christ's religion, or his ruling in the hearts of his people, or the usual sovereignty of God vianifcsted in his providential govern- vient ; but if, on the contrary, it shall appear that it was not in its primary sense to be manifested under this dispensation, and Jtas not been vianifcsted, then it determines that its character will necessarily be something far more exalted and different from what has hitherto been witnessed." -f Just so. If the kingdom of Christ neither was to be, nor has been, manifested during this dispensation — if it is to commence^ as a proper kingdom, only with the millen- nium. Mr. Brooks is perfectly right in concluding that its CHARACTER '* wiU neccssarily be something different from what has been hitherto witnessed." But Mr. Brooks seems to qualify his statement, by say- ing, " It was not to be manifested in its primary sense under this dispensation" I should like very much to know what this means For at the outset of his chapter on the Kingdom of Christ, from which this extract is • Elem. of Propht. Interp., p. 182. t Ibid., pp. 190, 191. ISiO Christ's kingdom — explanations. taken, we Lave found him saying, that those who think the kingdom is already established, " mistake the means for tht END, and substitute what may be considered as the pre PARATiON for the kingdom, for the establishment and mani FESTATioN of xtP So that after all, this " 'primary sense" in which Mr. Brooks seemed willing to allow that the kingdom '• was to be manifested, and has been manifested, during this present dispensation," turns out to be no sense at all. The millennial state of things is the end ; the present is but the means. The kingdom of Christ no more exists now, than the preparation for a thing is identical with the establishment and manifestation of the thing. Here, then, I join issue with these writers, affirming as follows : — PROPOSITION FIFTH : Christ's proper kingdom is already in being; commen- cing FORMALLY ON HIS ASCENSION TO THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, AND CONTINUING UNCHANGED, BOTH IN CHARAC- To guard, however, against mistakes, let the following explanations, which I give once for all, be borne in mind : — (I.) It is not meant that the kingdom of Christ was in no sense in being before his ascension in our nature to the right hand of power. On the contrary, it is maintain- ed that the whole grace of the Mediator, in all his offices, is put forth in the salvation of every soul that is saved, as well before his incarnation as after it ; and more particu- larly, that in the administration of the new covenant and government ^f the Church before the fulness of time, there was as rea an exercise of the Redeemer's proper sove- EXPLANATIONS. 131 reignty as there has been since his ascension, or ever will be till the end of time. Still we are explicitly told, that " the Holy Ghost was not given^^ — up to the period of Christ's ascension — " because that Jesus was not yet glorified.''^ (John vii. 39.) And in whatever sense the Spirit was not given till Christ was glorified, in that same sense were hia offices not exercised. What that sense is, is well enough known/. All the grace that ever was put forth before the Redeemer's death, was given on the credit of it. It being to the Divine mind infallibly certain, from the foundation of the world, that at the appointed time Christ would suffer, it was held done and accepted in the court of heaven, and authority given from the very first to extend salvation to as many of his people as should live before his incarna- tion ; in other words, to bring all the mediatorial offices into play, through the Spirit's agency, from the very date of the fall. When, however, the great Sacrifice was actually offered, and when on his presenting himself, in the merit of it, before the Majesty on high, it was actually ac- cepted, his title to save wsls formally recognized. a.nd himself FORMALLY INSTALLED IN OFFICE. " The Holy Ghost WaS then given, because that Jesus was now elorified," — given now for the first time, not actually but formally, having iL ; legal ground now for the first time palpably laid in the finished and accepted work of the blessed Surety. Let it then be clearly understood in what sense I speak of Christ's kingdom as commejicing at his ascension. Scripture speaks so : and though it is right to guard against misapprehension in the use of such language, it is not right, for the sake of avoiding it, to adopt other ways of speaking, lest with the change of language we insen- sibly slide into a change of conception, and miss what God designs to teach us. So much, then, for the co mm fn cement of the kingdom. But, 132 EXPLANATIONS. (2.) When it is said that Christ's kingdom will con- tinue in its present form till the final judgment, it is not meant that it will absolutely termi?iate, as Christ's kingdom, even then. On the contrary, it is maintained that there is a glorious sense in which it will be " the everlasting king- dom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" — " the king- dom of Christ and of God" What that sense is, T shall by and by have occasion to consider. All that is here meant is, that Christ will not hereafter occupy his throne for the same purposes as now — for putting more souls in possession of salvation, and for perfecting any thing then incomplete in the salvation of his elect. That work will terminate : and it is with reference to that, and that alone, that I say the kingdom of Christ will then terminate. (3.) When it is said that Christ's kingdom will continue in its present form, from the period of his ascension on- wards until the final judgment, it is not meant that its pro- gress will be uninterrupted and equable throughout- marked by no mighty changes in its external aspect, in its relative position, and in the development of its internal character. The very contrary is maintained, as will after- wards appear. What is meant is, that its external ad- ministration wiM continue the same, — that its constitution, structure, organic form, will remain unaltered, — that no new economical arrangements, or change of dispensation, will be introduced from the commencement to the close of its earthly career. I hope these explanati ms will make my proposition clear, and serve to bring this question about the kingdom of Christ to a definite issue. There is much need of this. Pre millennialists never grapple with the question. Wherein lies the essence of Christ's proper rule as a King ? They tell us " there is a sense in which Christ was a kinoj, even during his humiliation ; — a sense in which he is now a king EXPLANATIONS. 133 — 'exalted a Prince and a Saviour to gm /epentance to Israel, and remission of sins ;' and a seme in which tlie kingdom of Christ is still future — when 'dominion and glory and a kingdom shall be given him, that all people, nations, and languages should serve and obey him.' after the destruction of the fourth beast." * But when we ask them what that " sense" is in which they couhider Christ to be noio acting the King — what sort of royalty they as- cribe to him when he 'gives repentance to Israel, and the remission of sins,' all the answers given leave us very much in the dark. To admit that Christ is now a king, inasmuch as he is now giving repentance and remission of sins, can mean nothing more than this, that though these be in some sense royal acts, they are not the acts of Christ's proper royalty^ — that being still future. If this be not the meaning intended, I despair of finding it out. I have tried, but can make nothing more of it. I ask again. Is mediatorial and saving rule the proper and formal character of Christ's kingdom ? If it be, of course the kingdom is already in being, the king already on his proper throne, and the reiterated and emphatic denials of this by our op- ponents must be given up. as dishonouring to Christ. Bui if, on the other hand, the kingdom of Christ be yet future, and himself not yet on the throne of it, it is self evident that his kingly ofiice can have nothing essentially to do with salvation ; for that is going on without it. It is inconceiv able that salvation should stand in need of an office not ye in exercise — that it should be dependent at all upon ai office not to be assumed, or at least not to come into play, till the millennium. If Christ's proper royalty can be dis- pensed with till then, and the economy of salvation be in * Mr. Wood's " Affirmative Answer," pp. 37, 38. See also Mr. Hick ersteth's and Mr. Brook's Chapters on the Kingdom of Christ. a34 apostolic views full operation notwithstanding, it cannot be indispensable to salvation at all.* With these observations I now proceed to the proof of our proposition — that the kingdom of Christ is already in being ; that commencing strictly and formally, on his ses- sion at the right hand of God, it is destined to continue unchanged hi character or form till the final judgment. Here I take my stand upon the APOSTOLIC VIEWS OF CHRIST's KINGDOM As contained in the numerous addresses to the Jews which we find in the Acts, and some subsequent state- ments in the apostolic epistles. * It may be said here, that as I have admitted Christ's oflBces to have been in exercise before the time of their formal assumption, others may surely hold the time for assuming the kingdom to be yet future, without denying Christ's present royalty. The answer to this is very plain. If they held the royalty in both cases to be of the same character, we could understand the reply. But it is not so. We hold that the sovereignty which Christ exercised before his incarnation was, in its formal nature, precisely the same as he is now exercising. Its foundation, in his fin- ished work, which was then only assumed to exist, has now indeed been actually laid. The Redeemer has now been formally, as before his in- carnation he was virtually, installed in office. But that is all the dif- ference, upon our principles. We do not make Christ's kingly rule before his coming to be but the means, and his present rule to be the end ; but hold that, under both economies, one and the same sceptre was wielded over the kingdom by its proper King and Head, and in the exercise of his proper sovereignty. Now, it is just the reverse of this that our friends aflBrm ; namely, that the rule proper to Christ — the kingdom— has never yet been in existence. In this case, it cannot be formally of a saving character. Salvation does not need it. It can go on, as it has for thousands of years gone on, quite well without it. Men needed the exercise of the prophetical and the -priestly offices of Christ for their salvation ; but they can be saved, it seems, without the exer- cise — without even the assumption — of his kingly office, in the strict and "oroper sense of the term " King." OF Christ's kingdom. 135 If any where, surely we may expect light here. The one question between the Christian Jews and their unbelieving countrymen was about the kingdom — what was the nature of it. The overwhelming majority of the Jewish Church and nation rejected the claims of Jesus to be their Messiah, solely because he was not the sort of king they thought they had good reason from the prophecies to look for, and be- cause the kingdom which he announced, and of which he claimed to be the sovereign, was quite diflferent from what they imagined the ancient prophets had foretold. This was definite ground, and it was not taken without delibera- tion. When the Baptist announced Messiah's approach, every thing concurred to give weight to his testimony. Guided by the signs of the times, and by the chronological predic- tions, expectation was every where awake for the first sound of Messiah's footsteps. From all parts of the country they flocked to the man of God, who cried aloud in the wilder- ness, " Kepent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand : Prepare ye the way of the Lord ; make his paths straight." With profound and breathless attention the motley group listened to the exciting tidings ; and harsh as were his accents, rougher though some of his speeches were than the garment which he wore, they willingly bore with them, were with difficulty restrained from mistaking the servant for his Master, and were baptized of him in Jordan, con- fessing their sins. Presently the Lord himself appears upon the stage ; and the Baptist having dutifully handed his disciples over to him, with this noble testimony, " Be- hold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world," retired, and was little more heard of Thus, her- alded, ^he Saviour's ministry opened with every advantage ; and crowds followed him, as they had done the Baptist, *• trusting that it was he who was to redeem Israel — saving 136 SAME GROUND TAKEN them from their enemies, and from the hand of all i\i&\ hated them." But again they were doomed to disappointment. Every discourse he dciivered — every expression he gave of the nature of his kingdom — convinced them more than another that he was not the king they were looking for, nor his king-- dom that which they thought the prophets had assigned to their Messiah. Under this persuasion, the most majestic, miraculous, and moral evidences went for nothing with them. Disappointment settled down into chagrin ; cha- grin into rage ; and rage into a settled determination to deal with him as a blaspheming impostor according to law, who must die the death It was done. But lo ! they had laid the foundations of that kingdom which his forerunner and He had announced as at hand ; and this was just the glad tidings which all the ajmstks went forth avion g their country- men to froclaim. The burden of all their recorded addres- ses is just this, that the nation had misunderstood the pro- phets^ and had mistaken the nature of the kingdom which they predicted ; that it was in being while they spoke, and not a kingdom of this world, as they supposed, but a kingdom of Salvation or of Grace ; whose foundation was that ac- cursed death which they, in their ignorance, had imagined to be the end of all the claims of its King ; and whose Bule^ from the seat of his exaltation in the heavens, was purely a mediatorial and saving sway. If this be a correct representation of the apostles' ad- dresses to their unbelieving countrymen, it obviously cuts up the pre-milleunial view of the kingdom of Christ. Nay, it places the pre-milleunialist and the unbelieving Jew ia the same category as respects the auestion in hand, both holding the same error on the subject of the kingdom which the apostles set themselves to overthrow. The error, say the pre-milleunialistSj into which the Jews fell, was that of over BY PRE-MILLENNIALISTS AND UNBELIEVING JEWS. 137 looking the distinction between the first and second com- ings of the Messiah ; the one in suffering, and the other in glory ; the one to save men's souls, and the other to erect his kingdom upon earth. As the latter is the theme of most of the prophecies, they were so carried away by the expectation of, and desire for it. that they missed altogether the former, which, though occupying less space in the pro- phecies, is intrinsically more important. I think I have here rightly represented what they say. It is somewhat entertaining, however, as well as instruc- tive, to observe in what light the sensible Jews of modern times, who have given attention to the question, and written in justification of their rejection of Jesus, regard this repre- sentation of the matter. They look upon it as a mere after- thought, and as an evasion of the real question between Jews and Christians. David Levi, in his " Dissertations on the Prophecies of the Old Testament," calls it " a mere chimera, an ignis faluus, notwithstanding all the noise and pother that has been made about it."* Doubtless,, pre- millennialists have much more spiritual views of the whole subject than an unbelieving Jew can be supposed to have. But they both oppose those views of the kingdom which we maintain ; and in so doing they use arguments identical in substance, and only diflfering in the Christian or Anti- Christian point of view from which they survey their com- mon ground ; as will be evident on comparing their works together. The kingdom — sai/ both alike — is yet to come : Jesus — say both alike — does not occupy the throne of the kingdom : The prophecies relating to Messiah's kingdom remain 3'et to be fulfilled — say both alike, f * Vol. i. p. 120. Lond. 1817. t "The Jews," says Mr. Brooks, '-understood thein (the prophecies relating to the kingdom) in their appropriate and harmonious semCy though not perhaps in iheixfuU fonse ; and the wonde^- is, riot that thisy m2 138 APOSTOLIC VIEWS OF I have said — and I entreat the reader's attention to it— that the apostles, in pleading with their unbelieving coun« try men, take up precisely our position against the. pre-miU lennialisls regarding the kingdom of Christ. This I now proceed to make good, taking up one or two of the apos- tolic addresses as they are given in the Acts. And, 1. We have the famous Pentecostal sermon. " Men and brethren," says Peter — we give the quotation some- what in brief—" let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David. Being a prophet, and knowing that God hath sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins he would raise up Christ to sit on his (David's) thro7ie : He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this. Therefore let all t/ie house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lor^ '^nd Christ." — (Acts ii. ^ 29-36.) Here it is stated as explicitly as words could do it, that the promise to David of Messiah's succession to his throne has received its intended accomplishment — that God has raised up Christ to sit upon that throne, in the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus, as the fruit of David's loins, to the right hand of power ; and that his first exercise of regal authority from the throne of Israel was to send down the Spirit, as had that day been done. When, moreover, he adds that God had made that same Jesus both Lord and Christ, he manifestly wished to be understood — and could should have thus understood them, but that any among ourselves shoula understand them otnerwise ; seeing that their prbnary and most obvious sense is so plainly accordant with the Jewish expectations.'^ — Elem. ol Prophet. Interp. chap. vi. on "The Kingdom of Christ," p. 185. LORD AND CHRIST THRONE OF DAVID. 139 not fail to be understood — as affirming, that his present ex* altation was his proper lordship or royally^ as Messiah. And finally, when — as if emitting a solemn testimony — he calls upon " all the house of Israel to know this assuredly," it is quite clear that he knew how unwelcome his view of Mes- siah's lordship would be to Jewish ears — requiring them not only to believe that the predicted Messiah and king of the Jews was Jesus of Nazareth, but that their notions of the Messiahship itself, and of the royalty attached to it, were all wrong ; that it was this erroneous view of the pro- phetic testimony respecting Messiah which had plunged them into the perpetration of the greatest of all crimes, and the removal of which, when the veil should be taken away, would revolutionise the Jewish mind. Pre-millennialists scout the notion of Christ's now sitting on David's throne, and ask a great many questions as to the points of analogy between the throne on which sat the humble son of Jesse in the midst of his subjects in Pales- tine, and the celestial seat of the Redeemer's present power. One is pained at the flippancy with which these questions are sometimes put, and the gross principles on which the point is decided. In whatever sense the seat of Christ's present rule is termed David^s throne^ the fact^ I will ven- ture to say, is indisputable. That Christ js now on David's throne, is as clearly affirmed by Peter in this ser- mon as words could do it. Let any one read his words again, and see if it be possible to make any thing else out of them. Mr. Wood tries it: but his interpretation is sufficient to show the hopelessness of the task. "We maintain (says he) that this passage asserts that DaviH knew that Christ was to sit upon his (David's) throne, and that moreover he had himself prophesied that he should sit at Qod'a right hand until his enemies were made his footstool ; that is, cu 140 THRONE OF DAVID. we believe, until the time should come when he should sit down on the throne of David, and therefore he prophesied of the resur- rection of Christ, and not of his own, just as it was of Christ, and not of himself, that he said, the Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy foot- stool."* This strange style of interpretation reminds me of a dis- cussion I once had with a zealous follower of Joanna South- cote, who applied to the child of that deluded woman the words of the prophet, " Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." But are we not (said I) expressly told of the birth of Christ, that it was done in fulfilment of this prediction ? Not at all, replied our ingenious disputant. Look again at the evan- gelist's words, " This was done," not in fulfilment of the prediction, but '• that it miffht be fulfilled " in another per- son, and at a future time : Christ's birth, then, merely prepared the way for, or was a necessary step in the march of events which were to bring about the fulfilment of that famous prediction. And what else is the character of Mr, Wood's version of the words of Peter 1 " David," says the apostle, " knowing that God would raise up Christ to sit upon his tlirone, spake of the resurrection of Christ : Thia Jesus (accordingly) hath God raised up." So he has, says Mr. Wood, but only to sit on David's throne at some future time. " Christ's resurrection," says Peter, "was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by David, that he would sit upon his throne." Yes, says my respected brother, but it was done, not infulfdment of the prediction, but only that it might be fulfilled — to prepare the way for the future fulfilment of the prediction. On the contrary, Peter evidently wished the people to understand, that Christ was already swaying the only * Affirmative Answer, p. 50. THE PRIEST UPON HIS THRONE. I4l sceptre they had to look for in their Messiah : — saying in effect, The kind of royalty ye have been looking and long- ing for is a phantom ; but the reality is already in being. *' Messiah the Prince" already sits enthroned on high, in the person of the crucified but risen Nazarene, ready to dispense, not the poor honours of an earthly sovereignty — for the Rule of David's Successor is not like the rule of David himself — but " repentance to Israel, and forgive- Dess of sins:" God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified " both Lord" to rule, '• and Christ" to Save you ! In this view of the apostle's meaning, it is but a trans- lation, into New Testament language, of Zechariah's ma- jestic prediction, *' Behold the man whose name is The Branch ; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord : Even he shall build the temple of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory ; and He shall sit and rule upon his Throne, and he shall be a priest upon his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both." — (Zech. vi. 12, 13.)* ♦ Mr. Wood throws this glorious prediction of Messiah's royal priest- hood into the millennium, and he thinks the context proves it future. I wish I could say that in this he stands alone. But there is too much of this tendency, in the whole pre-millennial school, to futarize the most precious prophecies of the Old Testament. In the " Quarterly Journal of Prophecy " (No. I., Oct. 1848), there is a Paper entitled "Objections and Difficulties," in which this prophecy of the union of the kingly and priestly offices in the person of the Messiah is declared to be a prediction of Christ's millennial glory—' He shall be a Priest upon his throne.' " This verse (says the writer) is commonly (he should have said universally, and in all time, with the sole exception of a handful of pre-millennialists) interpreted of the present time. Christ, it is said, is now upon his throne, and is executing at once the offices of a priest and of a king. This interpretation, however, appears to be entirely erroneous." ' He then assigns soMe reasons for holding the union of offices therein set forth as wholly future— reasons, on the strength of which it were 142 THE LAMB IN TJIE MIDST OF THE THRONE. And is not this precisely what is sccnically represented in the vision which the rapt apostle beheld in Patmos, I mean the present priestU/ or saving rule of Jesus over his Church,, and over all thii.gsfor his Churches sake ? " And I beheld, and, lo ! in the midst op the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth."— (Rev. v. 6.) Here is " the Priest''^ — the Lamb of God ; and that Priest '• upon his Throne ;" Here he is seen '* building the temple of the Lord" — sending forth for this purpose those eyes and horns of his, " the Spirit of counsel and of mighV^ (Isa. xi. 2), into all the earth,* to bring its inhabitants under his benign sway : And here, certainly, he is seen " bearing the glory" in those rapturous hallelujahs poured into his ear — (" Worthy is the Lamb that was slain," &c.) — ■ BO dear to the heart and sweet upon the lips of his redeemed easy to expel the Christianity which we fondly thought we had found in fifty other prophecies, till at length we were within sight of the Jews' con- clusion, that Christianity in the Old Testament is an impertinence, which a thorough-going hteral interpretation of it, with proper regard to the context and scope of each prophecy, would show to have no place and no business there. . . It is the vice of the pre-millennial theory, that it of necessity hands over to the future, and to a new and unique dispensation, whole masses of prophecy, which, in the view of the great bulk of the true Church in all time, belong to the dispensation of the Spirit — to the economy of the Gospel — to Christianity just as it now exists, with its present Word and its present Spirit, as competent to affect all that is predicted. Once make the throne of David, as occupied by Christ, /u^ure and local, and it will go hard with us if we do not find ourselves compelled to futurizc one gospel prophecy after another, till Christianity itself, as a present thing, hardly remains to us in the Old Testament.' — (Free Church Magazine, Jan. 1849.) * Compare Zech. iii. 9, " Upon one stone (of the temple of the Lord) shall be seven eyes." i^^y^^ THE KEY OF DAVit in every age. Ai the date of the vision they were a mere handful, and struggling for existence; but, speaking for all, they anticipate the time when every hostile power shall go . down before them, and they " shall reign on the eaj-th." That the Redeemer himself identifies his present sway with the Davidical Rule, is clear from the following words of his epistle to the Church of Philadelphia : — " These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he tha'J HATH THE KEY OP David, he that openeth, and no vian shulteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth ; I know thy works : behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it : Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out," «fec, — (Rev iii. 7, 8, 12.) These words are evidently taken from Isa. xxii. 22, where the Lord tells Shebna, " who was over the house," but had by his base intromissions brought the royal house to the brink of ruin, that he would call his servant Eliakim, and would clothe him with his robe, and strengthen him with his girdle, and would commit the government into his hand, " And," it is added, " the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder ; so he shall open AND none SHALI SHUT, AND HE SHALL SHUT AND NONE SHALL OPEN." When Christ, therefore, claims to have the key of David's house, so as to open and shut it at will, his mean- ing clearly is, that he has that antitypical authority in David's house which Eliakim's robe, girdle, and key, faintly shadowed forth ; that he is now exercising this power of " the key," as he did to the Philadelphian Church, when in opposition to a party " calling themselves Jews when they were not, but did lie," and who had denied the claim of these faithful Philadelphians to a church-standing and church-privileges, he says, " Behold, 1 have set before thee 144 THE THRONE OF DAVID. an open door, and no man can shut it." But if Christ ia now using " the key of the house of David" in his admi nistration of the Church, then that hoi^se of David — as Christ is ruler in it, at least — can be none other than the Church of the living God under the Redeemer's regal admi- nistration^ which is just what we have found Peter pressing on the unwilling ears of his carnal audience. In this view of Christ's " having the key of the house of David laid upon his shoulder," can it for a moment be doubted that we have the true and only sense of that sub- lime prophecy of him by Isaiah, where, after saying, " Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given," he adds, " and THE GOVERNMENT SHALL BE UPON HIS SHOULDER," aS the supreme Ruler of the Church 1 And if this be the sense, it determines the meaning of '• the throne of David" in the next verse beyond all question. After summing up his august titles with that one, " The Prince of Peace," which in the New Testament sense of " peace" — by the blood of his cross — is just the " Priest upon his Throne," the pro- phet adds — ** Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, UPON tub throne of David, and upon ms kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this." — (Isa. ix. 6, 7.) In understanding this of the administration of Jesus in the Church — in the sove/reignty and the grace of it, the righteousness^ the progress^ and the perpetuity of it — we would appeal to the reader whether we have not given a sense equally sound and soul-satisfying, which a patient comparison of Scripture with Scripture will only the more confirm, and on which the heart can repose with ever grow- ing contentment. THE KEY AND HOUSE OF LAVID. 145 But Jesus says, in the use of the same " key of the house of David," to the faithful of Philadelphia, " Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out" — as if he had said, I will not only admit him to meaibership in the Church upon earth, in spite of all pretended excommunications by the " synagogue of Satan ;" but, in virtue of my office as Ruler in the house of my God, I will " set before him an open door" into the heavenly temple, and make him a fixture in it, to go no more out. In this extended, but most legiti- mate, application of '' the key of the house of David," as it is on Christ's shoulder, it is identical with his own con- solatory announcement to John himself, when lying pros- trate before his eflfulgent majesty as one dead : '• He laid his right hand upon him, saying. Fear not, I am the First and the Last, and the Living One ; and I became dead, and behold I am alive for evermore. Amen. And I have THE KEYS OF DEATH AND OF HADES."* ' The key of the world of spirits is mine, to bring back the souls of my dead people — the spirits of just men made perfect — from their disembodied state ; mine, too, are the keys of the grave, which at the appointed time shall yield up its pre- cious deposit : I am the Resurrection and the Life, and as. having the keys of my Father's house, they shall find its portals on the resurrection-morn flying open before them, that they may go in. never more to go out.' Thus clearly does it appear, from the Redeemer's lan- guage to the Church of Philadelphia, that " the house of David" is the house of God's Church or people, over whom David had a rule of a very inferior kind in Palestine, in comparison with that to which it ultimately pointed ; that * Eyw eifjii b npoJros Km h so^aroi, kui b fcD*/' Kai eysvoiiiiv vsKpof ro^i Bavarov Kat tov diov, (In this order the concluding words are found in the best MSS.) n 146 THE PRINCE OF LIFE. " the key of David," or of " David's house," in Christ's hand, is just the supreme administration or rule of the Church ; and that as he exercises this ' power of the key' now in the Church, so he will exercise it in its loftiest sense, when he " sets before his victorious people an open door" into the heavenly temple, whence they shall go no more out. II. In his next address — to the wondering people who stood gazing on him after his miracle on the lame man, at the beautiful gate of the temple — the same idea is expressed with equal brevity and beauty : *' The God of our fathers (says he) hath glorified his Son Jesus.''^ — that is, in the apostolic sense of the phrase, hath raised him up and enthroned him in the heavens — " whom ye delivered up. ... Ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you ; and killed the Prince op • Life, whom God hath raised up from the dead; whereof we are witnesses." — (Acts iii. 13-15.) Here Messiah's Princedom is not only admitted but pro- claimed ; but the sense given of it is as opposite as the poles from the Jewish one, and expressly intended to dis- place it. He lets them know that they mistook something else than the time of the kingdom — which, according to some, was all they did mistake about it ; that its whole nature was misconceived by them ; that it was for the dis- pensation of " life" that he is exalted a " prince." " Ye killed him ; yet he lives — the Royal Dispenser of Life to the dead — the prince of life to save you,''^ In the sequel of this address we have that noble passage about " the times of restitution^^'' so constantly and confi- dently adduced in favour of the pre-millennial theory, but which I think completely subverts it THE TIMES OF RESTITUTION. 147 " Repent /e therefore, and be converted, to the end that your sins may be blotted out ; that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and he may send Jesus Christ, which before was ordained (or preached unto) you : whom the heaven, indeed, must receive until the times of restitu- tion of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began."— (Acts iii. 19-21.) * In the note below, the reader will see that great diver- sity exists as to some things in this passage. f But as this diversity affects but slightly what I have to observe on the words, we need not stay upon it here. Whether we understand the " restitution" here meant of a moral or a physical restitution, or both — considered as the burden of all Old Testament prophecy, and requiring com- plete accomplishment ere Christ can come — the words of the apostle are clearly subversive of a millennial state after * I have given Mr. Elliot's version {Hor, Apoc. iv. 208, second edition), with two slight exceptions, as most faithfully expressing the sense of the text, according to the best MS. authority. In my former edition, I was too closely guided in my remarks by the textus receptus, and over- looked the imperfect rendering even of this in our authorized version. Even Bengel, I observe, who adopts the reading ^^fore-ordalncd" {vpoKextipKTutvov^ had remarked that the other reading ^^ fore-preached^^ {trpo cKTtpvyfxevov), is scarcely to be found any where. All subsequent critical editors adopt the former reading, and their authorities seem quite decisive. + 1. What is meant by " times of refreshing " — whether the times of the gospel generally, as some with Lightfoot think ; or, the time of Is- rael's conversion — the latter day, according tc VUringa and others ; or whether, as Co/ri/i and many judge, it be the same period with "the times of restitution," when "He shall send Jesus Christ" — in which last case the " blotting out " is understood in the well-known sense of ' the public judicial declaration, at the great day, of pardon already ob- tained upon earth. 2. Whether we should read ^* which" or ^^ of which God hath spoken.''* 3. What is the " restitution" here meant. • In the former case, w is attracted by the preceding rrairaH', and is equivaleni to 2 or ovi (xatpovs). 148 THE TIMES OF RESTITUTION. Christ comes. For, as it is admitted by nearly all pre-rail« lennialists, that there will be both sin and death during the millennium, and that after the thousand years a vast rebel' lion will break out upon the earth, and Jire come down from heaven and consume the rebels. — how can it for a moment be alleged that the restitution of all things, foretold by the prophets, will be brought about before the millennium? Mr. Elliott, in his remarks on this passage, while he takes a great deal of pains to settle the sense of the words, says nothing to throw light upon this question. The reader may observe that, in quoting the words, I have inserted the particle " indeed" (/^c ') — " whom the heaven, indeed," or " however, must receive."* It is as if the apostle had said, ' I have told you that the return of Jesus from the heaven must be preceded by the "'times of refreshing," which your •' repentance, and conversion, and forgiveness," as a nation, will bring about ; the heaven, however^ must receive him not only till then, but till the times of restitu- tion of all things, which is the burden of prophecy. But when nothing shall remain incomplete in the kingdom of God, then he will come: Meantime, '• unto you, first, God having raised up (from the dead) his Sou Jesus, hath sent him. in the power of his Spirit, to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.'" — (Y. 26.) This famous passage, then, instead of making for pre- millennialism, tells decisively against it. And I may add, it was one of the passages which convinced Joseph Perry — pre-millennialist though he was — that there could be no such millennium after the Lord's coming as is now con- tended for. " The last restitution," says this good man, " or the restitution ♦ Particula fitv, quideni, apodosin, cui alias autem servit, repreienta tk/o habet in mittat, versu 20.— (Bengel.) THE disciples' VIEW OF THE SECOND PSALM. 149 of all things, will not be, as I conceive, until Christ's personal com- ing. As the heaven ' received him,' so it will retain him until thia time, in which all things shall be restored. . . If but one soul should be converted after Christ's descension from heaven, then must he come before the restitution of all things ; Avhich is quite contrary to this text ; because the ' heaven must receive ' or retain him until then. What though this restitution of all things takes in the restoration of the creation unto its paradisiacal state : yet it is certain that the bringing in of the elect by regenerating grace, and completing the whole mystical body of Christ, is the princi- pal part of that restitution, they being principally concerned in it, and for whose sake all other creatures are to be restored ; all which plainly shows that there will be no more conversion when Christ is come ; which will not be until the restitution of all things, as before hinted." * III. In the following chapter we have a touching scene, and a bright application of Old Testament scripture, which, if I mistake not, is as subversive of the pre-millennial, as it certainly was of the Jewish, principles of interpretation, and their views of the kingdom : '• Peter and John being let go," hasten " to their own company, and report all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them ;" on which the audience give vent to their feelings, and commit their now critical cause, in a sublime prayer, to Him who, having " made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is," could with infinite ease sustain them ; and who, '• by the mouth of his servant David," had foretold the very things that were then happening to them. And to which of David's psalms are their thoughts directed ? To one whose very burden is tke Throne and Kingdom of Messiah. Here then, if any where, we may look for light. Its topics are the combined attacks of civil and ecclesiastical rulers against this Throne — the derision with which these are regarded by Jehovah — the immoveable security of * The Glory of Christ's Visible Kingdom, &c., pp 224, 225. 150 THE DISCIPLES VIEW OF THE SECOND PSALM. his " King upon his hoi} hill of Zion," whereon he hath set him — and the certaiLtj with which all who will not " kiss the Son," or bow their hearts and bend their policy to his sceptre, shall be " dashed in pieces." Pre-millen- nialists make all this future; and that is the vice of their system. " It was not in its primary sense to be manifested under this dispensation, and has not been manifested," say they. But what say this worshipping company ? They apply the psalm, beyond all contradic- tion, to the present Sovereignty and Rule of Jesus in the heavens. " The kings of the earth stood up," — say they, quoting the words of the psalm — " and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy chitd Jesus, whom thou hast anointed," as Messiah or Christ, " both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do what thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done."— (Acts iv. 26-28.) In the estimation, then, of this band of primitive disci- ples, " the vain things which the people imagined," and which the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers took counsel to accomplish, was just to overthrow the gra- cious Rule of Jesus, whose sweetness they were then tasting in the salvation of their own souls, and whose power was bracing them to the endurance even of death for his name. It was the '• bands" of this saving autho- rity over men which they saw them resolving to " break asunder" — it was the " cords" by which it sought to bind them in believing subjection, which they saw them madly determining to " cast away from them." And if this view of the second psalm do not prove that the proper kingdom of Christ is now iii existence — that it is administered, not from a poor throne at Jerusalem, but from the heavens — THE PRINCE AND SAVIOUR. 151 and that it consists, strictly and formally, in the royal dis- pensation of grace by him as a Saviour, and the saving rule of the subjects of that grace — it is difficult to con- ceive what kind of evidence would be held competent to establish it. IV. But the noblest expression of the idea, which we have found to be the burden of Peter's early addresses to his unbelieving countrymen, as well as the favourite con- ception of Messiah's Grace and Glory amongst the converts, occurs in this apostle's second speech before the Jewish council, when being demanded why, in contravention of their peremptory command '• not to teach in that name," they had " filled Jerusalem with their doctrine, and in- tended to bring that Man's blood upon them," Peter, with the heroism of faith, replied, " We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins."— (Acts v. 29-31.) Let the reader put himself into the position of the Jews whom Peter addressed, whose perverted notions of the Princedom of their promised Messiah inflamed them with such "a zeal of Grod not according to knowledge," as to plunge them into the guilt of his precious blood : and he will be satisfied that it was just these notions which Peter meant to dissipate, and in place of them to lodge in their minds a view of the Messiahship to them altogether new — to describe the Princedom of Messiah as strictly a saving dignity — for the purpose of communicating, with royal authority and sovereign power, " repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.''^ Indeed, the words might be rendered 152 APOSTOLIC COMMENTARIES with equal fidelity, and bring out perhaps quite as vividly the idea intended, were they to run thus in English (by what the critics call a hendiadys) : •' Him hath God exalted to be a SAViouR-PRmcE [ " A Priest upon his Throne"], for to give repentance," &c.* V. Closely connected with these earliest representations of the regal dignity and kingdom of Messiah, are the apos- tolic commentaries on that massive verse of the hundred and tenth Psalm : " Jehovah said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I MAKE THINE ENEMIES THY FOOTSTOOL." (V. 1.) I refer to the following : — David is not ascended into the heavens ; but he saith himself, Je- hovah said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until ♦ I have to apologise to the Duke of Manchester for allowing the pre- ceding comments— on Acts iJ., iii., iv., v. — to be reprinted before observ- ing the criticisms which he directs against them. His grace finds fault with me for omitting, in my quotation from Peter's first sermon, vv. 34, 35, which has caused me to mistake the apostle's argument, and to con- found between what proved Jesus to be '* Liord^'' which he now is in the throne of God, and what proves him " Christ^''^ which he will not be till he sit down on David's throne at the millennium. — (Pp. 306, 307.) On this I have only to observe, that I am not acute enough to see it in Peter's sermon, and that I am not aware of any commentator who has detected it. In connexion with this, his Grace points out "a curious mistake " into which I had fallen, "he has no doubt by a slip of the pen" — nam.ely, saying a p. 161 (first edition), "God hath made that same Lord" (instead of "Jesus ") "whom ye have crucified . . . Lord." This mistake, however, " could hardly have escaped observation had I perceived how much the argument depended on the personal, and not on the ofiicial designation." — P. 307. The short answer to all this i?, that it was a slip, not of the pen at all, but of the types first, and then of the eyes, in not observing it. One or two verbal alterations, suggested by his Grace's remarks, I have made as the sheets were passing thn ugh the press ON THE HUNDRED-AND-TENTH PSALM. 153 I MAKE THY FOES THY pooTSTOOL. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ." — (Acts ii. 34-86.) " This man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever SAT DOWN ON THE RIGHT HAND OP GoD ; from hcnccforth ex- pecting TILL HIS ENEMIES BE MADE HIS FOOTSTOOL." — (Heb. X. 12, 13.) "Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father ; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath "put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy shall be destroyed [even] death." * — (1 Cor. xv. 24-26.) These passages afford abundant materials for settling the whole question of Christ's kingdom. Beautiful is the light which they throw upon each other. " Sit on my right hand (says one of them), till I make thine enemies thy footstool." " He must reign" (says another) till that be done by his own royal hand. " From henceforth," (says the remaining passage) — from the time of this glori- ous Session and Enthrojiizalion^ for they are both one — " EXPECTING till" the Father's promise to do it for him be made good. He has entitled himself to this at God's hand, by " the offering of that one sacrifice for sins, for ever" eternal in its efficacy, because infinite in value. On the completion of this work, exalted to the Father's right hand — in the high consciousness of his own merit and in full assurance that the promise is now all his own, our apostle gets a glimpse of him in the seat of power, and be- holds him in the attitude of tranquil " expectancy," till the enemies of his regal authority be made his footstool : an expectancy commencing from the first moment of his re- pose in glory, unruffled amid all opposition, and unex- * Eo-pi^aros e^Opos KarapyiiTai b ^ava-oi. 154 THE KINGDOM TO BE DELIVERED UP- bausted by tbe longest delays, until the day when he shall rise up to the prey.* On the last of these passages — 1 Cor. xv. 24-26 — pre- millennialists get into inextricable confusion, and come in- to such collision among themselves as to subvert the doc- trine common to all of them, and establish its opposite. It has been said, indeed, that others are as much divided on the sense of the passage as they. But that is a mistake It is true that there is some difference between Drs. Owen Pye Smith, and Symington, on the '• delivering up of the kingdom." But what is it ? Just a diversity of concep- tion as to the form which the kingdom of Christ shall assume, and the position which Christ himself shall occupy, in the everlasting state. On this point — involving some of the most delicate distinctions in the personal and official relations of the triune Jehovah, and in the economy of grace — on this high point, my own views, which with the deepest humility I may presently try to express, coincide, as I have said, pretty much with those of my opponents. But this has nothing to do with our question about the kingdom. That question is not. What is meant by the " delirering up" of the kingdom ? but. What is the king- dom to be delivered up? To this question the majority of pre-millennialists reply, It is Christ's proper kingdom, not yet assumed — his millennial kingdom. Nay — says Dr. * Noble are the words of Calvin : In excelsis ergo sedet, ut trans- fusa inde ad nos sua virtute, in vilam spiritualeni nos vivificet, ut Spiritu t^uo sanctificet, ut variis gratiarum dotibus ecclesiam suam exornet ; ut protectione sua tutam adversus omnes noxas conservet, ut ferocientea crucis suae ac nostras salutis hostes manus suae fortitudine coerceat, de- nique ut oiunom teneat potestatem in coelo et in terra: donee inimicoa onines suos, pui etiam nostri sunt, prostraverit, acecclesiae suae aedifica- tionem consummarit. Atque hie verus est regni ejus status, iiaec po- testas, quain in eum contulit Pater, donee ultimum actum ad vivorum et mortuorum judicium adveniens compleai, {Inst, Christ. Rdig. Lib II. cap. xvi. 16.) WHAT IT IS. 155 M'Neile, the Duke of Manchester, and several others — it is the kingdom over which Christ is now placed, and which he is to exchange for his own — the Davidical throne and kingdom — at the millennium. Here, as perhaps in every instance in which they differ among themselves, there is a portion of truth on both sides, which each can plead against the other with resistless force — portions of truth which it is not possible to har- monize but by abandoning the doctrine common to both, and falling back upon that to which both are with equal zeal opposed. These portions of truth are the following : — On the one hand, it is beyond all controversy, that when the apostle says, " He must reign till he hath put all ene- mies under his feet," he not only adopts the language^ but gives the sense of the Psalm (ex. 1,) and that the " reign" spoken of is his present authority^ as the " enemies" of that reign are those of that same present authority. Mr. Wood, and those who take his view of the passage, may deny this " as entirely unscriptural ;" * but it will be in vain. The Duke of Manchester, Dr. M'Neile. and others, who take the apostle here as the interpreter of the Psalmist, are on im- moveable ground ; and no one would ever take any other view of the passage but for the necessities of a system. To drag the apostle here into the millennium, as if he were speaking of the enemies of a milknnial sovereignty, is of all interpretations the most preposterous. On the other hand, it is equally incontrovertible that the '• reign" here spoken of, is the Redeemer's Rule in his own proper kingdom, as the enemies are those of that rule. This is so manifest, that Mr. Wood, in asserting it, can etand against all his brethren who affirm the contrary. Observe what the enemies of this reign are. The apostle * Affirmative Answer, p. 36. 156 THE KINGDOM TO BE DELIVERED UP divides them into two classes — moral and physical. Of th former class he thus speaks : '• Then comcth the end, when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power." Will this be done before the millennium ? Have we not evidence that during th^ii bright period the world's subjec- tion to the sceptre of Christ will not be quite absolute ? — ■ (Zech. xiv. 17-19.) xind after it, are we not explicitly told of a vast confederacy of Christ's enemies to arise against the camp of the saints — (Rev. xx. 7-9) ? When Mr. Wood therefore affirms, that " all rule and all authority and power" of a hostile character will not be put down before the millennium, and that Christ will have this during that period to do in the exercise of his proper rule, and so will not deliver it up till after the millennium — he is on solid ground. Then observe the otfier class of enemies, and it will be still more evident that the kingdom is delivered up, not before but after the millennium : •' The last enemy shall be destroyed, even death " Now deaths being a physical evil, can be but a passive and unconscious " enemy" of Christ's reign, as '' the wages of sin," as the boast of Satan. to be '• destroyed" with •' the works of the devil" by '• the Seed of the woman. '^ In this sense of death as an enemy of Christ, it must be held as including all physical evils springing from the fall, and similarly hostile to the ends of Christ's reign. Thus largely understood, not even Mr. Scott can very well maintain that " death" shall be de- stroyed before the millennium. In vain, indeed, does he attempt to prove that death, in the mere fact of it, will not prevail during the millennium. But even he seems to admit that physical as well as moral evils will remain, to some extent, till the end of the millennium.* And thus, as * Dr. M'Neile, in the volume of Lent Lectures just published (1849), entitled, '♦ The Priest upon his Throne," takes up the same ground as Mr. Bcof t ; but his positions and the illustrations seem to me directly to contra* WHAT IT IS. 157 Christ is to " reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet," Mr. Wood, and those who agree with him, are upon impregnable ground in maintaining that the '• reign" here is Chtist's proper reign, and the "enemies" those of his own kingdom. These, then, are the portions of incontrovertible truth, inaiutaiued by the two classes of pre-millennial interpreters respectively. The one class hold, upon ground that can- not be shaken, that the " reign" spoken of in this famous diet each other, and to exhibit a strange mode of thinking altogether. •'The chief particulars (he says) of that state— the state of the earth when Christ comes — are these : 1. There shall be no more sin. All the then inhabitants of the earth shall be righteous. AH shall love God, and serve God ; so that his will shall then be done on earth as it is in heaven. Or, if any of the inhabitants of the earth shall at any time cease to do his will [in other words, if sin do break out] on earth, they shall instantly be treated as those angels were treated who ceased to do his will in hea- ven ; that is, they shall be cast out. From a passage in the prophecies of Isaiah (Ixv. 20), some have imagined that such an event might -possi- bly occur during the thousand yeirs ; that a man who had lived a hun- dred years without sin might then become a sinner, and that if so he would be immediately accursed. That such an event shall take place on a large scale after the thousand years, seems not obscurely predicted in Rev. XX. 7-10. Bat in no case shall the holiness of Messiah'' s kingdom be interfered with, any more than the holiness of heaven was, by the great re- bellion there of Beelzebub and his associate. 'Of his kingdom there shall be no end.' The final assault, permitted at the end of the thousand years, serves but to confirm his reign for ever; and so (!) the state of things then existing, and to exist for ever, en the earth, " s/iall be a state without sin." — (Pp. 96, 97.) In this way of arriving at conclusions, the reader will not be surprised to learn that Or. M'Neile finds "no more sorrow" "no more ignorance," "no more curse" from the time that Christ comes— that is, while the earth is peopled by " the restored Jews," and " the millions of the heathen who have never rejected the gospel," and of whom it is written that " they .'il»all come *o Judah's light, &c."— (Pp. 97-104. Of course, these "restored Jews and converted heathens" must start at once not only into a converted state, but into a siyiless, sorrowless, 'perfectly illuminated and cmrssiess sts'e, in order to realize the millennial picture which the lecturer draws What can on« make of this 7 o 158 " THE LAST ENEMY passage is a 'present reign — a reign commencing on tie Redeemer's session at his Father's right hand. The other class, on ground equally unassailable, hold that, as the enemies mentioned will not be destroyed till the end of the millennium, the assurance that " He must reign" till that be done, carries the reign down till after the millennium. The one class give us the beginning of the reign, and the other class the end of it, quite correctly. And thus, in op- position to both, and by means of both, we get our proposition established — that " the kingdom," and the Redeemer's " reign" in it, as they commenced on his ascension to power, so they will continue till the final judgment, in the sense of commencement and continuance already explained. How precious is the view given of " death" in this pas- sage, as the Saviour's " last enemy" — the last enemy of that mediatorial croicn which he now wears, as the Redeemer of his people from the whole ruins of the fall ! On his own throne sitting, " a Lamb as it had been slain" — taken up to it fresh from the Cross, and placed upon it in high testimony of Jehovah's complacency in his work — in this character, and vested with this authority and power, will he destroy that last enemy of his gracious sway — death. Virtually^ indeed, it has been done already — on the field of Zrt-ic, though not oi fact. '-Through death he destroyed him that had the power of death, that is the devil." — (Heb. ii. 14.) " He spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openl}'^, triumphing over them in his cross" — (Col. ii. 15.) There he ''abolished," or "de- stroyed DEATH." — (2 Tim i. 10.)* A legal basis had to be obtained for the actual destruction of so righteous a penalty as death, " the wages of sin." In the righteous- ne3s of that penalty, Satan was strong. On that field, but * It is the same word (uarapyfu) in both places. 159 for Christ's death, he was inviucible. In this sense " the accuser of the brethren" had " the power of death" — power to insist on its infliction, on the same eternal principles of the divine government by which himself was ruined as a sinner — power to see it invested, in its approaches to men, «vitb unmixed terrors, with '•' fearful lookings for of judg- ment and fiery indignation, to devour the adversaries" — power to have a hand in mixing " the cup of trembling" to the dying sinner. Yes ! " the sting of death is sin, and the strength is the Jaw ;" nor could the Son of God himself override these awful securities for the execution of ven- geance. But that vengeance he could draw off, by placing himself under it as Jehovah's substitutionary Victim ; and this he did — " through death" not actually '' abolisl^ng" death, but obtaining a legal title to abolish it from the Throne. He met the enemy on his own chosen field, that proud arena •' where was the hiding of his power ;" and having " taken from him all his armour wherein he trust- ed," he has gone up to " divide his spoils." (Luke xi. 121, 22; compare Isa. liii. 12.) And the distribution is going gloriously on. The sweet sense of pardon and reconcilia- tioQ — the envy of Satan — is one of the spoils he divides. Superiority to the " sin that dwelleth in us," is another of the spoils left on the field of battle, and which, falling into the Redeemer's hands, he divides to his people. But the death of death is reserved for the last. Already he is un- stinged ; so that, though he tears asunder soul and body, leaving what Christ redeemed a lifeless carcase, in this he is no longer Satan's but Christ's servant, who " to this end, both died and rose and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living" (Rom. xiv. 9). and who, as such, " hath the keys of death and of hades " — (Rev. i. 18.) Still the enemy lives. While his victims lie rotting in the grave, he is not " abolished," " destroyed," "put under 160 "DELIVERING UP THE KINGDOM • his feet." But it must, and it shall, come to that. The Redeemer •' expects" that what he accomplished sacrifi- dally on the field of lau\ shall be made good royally in the region of fact. The prey shall be taken from the terrible, and the lawful captive delivered ; and thus, in the most absolute and comprehensive sense, should He " see of th^ travail of his soul and be satisfied." It now only remains, before dismissing this grand pas- sage, that I advert to the " delivering up of the kingdom." Not that it has any thing to do with our subject — it relates to a stage of the kingdom beyond the limits of our ques- tion. But perhaps it would be unsatisfactory to take leave of it, without some reference to this very remarkable state- ment with which it closes. Two ideas, then, seem to be included in this '• deliver- ing up" of the kingdom. 1. It is the Mediator '•^giving an account of his Steward- ship y It is fit that this should be done. As Infinite Rectitude will have his intromissions judicially investigated and pronounced upon, so his own fidelity desires and demands it, that his work may, in this sense, be taken off his hands. He will have it publicly owned, and Himself as the Doer of it. For this purpose, he advances to the Throne. . His dead people summoned from their graves, and his living ones changed in the twinkling of an eye, are all around him — '• a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing ;" and as their crowns are east before him, and his ear is filled with their grateful hallelujahs — " glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe" — he turns to •' Him that sitteth upon the Throne," as Judge of his work, saying. '• Behold I, and the children whom thou hast given me : The glory which thou gavest WHAT IT IS. 16! me I have given them ; and they are one, even as we are one."— (Heb. ii. 13 : John xvil 22.) The Trust commit- ted to him was awful; the wheels of it '• were so high that they were dreadful" (Ezek. i. 18) ; the issues suspended upon the successful execution of it were infinite ; the glory of the Godhead was bound up with it : and Jesus, know- ing all this, and exulting in the consoiousness that his work will abide the lustre of Divine Inspection, will have judg- ment given upon it, that his ear may be greeted from the Throne with that sound — sweeter to him than celestial music — " Well done, Good and Faithful Servant !" But, 2. This " delivering up" of the kingdom seems to imply the end of the kingdom in its present form. " Then cometh the end^'' — the end, certainly, of some- thing; and the words which immediately follow, "when he shall have delivered up the kinglom^'^ seem naturally to suggest this as the thing ended. That a termination of some kind is intended, we gather, not from the word ren- dered " deliver up" — a word which does not necessarily imply, either in classical or Scripture usage, 2l giving away of the thing spoken of, as critics have shown ; but we gather it from what is stated at the end of the whole passage, as the object in view. " The kingdom," says the apostle, " shall be delivered up — that God may be all in all." Now, explain this as we may, it seems to us to imply something more than the mere presentation of the kingdom to the Father, for the purposes of judicial investi- gation. Even those who seem disposed to rest iu this as the whole sense of the apostle, allow nevertheless, that, in point of fact, there will be a change of form, and a termi- nation of not a few things now going on in, and now cha- racterising the kingdom. And if so, why should we be so jealous of admitting this to be what the apostle means to express ^ 162 ** DELIVERING UP THE KINGDOM*' When Jesus said, as he was on the wing for heaven^ '' Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you" — he gave out a commission which will undoubtedly be at an end when the time arrives of which our apostle speaks. His concluding words imply as much; '' And lo ! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Now, this commission is prefaced with the de- lightful announcement, " All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth ; Go ye, therefore^" — implying that both the authority to issue that commission, and the power to sustain in the execution of it, were given to the Mediator expressly for those saving purposes. When, therefore, the work is done, the whole Commission is at an end — not merely the matters to be performed, but the whole Media- torial Trust, and the whole mediatorial Furniture, of autho- rity and power, of gifts and graces, committed to him for the ends of that Trust. But does it follow from this, that the Mediator, as such, will sink and disappear ? By no means. The termination of which we have spoken leaves all mediatorial relationships untouched ; and in the two following respects they will un- doubtedly be eternal : (I.) In his mediatorial merit Christ must for ever be recognized by the redeemed, and be in that character the Object of their unceasing contemplation and praise. " Wor- thy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing" — that dearest utterance of every heart that has ever been sprinkled with his blood — must get out. Nor will it go forth merely in one sublime shout, bursting simultaneously from the lips of all, as they " enter in through the gates into the city" — to die away, or be lost in some other and unknown feelings, kindled by WHAT IT IS NOT. 163 the sight of an altered Lord. No. Nothing will ever con- tent the ransomed of the Lord, but still to discern " in the midst of the throne a Lamb as it had been slain" — ever fresh, so to speak, from the Altar. They will love to feel the eternal freshness of his merit, and its righteous power to keep them where they are. As he unveils himself to them in this overpowering character, and they gaze upon him in the vivid, adoring perception of that in him which brought them from hell to heaven, those melodious notes will steal upon his ear, and fill it gratefully through all duration, " Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests to God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion, for ever and ever. Amen." (2.) His Mediatorial Person will be the eternal Seat of Divine manifestation ; the Medium of communication be- tween the Unseen One and all heaven ; and the very Prop of the eternal system. It is on this point that the heart is ready to tremble, as it hears of his " delivering up the kingdom to God, even the Father — that God may be all in all," — as if it were meant to intimate that, somehow or other, the mediatorial character of its Lord would merge and evanish — a thought abhorrent to saved and grateful souls. But on this point other Scriptures gloriously re-as- sure us. The heavenly state is in one place called " the EVERLASTING KINGDOM OF OUR LoilD AND SaVIOUR JeSUS Christ"— (2 Pet. i. 11.) In another, it is called " The kingdom of Christ and of God." — (Eph. v. 5.) And what this last passage expresses nakedly, is in the Apo- calypse (as usual) symbolically represented : " And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. . . . And there shall be no more curse ; but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it" — the new Jerusalem. 164 " DELIVERING UP THE KINGDOM" (Rev. xxii. 1, 3 ) Here, God and the Lamb are named with emphatic distinctness ; and the pure river of the water of life is seen flowing from the throne of both. — from that of Grod. as the Unseen, Absolute, Eternal Fountain of life and of love; from that of the Lamb, as the visible Channel, throughout eternity, of all gracious and beatific communications from God to the redeemed. " He that hath seen Him will have seen the Father." In his glorious Person, the triune Jehovah will stand con- fessed and manifested to all heaven and through all dura- tion. Nor will it be mediatorial manifestation only. There will be incessant mediatorial iHtercourse and com- munication between God and his people. The river of life, as we learn from what is here said, shall flow, through him, from its Fountain to the souls that shall never have enough of it: and from them it shall be, through the same dear channel, sent back again, in the outgoings of their full hearts and in the services of their perfected natures, without end. Never a benignant look, never a gracious communication, from the triune Jehovah will reach the citizens of the New Jerusalem, but it will pass through, or rather proceed from, his manifested Person : Never a grateful feeling, nor a willing service, shall go from them to the Godhead, but it shall light upon, and be absorbed by. Him " in whom shall be seen dwelling all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." Thus the mediatorial relation- ships will remain, — not in the passive state of mere exist- ence, so to speak, but gloriously active and effectual. They will be the life of all heaven. The preservation and continuance of the heavenly state will be as dependent upon the continued application of his mediatorial merit, and the continued exercise of his mediatorial power, as was the attai7iment of heaven before. As in the kingdom of Nature, " In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, 'VHAT IT IS NOT. 165 and rested the seventh day," and yet '' my Father worketh hitherto (said Christ), and 1 work ;" as every moment He " upholdeth all things by the word of his power" — the same creative power which called them into being at first ; — so in the kingdom of Grace, the whole saving grace and redeeming power of the Mediator will go out incessantly, in the heavenly state, for the preservation and continuance of what hath been attained — for the eternal sustentation of the Church, in its being and bliss. Thus, in the strictest sense, will it be the " kingdom of Christ and of God" — " His appearing and his kingdom" — " The everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" — " He shall reign for ever and ever." In his glorious Person not only shall God be manifested, but restored humanity shall stand represented and headed up, as " the First begotten from the dead, the First-born among many brethren." " the second Man." In Him also shall "elect angels" find the principle of their stability, and the Head of a system of new creation, of which thej are a part ; in whom are '' gathered together all things in one, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in Him" — '• by whom all things are reconciled, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven " (Eph. i. 10 ; Col. i. 20.) At the head of this magnificent kingdom of new creation Jesus shall sit, the Life of all its activities and of all its felicities, and the very Prop of its being — feasting himself with the worthy and enduring spectacle. Long he " expected :" Now, he expects no longer, and expects nothing more ; for he has gotten all. " He SEES the travail of his soul, and is satisfied." He rests and is refreshed. The Trust-character of mediation is at an end ; but mediation itself is not at an end. The Stewardship has ceased, with all its mutual engagements, and interchanged fidelities, and surrenders and acceptances 166 DELIVERING UP THE KINGDOM. between the contracting parties. " The Strength of Israel has not lied unto Him ;" nor has He proved to Him that appointed him " altogether as a liar, and as waters that fail." So the Covenant stands fast for ever, and '• His THRONE AS THE DAYS OF HEAVEN !" (Psal. Ixxxix. 28-37.)* * The farther prosecution of this important branch of our argument I reserve to the second part of this volume ; that the stream of evidence under the successive heads, may flow uninterrupted. CHAPTER VIII. THE ENTIRE CHURCH " MADE ALIVe" EITHER BY RESUR- RECTION OR TRANSFORMATION AT CHRIST's COMING. There is no part of the pre-millennial scheme, as now advocated, where it comes so entirely to a stand, as on the subject of the Resurrection. When Christ appears, we are told — at the beginning oi the millennium — he will raise all the saints that shall have died before that time, and ehange all that shall then be alive. But what is to become of the myriads of saints that are to people the earth during the millennium ? The answer to this question will startle the reader, if he happens not to be well read in the changes which this un- steady scheme has from time to time undergone, and is unacquainted with its latest modifications. The fact is, This whole subject is a blank in the system. It has posi- tively got no Scripture on the subject. It applies all that Scripture says about the resurrection of saints at all, to those living before the millennium. Of course, then, they fii.d it silent about either the raising or the changing of any other saints — without a word about the vast numbers whom they have to dispose of after the millennium. What do they do with them, then ? For the most part, the sub- ject is avoided. Those, however, who venture to grapple with it, are hurried into such revolting speculations as, I believe, will open many an eye to the true nature of the whole scheme 168 EVERLASTING CONTINUANCE OF I shall not take my statement of these tpeculations from those who are reckoned extreme men, nor from books which may be supposed to be out of date. The following is from the pen of Mr. Bickersteth. The startling nature of it, and its important bearings, will justify our giving it pretty nearly in full. " If (says he) the resurrection of the righteous and the wicked, and the general juflgment of all men, took place at one time, and in the same day, none would, none could be left, as the heads and parents of a redeemed people on earth [after the general judgment.] But the Holy Scriptures reveal to us a progress in judgment, and that the resurrection of the righteous and the wicked are clearly distinct in time. There is the first resurrection of the saints at the commencement of the millennium, and after the thousand years the rest of the dead [the wicked^ live, and are judged At the close of the millennium, ' there is a last open apostasy of the wicked,' who during the thousand years had ' yielded only a feigned obedience.' This 'finally separates all the believers, and removes them from the earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. The apostates are first slain by fire, and afterwards raised with the rest of the wicked dead for judgment. But no cuange is then MENTIONED AS PASSING ON THE JEWISH NATION, OR ON THE LIVING RIGHTEOUS, who contiuue faithful to God, as in the translation OF THE saints BEFORE THE MILLENNIUM.* Thc objcct of thc re- bellion, to overthrow the camp of the saints and the beloved city, fails of its design. God protects them. Tlie living righteous, then, after the millennium, may yet continue a seed to serve god, and IN SUCCESSIVE GENERATIONS BE TRAINED UP FOR HEAVENLY GLO' RY.' " In this statement, the least surprising thing which the reader will mark is, that there is to be no simultaneous change of those myriads of believers wlio have lived * I thought the author had, in the previous sentence, " anally removed «11 the believers from the earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." How he keeps them on earth still, unchanged and untranslated, I am at a loes ♦•» understand. THE FLESHLY STATE MR. BICKERSTETH. I6ft dvriv^ the millennium, *' as in the translation of the saints btfare the millennium." That, be it observed, is given up. What, then, becomes of them ? One by one, throughout " successive generations." they get glorified — we are not told how, or on what principle — but the race of them never dies out : they live on, and propagate their kind — to all eternity ; they " continue a seed to serve God !" But possibly this is but a hasty conjecture ; for, says the author, " they may continue." In the next sentence but one, however, the conjectural is changed into the positive ; and page after page is spent in attempts to prove the monstrous position of an eternal 'perpetuity of the gene- rations and families of men in flesh and blood upon the earth. " Its truth (says he) is distinctly revealed in many testimonies of Scripture, both in the Old and New Testament. The covenant with Noah was 'an everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all Jlesh for perpetual generations,'' The covenant of Abraham is called by the Psalmist ' the word which he com- manded to a Uumsand generations.' So Moses describes the Lord as ' keeping covenant and mercy for a thousand generations.' This period of a thousand generations, thus repeatedly mentioned, would REACH FAR BEYOND THE CLOSE OF THE MILLENNIUM. The promise made in Isaiah, concerning the kingdom of Christ, and his reign- ing on the throne of David, are in the strongest expressions of NEVER-ENDING CONTINUANCE. The samc promisc of perpetuity ig often given to the people of Israel : ' The people shall be all righteous, they shall i?iherit the land for ever.' — (Isa. Ix. 21.) Cor- responding with this is that very full and clear promise, ' They shall dwell in the land, they and their children and their children's children for ever, and my servant David shall be their prince /<7r ever.^ The plain and obvious meaning of such passages would lead us to the conclusion of a continuance, both of Israel and Gentile nations in a state of righteousness on our earth." After attempting to Bhow " the consistency of this with the last fire described in St. Peter, and the new heavens and the new earth afterwards to come 170 EVERLASTING CONTINUANCE OF forth," he says, " Thus remarkable are the proofs in the OM Testa- ment of the PERPETUAL continuance of the Jewish nation on ouf earth."* Mr. Bickersteth's New Testament proofs are still more singular. " The apostle (says he) closes his prayer for the Ephesians by leading us to the same wonderful fact, of a perpetual continuance oj the Church upon earth : ' Unto God be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus, world without end ;' or, as it might be rendered, ' through- out all the generations of the ag*» of ages.' The apostle J«mes, speaking of believers, says, ' Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his crea- tures.' Thus the Christian Church is described as only the first-fruits of a glorious harvest yet to be reaped on our earth. ^^ That is, after " the end of all things" — as we innocently say — for it seems there is to be no end of any thing •' So (he goes on), in the description in the Hebrews of the future glory, and of the heavenly society partaking of it, there is not only the general assembly and church of the first-born which are written in heaven, but ' the spirits of just men made perfect,' which seems to refer to those gathered, after the number of the Church of the first- born is completed." But enough of these singular specimens of exegesis. f Soon after the publication of the volume from which these paragraphs are transcribed, Mr. Birks' able work on " The Four Prophetic Empires and the Kingdom of the Messiah" appeared. There the same views are stated, the same passages, with a little enlargement, adduced, the same * The reader will observe how studiously the estimable author avoids saying, " eternal continuance." Is it that an everlasting ■propagation of human families upon earth is a sentiment scarcely palatable enough to be nakedly stated '? t " Second Coming," &c. (Lent Lectures for 1813.) Mr. Bickersteth's Lecture is entitled, " The Kingdom of Christ the Lord, in its successive stages and heavenly glories." THE FLESHLY STATE. 171 style of reasoning and language employed. A few sen- tences, however, I will give from this work. " Does the word of God (asks Mr. Birks) distinctly reveal to ua a time when the number of mankind shall be caniplete, and a close put for ever to the cmi7-se of human generations ? Or, does it unfold the prospect of successive generations of the redeemed throwghmU the course of the ages to come? It has appeared already, that the latest prophecy of Scripture encourages, rather than forbids, the latter view No one could infer from these parts of the in- spired volume [the Old Testament], that there was any final bound assigned to the course of human generations. The direct state- ments of their perpetual continuance are so numerous, and ex- pressed in such varied forms, that nothing less than the clearest evidence in other parts of revelation can warrant us in restricting them to a narrower sense. . . . The last fire is, in the book of Revelation, seen to fall on the rebels who compass the beloved city. But the camp of the saints itself is preserved, the fire harms it not. The dead, then, and the dead only, so far as that prophecy reveals, are summoned in judgment, but the faithful who are then living are passed by in silence ; and the natural conclusion seems to be, that from them the new earth is peopled with holy and righteous generations." * In the newly published Lent Lectures (for 1849), the same views are repeated, in a modest and sweet spirit, by Mr. BiiocK.f But as he refers his readers to Mr. Birks and Mr. Bickersteth for a fuller treatment of the subject, I pass from him to give one more extract from the other side of the Atlantic. I refer to Mr. Lord's "Exposition of the Apocalypse. "J * The Four Prophetic Empires, and the Kingdom of the Messiah. By the Rev. T. R. Birks, pp. 310, 311, 319, 320, 325. Second Edition, 1845. t The Priest upon his Throne, Lect. x. X New York, 1847. A work of considerable acuteness and reading, though giving a prominence to the Voluntary Question, as an element of interpretation, which most of my readers would deem extravagant, and too confident in its tMr" here, does not necessarily mean a period of sixty minutes, just as the word " day " means a much longer period than twenty four hours. The same word " hour," we are reminded, is employed just before (v. 25), to denote the whole period of the gospel dispensation. Why, then^ may not this "hour" of the resurrection of "all that are in the graves " denote a period equally long, and embrace " the resurrection of life " at the beginnings and " the re- surrection of damnation" at the end of it? * That this argument puts a very forced and harsh con- struction upon our Lord's words, must, I think, be evident to every unbiased mind, even though unable to see the proper answer to it. That answer, however, will readily occur to any one who considers how such phraseolotry is employed in Scripture, and in common speech. It is quite true that the words " day " and " hour " in Scripture, and in all language, are often equivalent to time or period ; yet always as meaning the definite or fixed period of the thing spoken. For example, when the apostle says ( 1 John ii. 12), "Little children, it is the last hour" (or "time," as we render the word ^p<^), he means that this is the last dispensation of grace which the world is to see. In the same sense, another apostle (2 Cor. vi. 2), emphatically says, '• Behold, noio is the accepted tivie : behold, now is the day of salvation." So the Lord himself, in the passage * Mr. Birks (Lent Lect. for 1843), p. 181. Mr. Bickersteth (Guide 6th edition), pp. 273, 274, &c., &. "Much more glorious," says Bengel, *' Is this primitive reading than that of a hasty transcriber, tytvovro al (iaai- Xeto, K. T. X. Since then, every critical edition of the text has introduced this "much more glorious" reading. The English I have adopted from TregeLles, t I shall not overlook, in its proper place, the objection made to this, namely, that in none of the cases adduced was the death a bodihj one, and therefore we do not expect a bodily resurrection ; whereas, the martyrs in our prophecy died for Christ in the body. I shall show that, 238 MILLENNIAL RESURRECTION. So much, then, for the " rising and reigning " party in the millennial era. " The Lord alone is exalted in that day ; " and " the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, is given to the people of the saints of the Most High." As for the other party — " the rest of the dead " — they live not again until the thou- sand years are finished." To use the triumphant language of the prophet, pointing to this same period, " They are dead, they shall not live : they are deceased, they shall not rise : To this end hast thou visited them, and made all memory of them to perish" (Isa. xxvi. 14). But the very hint, " they lived not again till the thou- sand years were finished," is a warning to expect their re- appearance at the close of that period Accordingly, though in the sense of a literal resurrection of their bodies we never hear of them again, as I have shown, we find them duly re-produced, as a party, by the old serpent, who is loosed at the close of the millennium for that very purpose. He was to " deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were fulfilled," and " when the thousand years were ful- filled," and Satan is loosed, he shall again '• go out to deceive the nations;^^ not, of course, the same individuals, but their successors, who are spoken of under the same name, as deceived first for long ages, then undeceived for a thousand years, and finally again exposed to deception. Now, this is just the principle on which we interpret the whole of this symbolical prophecy. The men who. from age to age, have adhered to Christ, and whose witness for him has cost them their lives, shall live again in a race of men who for a thousand years are to triumph in their Lord's name over all the power of the enemy. But this by the way. I according to our way of taking the prophecy, this objection does nol apply. At present, I n erely urge the familiarity and expressiveness of the figure. FIGURATIVE FIFTH ARGUMENT. 239 was saying that Satan reproduces his party — " they liva again when the thousand years are finished," and in far greater numbers and mightier force than before they were ^^slain with the sword from Christ's mouth ;" but. like him in Daniel, " they shall come to their end and none shall help them." GPhus does this famous prophecy, when viewed as sym- bolical, explain naturally from beginning to end ; when taken literally, however well some expressions may inter pret, we cannot get through with it. V. The next objection to the literal sense of the millen- nial prophecy I shall give in the words of Mr. Gipps. " The declaration (says he) made in verse 12, concerning thl * opening of the book of life,' at the time when the dead are judged, and the reference made to it in verse 15, convince me that the first resurrection cannot signify the resurrection of the saints at the second coming of Christ. The opening of the book of life (as observed, page 11) appears to me to signify the ma- nifestation of those who are written in it* Two reasons lead me to conceive that this must take place at the second coming of Christ. First, .... It is utterly inconceivable that all this glory [described in Matthew xxv. 31, &c.] can be conferred upon the saints, and such a manifestation of them be made in the pre- sence of Christ and of all the holy angels, of 'one another, and * "We may observe," says the author at page 11, " that the opening of a book or seal appears, in the Revelation, to denote the time when the fulfilment or manifestation of what is written in the book begins. (See ch. vi. 1, 3, &c.) Thus, the opening of ' the books' (v. 12) evidently signifies the open discovery or manifestation of what is written therein ; that is, of the ' works' of those who stand before the throne of judgment, (vv. 12, 13.) Hence, the ' opening of the book of life' signifies the dis- covery or open manifestation of those who are written therein ; that is, of the saints, Ch. xiii. 8, and xvii. 8. . . . Prom this, therefore, we collect that the open manifestation of those who are written in the book of life does not take place at the time of the first reeurrection, but after the period of the thousand years and the intervening period (7 to 10) are ended, and at the time when the dead are judged. 240 MILLENNIAL RESURRECTION of all the ungodly living in every part of the earth, one momerU before what is called the ' opening of the book of life.^ The very ab- surdity of the idea would convince me that such a manifestation of the glory of those who are written in the book of life must coincide with, and be the same as ' the opening of that book.' And the expression (v. 15), ' Whosoever was not found written in the book of life,' still farther proves that this is the time when the open discovery or manifestation is made of those who are written therein. — Secondly, It is expressly set forth that ' the manifestation of the sons of God' will take place at their resurrection, (Rom. viii. 19, 23.) As, therefore, I am convinced that this manifestation cannot take place before the book of life is opened, in which their names are written, but must be the same as the discovery of those who are Avritten therein, I feel assured that the resurrection of the saints will be at the time of the ' opening of the book of life.' and not at the ' first resurrection.' These two reasons, therefore, prove to ray mind that when Christ sits upon the throne of judgment and the book of life is opened, must be the time of his second coming and of the resurrection of the saints."* VI. Another argument against the literal sense may also be expressed in the words of Mr. Gipps — " The omission of any declaration as to ' the sea, death, and the grave [or hades\, giving up the dead' at the first resurrection, and the making such a declaration respecting ' the dead' in verse 13, convinces me both that ' the first resurrection' is not that of the saints, and also, that ' the dead' in verses 12, 13, in^ elude all mankind, both the saints and the ungodly. In every other part of the Word of God, the information given concerning the resurrection of the saints is not only much more frequent, but also much more explicit, than concerning the resurrection of the ungodly. I feel convinced, therefore, that in this portion also of Scripture, if it were intended to foretel a resurrection * Treatise on the First Resurrection (1831), pp. 21-23— a work of great modesty, but full of acute verbal criticism ; although I think it fails to establish the author's view of the millennial period as one not future. FIGURATIVE SIXTH AND SEVENTH ARGUMENTS. 241 of the saints distinct from that of the ungodly, more explicit in- formation would be given concerning the former than concerning the Latter. I find, however, that the information given concern- ing * the first resurrection,' instead of being much more, is much less explicit than that concerning the resurrection intimated in verses 12, 13; for there is not the least allusion to ' the sea, death, and the grave giving up the dead' at the first resurrection, and it is expressly declared that they do this at the time of the resurrection set forth in verses 12, 13. By contrasting this, therefore, with the course pursued in other portions of the word of God, I feel con- vinced that the first resurrection cannot be that of the saints ; and that verses 12, 13, do not describe the resurrection of the ungodly only, but that of the saints also, and include all the dead without any exception."* VII. The clause, "T%w is the first resurrection" (v. 5), — which is thought to prove it literal — seems to me, if it prove any thing, to prove the reverse. It is reasonable — say the pre-millennialists — to suppose, that if the second or last resurrection be literal, the first will be so also- differing from the second only in time. Unfortunately for this way of reasoning, what is said in the verse imme- diately following contradicts it : " Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection ; on such the second death hath no power" (v. 6). Here " the first resur- rection" and " the second death" are intentionally brought together and contrasted. Is the first death, then, of the same nature with the second? Does the one merely precede the other ? No ; the first death is that of the bodi/, the second that of both bod]/ and soul: the first death is common to the righteous and the wicked ; the second is the everlasting portion of the wicked, and of them alone. To suffer the first death for Christ is made the ground (not, of course, the meritorious ground) of ex- emption from the power of the second death. " Be thou * First Resurrection, ut supra, pp, 20. 21. X 242 MILLENNIAL RESURRECTION faithful unto death," said Christ to the Church of Smyrna, and I will give thee the crown of life. He that overcumeth shall not be hurt of the second death'* (ch. ii 10, 11). Now, as exemption from the power of the second death ia here made to rest upon a certain character, namely, fidelity to Christ even to death ; and in our millennial chapter, exemption from the power of the same second death is made to rest upon 'participation in the first resurre tinn, is it not reasonable to conclude that this " first resurrection'* is meant to signify a certain character in the present life, and not the possession of bodily resurrection and glory ? And what character, but the same spirit of the Smyrnean martyrs — that faithfulness to Christ which '• made not their lives dear unto them" for his names sake ? What though those that slew them are not alive to slay their millennial successors? What though the whole persecuting party be extinct then, and shall " live not again till the thousand years be finished ?" It is not the actual laying doicn of their lives^ so much as the '-'• faithfulness'^ which made the sacrifice, that Christ promises to reward with exemption from the second death ; and surely a self-sacrificing fidelity to Christ will not be superfluous during the millennium, merely because, when Christians are ready then to part with themselves and every thing for Christ, there will be nobody to take every thing or any thing from them. To my mind, this view of the first resurrection is put be- yond doubt by these following words, " Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection.'* I cannot see what important information is conveyed by these words, if " the first resurrection" mean a restoration to bodily life. To tell us that saints risen from the dead, and reigning in glorified bodies with Christ are holy^ seems to me to bo very unlike the language of Scripture every where else, and very superfluous. I have already remarked the same thing FIGURATIVE SEVENTH ARGUMENT. 243 about the clause that follows : " Over such the second death hath no power." It cannot but appear strange that we should be told that the risen and glorified saints will not perish eternally. But only suppose this •' first resurrection" intended to express the character of the millennial era, or of the Christians who are privileged to live then, and the language of this verse will not only explain, but be signifi- cant in every word of it. The word " blesserV^ will then ex- press the high privilege they enjoy in having their lot cast in .such a period. Indeed, the same language is employed by Daniel to express the privilege not of bodily resurrection, but of living in the body during this very period. '"Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hun- dred and five and thirty days" (Dan. xii. 12). Then, the word '^ holy^^ in our verse will express the high devot- edness and spirituality that will distinguish the Christians of that period, and signalise the millennial day itself above all former periods in the world's history. And lastly, the closing words of the verse — ^^ over such the second death bath no power" — will convey the consolatory assurance, that the " Ao/y" character of that " blesseiV^ era will ensure its genuine possessors of exemption from the second death, and the joyful reception of " the crown of life."* There are two more arguments against the literal sense ♦ In this view of it, the idea of the verse— a spiritual as the earnest of a bodily resurrection— is quite familiar in the language of the New Testament. "The hour is coming," says our Lord, " and now is, when the {spirituaUy'\ dead shall hear his voice, and they that hear shall [spiritually ] live : marvel not at this, for the hour cometh in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall conie forth [6o(/i7y]." " My sl^eep hear my voice, and I give unto them [novo] eter- nal life, and they shall never perish [or die the second death]." " If," says the apostle, '♦ the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus our Lord dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mor- tal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you [your renewed souls]." 244 MILLENNIAL RESURRECnON which I have reserved to the last, because they spring out of a closer inspection of the millennial prophecy than we have yet had occasion to exercise. The seven foregoing arguments may be said to have been gathered from the surface of the passage — the two following, with which I will conclude, are suggested by a narrower observation of the vision. VIII. It is a fatal objection to the literal sense of this prophecy, as announcing the bodily resurrection of all dead, and the change of all living saints, that it is exclusively a martyr-scene — the prophet beholding simply a resurrection of THE SLAIN ; whercas this very circumstance eminently favors the figurative sense. The vision is described first generally, and then in de- tail. Two companies also are seen in the vision, and in two successive and opposite conditions — first as dead and dishonoured^ next as risen and reigning. Thus : — GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE VISION. " And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them : DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE VISION. Pirst Company seen Dead. " And [I saw] tne souls of them that were beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God; Second Company seen Dead. " And [I sawj such as had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon the forehead, and on the hand : Both Companies seen Risen and Keignmg. " And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand yeara." (v. 4.) FIGURATIVE— EIGHTH ARGUMENT. 245 A few remarks on the several clauses of the passage will Etill further open it up. '• I saw thrones, and they sat upon them." Who sat upon them? Not any mentioned as yet, for the vision begins here. Clearly, therefore, it is the two companies immediately after specified. Accordingly, as soon as the prophet has described these, he comes back to his first statement — '• And they [those now specified] lived and reigned a thousand years;" as if he had said, '-And I saw thrones, and persons sitting on them, to whom judg- ment was given ; and I was made to see who filled the thrones ; for I saw the beheaded, &c.. and such as had not worshipped the beast : And they lived and reigned — these were they whom I saw in the thrones — and their reign lasted a thousand years." * If this be the construc- tion of the passage, as it clearly is — if the words " they sat upon them." mean " they to be presently mentioned" — then * Mr. Elliott^ perceiving how much depends upon this point, gives the words another turn, but one that I am convinced is untenable. " Christ and his saints" says he, " were seen to talce their sitting on thrones of judgment and royalty. St. John specifies particularly, as if conspicuous among them, the souls of them that had been beheaded, . . . and others also, whosoever had not worshipped," &c. — {Hor. Apor. iv, 174, sec. edit.) One objection to this is, that it introduces into the vision those who were not seen in it, and makes the only parties who were seen to be merely "conspicuous among the whole number of Christ's saints." Another objection is, that it obliges us to seek for a nomimtive to the verb '• sat''- the parties that were seen in the thrones — out of this vision altogether. Mr. Elliott, in his reply to my letter before referred to, takes the nominative to " saC* to be •' Christ and his attendant hosts, described at large in the preceding chapter as combatants against, and conquerors over, the beast," &c. That is to say, he takes his nominative out of a perfectly different vision from the one where the verb is; and rot only 80, but since another vision comes in between these two, we have his nominative in the Ji-st vision and the verb in the third, or at least another and quite distinct representation of the same period from the second viclcw. Could any more unnatural and inadmissible construction b« x2 240 MILLENNIAL RESURRECTION we must put no other saints into the vision besides those afterwards specified ; and the concluding words, " And they (those just specified) lived and reigned," tie us per- emptorily/ down to those two companies alone. Who. then, are they ? The next two clauses furnish the reply : " And [I saw] the souls of them that were beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God." Beheadiyig^* a well-known Roman mode of putting to an ignominious death, is mentioned here, merely to denote the Roman authority by which they were slain, in the Pagan and unbroken period of the empire. All the martyrs of Jesus, then, under the Pagan persecutions are here embraced. The next clause describes another class of martyrs, after this class was completed. But before com- ing to it, let me request the reader's attention to the fol- lowing passage, in the sixth chapter of this book, where the same class of martyrs (under Paganism) are described in nearly identical terms, and the other class announced as yet to come : " And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, How long. Lord.f holy and true, proposed 7 But take the verb (^tKadiaav) " they sat," impersonally^ as equivalent to "they were sate upon" — a usage quite familiar in the Greek Testament and the Septuagint, and the construction of the whole passage becomes transparent.* * IlejrcAwtcr/^cvajv, from ireKtKvi, an axe. •\ AsoTTorrii, Master — having rule over the oppressors equally with the oppressed. • " Nothin? scarcely" (says Moses Stuart, who takes the literal sense of our ▼ision) " is more common in the Old Testament and in the New, and especially in the Chaldee of the book of Daniel than to employ the third person plural for the passive voice, thus makinor a kind of impersonal verb of it : Gtamm. § 174. Note 2." — iComm. on Apoc. ad loc.) " In the New Testament" (says Winer) "verba »re used impersonally, -a the third pers>3 plural." Then follow some examples Gramm. § 49. FIGURATIVE EIGHTH ARGUMENT. 247 dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth 7 And a v/hite robe was given unto every one of them ;* and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a [little Jf season, until both their fellow-servants and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled." Tlie persons seen in this vision are unquestionably the same as the first class in our millennial vision ; and it is " their souls" that are seen in both cases, or themselves in the state of the dead — as slain for tlie word of God. In the former vision, however, the apostle hears them asking '•judgment;" in the latter, he sees them get it. " How long, Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth ?" is their doleful cry in the one vision : " And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them^'' is the delightful response to that cry which the apostle was privileged to announce in the other. The one, in short, is the petition 'presented., and the other, the peti- tion granted. But the connexion of the two visions is closer than this. The petitioning party in the former vision are one. But they are told there is another party to come after them, to be treated like themselves, and who will have to be judged and avenged as well as they. They must wait, therefore, till theii time be over ; and then they shall both together " have judgment given them, and their * EJo0»j aMTQii cKaiTbi aroXri XevKti. So the true reading would seem to be, as given by Scholz, Lachmann, Tisckendorf, and IVegelles. Seholz, however, omits kKaarw, and Tregelles puts it in brackets. Bengd, whose verbal accuracy seldom fails him, in reply to Wolfius, who had said it might justly be doubted whether John wrote avTois kKaaTw, says, " But he has written v^tv i the former fighter and overconier." So Tregclles. Luther: Den Ver- zachten (the dispirited). The same class that Christ describes us " deny* Jng him before men," and "ashamed of him and his words in an adul- terous and sinful generation " — wanting the courage of true faith. SCRIPTURAT. PROOF OF IT. 271 with me, to give to every man according as his work is.* I am Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.f Blessed are they who wash their robes,:}: that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers,- and murderers, and idolaters, and whoso- eyer loveth and maketh a lie." This admission of the one class and rejection of the other is manifestly the immediate sequel of Christ's " coming, and his reward with him, to give to every one [of both classes and at the same time] according to his work." If any doubt of this could remain, it would be removed by Matt. xvi. 24-27 : " If any man will come after me, let him deny himself," &c. " For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain," &c, ; "or what shall a man give in exchange for his souH For the Son shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels ; and then ( tots ) he shall reward every man according to his works." How is it possible to doubt that both classes and of aU ages will be judged together, with such a passage as this before us ? * Effrij/ {Lachm. T%sch. Treg.) Scholz retains earai. t All the forementioned editors give the clauses in this order. ■{: Oi itXvvovrei raj aroXai avTOJv. This beautiful reading of the Alex- andrine MS., of the Vatican MS. (the one in cursive letters, known aa No. 38), and of the Vulgate, Ethiop., and Armenian versions, is adopted by Lachmann, Tischendorf, and Tregelles. It is easy to account for the introduction of the received reading from the resemblance between xX-jvovT£i (or as No. 38 has it, nXwoipres) and voio^vTes, and of aroXag to evroX s — without supposing doctrinal leanings to have had any influence. Mr. Elliott notices the beautiful reference of this reading to chap. vii. 9, 13,14; "the state of heavenly bliss being in the earlier chapter an/ici^ patively foreshown, and in the latter one symbolized as actually realized aod present (iv. 244, ui. aup.) 272 SIMULTANEOUS JUDGMENT " Matt, vii 21-23 : " Not every one that saith, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth the will of ray Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in thai day, Lord, Lord," &jC. " And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me" &c. Here we have the reception and rejection — admission and exclusion — both at once — " in that day." Nor can Mr. Birks^ principle of " sacred perspective," by which two things at a distance are seen as one. and in this case at the distance of a thousand years — and " the little season" after that too — be permitted to intrude here. To the same effect, chap. xxv. 10: " And while the foolish virgins went to buy, the bridegroom came ; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage : and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord,* open unto us. But he answered and said, Verily, 1 say unto you, I know you not." Bo not these words plainly tell us that Christ, when he comes, will take judicial account of the treatment which he has himself received at the hands of men — of every age and of both classes — and of the value they have put upon their own souls ; determining the weal or the woe of all together " according to their works ?" We have the same truth in the parable of the Talents (Matt. xxv. 14-30) — in which "the man who travels into a far country," but before his departure '• calls his servants and delivers to them his goods, returns after a long time, and reckons with them." As this represents the departure and return of Christ, with the whole period of his absence from the earth, so the " reckoning," which is manifestly one transaction^ embraces all the professed servants of Christ, from first to last — not only the ^' good and faithful^ * The same * vain repetition" (/?arToXoyia) as in chap. vii. 21, 22. SCRIPTURAL PROOF OF IT. 273 classes, who, in the language of the parable, having dou- bled their talents, are invited to " enter into the joy of their Lord," but also the " wicked and slothful" or " un jyrofitable" class, who are ordered to be " cast into outer darkness," &c.* And does not the immediately subsequent description of the JUDGMENT convcy the same truth, of a simultaneous judgment of the righteous and the wicked, in language as transparent as it is sublimely worthy of the scene itself? Matt. XXV. 31-46 : " When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then {rort) shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. (Compare chap. xvi. 27.) And before him shall be gathered all nations rf and he shall * " No doubt the image underlying this language i?, that the master celebrates his return by a great festival, to which each of the servants, as soon as he has rendered his accounts, and shown that he has been true to his master's interests in his absence, is bidden freely to enter." But " while there is light and joy and feasting within, to celebrate the master's return, the darkness without shall be the portion of the un- profitable servant." — Trenc/i on the Parables. Exet (ffKorof r. •^wrcjoov) ibi. Extra locuni convivii, lucidissimum. — {Bengel.) ■\ Yiavra ra cdvr}. Undoubtedly this, like every similar expression, is often used in a limited sense. But in Matt, xxviii. 19 {wavra r. t6vTi=iTao)j Ttj KTiaei, Mark xvi. 15), and other places, it denotes man- kind universally and individually. To refer, therefore, to places in which it is employed in the former sense, does nothing to show that this is its meaning here. But it is urged that the test by which the parties are here tried, is one which is applicable only to professed disciples of Christ; and consequently that this must be a limited judgment, from which ail heathens — strangers to Christianity — are excluded. I am surprised that such men as Mr. Elliott should reason thus (iv. 223, ut supra.) We might as well conclude that because the test mentioned in Rom. ii. 5-11, is much the same as here— " obeying" or "not obeying the truth" — therefore the judgment there described will be limited to hearers of the gosnel ; whereas the subsequent verses, 12-16, show that the heathens will be judged at the same lime, though by a different rule of course. Does not thi Scripture, and indeed every species of writing ^1^" 274 SIMULTANEOUS JUDGMENT—- separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth hit sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then {totc) shall the King say unto them on his right hand, " Come, ye blessed," &c. " Then (rors) shall he say unto them on the left hand, Dejjart from me. ye cursed," &c. " And these shall go away into everlasting punishment : but the righteous into life eter- nal," We have seen what efforts are made to set aside the tes- timony of this passage — some (as Mr. Elliott and Mr. H. Bonar) admitting it to be one transaction, but bringing it down to the level of judgments against living nations, or confederacies of evil ; while others (as Mr Bickersteth and Mr. Birks). not prepared for such a degradation of the solemn scene, make it two judgments — seen in sacred perspective as one, but separated from each other by :i thousand years. Both of these interpretations are alike forced. As the former destroys the personal and eternal character of the judgment itself, so the latter is directly in the teeth of some of the most solemn features of the pas- sage, which first gathers both parties before the throne in one mass, at the summons of " the King :" next separates the sheep from the goats ; and then, having judged and passed sentence upon each, finally disposes of both accordingly * epeak of things as if they stood alone, when the sense merely is, that they are the only subjects of consideration at the time ! * Mr. H. Bonar, though adopting an explanation of this scene, which makes it one transaction, reasons upon it exactly as those do who make it two— one at the beginning and the other at the end of the millennium — comparing it to binary stars, which though one to the naked eye, the telescope has resolved into two (p. 107). And in a note (No. viii.), he gathers together a number of difficulties in the way of sorting the various descriptions of the judgment, to show, I suppose, that it is impossible tr ietormine by them whether the judgment will be simultaneous or not. A single glance at the examples he gives, of apparent contradiction in these descriptions, is enough to show how very trifling they are. But U is impossible to go into such minutiae here. SCRIPTURAL PROOF OF IT. 275 The bare un sophisticated reading of the passage will do more, I believe, to dissipate such expositions of it as I have mentioned than whole pages of reasoning. I merely add, that commentators of every description regard the scene here depicted as one continuous transaction. Here I introduce a passage referred to under the head of Resurrection (pp. 205, 206), but reserved for comment to this head. Matt. XI ii. 30, 38-43: "Let both [tares and wheat] grow to- gether until the harvest : and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them : but gather the wheat into my barn The field is the world ; the good seed are the children of the kingdom ; but the tares are the chil- dren of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil ; the harvest is the end of the world ; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of the world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity ; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire : there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then {rori) shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." The points to which T request the reader's attention here are these : first, that the judgment spoken of is at the very time of Christ's coming, as is admitted on all hands ; next, that not only are the tares gathered at the same " harvest* time" with the wheat, but the tares are gathered and burned fir.«5t (so in Matt, xxv 46) : lastly, that as the sow- ing of the tares runs parallel, in point of time, with the sowing of the good seed, and represents all the false hearted professors of religion in every age^ whom Christ will have to remain till he come ; so the gathering and burning of these at the time of harvest, denotes the judg- 276 SIMULTANEOUS JUDGMENT merit of the whole of the wicked at the time of Christ's corning. And " then [rore]^" and not till then, " shall the righteous shine forth as the snn in the kingdom of their Father." No ingenuity, it appears to me, can set aside this bright testimony to the truth of the proposition we are now illus- trating.* I will now re-quote, but need scarcely comment on, our Lord's announcement of the resurrection and judgment of both classes at once, after what I have already said on it (pp. 201-205). John V. 28, 29 : " The hour is coming, in the which all that are in their graves shall hear his voice, and shall come ♦ This passage, by the way, affords a ready answer to all that is said in favour of a "judgment of the quick," or living wicked at the coming of Christ, separate from those that have to be raised for judgment from their graves. Many passages in which righteous and wicked are brought together, and represented as judged together, at Christ's co ing (such as Matt. XXV. 1-13 ; Luke xii. 46, xiii. 25), are considered to speak only of such wicked as shall be living when Christ comes. Now, not to insist on the violence which this seems to put upon those passages, this parable of the tares unanswerably shows that no such view was intended. For were we to conclude that because no tares could be gathered at the time of harvest from a field, but such as were actually in the field at that time, therefore only the wicked living at the tin>e of Christ's coming were meant here, we should pervert the figure to what it was never meant to teach. There is always a defect in the capacity of parabolic teaching. The defect here is, that it cannot represent those corrupt members of the Church-visible who have been in the field (to use the figure of the para- ble), but are removed out of it by death, generation after generation, be* fore Christ comes. And yet we have seen above, that all these are meant as the tares to be gathered and burned when Christ comes. Though the figure represents only the wicked then living, the parable as a whole teaches that the tares represent the children of the devil at large. So even in those representations which are not parabolic—those ali-e when Christ comes, though alone directly spoken of, are to be understood as embra- cing all of the same class— whether saints or sinners— ihat have evei lived. (See the quotation from Beksel, Note, pp. 16, 17.) SCRIPTURAL PROOF OF IT. 271 forth ; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life ; and they tliat have donu evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." I have little to add on this passage, in addition to what has been said under a former head (pp. 201-205). The resurrection and the judgment are here connected together, the one act being represented as in order to the other, and both said to be done in one " hour." It is not the Ungth of time which this word -' hour" is designed to mark. It may take a short or a long time. But it is the unity of feriod and action which alone is intended, and which, not- withstanding all the criticisms made upon it. can never, without violence, be made to comprehend under it the mul- tifarious and broken transactions that are expected to occur from the beginning of the thousand years to the last judg« ment. Mark here, also, the different character of the resurrection in the case of the righteous and the wicked the one •' the resurrection of life ; the other, the rcsurrec tion of damnation: the one holding of the second Adam the other of the frst." The Son of God is the doer of both. But the one class he raises in the exercise of grace the other in the exercise of justice. It is the life of th* Head, in the one case, reaching the bodies of his members, as long before it had reached their souls : it is the " wrath of the Lamb" in the other case, summoning to damnation all the workers of iniquity Acts xvii. 31 : " He hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained ; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men,, in that he hath raised him from the dead." Whether we look at the parties here said to be judged —'Uhe world" generally, and ^^ all men every where^^^ in particular — or observe the "fixing" (effrija«) of "a day^ 2a 278 SIMULTANEOUS JUDGMENT — - for doing the whole, without a hint of any brcak^ it seoms difficult to conceive how the Spirit of God could have con veyed to us the idea of one continuous unbroken judg ment, of righteous and wicked together, more plainly than this passage does it. To break up a judgment so described into two or more fragmentary judgments, as pre-raillen- nialists are forced to do, only shows what unreasonable demands their system makes upon them. The following passage is singularly decisive : — Rom. ii. 5-16 : " But, after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God ; who will render to every man according to his deeds : to them who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, and honour, and immortality, eternal life ; but unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unright- eousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile : but glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good ; to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile, i7i the day when God shall judge the sea els of men by Jesus Christ," Observe the alternations here from righteous to wicked, and from wicked to righteous, in the description of one and the same day of judgment. Observe, too, the names given to this day : It is called emphatically " the day of wrath, and of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God ;" implying, that immediately on the arrival of this day, that righteous judgment which till then had been in abeyance, will burst forth upon "the world of the ungodly;" and not temporal^ but ^'•eternal judgment — for as soon as that day arrives and reveals his wrath, God shall judge the secrets" of the heart, and "the secrets of men" indis- criminately, " by Jesus Christ." How, then, is it possible SCRIPTURAL PROOF OF IT. 279 to doutt that the judgment here described will be one un- broken continuous trial of men^s hearts, righteous and wicked together? The same truth is unequivocally expressed in 2 Cor. V. 9-11 : "Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ ; that every one may re- ceive the deeds done in the body, according to that he hath done, whether good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men." How can it be doubted, in the face of such a passage as this, that righteous and wicked will be sisted before one and the same judgment-seat of Christ, at one and the same time ; that the judgment on both classes will be strictly personal and in its issues eternal ; and that the anticipation of judgment, in this precise view of it. was the grand spring of action in the apostle's own mind, and what he wished all others to share with him in ? So in 1 Cor. iv. 5 : " Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden thirigs oj darkness, and wilt make manifest the counsels of the hearts ; and then shall evenj man have 'praise of God^ If this passage does not inform us that the object of Christ's coming will be to lay bare the secrets of men's hearts, for the express purpose of passing sentence upon them accordingly, and that this will be done alike upon all classes, the faithful and the unfaithful, the honest and the hypocritical, alike — what does it declare ? 2 Thess. i. 6-10: " Seeing it is a right thing with God to recom- pense tribulation to them that trouble you ; and to you who are troubled rest with us, ^chen the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty ang >-ls, in flaming fire, taking 280 SI3MULTANE0US JUDGMENT vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ ; who shall be punuhed with everlasting destruction from the presence of our Lord, and from tJve glory of his power; when he shall come to be olori- FiET) IN HIS SAINTS, and to be admired in all them that have believed* (because our testimony among you was believed), in that day J' Here we have something to be done both to safnts and to sinners, and the express time for the doing of both We have also a double expression, both of what is to be done to each party, and of the time. To '• them that trouble" believers, he •' will recompense tribulation." Of what sort ? " They shall be punished with everlasting destruction." But " to those who are troubled, he will recompense rest," yea, he will " be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe." So much for what is to be done to each. Now for the ii?ne. Both parties are to be " recom* pensed" at the same time — the troublers with tribulation, the troubled with rest — " when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven." This is again, and yet again re- peated. " The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, talcing vengeance'^ — not to take it some thousand years thereafter — but with that " flaming fire" of his •' vengeance," he will burst upon the world of the ungodly at his second coming. And lest it should be said that this "vengeance" may mean merely public judgments upon anti christian nations — a turn to give to the words as absurd as it is offensive, yet by no means uncommon — as if to cut off every such meagre view, the apostle adds, " who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power," and once more he notes the time — • '• WHEN hf. shall come to be glorified in his saints, and ad- T. TziQTtvaaa So all the critical editions SCRIPTURAL PROOF OF IT. 281 mired in all them that have believed ;" and as if even this were not enough, he adds, after a parenthesis, " in that dayy If such emphatic reiterations of the same thing, in every form of language the most vivid, be not sufficient — if after this the judgment of righteous and wicked together, and both, " at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from hea- ven," be questioned — it seems difficult to conceive what way of expressing this truth would be deemed sufficient. If the apostle had been writing expressly against the no- tion of a divided judgment — a judgment of each class sepa- rately, and with an interval between them of a thousand jears — it is not easy to see how he could have expressed the reverse of this more clearly and more emphatically than this passage does And yet this is got over by pre-mil- lennialists. 1 Cor. lii. 12-15 : " If any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble : every man's work shall be made manifest : for the day shall de- clare it, because it shall be revealed by fire ; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss ; but he himself shall be saved ; yet so as by fire." Here " the day " of Christ's second coming is said to be ^'-revealed hy jiief just as in the preceding passage it is said, * the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire." This fire shall be applied to the "build- ing" which every professed Christian has erected upon Chiist, the true '• foundation." for the purpose of testing tbo soundness of the materials employed. The worthless ma- terials are termed •' woofl. hay^ slubbl^,''^ wliich, being all eombustible, " shall be burned." The valuable materials 2a2 282 SIMULTANEOUS JUDGMENT are stj^led, ^^ gold, silver, 'precious stones,''^ which stand the fire, and so will come out from the fiery test, to which they are to be subjected, uninjured. Thus, ^' every man's work shall be made manifest : for the day shall declare it, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." As this fiery test will discover who are true members of Christ, and who are hypocrites, so will it separate the chaff from the wheat in Christ's own people, some of whom will " scarcely be saved." This fire, then, is to test the right- eous and the wicked together, at " the revelation of the day of Christ ;" and shall we say, that though this test will be applied in the day of Christ's coming to all the righteous that have ever lived, it will not be then applied to all the wicked, but only to so many of them as shall be found liv- ing when Christ comes, leaving all the rest for a thousand years undisturbed in their graves, thereafter to be tried in a party by themselves ? Surely this is a very preposterous turn to give to the passage.* Col. i. 28: " Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching * I am aware of the reference to doctrines in this passage, as the thing more immediately intended by the "wood, hay, stubble," &c., and these too as introduced by men " holding the Head"— building on "the true foundation." In that view, the passage is deeply instructive. But he who stops short at this point, and fancies that he has exhausted the whole scope and object of the passage when he has brought out its bear- ings on doctrine, has taken but a feeble grasp of it. The personal bear- ings of the passage we shall do well not to miss, for they are as searching and solemn as they are obvious. When the fire has burned up all thatia combust.ble about some of us, how much will remain 7 " As a shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs or a piece of an ear," so shall some be then saved. Fiery tests are. indeed, from time to time ap- plied to men here; and by these, strange discoveries are sometimes made, by which " the last become first and the first last." Premonitions these are, and rehearsals on a small scale of the revelations of the great dav. " The Lord grant that we may find mercy of the Lord in that day !'' SCRIPTURAL PROOF OF IT. 283 every man in all wisdom ; that we may present* every man-f perfect in Christ Jesus." Here Paul does not assert^ but fakes it for granted^ that Le and other ministers will be confronted with all the people to whom they have ministered in the day of Christ's appearing — embracing of course both classes of them — and tells us how he agonized in order to be able to give a good account of " every man " that had been the object of his labours ; not of his genuine converts in their presence^ and of the rejecters of his message in their absnct — while rot- ting in their graves, or at some long subsequent resurrec- tion and judgment of the wicked — but that he might be able to present them all perfect in Christ, which implies surely that he might have a very diflferent presentation to make of some from others, in that day. So in Heb. xiii. 17 : " Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves : for they keep watch {aypvirvo^aiv) for your souls, as they that must give account ; that they may do it with joy and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you." 1. Thess, ii. 19, 20: " For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing "? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming '? For ye are our glory and joy." In the first of these passages the people are reminded that their spiritual guides have to give an account of them individually, and that it might be one either of joy or of grief, according to the class they should be found in * HapaaTTjGwutv. This is the presentation of the Church to Christ at his coming, which we have found to be a favourite idea with more than one apostle. See chap, iv., pp. 57-61. t liivra avdpuirov, thrice repeated in one verse. Hoc (says Bengel) toties posiium maximam habet Seivo-TjTa ac vim. 284 SIMULTANEOUS JUDGMENT at the great day. In the other passage the apostle refers to the joy he would experience, and the crown he would receive, as the spiritual father of his Thessalonian converts, when he met them at the coming of their common Lord. 1 John ii. 28; iv. 17: "And now, little children, abide in him i that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Mm at his coming Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have bold- iiess in the day of judgment ; because as he is, so are we in this world." Rev. iii. 5 : "'He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment ; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels." 1 Tim. V. 24, 25 : " Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some they follow after. Likewise the good works [of some] are manifest beforehand ; and they that are otherwise cannot be hid." Rom. xiv. 10, 12 : " But Avhy dost thou judge thy brother 1 . . , for we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ. ... So then every oiie of us shall give account of himself to God" — namely, "before the judgment-seat of Christ." Leaving these passages to speak for themselves, I con- clude these testimonies to the simultaneous judgment of the righteous and the wicked with two of the grandest descriptions, but scarcely requiring illustratioQ. 2 Pet. iii, 7, 10, 12: "But the heavens and the earth which are now, are kept in store, reserved unto fire against t]ie day of judgment and of the perdition of ungodly men. . . . But tha day of live Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which {tv i) the heavens shall pass away," &<;. ..." Looking for and liasting unto the coming of the day of God, in consequence of which {Si »/v)* the heavens being on fire shall be dis- solved." ♦ A remarkable turn of expression. We may compare with it Rev. SCRIPTURAL PROOF OF IT. 285 Here " the day of judgment," and even " the coming o^ that day, as a thief in the night," is spoken of as one, in point of time, with " the perdition of ungodly men," and both with the dissolution of the heavens and the earth. How, then, can it be maintained that this " perdition of ungodly men" will be a thousand years later than the coming of Christ? The usual reply to this is, that the passage speaks only of such " ungodly" as shall be alive when Christ comes. Even if we should admit this, do those, who adopt it believe in any such " 'perdition of un- godly men^^ when Christ comes, as involves a strictly per- sonal judgment of the " secrets of their hearts ?" Do they believe that this "perdition" will be the execution of the sentence passed upon them after such judgment, and that it will consequently be not any sweeping acts of vengeance upon public bodies or masses of men, but their " everlast- ing destrtbclion from tlie presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power ?" In a word, do they believe that it will be such a judgment as leaves not one of the coa- demned to escape ? If so, what becomes of the notion of " remnants^^ of these very " ungodly men" spared to " stock the new earth," "converted by this judgment," and made missionaries to the heathen world ? Another theory has been devised for solving these inex- tricable difficulties, namely, that as the day of judgment is to last a thousand years, the perdition of ungodly men may be said to take place ^^ in the dap in which the heavens are dissolved," though it do not take place till the end of XX. 11, "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it,/rom whose face the earth and the heaven Jled away ;" also 2 Thess. i. 9, "Who shall be punished with everlasting destructionyVo??! the presence (or face) of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." " This fact (says Ben- gel) will be intolerable to the wicked : They shall not see, but they shall feel it." So in our passage, he speaks as if the heavens would kindle at the presence, or under the influence, of " that day." 286 SIMULTANEOUS JUDGMENT it. This is Mr. Burgh's view, to whose statomeut I shal) have something to say in the following chapter. The last passage, though already given, I must here transcribe in full • Rev. XX. 11-15 : " And 1 saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away ; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before the throne : and the books were opened ; and another book was opened, which is the book of life : and the dead were judged out of thos6 things which were written in the books, according to theii works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in' it ; and death and hades delivered up the dead which were in them : and they were judged every man accord- ing to their works. And death and hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whoso- ever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." On this passage I observed, that if ever language ex- pressed the doctrine of a simultaneous and universal re- surrection, surely we have it here. I would now add, that if language be capable of expressing the doctrine of a simultaneous and universal judgment, it is undoubtedly ex- pressed here. But I will not try to make plainer by com- ments, what is so ver}'^ plain without them. I would merely request the reader to glance again over what was said on this passage in connexion with the Resurrection (pp. 210- 217). One other passage- -omitted in its proper place — I may be permitted to add here : 2 Tim. iv. 1 : " I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appear- ing and his kingdom, Preach the word," &c. The " judgmen ■ of quick and dead" is an expression SCRIPTURAL PROOF OF IT. 2S7 thrice used in the New Testament: once (Acts x. 42) iu connexion with the Person who is to do it — ''It is ho (Christ) who is ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead;" again (1 Pet iv. 6). in connexion with the nearness of it — " Who is readi/ to judge the quick and tl»e dead ;" * and here, in connexion with the time of it — ■ " Who shall judge the quick and the dead at his a'ppcaring and his kingdom " The " kingdom" here is unquestionably that of glory : sometimes called the kingdom of our Father — ' Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in thi^ kingdom of THEIR Father" (Matt. xiii. 43) ; sometimes called the kingdom of Christ — " So an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom op OUR Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Pet. i. 11); and sometimes the kingdom of both the Father and the Son — '' No whoremonger, nqr unclean person, nor idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of Gtod" (Eph. V. 5). In this sense of it, •' Christ's appearing and his kingdom''^ are ever associated in point of time ; as when Paul charged the Thessalonians that they would •■ walk worthy of God, who had called them to his kingdom and glory'' (1 Thess. ii. I2).t Well, it is at this, " his appearing and kingdom," that Christ is to " judge the quick and the dead" — not " the quick" at his appearing, and '• the dead" a thousand years thereafter ; but the quick and the dead together, and of both classes, " at his appearing and his kingdom." * Paratus est Judex: nam, evangelic praBdicato, nil nisi finis restat — (Bengel.) f BafftAetav Kai So^av' regnum et gloriam: Magnificum avvBerov^ says Bengel. Though here called " Gods kingdom," the identity of it witli that which is called Christ's, is too manifest to admit of doubt. 288 SUMMARY. And now what have we found on this head of the judo MENT ? 1. We have found that the pre-millennialists are con* strained to admit, in one form or other, that Christ, when he comes the second time, will come to judge the world. But, 2. As their system does not admit of any general judg- ment — any judgment of the whole world at once — we have found them obliged to parcel out the judgment, not only into separate acts or processes, distant from each other by long periods of time, but into heterogeneous transactions, that cannot be brought under one category ; and to call the whole period of the thousand years ^' the day of judg- ment?'* Thus, They make the judgments upon the anti-christian na- tions which are to usher in the millennium to be part of *• the judgment of the great day ;" they style these the "judgment of the quvk ;''^ and by many of them they are identified with the judgment so inimitably described in the 25th of Matthew. Now, either this is the personal and eternal judgment of those nations, or it is not. If it be no/, it is absurd to call it " the judgment of the quick," and such an application of that phrase is fitted only to mislead. But if these pre-millennial judgments upon the anti-christian nations be all the judgment that is ever to pass upon their immortal souls, then how come '• remnants" of them to be spared in those judgments ; nay converted by what to them is " the judgment of the great day," and made instruments, during the millennium, of converting others ? Was ever a wilder, and I will add, a more dan- gerous speculation gravely put forth by good men ? Far fcher, They make the millennial rule, administration, or government of Christ — which in Scripture is doubtless SUMMARY. 289 called by the name of "judgment/' just as all rule is — this also they make part of '^ the judgment of the great day." Of course it cannot be pretended, that this is of the nature of a jtbdicial I rial of men's previous state and cha- racter for eternity. So that, during great part of their thousand years' day of judgment, there is to be no judg- ment at all, in the only sense in which Christ is said to come to judgment. They may try to give it something of that character, by telling us, as they do, of the instant death with which all outbreakings of evil during the mil- lennium will be visited. But he who can persuade him- self that suck judgments — allowing there were more ground to look for them than has yet been produced — will make the millennium to be '• the great day of judgment," must be easily convinced. And then, By placing the judgment of the righteous before, and that of the wicked after the millennium, they make the last judgment, so majestically described in the 20th of Revelation, to be a judgment of on£ class only ; and they make " the book of life " to be produced and opened for no other purpose but to condemn all that are then judged, as not having their names written in it : Thus are they driven to do manifest violence to that whole scene. But, 3. We have found that even this thousand years' day of judgment is not long enough to serve their purpose ; and that, to help them over the work which they put into this period, it would require to be made longer still. For, not to speak of the judgment of the righteous, which they re- present as prior to the thousand years, and therefore no part of the day^s work, strictly speaking ; t)ie judgment of the wicked, instead of taking place withiji the millennial period, does not take place till after it has so entirely run out, that even " /Ae little season" which succeede it — and 2b 290 SUMMARY. which we found reason to believe would be, relatively, not so very little — would be exhausted ere it takes place. And thus, by no fair stretch of language, are they warranted to say that such a judgment will take place in any fart of the millennial day. This singular scheme, then, of a thou- sand years' day of judgment — so very unlike a true view of the judgment-day — fails to meet the case which it was invented to suit, and must, independent of other objections, be given up even on this ground. 4. This whole scheme of the judgment makes no pro- vision whatever — nor does it pretend to make any — for judging the vast multitudes of believing men by whom the world is to be peopled during the millennium. They are not among those judged before the millennium, for they are not then born ; and they are not among those judged after it, for none but the wicked are expected to be judged then. And so they are not judged at all; that is to say, this scheme makes no 'provision for their being judged. Thus the pre-millennial scheme of the judgment falls out at every turn, and presents such gaps as to expose to the impartial eye its fatal deficiencies. While it is too artificial and complicated to look like a true doctrine, its supporters have not been able, with all the pains they have taken to adjust it, to provide for the judgment of the whole human race. Tried by its theory of the judgment, then, the pre-millennial scheme is found wanting ; and, if want* ing here^ it must be given up. But, 5. In contrast with this, how unencumbered, how ma- jestic, how self-approving, and — as we have abundantly shown — how conformable to all Scripture, is the doctrine of a simultaneous and universal judgment of all mankind at the coming of Christ ! The passages we have adduced SUMMARY. 58tfl prove beyond all reasonable doubt, that the whole human family will at once stand before the bar of Christ in their resurrection-state , and that the judgment then held and pronounced will be one continuous, unbroken transaction. And, if this be the case, the pre-millennial scheme must be abaudoaed. CHAPTER XII. THE CONFLAGRATION, AND THE NEW HEAVENS AND NEW EARTH, AT THE COMING OP CHRIST, There is probably nothing in Scripture so hard to bend to the pre millennial doctrine as that which relates to the onflagration and its issues, as announced in the following ▼ell-known verses : — 2 Pet. iii. 7, 10-13 : " But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief [in the night] ;* in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall he burnt up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of per- sons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, in consequence of whichf the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat 1 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelieth righteous- ness." "Eev. XX, 11 : "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away ; and there was found no place for them." * Gries. Sch. Lack, (f* Tisch. omit tv vvkti. t See note, pp. 284, 285. FINAL CONFLAGHATION. 293 Rev. XXI. 1 : " And I saw a new heaven and a ne^^ earth : for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away ; and there \\-as no more sea," The pre-millennial theory will never survive the recep- tion of these passages in their plain and obvious sense. They describe a conflagration to take place when Christ appears the second time, which it is utterly inconceivable should occur before the millennium. I. When we turn to the descriptions of the world's condi- tion in the latter day, we not only find no intimation of such a change as is here described, but every thing to prove that there neither will nor can be such a pro-millennial revolu- tion upon the globe we inhabit. Earth and sea are precisely where they were, and what they were. Not a place disap- pears ; not a feature of any thing is changed. Not to speak of Assyria and Egypt, Elam and Shinar, Pathros and Cush, Hamath, and the islands of the sea, — the borders of Pales- tine are given with the minutest geographical and topo- graphical precision, as if nothing had happened to disturb them. Mount Zion is still the mount it ever was ; and En- gedi, and En-eglaim, and " the way of Hethlon, as men go to Zedad," and Gilead and Jordan, and the waters of strife in Kadesh and the Great Sea (Ezek xlvii), and every place, as it was. Nay, what may be called the meteorological features of every country remain precisely as before. Any nation of the earth, not coming up to Jerusalem to worship, upon them is to be no rain. But whereas " the family of Egypt have no rain" — their land being watered by the bounteous Nile — some other plague is to visit them. " If the family of Egypt go not up, that have no rain ; there shall be the plague, wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen," &c. (Zech. xiv. 17, 18 ) So much for the physical condition of the earth, and of 2b2 204 FINAL CONFLAGRATION all that contributes to make and keep it what it is. But we find its inhabitants as unaffected as itself by any such conflagration as Peter describes. We find Jews and Gentiles transacting their affairs, secular and religious, pre- cisely as before, and without the briefest interruption. Now, what are we to make of all this ? It is met in several ways, all equally at variance with the express statements of the passages before us. 1. Some, finding the sheer impossibility of believing that such a conflagration as Peter predicts is consistent with the unaltered condition of the earth and its inhabitants during the millennium, candidly admit that it cannot be pre-millennial, and agree with us in referring it to the close of the thousand years. Such are Mr. Burgh, Mr. Tyso, and Mr. Ogilvy. " If," says Mr. Burgh, " the general conflagration takes place at the comm£ncement of the millennial reign, it follows that the nature and object of that reign must be completely altered, and that the scriptural descriptions of the millennium can no longer hold; for, during the millennial reign, we are told that the in- habitants of the earth will be still in mortal flesh, and their na- tional distinctions still maintained ; the great object of Christ's reign on earth during the thousand years being, as I have said, to carry Christianity into effect in this world, to gather to himself all the nations of the earth, and bring about their conversion. I ask, How could this bel How could the nations of the earth con- tinue to exist as men, and under these circumstances, if the gen- eral conflagration had taken place at the descent of the Lord from heaven?"* But how, you ask, does he reconcile this attempt to place the conflagration a thousand years after Christ's com- ing, with those words of the apostle emphatically connect- ing it with the very act of his coming ? — " The day of the * Lect. on Rev. ut supra, p. 373. MR. burgh's view OF iT. 295 Lord will corae as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away," &c. All the answer we get tc this question is, that this " day" is a thousand years long, and as it is only " i?i the day," it may be as well at the end as at the beginning of it* This, however, will never do, for it runs counter to the express object of the apostle in introducing the subject. He had been warning them against the scoffers who would deride the expectation of Christ's coming, or of a day of judgment — reminding them that the old world had been destroyed by water, and inti- mating that •' the heavens and the earth, that are now, are reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and of the perdition of ungodly men ;" and having explained the mer- ciful design of God in delaying this fire, and the execution of his vengeance against the ungodly — from which men flatter themselves that it will never come — he warns such that it will burst upon them when least expected. " But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away," &c. Manifestly, therefore, it is the conflagration itself which is to take the world by surprise, bursting upon it " with a rushing noise" (pt^^jJov). just as the antediluvians '-knew not until the * *' It may indeed be objected, that in 2 Pet. iii., where the conflagra- tion of the present world is mentioned as followed by new heavens and a new earth, these events seem to be identified with the ' coming' of the Lord : — " looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, WHEREIN the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved,' &c.— (12, 13.) It, however, requires but little examination into the other places where these expressions, 'coming of the Lord,' and 'day of the Lord,' occur, to show that they are far from denoting, the one merely the descent or appearing of the Lord, and the other a literal * day.' The word ren- dered ' coming,' is in fact ' the being present,'' {irapovjia, not tirifaveia), and the ' day of God' and the ' day of judgment' may easily be shown to be designations of the whole period of Christ's reign, when 'executing justice and judgment in the earth.' // is then dear, that if the confla' gration and new creation take place in any part of this ' day of the Lord} tke apostle's words hold true."— Pp. 375, 376. 296 FINAL CONFLAGRATION flood came and destroyed them all." No thousand years, therefore, are to inter\ene between " the day of the Lord'* and " the passing away of the heavens." Nor, indeed, would a thousand years' interval save the theory, since, as we have seen, the last judgment is outside of the thou- sand years altogether^ and even after the expiry of the " little period" which succeeds the thousand years. 2. Others, constrained to admit that the conflagration and the second advent are contemporaneous, and taking both to be pre-millennial, explain the conflagration in a contracted sense, as extending no farther than the yro- phetic earth, or the territory of old Rome. " As to the grand difficulty," says Mr. Elliott, " in the way of this (pre-millennial) theory, which has been supposed to arise out of St. Peter's description of the earth's being burnt up before the pro- mised new heavens and new earth, I shall only suggest, as others before me, that the yij, or eart/i, of the apostle's conflagra- tion is by no means certainly the whole habitable world (indeed the parallel prophecy of Isa. Ixv. 17, 18, Ixvi. 22, &c., seems to forbid it) ; or, in fact, any other than the Roman earth, which we have seen on Apocalyptic evidence is to be destroyed pre-mil- lennially by fire at the time of Antichrist's destruction It would seem that in this state of things and of (sceptical) feeling (in regard to the coming of Christ) in professing Chris- tendom, all suddenly and unexpectedly, and conspicuous over the world as the lightning that shineth from the east even to the west, the second advent and appearing of Christ will take place. . . . Meanwhile it would also appear, that with a tre- mendous earthquake accompanying, of violence unknown since the revolutions of primaeval chaos (an earthquake under which the Roman world at least is to reel to and fro like a drunken man), the solid crust of this earth shall be broken, and fountains burst forth from its inner deep, not as once of water, but of liquid fire that this, I say, shall then burst forth and en- gulph the vast territory of the Papal Babylon, and the godless of its inhabitants ; thence spreading even to Palestine, and every MR. Elliott's and mr. a. bonar's riEW of it. 297 where, as in the case of Sodom, making the ve: y elements to melt with fervent hoat; and that there (in Palestine) the flame shall con- sume the Antichrist and Ids confederate kings, while the sword also does its work of slaughter. . . . And then immediately, it would Beem also, the renovation of this our earth is to take place ; its soil being purified by the very action of the fire, in all that shall remain of it, for * the nations of the saved,' that is, the -jrentile remnant and restored Israel," &,c.—{Hor. Apoc. iv. 217, 221, 222, 224-227, ut supra.') " It is well known," adds Mr. Elliott in a note, " that the words yij and oiKovfievii are often used in a limited sense of Judoea or the Roman earth, just as the Romans themselves call theii world the orbis terrarum: and, after careful consideration of the various prophetic descriptions of the consummation, I incline to think that the meaning of the term, when used in these pro- phecies of the concluding revolutions of the earth on Christ's advent, is thus limited, and that it refers to the Roman world alone; with this modification, moreover, that the circumstance of the separation of the Eastern and Western Empire, and political destruction of the former by the Turkish invasion, having caused the phrase to be used in the later Apocalyptic prophecies of Western or Papal Christendom only, it may be so in those of the consummation also. — TTie idea of some other a7id more universal conflagraiion at the general judgment is not HEREBY EXCLUDED." Mr. A. Bonar takes the same contracted view of the conflagration, as limited to Christendonu though its effects may be "felt all over the wide globe." After referring to Dan. vii. and Rev. xviii., which speak of the body of the fourth beast as given to the burning flame and of the smoke of Babylon's burning, and identifying this with the conflagration described in Peter, he says — " It appears to intimate that at the Lord's coming all that is called ' Babylon ' — in short, all Christendom become Papal — shall be one blaze of consuming fire. This tremendous fire shall purge FINAL CONFLAGRATION Europe from the filtli of its destroyers more effectually than Joshua's sword did Canaan ; and the (European 1) soil thus cleansed shall soon receive a new race of inhabitants. It may be, too, that the effects of the confiafration shall be felt all over the wide globe, pen- etrating through the earth, and working that change on it appointed by the Lord. And thus, not the heavens only and the elements, but earth also and its works, are visited with fire. In Heb. xii. 26, God's voice is said to have shaken ' the earth ' when it made Sinai tremble. On that day, not only did the skies above feel the tempest, but earth shook as the Lord came down. So it may be said that ' earth ' is flung into the crucible when Dan, vii. 11, and Rev. xviii. 9, are ful- filled"— that is, when Papal Europe only is ' flung into the cruci- ble.'* Mr. Bonar himself, however, seems to stagger at this miserable explanation of the conflagration in Peter. " It may be," he candidly says, "we are wrong in supposing that the tremendous Sodom-doom of Christendom shall be what is meant by ' earth and its works ' sharing in the fire that melts the elements ; but even if so, what better can the anti-raillennarian say V (p. 119, 120.)t Never, perhaps, was more palpable violence done to the text of Scripture, than by this singular attempt to limit the conflagration predicted by Peter to Rome Papal, or Christendom.'^ The whole context proclaims it a world- wide conflagration, and every clause of the passage itself Beems framed on purpose to exclude all limitation. Scoflf- ers, says the apostle, are to arise, who shall deride the ex- * Redempt., pp. 117, 118. t The anti-millennarian difficuUy to which Mr, Bonar alludes is the fact, that in Isa. Ixv, 17, to which Peter refers, there are found Jerusalem and her people, houses and vineyards, after " the new heaven and new earth" which the prophet announces. On this supposed difficulty, I have merely to refer the reader to pp. 179-139. t The excellent Mr. Maiiland (of Brighton), and others, limit the "every eye" that "shall see" the Redeemer at his second coming, to ev- ery eye in Christendom 1 UNIVERSALITY OF IT. 299 pectation of Christ's coming, alleging that " all things have continued as they were from the beginning V To repel this, the apostle reminds them of the provision made from the first for the devastation of the old world by water. " By the word of God, the heavens were of old, and the eartk standing out of the water and in the water ; whereby the world that then was ( ^ -rore pt with reOtiaavptaiJievoi preceding, and not with rripovusvot following ; by which also the idea of a preparation within the bowels of the earth itself for its eventual desfuction by fire, as before by water, is better con- veyed. t Peribunt magno impetu.— (Grot.) Mr. Elliott's illustration froni 300 FINAL CONFLAGRATION The " heavens" and the " elements" seem to be here distinguished very much as " the earth" and " the works that are therein" afterwards are. Whatever " elements" mean here, as contradistinguished from the '-heavens," it must be something, the " dissolution'^ of which would in- capacitate human beings, as at present constituted, from subsisting for a moment. What, then, becomes of the theory of mortal men tenanting the new heavens and the new earth ? It is nothing better than a dream. " The earth and the works that are therein shall be buriit up." * " The earth," as here distinguished from " the works that are therein," doubtless means the bodi/ of the globe as distinguished from all that adorns its surface. If this is to be " burnt up^" it must surely be something greatly more searching and fundamental than the mere " paring and burning" process to which Mr. Elliott, in the foregoing passage, and others, as we shall see, appear no- thing loath to debase this magnificent prediction. " Seeing then that alt these things shall be dissolved {\oo^ev(av). . . , Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, in consequence of which the fieavens being on Jire:\ shall be dis- solved, and tli£ elements shall melt with fervent heat." " Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a n^io earth, wherein dwelleth rigJileousiiess,^' This crowns the description, and completes the evidence against a limited conflagration. For, as " the new heavens the noise and shock of the earthquake which accompanied the volcanic eruption at Sumbawa in 1815, and which he tells us was felt and heard 970 miles off, seems to me to be a very good illustration of the bathos, but of nothing else. * KaraKa»j(T£Tai, "shall be burned down;*' the Latins would say exureniur, "shall be burnt out ;"" while we say, '* shall be burnt up :" the idea of complete consumption being alike conveyed by all these forms of expression. •f Yivpo-onevoi, fusi igne ut metalla fundi solent:ci-iis^, Ps. xii. 7 ; Ea. t 25 ; Dan. xii. 7 ; Zach. xii. 9, &c. (Gbot.) UNIVERSALITY OF IT. 301 and the new earth' come in the room of " the heavens and the earth that are now," if the latter are to be suljected to the action of fire to the extent only of Rome Papal or Chri.stendora, the renovation must be equally limited. But as the brethren whose views of this passage we have been examining contend for a renovation of the whole earthy they must give up their limited conflagration, or explain this passage in the most capricious and inconsistent style. These and similar considerations seem indeed to press upon their own minds, insomuch that at the very time they are endeavouring to narrow this conflagration as much as possible, in order to avoid the fatal difficulties it would otherwise occasion them, they do reluctant homage to the scriptural and almost unanimous expectation of a universal conflagration. Thus Mr. Elliott says, in the passage already quoted : •' The idea of some other and more universal con- flagration at the general judgment is not hereby excluded.''^ But where shall we find any " other conflagration," and " more universal" than this, described in Scripture ? No- where. This is beyond all comparison the most " univer- sal" conflagration announced in the Bible : and, even if there were any other worthy of being compared with it, Mr. Elliott and those who think with him would be sure to make it pre-millennial, as they do this. The above ad- mission, therefore, " keeps the word of promise to the ear, but breaks it to the hope." It gives the author the benefit of apparently admitting what he must be held to deny — a universal conflagration.* In like manner we have seen that Mr. A. Bonar does homage to the universality — in * That Mr. Elliott, despite his admission, does not believe in any "more imiversal confl igration at the general judgment," is phiin from that part of his book in which he treats of the close of the millennium. Nothing of the sort is so much as hinted at, and even the general judg- ment itself is left mysteriously unapproached. 3c 302 FINAL CONFLAGRATION — some sense — of the conflagration, while contending that its action is limited to " Europe." " It may be," he cau- tiously says, " that the effects of the conflagration shall be fdt all over the wide world, penetrating through the earth, and working that change on it appointed by the Lord." This is just the best efibrt which that estimable brother could make, to graft what every one perceives to be the sense of the passage upon a sense of it the most inadequate and unnatural : Indeed, it would be dif&cult to extract from it any definite meaning. Thus sweeping^ then, and thus penetrating^ is this confla- gration announced so magnificently by the apostle Peter ; so all-involving and all-reducing^ that many able critics and divines conceive it to express a total annihilation — of substance as well as form. The Lutheran divines for the most part maintained this, but were opposed with great force of argument by the Reformed ; who contended that BO far from the annihilation of our physical system, in its primary elements, being here expressed or implied, the reverse is rather conveyed — the dissolution of its present physical constitution only, and its re-constitution under new and higher laws. With them agreed such of our own divines as had occasion to touch upon the point, as will be seen from the extracts given below.* But the ♦ "We take it for granted," says Durham (on Rev. xxi. 1), " that there is not to be a full annihilation of this universe by this change , . , , . yea this exception, that 'there shall be no more sea,' confirmeth it; for it supposeth somewhat more to befall it than * the heaven and the earth,' which could not be if the annihilation of all were absolute. The question therefore lieth mainly in this, whether that change be substan- tial, so that these heavens and this earth being removed, there are new heavens and new earth again created; or whether that change be but in respect of qualUies, as it is with respect to the body of man, which is raised the same as to its substance, yet so as to its qualities it may he called another, for its spiritualness, purity, glory, incorruptibleness, &c. . . . We conceive this last to be truth— that as the heavens and earth ALL-INVOLVING— ALL-REDUCING. 303 very existence of such a controversy shows how very far the predicted change was, on all hands, felt to go. 3. An attempt has been made to form, out of the two are not substantially changed or annihilated, so the new earth and heaven succeeding are the same for substance, but for nature more stable, for beauty more glorious, for use free from the abuses sinful men put them unto, and from the effects of the curse put upon them for man's sin — they are altogether freed and set at liberty from these. Therefore (Acts iii. 21,) it is called ' the time of the restitution of all thivgs.' For confirmation whereof, we may consider these places wherein this change is most expressly mentioned : As Ps. cii. 26, with Heb. i. 10, 12; 1 Cor. vii. 31; 2 Pet. iii. 10, 12, 13; . . . . and that famous place, Rom. viii. 19-22, where the scope purposely is to prove the glorious condition the saints have to expect after this, and that such as even senseless creatures wait and long for, as being to be made partakers of It at the general manifestation of the sons of God ; where observe, 1, That by 'creature,^ in the singular number (v. 19, 20.) is understood the universe as contradistinguished from the elect, and such a creature as by the sin of man is made subject to vanity ; and so is not to be under- stood of the whole creation simply, as certainly neither of angels nor of the seat of the blessed* .... 3. That the 'creature' here mentioned is to be fully delivered from the effects of sin and the curse .... be- cause (v. 21) it is expressly said that it is to be delivered from bondage, and to share of that liberty of the sons of God ; and as their change is not substantial but qualitative — from the worse to the better— so shall it, in some proportionable suitable manner, be freed from changes, cor- ruption, &c., and be in another way glorious. These excellent privi- leges waited for by the creature cannot consist either with annihilation or substantial change, but with a qualitative mutation far to the bet- ter, though we cannot in every thing satisfy our curiosity about it, neither should we aim at that." "This liberty," says Brown (of Wamphray — banished 1662), "which the creature shall at that day enjoy, shall not be by its annihilation, or being reduced to nothing, as if all the glorious liberty of the sons of God, to which it shall be redeemed, were nothing else but a ceasing to be used by sinners as now it is ; seeing we hear of a 'netc heaven and a new earth' (2 Pet. iii. 13), and that these shall only be 'changed,^ Ps. cii. 26," &c.— {Expos o/Ep. to Rom.— on ch. viii. 19-22.) • Durham, thougii expecting '' the heavens and the earth that are now," after undergoing t le conflagration, to '• result in the new heavens and earth— as a re- fined lump from which the dross is taken away"— did not identify this with " th« Beat of the blessed," and was at a loss to know what was to be its destination. 304 FINAL CONFLAGRATION. former explanations of the conflagration, a third, by which some of the foregoing difficulties are avoided, though in a way not more to be approved in other respects. We mean the breaking if it vp^ as they do the Judgment, into two or more conjlagrations on a small scale, no one of them inter- fering to any great extent with the previous state of things, but all of them together accomplishing the change de- scribed by Peter. " It does not," says Mr. Bickersteth, " appear decisively, from any thing in St. Peter's account, in what part of that ' day of judgment,' ' the day of the Lord, which is as a thousand years,' the general con- flagration may take place ; or whether there may not be, as some have supposed, a partial fire at the beginning (2 Thess, i. 7, 8; Eev. xix. 20), and another more complete at the close of that day. About the order of events foretold, and in what part of that order *the new heavens and the new earth' will take place, there is much of that obscurity in which unfulfilled events are purposely left."* As to this alleged obscurity regarding the time of the new heavens and new earth, it exists only in those minds which the pre-millennial theory puts out of all their reckon- ings on such matters. But, whereas here are introduced but two conflagrations, the following passage seems to speak of something more than this : " It is questioned," says Mr. Brooks, " what will be the process of this burning, namely, whether all at once, or by gradual eruptions of volcanic matter, and to what extent it will take place."t The note here introduced we copy in part, to show how low in their conceptions of those " new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness," good men can de- Bcend when under the influence of the system we have been investigating. ♦ Guide, p. 288. t Elem., p. 239. .NEW HEAVENS AND EARTH PEOPLED BY WHOM? 305 " Some," he saj^s, " have argued, that the conflagration cannot be until the annihilation of the world, on the ground that the action of fire would render the soil unfit for the use of man. This is arguing in ignorance of the real facts of the case, even at present ; for un- fruitful land is now often pared and burned to produce a soil, and the ^oW formed by triturated lava is excellent .'" II. But we have still to ask, how the inhabitants of " the heavens and the earth that are now," are tided over this all- enveloping, all-reducing deluge of fire, into " the new heav- ens and the new earth," of which the most of them are to be the occupants, according to the pre-millennial theory. As to the saints — raised from the dead, or changed when Christ comes — there is no difficulty. Caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, they are safe enough from the conflagration, if in their risen state they could be in any danger from it.* The ungodly^ too, are out of the way, at least the most of them ; for they are destroyed^ according to the pre-millennial theory, by the judgments that accompany the second advent, f But a " reinnant " of this class is ex- * What Mede threw out as a modest conjecture in one of his letters, is now the general understanding of pre-millennialists on this subject. " What (says he) if this rapture of the saints be, that they may be preserved during the conflagration of the earth and the works thereof 2 Pet. iii. 10, that as Noah and his family were preserved from the deluge by being lift up above the waters in the ark, so should the saints at the conflagration be lift up in the clouds unto their Ark, Christ, to be preserved from the deluge of fire, wherein the wicked shall be con- sumed 7"— (P. 776.) t If you ask. With what kind of destruction 1 You will get no satisfactory answer. Sometimes you would think it were by flames of fire breaking out upon them. But, judging from the prophecies to which they commonly refer, and the literal sense which they insist upon giving to them, they appear to expect one vast carnage — slaughter in a literal battle or battles— " the land soaked with blood,'' and "all the fowls filled with flesh?' And this is what they term the judgment of the quick, or at least a principal part of it— miserable view! 2c2 306 NO SINNERS IN THE pected to survive the conflagration, and on the neia earth to find themselves associated with the Jewish nation and the vast Gentile world. This " remnant," converted amidst these scenes, are to become missionaries to the Pagan world ; while the Jews, by the personal appearing of Jesus to them as their Messiah, are to be brought to repentance and the acknowledgment of the truth. Thus, " the new earth " is to be tenanted by a world of men in the flesh, THE VAST MAJORITY OF WHOM, AT THE FIRST, ARE TOTAL STRANGERS TO CuRIST, AND DEAD IN TRESPASSES AND SINS. And this is " the new heavens and the new earth, WHEREIN DWELLETH RIGHTEOUSNESS," which " we, accord- ing to his promise, look for !" This statement of the apostle can have but one meaning. The '"righteousness" which is to distinguish the new from the old earth does not surely mean partial righteousness, for that exists already on the old earth. It can only mean absolute or unmixed righteousness. All commentators agree in this.* But this theory does not even people the new earth with pre- vailhig righteousness ; for, until the Gentile world is brought over by the labours of the •' remnant," the majority of man- kind will be unbelievers. Who can possibly take this in ? Nay, even after the millennial state of the earth is at its me- ridian, hypocrisy seems not to be excluded. " The subjec- tion during the millennium," says Mr. Bickersteth, " not being a complete and full subjection of the heart to God, the corruption of man will, at its close, have a yet further manifestation. During the millennium the faithful are mingled with those who only yield a feigned obedience. The last open apostasy removes them from ' the earthy * Ix ILLO STATU ERIT JUSTITIA PURA SINE VJTIO ", NON, UT XN HOC BJECULO, BONi MALis PERMixTi. Huc spectat parabola Mat. xiii. 39, (30 7). —(Grot.) Absoluta tum extabit boni et mali SEPAKAXia Matt. iii. 12, xiii. 30.— (Beng., NEW HEAVENS AND NEW EARTH. 307 wherein dwelleth righieov.snsss, (so that they were upon ' the new earth' all the while.)" Nay, after the last judgment, as " no change is then mentioned as passing on the Jewish nation^ or on the living righteous^ who continue faithful to God," they " continue a seed to serve God in successive generations of the eternal state.* Of course, if this be the case, mortality and sin, the corruption of nature, and all the inseparable accompaniments of these things, remain for ever on the " new earth." I have not touched upon the diflSculty of mortal men surviviug such a conflagration as we have found to be pre- dicted by Peter. The attempts which have been made to get over that difficulty will never satisfy any dispassionate inquirer. The preservation of Noah's family from the waters of the deluge, and of the three Hebrew youths in the burning fiery furnace, together with the promise, "I am the Lord thy God .... and I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee loith the shadow of mine hand^ that I may plant the heavens, and lay the founda- tions of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people,'* (Isa. li. 16) — have been appealed to, but in vain.f I do not in the least question the power of God to preserve from fire as well as water, and a whole world as easily as three individuals. But Noah's flood of water was but typical of this deluge of fire, and the type ever comes short of the antitype. That was Christ's coming to judgment, in a sort, but not his second personal advent to pass " eternal judg- ment" upon men. Other difi"erences will readily occur ; but this is enough to show, that though there be a manifest analogy between the cases, the analogy must not be over- driven. As to the three youths, and the promise to *• Zion" which we have quoted, though we should admit that it * Lent Lect. for 1843, ut supra, pp. 330, 331. t See Birks (Proph. Emp., ut supra, pp. 324, 325), and others. NEW HEAVENS AND NEW EAPwTH. gave ground to expect the preservation of God's covenarU people in the conflagration, what ground does it give to ex- pect the preservation of God's enemies 1 Thus hopelessly opposed is the pre-millennial scheme to the Scripture testimony regarding the conflagration, and " the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." I have examined all the attempts at re- conciliation deserving of notice, and shown them to be alike incompatible with the inspired descriptions of the change. On this head, therefore, nothing remains but to embody in a proposition, as under the previous heads, what is all but universally acknowledged as the truth on this branch of our subject. PROPOSITION NINTH: At Christ's second appearing, "the heavens and the earth that are now," being dissolved by fire, shall give place to "new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness" without any mixture of sin good unalloyed by the least evil. The observations already made sufficiently illustrate this proposition. But as I have beeu silent on one of the pas- sages which we placed in the fore front of this chapter, I may here state wherein its importance in the present argu- ment appears to me to lie. I refer to Rev. xx. 1 1 ; xxi. 1 ; " And I saro a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and tJie heaven jied away ; and there icas found no place for them. . . . And I saw a new heaven and a new earth : for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away ; and there was no more sca?^ That the change here described is posterior to the las* SUMMARY OF WHOLE PRECEDING ARGUMENT. 309 judgment, and not prior to it, has been fully proved by writers on both sides of the millennial controversy: — by Mr. Birks, for example, and by Mr. Gipps* By putting this passage, then, in Revelation alongside of the passage in Peter, we obtain the following argument, which I believe it to be impossible to answer ' — The conflagration and passing away of the heavens will be " as a thief in the night, iw" or *' at the day of the Lord" — the time of his second advent. (2 Pet. iii.) But the " fleeing" or " passing away" of •' the earth and the heaven" is posterior to the last judgment, and conse- quently to the millennium. (Rev. xx., xxi.) Therefore, the second advent is posterior to the millen- nium. Here ends my chain of Scripture evidence against the pre-millennial theory. We have seen that when Christ comes, the Church which he hath purchased with his own blood will be abso- lutely and numerically complete — admitting of no subse- quent accessions. We have seen that the Bible makes the hopes and the fears of all men to turn upon the second coming of Christ, as an event future to every human being, and makes no provision for the bringing in of any after it. We have seen that baptism, and with it the gathering and training of disciples for glory, and the whole media- torial power and presence of Christ for saving purposes, are ordained to continue till ''• the end of the world" — the ad- mitted period of Christ's second coming — and not beyond ♦ Birks' " Four Prophetic Empires," ut supra, p. 306, &.c. Gippa' " First Resurrection," p. 13, note H ; and see p. 67. 310 SUMMARY. it ; and that, in the Lord's Supper, the Redeemer's death is to be showed forth only " till he come." We have seen that the kingdom of Christ is just the kingdom of grace in the hands of the Mediator — a king- dom already in existence — ^virtually ever since the fall, and formally since his ascension to the right hand of power ; and that it will continue unchanged, both in character and form, till the final judgment, when, in its state of glory, it becomes " the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" — " the kingdom of Christ and of God." We have seen that at Christ's second coming, his whole Church — " all that the Father hath given him" — shall be made alive at once, the dead being raised and the living changed ; and that, at the same time, all the wicked shall stand up in a resurrection state — the whole human race appearing together before the great white throne. We have seen that when Christ comes, the whole human race will be tried together for eternity at his judgment-seat. Finally, we have seen that at Christ's second coming, the heavens and the earth that are now, being dissolved, shall disappear, and be succeeded by " new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness," without the least mixture of sin — good unalloyed by aught of evil. Each of these Scripture views of the second advent is diametrically opposed to the pre-millennial theory, and subversive of it. Taken together, they form a chain of .evidence against it of such strength, that, if rejected as in- sufficient, it will be hard to refute any error or to establish any truth from the word of God. PART II. THE MILLEMItJM. CHAPTER I. THE MILLENNIUM HOW BROUGHT ABOUT. If the pre-millennial theory be unscriptural, it must of course teach unscriptural views of the millennium as well as of the second advent. That it does so I now proceed to show under different heads, pointing out under each the opposite truth. The first in order of these errors relates to the way in which the subjection of all nations to Christ is to be brought about The millennial conversion of the world to Christ is not expected to take place by the agencies now in operation^ bul altogether in a new way. That on which most dependence seems to be placed, is THE PERSONAL MANIFESTATION OF ChRIST ; but tO this are added judgments on the Antichristian nations, and a Pentecostal effusion of the Spirit. On all these agencies they write with great looseness, and distressing are the sneers which they sometimes throw out at alleged attempts to convert the world by means of Bible and Missionary Societies, and their ill-disguised insinuations — sometimes not disguised at all — against the word and the blessed SPIRIT themselves, as inadequate to accomplish the predicted evangelization of the world. " The more common opinion," says Dr. M'Neih, "is, that this is the final dispensation, and that by a more copious outpouring of 2d 314 DR. M'NEILE, MR. BROOKS, MR. TYSO, the Holy Spirit it will magnify itself, and swell into the universal blessedness predicted by the prophets, carrying with it Jews and Gentiles, even the whole world, in one glorious flock under one Shep- herd, Jesus Christ the Lord. This is reiterated from pulpit, press, and platform. It is the usual climax of missionary exhortation, or rather missionary prophecy,"* " Multitudes of professors of religion," says Mr. Brooks, " aro At this time under a delusion in regard to the nature of those events which are impending over the Church of Christ. The generality are agreed that a great crisis is at hand, and likewise that we are on the eve of the millennium; but the party just alluded to are disposed to think, that ... we are to glide ijito it, as it were, by the instrumentality of our various institutions for evangelizing the heathen; by means of which there will be a gradual in/:reasing diffusion of scriptural light, until the whole earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea — (Isa. xi. 9.) .... As regards, however, the kingdom of Christ, which is the millennial kingdom,-\ the testi- mony of Scripture is most abundant to the fact, that it is to be ushered in by desolating judgments ; and that the universal pre- valence of religion hereafter to be enjoyed, is not to be effected by any increased impetus given by the present means of evangelizing the nations, but by a stupendous display of Divine wrath upon all the apostate and ungodly." % " The Scriptures," says Mr. Tyso, " do state the design of the Gospel, and what it is to effect ; but they never say it is to convert the world. Its powers have been tiied for eighteen hundred years, and it has never yet truly converted one nation, one city, one town, nor even a single village. Yet some Christians are vainly sup- posing that it will, 'by a gradual and accelerated progression,' convert the world The Scriptures never state that ^Ae * Lect. on the Jews, ut supra, p. 72. t Note here, by the way, this naked acknowledgment, that Christ's kingdom is not yet in being. Attempts are now made to represent this as no part of the pre-niiilennial creed ; but whether this can be said of the author of AbdieVs Essays, at least let the reader judge from the abov« extract. X Elem of Proph. Interp. pp. 227, 228. AND MR. OGILVY REMARKS ON THEIR VIEWS. 315 Gospel^ or Christian economy, will be the means of converting the world That the world is to be converted is evident from many Scriptures ; but they ascribe it pnncipally to other causes, and not, as our opponents will have, entirely to tlw preaching of the Gospel, In all cases the Jews will have a pre-eminence. ' To the Jews first;' and their restoration will be to the Gentiles as life from the dead," Sui* " The Christian," says Mr. Ogilvy,-^ " sees this command writ- ten in ligible characters, ' Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature,' and he feels it to be his duty to do so, for he does not know who may or who may not receive it ; but he does not find it dead, and your preaching shall sooner or later convert the whole world ; therefore he does not draw that conclusion. . . . . He further finds that the kingdom and universal Church are to be established, not by gradual conversion, or by conversion more or less rapid under this dispensation, but by the personal ad- vent of our Lord himself, and all the remarkable events thai accom-' pany it.^^X Can any thing be looser than these statements, or more painful than the inferences which they suggest 1 A few paragraphs will put the matter upon its right footing. 1. The question here is not, Whether the conversion of the world is to be quick or slow, gradual or instantaneous ; but Will the means of effecting the predicted changes be the same as are now in operation, or will they be different 1 Will the camse of them be the same as of conversions now^i or will it not ? Nor let these writers shelter themselves under such ex * Defence of the Personal Reign of Christ, pp. 41, 42. 1841. Another work of this author is most favourably noticed in the ^^Investigator of Prophtaj^'' though on some points the writers differ. t Mr, Bickersteth specially notices the omission of all reference to this author in my former edition, i had not then read it; but having since procured it, and found nothing new in it, I content myself with an occasional reference to it, just to show that on such a point as this th« sentiment ascribed to pre-millennialists is not peculiar to one or two writers. X Popular Objections to the Pre-millennial Advent Considered. Bj Geo. Ogiivy, Esq., pp. 216, 217. Second edition. 1S47. 316 VIESSRS. BONAR. pressions as " our various institutions for evangelizing the heathen" — " the present means of evangelizing the nations." These, they know well, are but vehicles for conveying the Gospel to a world of perishing sinners ; and as they find no fault with them as such, and never hint that their inadequacy to convert the world lies in the defective or unscriptural way in which they are wrought, it is plain that by " the institu- tions for evangelizing the heathen" — " the present means of evangelizing the nations," — they just mean the Gospel it- self in any way that the Church can now convey it to the world. Accordingly one of the writers we have quoted explicitly states, not that our Bible and missionary societies have failed, but that the gospel itself has failed, to accom- plish any general conversion — for want of power to effect it. " Its powers have been tried for eighteen hundred years," and this is the result. But even this writer is forced to soften down his language in the end. The world's conversion is to take place " principally^^ through these " other causes ;" nay, it is only " not entirely" to be brought about by " the preaching of the Grospcl." And this he follows up by telling us of the pre-eminence the Jews are to have, and how their recovery is to be to the Gentile world as life from the dead. What matters it to our question in what order the thing takes place, and what special influence in forwarding it particular events may have 1 The one question is, " Will this general con- version, come when and by what instrumentality it may, consist, as conversion now does, of the receplioji by sinners of a preached Gospel ?■'' The Messrs. Bonar^ indeed, seem to hold that it will, and so to admit all we ask. But — so far as I am able to understand their language — it is but a more subtle way of saying the same thing. " The Gospel (says Mr. A Bonar) is the instrument in THEIR VIEWS TllIED BY THE REDEEMER'S WORDS. 31? the Lord's hand for converting the world — it will always be the one instrument in the Spirit's hand." But he doea not design " so to use it at presenV^ — ^" in this dispcnsa Hon thai precedes the Lord^s coming:" and to look for it before Christ come is but " a visionary hope" which mis- sionaries should not cherish. He has heard missionaries " regret deeply that the Church at home should be dazzled by the vain hope of conversions on a grand scale." If the missionary would " see that tJie gathering out of the elect is his sole hope" he would be "far less dis- heartened by opposition than when he vahdy expected every day to see symptoms of national and universal conversimi." And if " it would be wrong, grievously wrong, to say that the Grospel is not the instrument in the Lord's hand for converting the world, equally wrong is it to say that the Lord is so to use it at present."* If ever a statement went directly in the face of the Re- deemer's own words, this surely is one. " AU power," said .Jesus to his disciples and their successors in every age, " is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye THERKPORE, AND MAKE DISCIPLES OF ALL NATIONS, haipHzing them in the riame of the Father, and of tlie Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you; AND, LO, I AM WITH YOU ALWAY, EVEN UNTO THE END OP THE WORLD." — (Matt, xxviii. 18-20.) Happily, there is no dispute about the meaning of the phrase, " the end of the world," here. It is agreed on all hands, as I have had occasion to remark before, that the period or state of things denoted by it terminates with the second coming of Christ. So that the sense would have been quite the same if, instead of saying " unto the end of the world" the Lord had said, " until I com,e again." Thus, then, the disciples were commissioned to evangelize thsa * Redemption, &c., pp. 186, 187. 2d2 S18 ALL NATIONS BROUGHT IN BEFORE CHRIST COMES. world before Christ's second commg ; not merely to preach the Gospel, " for a witness,^^ to a world that would not receive it till he came again — " to gather out the few elect," as Mr. Bonar expresses it, as contradistinguished from the world at large, to be brought in only after the second ad- vent — but to accomplish, instrumentally, the actual " dis- cipleship of all nations,^' to baptize them when gathered in, and to train them up as professed Christians in the know- ledge and obedience of the truth, for glory — all before his second coming In the doing of this, He promises to be with them — not merely to stand by them while preaching a rejected Gospel, and to note their fidelity, but clearly to pros- per the work of their hands unto the actual evangelization of the world at large, before his coming. " Those (says Mr. Bonar) that deny the pre-millennial coming .... have led themselves and others to expect that at this present time, in this dispensation that precedes the Lord's coming, the preaching of the Gospel is to be followed up with national conversions, or at least conversion and reformation in the dense masses of the world's population." No, brother, we have not " led ourselves ;" but thy Master and ours — who tremble, as we doubt not thou dost, at the word of the Lord — hath constrained us to believe that not " the few elect," as contradistinguished from the world at large, but that very world at large, is to be gained over to Christ, in the only sense in which the world at large ever will be Christ's " i7i this dispensation that precedes the Lord^s comingV But what I wish specially to note, is the connexion be- tween ths present exercise of the work of the ministry — at home by pastors, and abroad by missionaries — and this evangelization of all nations as the result. To expect this result, in the believing and prayerful use of the prescribed means, is nothing else but to rely on GhrisCs vjord of pro^ mise; and to expect it in the -^ presem'^ use of the means, MR. H. BONAR AND DR. BOGUE. 319 or '• in this dispensation that precedes the Lord's coming," is merely to presume that the Lord means what he says. Yet this is what Mr. Bonar ventures to call " a vain " and " visionary hope'^ " dazzling the Church at home," and fitted only to " dishearten" missionaries abroad. Say we not wellj that the pre-millennial theory paralyses missionary effort by paralysing missionary expectation ? To the same effect, Mr. H. Bonar. " Do I paralyse effort (he asks) when I say, ' Work while it is day, for the night Cometh when no man can work V " No, I reply, not when you say " work ;" but when you teach the workman not to expect the promised result, then you paralyse effort. I cannot illustrate this better, nor more effectually show the bearings of the pre-millennial theory upon missionary work, than by quoting a passage in which Mr. H. Bonar administers a lofty and imposing rebuke to the late excel- lent Dr. Bogue of Gosport, one of the original founders of the London Missionary Society, the wonderful success of which in the South Seas and elsewhere filled his soul with burning desires for the universal triumph of the G-ospel. and joyous anticipations of the near approach of that consum- mation. True, he lived not to see some things which we have witnessed, and which would probably have modified his language ; the revived missionary zeal, too, of the Church, then in the warmth of its first love, would natu- rally be estimated at more than its real value. But for myself, I am willing to underlie the castigation adminis- tered to that venerated servant of Christ — now indeed beyond its reach — for what is extracted by Mr. Bonar from his " Discourses on the Millennium.''^ " Of what use would it be," asks Mr. H. Bonar, " to cheat or dazzle men by such rhetoric as the following [from Dr. Bogue] 1— ' Was there ever a period in the history of our world in which 80 many vistas of glorious hope opened to mankind as at the \}TQ- i 320 MISSIONARY EFFORT PARALYSED. sent moment 1 Let the siege which has so auspiciojsly com- menced upon the forces of the enemy, be kept up with ever- growing skill and determination ; let existing advantages be seized upon with a resolution worthy of the cause ; let the armiea of the living God muster their whole strength, and go forth to the help of the Lord against the mighty, and erelong the camp of the enemy shall be seized with sudden overwhelming dread; the legions of darkness shall flee apace, and the conquest of a world shall be given to the saints of the Most High.' Well spoken ! But what if it be all a dream ! Go forth (fond theo- rist!) from the study or the pulpit, and look on Europe now. Is there aught .... in the turbid swelling of the great deluge of European atheism on which to build such ' glorious hopes 1'" &,c * Where, I desire to ask, is the " cheat" practised by Dr. Bogue ? Is it in assuring his readers that " let the siege so auspiciously commenced upon the forces of the enemy he kept up with ever-growing skill and determination^^ — that " let existing advantages be seized upon with a resolu- tion worthy of the cause" — that " let the armies of the liv- ing God muster their ivhole strength^ and go forth to the help of the Lord against the mighty ;" and then^ " erelong" — Dr. Bogue does not presume to say how long, but " erelong," or, as the Apostle says about Christ's coming, " yet a little while" — " the camp of the enemy shall tremble and flee, and the world be given to the saints of the Most High?" Is this the " cheat ?" For myself, I believe it most pro- foundly ; and if, with such views, Mr. Bonar asks, " Do I paralyse effort ?" I answer — Yes. Not only does the Lord's commission authorize the expectation that all nations shall be evangelized " at the present time — in this dispensa- tion that precedes the Lord's coming" — but the very expec- tation of this result from the preaching of the Gospel will be a prime and hidispensable element of success ; and therefore it is to paralyse effort to calumniate such expectations, and ♦ Coming and Kingdom, &-c., pp. 152, 153. JUDGMENTS EFFUSION OF THE SPIRIT. 321 let those who talk of " cheating and dazzling men" with " visionary hopes," have a care at Whose door their charges ultimately lie. 2. On the jiidgments which are to usher in the millen- nium I have nothing to say, except to notice the false posi^ tion assigned to them in such statements as the following, already quoted : — " The universal prevalence of true reli- gion (says Mr Brooks), hereafter to be enjoyed, is not to be effected by any increased impetus given to the present means of evangelizing the nations, but by a stupendous dis- play of the Divine truth upon all the apostate and ungodly" — as if judgments would do what " the gospel had failed to accomplish" — •' evangelize the nations." Let Mr. H. Bonar rebuke this view of the judgments of God. " We look (says he) upon the judgments, at the Lord's coming, in the same light (though differing in degree) as we do upon any judgment of God's hand. . . . He may use these awful calamities just as he now uses afflictions, but the power and the glory are his alone."* Mr. Brooks, indeed, would not deny that the power and glory of conversion, in every case, belong to God ; but by contrasting '}\idign\QXiiB with a preached Gospel, he makes the instrumentality ihdii will be employed in converting '• the nations," something different from what is now employed in every case of conversion. 3. A word or two on the effusion of the Spirit^ in vir- tue of which those extensive conquests of the nations to Christ are to be brought about. We should like to hear more about this, I do not for a moment doubt that those whose writings 1 am now examining are at one with me in expecting such effusion. But do they believe that it may come " at this present time — in this dispensation that precedes the Lord's coming ?" We^ believing that the " dis- cipling of all nations" is to be effected, as the Lord him- * Coming and Kingdom, pp. 51, 52. 323 Christ's personal appearing — miracles. self assures us, before he comes — of course look for those copious showers of the Spirit which alone can make the word efficacious to do it. They — believing that the conver- sion of the nations is uot to be till after the Lord come — • of course do not look f&' the Spirit to effect it by any preach- ing of the Gospel that z.', or can be now set on foot. And is not this to " paralyse effort ?" 4. I will not dwell upon the converting efficacy ascribed to Chrisfs personal appearing ; because, though such pas- sages as, " They shall look on me whom they have pierced" — -" Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him," are frequently referred to in proof of this, there seems a general disposition to admit that it is the Word and the Spirit to which even these men will owe their conversion, just as now; and, consequently, that the very sight of Christ in person will only be one of the means by which such conversion will be aided, like other striking events, though none will be so striking as this. Strange, indeed, that when Christ " cometh in his own glory, and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels" — when he " cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him" — that the most stupendous, bright, and awful of all events should just rank amongst the means by which men at the millen- nium are to be converted ! Some look to the revival of miracles as one great means of the rapid conversions which are to signalise the latter day. But in vain. As we do not need them, so the soul in a -/- healthy state does not desire them. The Church is in its manhood^ and miracles are for its infancy* Souls that have * The Scripture doctrine oi physical, as contrasted with moral miracles, deducible from such passages as John iv. 48, 49, compared with chapter XX. 29; John xiv. 12; i. 50, 5L and Luke xvi. 27-31, suggests a line of thought quite adverse to any expectation of physical manifestations, such as floats loosely in the minds of not a few whose apprehensions in every other respect are .h)r»^'2ghly scriptural. The above passages indi- church's present resources all-sufficient. 323 felt the Saviour's grace know right well its matchless power. After their own conversion, they can never doubt its con- verting efl&cacy on any scale that may be required. The Spirit in the hand of Christ, and the word in the hand of the Spirit, as they are the present agency for converting sin- ners, and perfecting saints, and advancing the Redeemer's kingdom in the world — so they are all that we are taught to ascribe the glories of the latter day to. And quite enough. That these spiritual glories are not now irradiat- ing the world — that they have not long ago chased away the darkness with which the usurping " god of this world" has been permitted to cover it — is owing to no defect in the •present resources of the Church, and of the economy under which it is placed. That more fidelity on the Church's part would have hastened the predicted consummation, is language which we are fully warranted in using. But He to whom " are known all his works from the beginning of the world," has ordered the " times and the seasons" in such mysterious correspondence with the faithlessness of his Church, as to bring out, in affecting relief, his own sole glory in the long promised subjugation of the world to Christ, and the utter worthlessuess of his people as the in- struments of it. With a view to this, he suffers the Church to lie for ages in ignoble ease, in pitiful leanness, in a state of carnality which at once blights its fruits, poisons its streams, and rends it in pieces ; — while the world, all un- pitied, lies powerless in the enemy's hand and its dark places are full of the habitations of cruelty. But when " the time to favour Zion comes, even the set time," it will be seen that it needed but the agencies of this present dis- cale that such manifestations are suited, as they were granted, to an in- fei-ior and infantile condition of the Church ; while the absence not only of the manifestations themselv3s, but of all desire for them, is characte^ iBtic of the Church's manhood 324 church's present resources all-sufficient. pensation to be brought into full play to accomplish all that is promised : and then will it appear what a mine of wealth and what a magazine of power for the spiritual recovery of a diseased world were in possession of the Church's Head, and were all along the dowery of his people. The heart delights to dwell on this prospect. It desires to see what Christ can do by his Word and Spirit. When by these he does all they are competent to — when they have ex- hausted their ability, and the work stands still for want of something else — then we may be reconciled to new methods^ and may look out for a new dispensation. But while any such thought is infinitely disparaging to the blessed Spirit, and to the word of his power, there is a satisfaction un- speakable in anticipating the endless ways iu which the Spirit may get himself renown, by what he will yet do in and by the Church : — how under His mighty working the instrumentalities for spreading the Gospel may be seen in- definitely multiplying : all the missionary principle and energy of a Church, quickened from the base torpor of ages previous, evolving themselves even to their own asto- nishment ; majestic steps in Providence startling men from their stupid slumbers, awing their spirits, and constraining their attention to long despised truths : — these and other such things, in connexion with direct and copious effusions of the Spirit, the heart delights to think of as destined to effect that universal submission to the sceptre of Christ which is to characterise the latter day. It feels this to be vastly more satisfactory and attractive as a prospect, and far more in accordance with the whole tenor of Scripture, than any rude interposition of visible manifestations — any interruption of the magnificent operation of God's ordinary laws of working, by immed'ate and short-hand methods of obtaining the result. CHAPTER II. NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM NOT A STATE OF TJNMIXED RIGHTEOUSNESS. It may appear superfluous to devote a chapter to this point. But if I were asked on what head of our subject the con- fusion and inconsistency of the pre-millennial sclieme are most manifest in the writings of its advocates, and their confidence in it, at the same time, the most unbounded, I should not hesitate to reply, on this head. Their starting-point is usually from the Parable of the Tares. — (Matt, xiii.) All modern pre-millennialists hold these parables conclusive in favour of their views. You can hardly open one of their volumes without finding some reference to it in this light. ' Lei both tares and wheat grow together until the harvest.' " This," says Dr. M'Neile, " is characteristic of the whole period of the Lord's absence. Now, I ask, is this phrase, ' Let both grow together,' equally characteristic of the millennium and of this dispensation 1 If it be answered, Yes; I cannot for a moment dispute thai such a millennium will precede the coming of the Lord — we have it already. The millennium predicted hy the Holy Ghost is not, however, so motley a concern as this Avould make it. Its characteristics are, ' The p( ople shall be all righteous ;* they shall all know the Lord, from the least of them unto the greatest of them ; they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain ; the ♦ The capitals are his own. 2s 326 A. MILLENNIUM WITHOUT SIN earth shall be covered with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea ; from the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in EVERY place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offer- ing ; for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of Hosts.' These and similar predictions manifestly de- scribe a state of things contrasted with the present. That state is the millennium. Tlie tares must be removed previous and prepara- tory to tlie millenuium. The season of fhe removal of the tares is the harvest. The harvest is the period of the Lord's coming with the holy angels. Consequently the Lord's coming must be previous and preparatory to the millennium. It may here be re- marked how every sectarian effort to get what is called a pure Church, is a petty attempt to antedate the millennium, by the re moval of the tares ; ' Let both grow together until the harvest.' Then, indeed, ' the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.' "* In a lecture delivered but a few months since, and al- ready referred to, the same author thus describes the mil- lennial state : — " There shall be no more sin. All the then inhabitants of tlie earth shall be holy. All shall love God, and serve God, so that his will shall then be done on earth as it is in heaven." f * Sermon on the Second Advent, note pp. 41, 42. This is a literal transcript from his Lectures on the Jews, published eleven years before. During the interval, instead of suspecting any flaw, he seems to have only grown in confidence of its strength. For he tells us, a couple of pages after this note, that, after discussing with an evan- gelical clergyman the topics in question, he ceased to occupy the defen- sive position, and asked him his view of those passages of Scripture which are the turning points of the whole debate. The substance of his reply, he says, was this: The passage is important, very important in- deed; but I have not made vp my mind as to the meaning of it. He somewhere else, I think, says that he had never been able to get an an- swer to this argument from any of his opponents to whom he propounded it. * I do not know how he may like the reply which I give to it ; but I «m not in the predicament of this very intelligent clergyman, having at least "-iiiade up my mind " upon it. t The Priest upon his Throne, {Lent Led. for 1&49,) p. 96. PICTURED BY PRE-MILLENNIALISTS.. 327 " On this parable of the tares," says an esteemed brother, " we would submit the following remarks: 1. It spans the whole economy under which we are now living. It commences with his personal ministry on earth ; it closes with his personal com- ing to judgment at the end of the world. It is therefore a brief extract, a kind of miniature view, of all that lies between these two extreme limits — between the first and the second coming of our Lord. 2. Between these two extreme limits we find no trace nor hint of any millennium. After and beyond the second com- ing of the Son of Man, and his gathering out of his kingdom ' all things that offend, and casting them into a furnace of fire,' we do find some notice of that blessed state (the millennium) : ' Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.' . . . Now, if a state of things so very peculiar and blessed in its nature as the millennium, and of such long duration, had been to occur between these two points, would it have been en- tirely omitted in the picture 1 Suppose its place, in point of fact, to be there, would not its omission in this picture of the whole be somewhat like a history of our race without the fall, and of our re- covery without the cross — the very capital feature omitted'? 3, The best of the dispensation is first, not last ! It begins well, grows worse, and ends worst of all. ... 4. The dispensation thus becoming a mixture of good and evil, this mixture continues, not for a while merely, but down to the very end. ... It was to be a mixed economy down to its very close. . . . The rectifying which comes at last is not by mercy but by judgment — not by the sowing of grace but the sickle of vengeance — not by an extension of the gospel, tlie labours of ministers, or any gracious instrumentality whatsoever now at work, but by the angels of God, who are to ac- company the Son of Man at his second advent. ... It will con- sist, not in re-sowing, but in reaping the field.'^ . . 5. The termi- nation of this economy, therefore, is in judgment, not mercy . . . mercy, however, not by an extension and enlargement of the eamoviy of grace, but in a new economy altogether ; for in it the evil ♦ How thftse statements agree with the gracious and converting effect which they ascribe to the judgments that are to accompany the second advent — as wc have seen in the preceding chapter, and under the head of "the Judgment"— I leave my friend to Buy* 328 A MILLENNIUM WITHOUT SIN shall be purged out by consummate judgment on the wicked. The present economy, according to this sketch of its course, docs not terminate by an enlarged exercise of grace, in the common meaning of the word, nor by the use and success of any agency NOW IN OPERATION — THE GOSPEL — THE MINISTRY — THE SpIRIT, It is ended by an agency and an act entirely new and different — by the immediate intervention of the Son of Man, &c. 6. We may add, that the kingdom, in its perfect state — the reign of un- mixed GOOD, thus introduced by power and judgment — ^has its seat in the very same world where the evil existed, and whence it is now cast out. ... In this world is the kingdom, imperfect at first, and mixed with evil, afterwards made perfect by the Son of Man and his angels, and entirely unmixed. And it is in this kingdom .... that the righteous, when the moral atmosphere has been cleared by the last act of judgment, shine out as the sun with- out a cloud." * " I may argue," says Mr. Elliott, *' from Christ's parable of the tares and wheat, as furnishing to my mind a decisive negative to the theory which makes a millennium of universal holiness and blessedness to precede Christ's advent and the saints' resur- rection. The tares and the wheat were to grow together inter- mixed until the harvest (the end of the ai(av ov agef). Then at length (not before) the tares shmdd be eradicated. . . . This pre- dictive sketch seems to allow no possible place or room for the intervention of any such spiritual millennium as Whitby's and Vitringa's [he means a millennium having any tares remaining in the spiritual field] before that which is emphatically called the end of the age. And the parable is brought to bear more strik- ingly and decisively on the point now in question, by the statement added, that the righteous are then to shine forth as the sun in God's kingdom." :|: Let us now look into this boasted argument. 1. Nothing can be clearer than that the separation of the * Present Dispensation— its Course. (No. 2 of a Series on P'j>phecy.) Kennedy, Edinburgh. > See note, p. 34. t Hot. Aj)oc., ut supra, p. 190. PICTURED, BUT NOT BELIEVED IN. 339 fc ,es from the wheat is an absolute and a final separation. Iv Jeed the extracts given express the same thing. The tract caVv3 the present a " mixed economy from first to last." a " mixture of good and evil." The one which succeeds it is repr isented as precisely the opposite of this. It is '^ the king'^om in its perfect state ;" it is " the reign of unmix- ed Gi OD^ENTiKELY UNMIXED," whcrc " the Hghteous shine out Without a cloud." This being the undoubted sense of the p».fable, and expressed emphatically by those who adduce it, I have to ask, 2. D y you believe your own representation ? You do not. It will not do to say that the glorified portion of the Church s'll be perfect ; for that is a truism. Your whole argument is, that there cannot be any millennial state amongst t^rtal men before Christ's second coming, because, according lo the teaching of this parable, these wax worse and worse oawards till Christ's coming, after which the evil will be pur^ni out, and an unmixed millennium — of men in the flesh, of ^xjurse — take place. This is your argument, if it be intelligibto at all. Evidently, then, you must mean that after Christ's coming there will be no tares — no " imperfec- tion, mixture, evil" — amongst mortal men^ and in the Church below. The tract speaks of the " purifying of the moral atmo- sphere," and the v3stablishing of " a new economy," which, of course, refers exclusively to the mortal state of mankind. Mr. Elliott says, " '^hen the tares shall be eradicated." And Dr. M'Neile, who will have no " motley concern" of a mil- lennium, describes it in such Scripture language as this : " From the rising of the sun, unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles, and in every place incense shall be offered." — '• The earth fjihall be covered with the knowledge of the Lord as thfi waters cover the sea," and so forth. No one can imagine this to be quoted as a description of the state of glory. It 330 TARES IN THE FIELD DURING THE MILLENNIUM, is the millenrAdl state of men in the flesh, as contrasted with the present state, which it is meant to describe. You picture, then, a state of things upon earth in which you do not yourselves believe. Even Dr. M'Neile, despite the language we have found him using, had no faith, when he wrote his Lectures on the Jews at least, in the sinless- ness or perfection of the millennial state. The tract above quoted, when it expatiates on the sinless perfection of the millennial state, only expresses formally, and out and out, what in substance occurs in almost every production of modern pre-millennialists. But such absolute and unmixed good — such perfect removal of evil — hardly one of them is bold enough to say he expects to be the condition of mortal men during the millennium. The imperfection of the millennium is not, indeed, much dwelt on It suits better their views of a Saviour person- ally present, and a new heaven and new earth already realised, to talk of the blessed millennium, without going nicely into the question what that blessedness is to be. It is far more congenial to the feelings of good men, so to mix up the state of glory with the mortal state as to lose themselves in the general halo which thus is made to sur- round the subject in their eyes. " Si7i and misery till He comes (exclaims Dr. M'Neile) ; righteousness and happiness at His coming ! Groanings and agony till He comes ; songs of triumph at His coming ! Faint glimmer- ings of hope amidst surrounding and prevailing darkness, and desolation, and despair, till He comes; everlasting light, and life, and joy, and love, at His coming ! These are the cadences which continually fall upon the ear from the sacred harp."* Now, it is a pity to spoil so pleasing a picture, but the fault lies with those who paint it The * Serm. on the Second Advent. Serm. VI., Renovation of the whole •arth at the second advent, pp. 191, 192. NOT GATHERED OUT TILL END OF MILLENNIUM. 331 colours are false ; it is a dream ; no such millennium ia believed in. It is an earthly state, stript of its earthliness. When pre-millennialists. however, are roused to draw a de- finite and clear line between the glorified and the mortal states of the Church, they describe the millennium just as other people do, and in so doing destroy their own argu- ment. Take the following from the Presbyterian Review of Mr. Scott's " Outlines." Mr. Scott had gone rather too far in the direction of a perfect millennium ; not so far, in- deed, as to affirm that there would be absolutely no sin during the millennium, but farther than most pre-millen- nialists. And this provoked a good refutation of his pecu- liar opinions, from the pen of a brother pre-millennialist. " Sin," says the reviewer, " and as a consequence, death does exist during the millennium ; and we should like some distinct scriptural evidence to the contrary. The system would require to prove that there is to be absolutely no sin upon the earth during that period. Sin and death entered the world together, and in like manner will they depart to- gether at the end of the millennium."* If this be a correct account of the millennium, it only proves that there will not be so many tares then as now : that is all. Mr. Bickersteth also represents the millennial state as one of simply prevail- ing holiness — a prevalency which, while it does not exclude the presence of the ungodly and wicked upon earth, will make them conceal their real character, and " feign sub- mission." Are such characters tares, then, or are they wheat ? If they be tares, the millennium canrwt be the state described by the separation of the tares from the wheat : The tares — by your own admission — are still among the wheat^ and will not be separated till after the millennium. Thus, this argument proves most satisfactorily the reverse of what it is brought to establish. But here it may natu« * Presbyterian Review, Jai . .845, p. 470. 332 PARABLES IILUSTRATING CHRIST's KINGDOM rally be asked, how such a strange confusion of thought is to be accounted for. How, it may be said, can so many sensible and excellent men confound the state of mortality with that of glory, and not only apply to the one what even them- selves admit to be applicable only to the other, but on this vicious transference build one of their strongest arguments • — if their own estimate of its value is to be taken ? The question is an interesting one ; and the answer to it is, that the system almost inevitably engenders such confusion. The fundamental principle of the system — the contempora- neousness and co-existence of the state of grace and the state of glory — of mortality and immortality — of an upper and a lower — a celestial and a terrestrial department of one and the same kingdom — this principle destroys the real nature of both the things which it places in juxtaposition. The state of grace, on this principle, ceases to be the state of grace which it is represented to be in God's word ; and the state of glory is in like manner perverted. It is not that each is raised and loivered to the measure of the other. But it is that we have, instead of them, something more or less different from both. Before leaving this parable of the tares, I cannot refrain from noticing the light thrown upon it by the other parables in the same chapter. — (Matt, xiii.) Various features of his kingdom are there taught by the Saviour in seven parables. The parable of the Sower (v. 3-23) teaches who are the genuine subjects of the kingdom : The parables of the Trea- sure and of the Fearl (v. 44-46) teach the priceless value of the blessings of the kingdom : The parables of the Mus- tard seed and of the Leaven (v. 3 1-33) teach its progressive advancement in the world ; while the parables of the Tares and of the JSfd (v. 24-30, 36-43, 47-50) teach the present mixture, and the future absolute separation, of righteous and wicked in the kingdom. Now, as the growing character WHY THE MILLENNIUM NOT IN THEM. 333 of the kingdom, taught by the "mustard seed," and the penetrating and assimilating character, taught by the " leaven," go on till " the whole (earth) is leavened," and all the world have been brought to lodge in the branches of the mighty tree of life — these parables must of course take in the millennium, if there is to be one at all; for there is no millennium to come after the evangelization of the whole world. " Go," said Christ before he ascend- ed, " and make disciples of all nations ; and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (vvvTeXsiar. at .iifof) — when his second coming takes place. Accordingly, the same expression is used in these parables. The grow- ing process, the leavening process, and the presence of tares with the wheat — bad fish with tlie good — all are con- temporaneous, and all conterminous ; they begin, and they end at " the end of the world,'* or when Christ comes again. The millennium, therefore, if there be one, precedes^ and does not, cannot follow the second coming of Christ. Do you ask, then, why the millennium is not mentioned in the parable of the tares ? I answer. The object for which it was spoken not only did not demand it, but posi- tively forbade it. It was to set forth the mixed character of the visible Church till Christ come : All are agreed in tliis. But the millennium is as truli/, though not in the same degree^ a mixed state of the visible Church as this is. Pre-millennialists themselves are compelled to admit this. There will be tares during the millennium in the field of the Church ; and the final apostasy, and the vast confede- racy of daring enemies of Christ and his Church — shows that these will not be few. In contrasting, therefore, the mixed with the unmixed state of the Church, which our Lord does in this parable of the tares, the millennium has DO separate place — no standing of its own at all. With reference to the unmixed state — when " the rig kteaus shint 334 MILLENNIUM BELONGS TO MIXED STATE OF CHURCH. forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father''^ — the niil- lennium differs in nothing worthy of mention in the parable from the present state of the Church : it disappears in that mixed state of grace which go<^s down to the end of the world, and ends in the stafe oi glory only by a final absolute separation of tares from wheat — righteous from wicked. Thus, if there is one passage which more effectually than another negatives the pre-millennial scheme, it is the one which of all others, perhaps, is the most frequently and confidently adduced in proof of it. CHAPTER III 5ATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM JUST TV I FUi.L DEVELOP* MENT OF THE KINGDOM OF GRACE IN I7.S EARTHLY STATE. There are two famous prophecies of Daniel, which are admitted on all hands to furnish a key to much of the Ian guage of Scripture on the subject of Christ's kingdom — being the blossom, so to speak, of preceding, and the bud of succeeding revelations on this head. These two pregnant visions I propose here to examine, in so far as they bear upon our question. I. In Nebuchadnezzar's vision of the Image (chap, ii.) — representing the kingdoms with which the Church of God has had successively to do, and by which it has suf- fered so much — the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman — Daniel says — *' Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors ; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them : and the stone that smote the image became a great mouu tain, and fitted the ichote earth.^' ** And," says Daniel, inter- preting this part of the vision, " in the days of these KINGS (or kingdoms) shall the God of heaven set up a KiNODOM, WHICH SHALL NEVER BE DESTROYED: and the king- dom shai: not be left to other people, but it shall brbai 336 MEDE ON Nebuchadnezzar's dream. IN PIECES AND CONSUME ALL THESE KINGDOMS, AND IT SHAT I STAND FOR tvER." — (Verses 34, 35, 44.) On these verses, the following remarks of Joseph Mf:e, which display his usual penetration, will be read with in- terest : — "This prediction," says he, "points put two states of the king- dom of Christ. The first to be while those times of the kingdoms of the Gentiles yet lasted, typified by a stone hewn out of •» mountain without hands, the monarchical statue yet standing upon his feet ; the second, not to be until the utter destruction and dissipation of the image, when the stone, having smote it upon the feet, should ' grow into a great mountain which should fill the whole earth.' The first may be called, for distinction's sake, Regnnm Lapidis, the kingdom of the stone, which is the state of Christ's kingdom which hitherto hath been ; the other, Regnum Montis, the kingdom of the mountain, that is, of the stone grown into a mountain, &c., which is the state of his kingdom which hereafter shall be. The interval between these two — from the time the stone was first hewn out, that is, the kingdom of Christ was first advanced, until the time it becomes a mountain, that is, when ' the mystery of God shall be finished' (Rev. X. 7) — is the subject of the Apocalyptical visions. Note here, first. That the stone is expounded by Daniel to be that lasting kingdom which the God of heaven should set up. Se- condly, That the stone was hewn out of the mountain before it smote the image upon the feet, and, consequently, before the image was aissipatM; and, therefore, that the kingdom typified by the stone, while it remained a stone, must needs be within the times of these monarchies, that is, before the last of them (viz. the Roman) should expire. Wherefore Daniel interprets. That ' in the days of these kingdoms (not after them., but while sonw of them were yet in being"), the God of heaven should set up a kingdom,' " &c.* * Works, pp 743, 744. The Grotian interpretation of Daniel's fourth kingdom has been re« vived by some learned men of late, as *' beyond all reasonable doubt " denoting "the divided Greciun dominion which succeeded the reign of THE STONE BECOMING A MOUNTAIN, 33*} Now observe what comes out of this. 1. The kingdom of Christ, instead of commencing with the millennium, will, it seems, have run one entire stage of its career before that era arrives. There are not two kingdoms — one, " the means " the other, " the end ;" one " the preparation for it," the other, " the establishment and manifestation of it ;" one, " the supreme kingdom of God," administered by Christ now '' in another's right, and with another's power," the other "his own kingdom, throne, and sceptre," to be assumed at the millennium. There is but one kingdom of Christ in "two states," commencing during the existence of the last of the four monarchies; that is. on the Redeemer's exaltation to the right hand of power, stretching across the era of the latter day, and losing itself in the final state. However different its aspects as " the stone," .and as " the mountain," it is the stone that becomes the mountain. 2. The difference between the two states of the kingdom represented in the vision — its state before and its state duT' ing the millennium — is not, it seems, a difference of dispen- sation or organic form, but merely of prosperity and extent. "The image is broken in pieces, and the stone becomes a great mountain, and fills the whole earth."* Alexander the Great;" and, consistently with this interpretation, "the little horn" of chnp. vil. is made to denote, not the ecclesiastical head of the Roman apostasy, but Aniiochus Epiphanes. (See, among others, Moses Stuart's Hints on the Interpretation of Prophecy, p. 86, 2d Edit. Andover, 1642.) But, as I agree with my opponents here, it will not be necessary to argue that question. * *' So say we," replies the Duke of Manchester : '* But a change from a stone to a mountain, is more than a change of aspect. Had the pro- phecy described the stone as growing till it filled the earth, if it had still been a detached stone, that would hnve answered Mr. Brown's idea of a difference, * merely of prosperity and extent;' but it becomes a moun- tain."— (Pp. 300, 301.) I never thought it could admit of a doubt, that the figure of the stone becoming a mountain and filling the whole earth, 2f 338 Now this is just tbe view of the kingdom which the Saviour gives in the parables of the mustard seed and of the leaven, to which I Jtdf erted in the preceding chapter : — " The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field : which indeed is the least of all seeds; hut when it is grown, it is the great- est among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof. Another parable spake he to them : The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three mea- sures of meal, till the whole was leavened." — (Matt, xiii 31-33.) The only difference between these representations and that of Daniel is, that in tracing the fortunes of the kingdom in the world, the one takes no notice of what the other emphatically marks — the fall of the anti-chris- tian powers, and the prodigious consequences of that event upon the subsequent condition of the kingdom. Had we no other representations of this matter from those of the parables just quoted, we might be apt to conclude that the onward progress of the kingdom, if slow, would never- theless be, from first to last, steady, equable, tranquil, and silent. Experience would indeed correct this view of the Saviour's words ; teaching us that progress on the whole^ though chequered and variable, with ultimate universality^ denoted the change, in point of extent, of the kingdom of Christ from its earlier to its later stages of development. It is enough to refer generally to the commentators in support of this view of the figure. It matters nothing whether this change will be sudden or sloic, after the stone shall have " smitten the image." All that I wished to mark is, that the change indicated by the figure is of this nature. His Grace, I may here observe, has misunderstood what I said in the preceding paragraph, about the kingdom, at the end of the millennium, "losing itself in the final state." I mean, of course, that it will merge into it — its earthly nature disappearing in the enduring glory in which, " after the end," it shall shine for ever and ever. THE KINGDOM WINS THE VICTORY. 339 was all which he must have intended to convey, as it is certainly all that his language necessarily expresses. From Daniel, however, we learn something more definite : namely, that its advances from the beginning up to the millennial era, though real, will be relatively insignificant, in conse- quence of certain gigantic obstructions, whose malignant influence will keep it enslaved and corrupted, shrivelled and secularized, till they be taken out of the way ; but that, having at length effected their complete overthrow, it shall then put forth all its vital and expansive power, and become commensurate with the world. This is mani- festly the whole difference between the " two states" of the kingdom — before and during the millennium — accord- ing to Nebuchadnezzar's vision ; its meanness now, and its magnitude then ; its comparative insignificance, as a prin- ciple of power in the world, up to the millennium, and its glorious universality and all-commanding influence in the latter day. 3. It is the kingdom of Christ, it seems, with its present resources and agencies^ that is to " break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms," whilst itself " stands for ever." In other words, Christ's presently existing kingdom has within itself the whole resources by which it is destined to crush the atiti-christianism that obstructs its universal triumphs, and to win its way to the throne of the world. For observe, it was " the stone cut out of the mountain without hands" — or, as Daniel interprets it, " the king, dom," which, in the days of these anti christian " kings" or kingdoms, - the God of heaven was to set up" — that was seen " smiting the image and breaking it in pieces :" " and the stone that smote the image" — or " the kingdom which shall break in pieces all these" anti-christian " king- doms" — this stone " became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth." 340 THE /^ICTORY ITS NATURE. Here let the reader carefully mark what kind of onflict this is between Christ's kingdom and the kingdoms of this world. It is in their anti-christian character alone that the Church comes into collision with them. As kingdoms simply — as a mere succession of civil monarchies — the vision has nothing to do with them, and the kingdom of Christ has no quarrel with them ; for civil government, as such, whatever be the form of it, is a divine ordinance. The mission of the Church is not to supplant, but to impregnate and pervade it with a religious character, and to render it subservient to the glory of God. Christ's kingdom is not of this world. It has no form of civil polity to fight for. But in so far as the kingdoms of this world are hostile to the Church of the living God, it is and must be opposed to them. And it is in this, and this only light — as conspirators against the in- terest and the people of God in this world — that the anti- christian kingdoms are seen, and that they are doomed in Nebuchadnezzar's vision. It is in this sphere of malignant influence and action, and this only, that the kingdom of Christ is destined to take their place. In short, the battle is between Christ's interest and that of the god of this world, in so far as the one is embodied in the Church or kingdom of Christ, and the other in the kingdoms mentioned in the vision. And if so, then the fall of them must be viewed in the same light. As the stone which smites the image is not physical or political, so neither is the blow inflicted by it. Nor does it light upon those anti-christian kingdoms, save in their anti-christian principles and character. And, consequently, their fall can only be considered as the fall of them in that hostile character^ to be re-constructed upon Christian principles and for Christian objects. If these views of the triumphs of Christ's kingdom over the kingdoms mentioned in this vision be correct, it is just the triumph of Christianity — not of Christian truth merely, THE VICTORY ITS NATURE. 341 and still less of a mere party, but of embodied, orranic, acd vital Christianity — over an organized system of deadly opposition to it by the kingdoms of this world. The Church, says this vision, is destined to crush that gigantic, anti- christian confederacy, and thereafter to carry all before it. It is just a conflict of interests — a life and death struggle between Christ and Belial on thfi theatre of this world, in which Christ is to carry the day, and his " kingdom to fill the whole earth."* Now this is but the issue in which our parables land us. They gave us the thing attained ; while here we have the arduousness with which it is reached — that is all. The kingdom shall grow, says the parable of the mustard seed, till it overspread the earth : It shall work into human so- ciety, says the parable of the leaven, till it penetrate with its blessed principles and character the whole mass. It shall fight^ and win its uay^ says Nebuchadnezzar's vision, to the throne of the world, and having smitten down the most formidable of all the bulwarks which Satan ever threw up against its progress, shall thenceforward sit mistress of this world's affairs, pursuits, and enjoyments, bringing them all into captivity to the obedience of Christ ! What then have we found in this vision ? We have found that the kingdom of Christ is already in being, hav- ing been set up by the God of heaven " in the days^^ or * "If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews : but now is my kingdom not from hence." (John xviii. 36.) " We do not war after the flesh : for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds." (2 Cor. x. 3, 4.) " Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion — behold thy king cometh unto thee; just, and having salvation ; lowly, and riding upon an as-s, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. And I will cut off Iht chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jeru- salem, and the battle bow sluill be cut off; and he shall speak peack TO THE HEATHEN : and his dominion shall be from sea to sea^ and from fta river to the ends of the earth." (Zech. ix. 9, 10.) 3f3 342 Daniel's vision — during the currcnc}', of the four famous kingdoms — not at but long before, the millennium. We have found that the difference between its two principal " states " its pre- millennial and its millennial state — is a difference not of administration, of constitution, of dispensation or form, but of prosperity and extent. Its oppressors cease, itg chains fall off. its vitality, elasticity, and force become signally manifest, its character is developed, its limits are extended, and it becomes at length all in all: And, to complete the representation, we have found that all this is just the triumph of the noio existing Church — the stone cut out of the mountain without hands merely smiting the image. No new weapon does the Church get to fight her enemies withal. No change of dispensation does she under- go. She is already all that she needs to be. She is com- plete in her living and ever-present Head, having '' all power in heaven and in earth" at her command, and getting it too at the destined period, when, " the time to favour her is come, even the set time." II. We have in Daniel (ch. vii.) another vision of the very same thing, with just enough of circumstantial variety to throw additional light upon the whole subject. Under the symbol of four rampant Wild Beasts, are set forth the oppressions of the Church of God by the four great mo- narchies described in the former vision — the Babylonian, the Persian, the Grecian, and the Konian ; the last per- petuated in its ecclesiastical head at Home, denoted by the little horn " of the fourth beast rising after" the empire has been broken up into ten distinct and independent kingdoms, and altogether " diverse from them." (Verses 8, 24.) Under this ecclesiastical form of the Roman king- dom, the Church is represented as suffering more than from all the other kingdoms, or from itself under its Pagan form. This Roman head of apostate Christendom " speaks THE TWO VISIONS COMPARED. 343 great words against the Most High, and wears out the saints of the Most High, and they are given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time" (v. 25), the famous prophetic period of twelve hundred and sixty years,* at the end of which this wild beast of a tyrant, this anti-christian oppressor of the Church of God, is judged, condemned, and executed : whereupon the saints are de- livered, and henceforth have every thing their own way throughout the whole earth, the world being given into their hands. Such in substance is the celebrated vision, to whose identity in subject and scope, and yet remarkable diversity of representation from it, we now request the reader's atten- tion. 1. To Nebuchadnezzar, being a king, the four powers are represented as kingdoms : To Daniel, whose interests and affections as a man of God, were all bound up with the progress and prosperity of the Church of God, they are represented as nothing else than so many wild beasts, tear- ing and treading on the people and cause of God upon earth. To the monarch of Babylon the Church is repre- sented in the only light in which it would be intelligible to him, or at least formidable — as a kingdom which the God of heaven was to set up in the days of the four monarchies, of which his own was the first ; a kingdom which, after existing for a long time without making much impression upon the world, would at length get the better of the other kingdoms, and become all in all. To the pro- phet, mourning over the desolations of Zion, this heavenly * Called in the last chapter of this book, "a time, times, and an half" (ch. xii. 7); and in the Apocalypse, "forty and two months" (ch. xi. 2, and xiii. 5) ; "one thousand, two hundred and threescore days" (ch. tL 3, and xii. 6); and "a time, times, and half a time," (ch. xii. 14). 344 THE TWO VISIONS COMPARED. kingdom appears, in the first instance, simply as " the saints of the Most High," worn out, and given into the hand of the little horn of the fourth beast — the ecclesias- tical oppressor by whom the sovereignty of the fourth or Roman kingdom, in its divided form, is so terribly wielded. And just as in the Apocalypse. " the woman" — the true Church — is fain to betake herself to " the wilderness" for safety, while only certain " witnesses clothed in sackcloth" hold up any faithful testimony in that cloudy and dark day of rampant anti-christian domination ; so here, we find only " the saints of the Most High" on the Lord's side, aa if they could scarcely be called a " kingdom" — ^just a noble band of faithful witnesses, worn out and given into the hand of their oppressor for an appointed period, yet still keeping their ground, biding their time, and at length gloriously vindicated and all-victorious. Different, how- ever, as these representations are, the difference will be seen to arise solely from the point of view. The thing repre- sented is in both visions the same — the Church of Christ. The first vision gives the date of its erection in the days of the Roman Caesars. The second gives us its proper cha- racier — a kingdom of " saints." In the first vision, Christ's *' kingdom, instead of being left to other people, breaks in pieces and consumes all the other kingdoms, and stands for ever." In the second, the long oppressed " saints of the Most High take and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever." This " taking and possessing the kingdom" (vii. 18), evidently means the same thing with " the stone's smiting the image, and itself becoming a great mountain, and filling the whole earth," in the first vision. The former, being the more definite, explains the latter, which is the more general statement ; showing it to mean just the triumph of Christ's cause, as embodied in the living Church, over the anti-christianism of the kingdoms JUDGMENT OF ANTICHRIST WH«T. 345 of men, and its consequent universal and blessed sway in the world. Turning to that part of the Apocalypse which (as Mede says in the extract we have given from him) relates to the same period and the same event — namely, the sounding of the seventh trumpet — we have a sublime confirmation of the view I have given of these two visions. Nothing can be grander than the song in which the issue is there hymned by celestial voices (Rev xi. 15): "And the seventh angel sounded ; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, " The sovereignty op the world hath become our Lord's AND HIS Christ's ; and he shall reign for ever and ever !"* 2. A very important feature in the case, wanting in the first vision, is supplied by the second. In the former, it is simply a trial of might : the blow struck by the stone breaks the image in pieces. In the latter, it is first and chiefly a trial of right : the beast is judged and condemned ; his dominion, found usurped and illegal, is taken away^ and the kingdom and dominion are given to the people " of the saints of the Most High," as to the rightful possessors Let us look at this a little. A judicial assize is represented as being held upon the anti-christian oppressor of the saints of the Most High, or kingdom of Christ. And as the judgment to be held upon this wicked system is not a human but a divine judgment — or the view of it which God takes — the symbols and circumstances of it are all borrowed from the characteristics of the last judgment. " I beheld (says the prophet) till the thrones were cast," or rather " placed down" — for the Judge, with the assessors, to sit on.f This throne is seen occupied by the Eternal, ♦ See first note, p. 237. + See the LXX., the Vulgate, Theodotion, &c., and with manifest propriety, since it is mmediiiiely added, '• And the Ancient of days did 346 JUDGMENT OF ANTICHRIST arrayed in the symbols of awful purity and justice, and flaming with vengeance against his adversaries : " And the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire ; a fiery stream issued and came forth from before him." Then we have his attendant angelic ministers : " Thou- sand thousands ministered unto him, ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him." Arrangements are now made for proceeding with the trial: "The judgment was set, and the books were opened ;" — the book of the fads and the book of the 'principles of the case, — the record, on the one hand, of the high misdemeanours of this anti-chris- tian system against the kingdom and cause of God, and, on the other hand, the grounds in law for its condemnation, as these are set forth in the written word. And now the prophet hears the sentence, and witnesses its execution: " I beheld then because of tlie voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame." (verse 9-11.) In the Apocalypse, this is expressed by the beast's (this same usurping wild beast's) being cast, with his confederates alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone (chap. xix. 20.) As the imagery of the trial is that of the last judgment, it was fit that his end should be represented as a consignment of him to hell-fire. Bred of hell, the engine of hell — to hell it is fit it should be seen to go. Si/ftems. indeed — kingdoms — public parties — cannot go to hell, strictly speaking. Yet as the trial of them is real, so the destruction of them is as truly judicial as ever the perdition of ungodly men will be at the great day. Only let it be carefully borne in mind, that the scene has nothing to do with individuals, as such. It is the trial and condemnation of a system — a cause — a kingdom. — a WHEREIN DIFFERENT FROM I AST JUDGMENT. 341 gi'eat public party, and of that alone. Nor is any thing more meant by these august formalities of a judgment upon the little horn, than merely to intimate to us how rigkteoui will be the destruction of that wicked interest. Nebuchad- nezzar's vision exhibits the fall of anti-christianism, as re- sulting from a blow given to it by the kingdom of Christ. Daniel sees that too, in the saints of the Most High taking the kingdom and possessing it. But, in addition to this, he gets a view of the real secret of this triumph of the Church. It lies not so much in the might which she can command — though that is boundless — as in the right which is on her side. Her rival claimant for supremacy is a base usurper, and godless blasphemer, and tyrant oppressor of the saints of the Most High. He is on this account doomed as the enemy of Heaven, to be cast out as an abo- minable branch. When his day of visitation comes, those who are on the Lord's side will find him an easy prey, and may say one to another, as Caleb said to the Israelites con- cerning the people of the land, " They are bread for us : tlt^ir defence is departed from Ihem, and the Lord is with us : fear them notV (Numb. xiv. 9.) It is surprising that a scene whose purport is so plain should have been so much mystified as this is by pre-mil- lennialists. They confound it with the last judgment ; making this, at the beginning of the millennium, to be t\\e first act, as they make the judgment of those who shall rise at the end of the millennium to be the last act of a great judgment-day which is to last a thousand years. This theory we owe, I believe, to Joseph Mede,* whose theological capacity appears from his writings to have been as slender as his skill in some other departments was unrivalled. I have already at some length investigated * See his •' Answer to Dr. Meddus, touching the I>ay cf Judgment Works, Book iv. Epist. xv. p. 762. 348 UNIVERSAL DOMINION GIVEN TO CHRIST. this theory ; but, independently of all that we said upon that subject, nothing can be more evident than that th« judgment which Daniel saw in his vision, is not the judgment oi persons at all (save as they may be connected with the system, and involved in its ruins), but purely the judgment of the system, party, or interest of tlie little horn, and is, in fact, but a sublime symbolical way of expressing the righteousness of antichrist's destruction. These remarks will, if I mistake not, throw light upon the remainder of the vision, which is evidently to be inter- preted upon the same principles. One claimant for the throne of the world has been disposed of He had been in possession of the ground, indeed, long before his Rival, in some sense ; and might pretend to a de facto right to keep the ground. But right de jure he had none, and that is the only right recognized in heaven. He is accordingly, at the time appointed, swept away ; and the stage being now clear, the rival Claimant — even the San of Man, borne upon the clouds — is seen advancing to the Eternal Arbiter, still sitting in his awful throne, and is introduced to him by the angelic officers of state : " I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him." (Verse 13.) For what purpose is this ? That he may be seen putting in his claim to the sovereignty of the world, and getting that claim recognized by Him that sitteth upon the throne. " Ask of me," says the Ancien'^ of days, in effect, " and I WILL GIVE THEE the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." (Psal. ii. 8.) The prophet sees this done. " And," he adds, " there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should Berve him : his dominion is an eveilastirg dominion, whieb UNIVERSAL DOMINION GIVEN TO CHRIST. 349 shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." (Verse 14.) Who does not see that this has nothing to do with the second personal advent of Christ? The coming of the Son of Man here is not, be it observed, a coming to men at all, but a coming to God ; nor is it any local coming even to Him. It is simply the advancement and the re- cognition of his claim to rule the world, clothed in state forms. — in the symbolic drapery of an august installation or inauguration. From what locality his rule is to issue^ the vision says not a word, nor gives a hint. It is just the rule itself- — " that all people, nations, and languages, should serve and obey" — wrested out of the hand of a base usurper, and committed to " Him whose right it is to reign." It is just that in symbolic language which Zechariah expresses in naked terms, referring to the same period ; " And the Lord shall be king over all the earth : in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one." (Chap. xiv. 9.) It is the removal of all the Redeemer's 'public rivals^ in consequence of which " the Lord alone is exalted in that day." (Isaiah ii. 11, 17.) Enemies, we shall by and by find, will still exist ; but they will not be exalted^ or lift up the head. They will be still, and know that he is God. They will yield him feigned submission ; but universal submission he shall have. The only difference, then, between his rule now and in the latter day, is in the presence now, and the extinction then, of a public party in opposition to him, together with the native consequences of these very different states of things. Now. it is said to him, " Rule thou in the midst of thine etiemies^ (Ps. ex. 2.) Then, it is said to him, " Lord our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us ; but by thee only will we make mention of thy name. They are dead ; they shall not live ; they are deceased ; they shall 2o 350 KINGDOM GIVEN TO THE SAINTS. not rise: to this end hast thou visited and destroyed thera, and made all their memory to perish." (Isa. xxvi. 13, 14.) Would you know in what sense " the kingdom is given to the people of the saints of the Most High ?" You have but to consider in what sense they were deprived of it before. The vision has to do with them solely in the light of their principles, — their " saintship'' and devotedness to " the Most High." It is this which was kept down before. Living religion was not in favour, and did not rule the kingdoms of men. It had enough to do to keep its own ground, and often scarcely did that It was voted out and expelled from the place which it claimed as its own, the place of supremacy in all the affairs of men. When Chris- tians came down from these claims, or modified them, — when they compromised the rights of Him to whom they had sworn allegiance, and who had intrusted his interest and honour to their keeping, they were tolerated and at times caressed, like an adulterous wife, by the kings of the earth, or the ruling powers, and the whole dominant in- terest. Then they were 7wt " the saints of the Most High." Their saintship and fealty to Heaven being in abeyance, they were not themselves, nor as themselves were enter- tained, by '• the world who loves (only) its own." Whenever they stood forth in their real character, they were kept out and kept down. Such, at least, was the rule ; and any brief intervals of a better state of things were the rare exceptions, with which the vision has nothing to do. Now, the tables are turned. Saintship and fealty to heaven's King are all in all, while irreligious opposition is more thoroughly put down than before it was ra'npant. Now, '• the heavens do rule" in the kingdoms of men ; and saintly and leal-hearted men. Christians indeed, and living for Christ, bring all into captivity to the obedience of their Lord. Living Christianity exercises the sovereignty of the SUBSTANCE OF I HE VISIONS. 331 world. Going forth in its life-giving, all-penetrating, all- transforming virtue, it moulds the institutions and affairs of men to its own blessed character, making " Grod's will to be done on earth even as it is done in heaven." Having thus, at considerable length, examined and com- pared these celebrated visions of the kingdom of Christ, I would appeal to the impartial judgment of the reader, whether they do not confirm and illustrate all that I have said of the time and the nature of Christ's kingdom — that it was set up on his ascension to the right hand of power, or, as Daniel expresses it, " in the days" of the fourth or Roman kingdom ;* that the difference between the •' two states" of the kingdom — before the millennium and during that period — is a difference merely of prosperity and extent — the difference between the presence and the removal of certain gigantic obstructions to its progress and supremacy in the world, and the removal of which, at the appointed time, will be attended with no change of constitution, form, or dispensation^ but will merely set free its latent energies, and make way for the development of its internal resources to the benediction of a miserable world ? As the birth of a man, all puny though he then be, is the manifestation of his life '• in its primary sense," and the manhood to which he ultimately attains is but the same life developed and matured ; so the millennial state of the kingdom of Christ will be but the full expansion and bright development) the unrestrained and most benign rule of a kingdom, the Sovereign of which is already on his throne — the statutes of which are already proclaimed — the foundations of which * "He that shall here expound 'in the days,' to mean 'after the days,* shall give me leave not to believe him, unless also he can |)ersuade me that the Stone which smote the image was hewed out of the moimtain after the image was dashed in pieces and vanished." — Mede, p. 745. In diebus regum illoruni — non posteaquam deleii ei-un\ (Beng. in Apoc xi. 15 ) 352 DESTRUCTION OF ANTICHRIST GRADUAL. are already laid — and the conquests of which are proceeding apace. The little leaven may leaven the whole lump of hu- manity ; the grain of mustard seed may grow to be a tree suf- ficient to overshadow the whole earth ; but the mass is the same, and the tree is the same, at every stage. The whole is there from the first. Not a new element is added. Expansion and development, growtli and maturity, are all the difference. 3. I had nearly omitted to notice an important particular in Daniel's vision, intimating the gradual nature of the destruction which is to come upon the Papal antichrist. " And the judgment (says the prophet) shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to deMroy it UNTO THE END." (Ch. vil 26.) Whcu one reads of the Stone " smiting the image, and breaking it to pieces," and of the beast '•'• being slain and his body destroyed and given to the burriing flame ;" and when this is compared with the words of Paul, that "the Lord shall consume" this power '• by the spirit of his mouth, and destroy him with the brightness of his coming''^ (2 Thess. ii. 8) — he is apt to think of some single act of vengeance — some one act of destructive violence that will cause the instantaneous ex- tinction of the hated power. This may seem to be con- firmed if we take " the Stone^^ to mean not the kingdom of Christ, but Christ himself That, however will not stand. I admit that able divines have adopted it ; but the sacred text is a better interpreter of itself than all commentators, and it informs us that " the Stone" denotes the kingdom of Christ. " In the days of these kings (or kingdoms) shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall (that is the kingdom shall) break in pieces and consume (ripn*) p^n) all these kingdoms, and itself (x'^ri) shall stand for ever." (Dan. ii. 44.)* * Prebendary Lou th say % *' The Jews unanimously agree that by tht THE WARFARE NOT CARNAL. 353 Now. the kingdom of Christ not being " of this world,* and so not " bearing the sword," does not " break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms" in any such pitched baltle as the armies of men contend for the mastery in, and such as many are wont to represent " the battle of that great day of God Almighty" at ''Armageddon." I believe in no such way of deciding the question between Christ and antichrist — between " the kingdom which the God of heaven has set up," and " all these kingdoms" which it is to "consume and destroy." Believing that "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal," but (just for that reason) " mighty to the pulling down of strongholds," I believe the warfare itself to be not carnal. There may be much carnal warfare in connexion with it: — I do not deny that. But the conflict, as I have before remarked, is of another kind. And the apocalyptic description of Christ coming out of heaven on a war-horse, magnificently capa- risoned — attended by armies of celestial horsemen — to fight the battle against " the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the horse and against his army," with the invo- cation addressed to " all the fowls that fly in the midst of Stone is here meant the Messiah." But by tliis he does not mean hia person as distinguished from his kingdom ; for Lowth adduces this testi- mony in support of his own application of the Stone to the kingdom o. Christ. All he means is, that the Jews agree with the Christians in the iWiess-ianic application of this prediction. The fathers were fond of illustrating the miraculous generation of Christ by the Stone's being "cut out of the mountain without hands;" and thus the application of the words to Christ seen) to have gained a footing. (The application of Ezek. xliv. 2 to the same circumstance is scarcely so res^pectable.) The true but simple sense of the Stone's being "cut out of the mountain without hands," is triven in the verse above quoted. " In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom," as contrasted with the frail and perishable, because earthly, kingdoms set up by men — "a kingdonr which shall not be left to other people," &c. 2o3 354 THE VICTORY heaven to come ami sup upon the flesh of kings, captainSj and mighty men, of horses and their riders, and of all men, free and bond, small and great" (Rev. xix. 11, &c.) — this symbolical description of the conflict that is to issue in the final destruction of antichrist and all his party, does not lead me the more to expect a '• carnal warfare," but just the reverse If this view of the conflict be correct, we shall be the less surprised to learn that the final issue is to be gradual rather than immediate — the result of many blows rather than of one, A succession of weakening defeats and wast- ing visitations, the failure of the very schemes from which the enemies of Christ's kingdom expected the greatest suc- cess, and providential manifestations of Heaven's wrath against them — such " untoward events" on the one side ; and on the other, a succession of quickenings, enlargements, and triumphs — Christ's cause growing in strength, and his friends "waxing much more confident by the very bonds" which oppress them — such a species of antagonism we may figure to ourselves as consonant to the nature of the parties : such a march of the children of light into the territories of dark- ness would be worthy of Him who delights to " spoil the Egyptians." It may be a protracted, complicated, and sometimes imperceptible process of " consumption and destruction" that is going on,* but one delights to think how the sapping and mining process may be slowly but surely advancing, and " the daughter of Babjdon" be " near to destruction," at the very time when " she saith in her heart, I sit as a queen, and am no widow, and shall see * It is worthy of notice that in all the three places which describe the destruction of antichrist, two terms are employed : — "It shall break in pieces and consume (w)Dn, make an end of) all these kingdoms." (Dan. ii. 44.) "The judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy (nTninb!) nnTS'^nb) it unto the end (Dan. vii. 26.) SLOW BUT SURE. 355 no sorrow." (Rev. xviii. 7.) Infinite comjlicatioi^s there muy be in the plot ; at times the enemies shall make themselves sure of victory, and prepare for the celebration of it. But " He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh at them ; the Lord shall have them in derision." It is his way to take time to all his great works. " One day is with Him as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." It seems, indeed, to be a law of the moral kingdom, that all the great powers — civil and ecclesiastical, of light and of darkness — that have borne sway among men, shall both rise and fall by degrees. So was it with the mighty monarchies that have overshadowed the world. So has it been with the kingdom of the false prophet From the first risings of ambition among Christ's ministers, to the time when all Christendom trembled at the grim tyrant of the seven hills — how slow has been the progress ! For three hundred years — from the time when that dark, and withering, and accursed power seemed to get its death-blow at the glorious Reformation, until now — how often has the tide, to human appearance at least, rolled back, and how plausibly has it been asserted that not an inch of solid ground has since that day been gained ! Astounding, in- deed, are the events of our day. Scarce a year has elapsed since the right arm of the Papacy was paralysed by a revo- lution, from the efi'ects of which it struggles to recover it- self, though as yet with but partial success — I allude, of course, to Austria. The temporal power of the Pope, after being swept away by his own subjects, and suffering a glori- ous eclipse, has been re-established in a way which has "Whom the Lord shall consume {aveXsT) with the Spirit of his mouth, and destroy {Karapyriaei) with the brightness of his coming." (2 Thess. ii. 8.) The gradual nature of the destruction of antichrist— the successive steps by which its extermination is to be effected — seems clearly to be thus denoted. 356 THE EVENTUAL TRIUMPH. already opened many eyes, and may prove but a step towards the downfall of his whole authority. But we pro- phesy not. There has been too much of this. The whole horizon of Christendom may yet be overcast, and the safety of the truth and cause of God be brought into such peril, that " men's hearts may fail them for fear, and for looking after those things that are coming on the earth." But " when these things begin to come to pass," we are taught to look up and lift up our heads, for our " redemption draweth nigh." The ship of the Church shall outride the storm ; the gates of hell shall not prsvail : the cause of God, careering over the billows, shall reach the fair havens ; and " the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most H igh, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him." (Dan. vii. 27.)* * Mr. H. Bonar's elaborate reply to the view given in this chapter of Daniel's vision, seems to me a great deal more startling in its charges than solid and convincing in argument. I endeavoured to show how very different a judgment this upon Daniel's "fourth beast'" or "little horn" of the pap;!l antichrist M'ill be, from the last judgment described at the close of the twentieth chapter of Revelation. I placed the differ- ence between these two judgments not so much in the time of them (the one before, the other after the millennium), as in the character of them ; the one being the trial, condemnation, and destruction of the antichris- \\din system, interest, cause, or kingdom — the other, a judicial investiga- tion of the slate and character of individual pessons, for eternity. This difference is manifest from the very description of the parties judged, and of the issue. The Judge is of course the same in both ; the awful pomp of the judgment is very much me same also, for it is a high judi- cial decision in both cases: but how totally different the parties and the issue! Sjys Daniel, "The judgment was set, and the books were open- ed. I beheld then, because of the voice of the great words wiiich the horn spake: I beheld till ihe beast was slain, and his body given to the burn- ing flame. As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion iaken away, yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a lime." Chap. vii. 10-12.) This slaying of the beast, and destruction of hii MR. H. 30NAR. 357 body, and con»mittal of it to the flnme?, is afterwards described in the same vision simply by the taking away of his dominion. "The saints shall be given into his (the little horn's) hand until a time and tin-^es and the dividing of time. But the judgment shall sit, and (as the result) ihey shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And (in place of it) the kingdom and dominion .... shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High." (Vv. 25-27.) How clearly does this show that the whole is a question of dominion ! Anti- christ's dominion— here styled "the beast," "the little horn "—being usurped and rebellious, tyrannous and unholy, though tolerated for long ages, is at length to be judicially "taken away, consumed, and destroy- ed unto the end ;" while the saints— alone acknowledging the rights and prerogatives of " our Lord and of his Christ " — shall " take and possess the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven," ruling for God over the wide vvoild. A blessed consum- mation this, but how totally different from " the judgment of the great day 1" "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God . . . and the dead were judged out of those things that were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and hades delivered up the dead that were in them ; and Ikey itere judged every man according to their works.'^ Durham mentions another all-important point of difference between the two judg- ments. "The book of life," he says, "is not mentioned in Dan. VII., to which there is an allusion in all this (descrif)tion of the last judg- ment), because it is but a temporal judgment that is principally in- tended in that place.^'* Such then, is the view of Daniel's vision for which I am classed with the Pantheistic Emerson (p. 159), with the Sweden borgian Bush (p. 229, &c., &c.), with the Rationalist Henke (p. 260), and I know not what all errorists. Leaving it to the reader to judge how far such a mode of writing is for edification, I merely notice the singulav ground on which such charges are rested, namely, that by representing the judgment in Daniel as a judgment on the antichrlstian system, cause, interest, king- dom — as contra-distinguished from a trial of individual persons "accord- ing to their works "—I make it a judgment uf on a mere abstraction. The shallowness of this is too palpable to require an answer. The destruc- tion of the Papacy has hitherto been understood to mean something real, apart from what may happen to its individual adherents. As the great proportion of these will have gone the way of all the earth ere that event occur, they at least cannot share in the destruction of the Papacy, * By " principally " Durham means that though it is but a temporal judgment that is predicted in Dan. vii., it is, like all temporal judgments, an earnest and forerunner of the last judt'ment, and so couciied in the language of it as all ttia great temporal judgments described in Scripture undeniably are. 358 MR. H. BONAR. but will be rotting in their graves when its fall takes place. And tven as to those who adhere to it at the time of its overthrow, surely it is the fill of that system of soul-destroying error, daring blasphemy, blind supersti- tion, hypocritical priestcraft, and grinding tyranny — the termination of such impositions upon men in the name of religion, "holy, catholic, and apostolic" — this surely is the destruction predicted, the consummation hymned in the prophetic Scriptures, the deliverance which an oppressed Church longs to witness, and not the individual calamities which no one denies will overtake those who are actively mixed up with the accursed thing, which may prove very terrible, and of which Europe has already, in all probability, begun to be the theatre. Further, I have said that "One like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven, coming to the Ancient of days, and brought near before him,^^ does not mean Christ's second coming from heaven to earth, but his symbolical approach to the Father, to be invested with "dominion and glory and a kingdom over all people, nations, and languages," as is in the very next verse expressed — (Vv. 13, 14.) If it means any local ap- proach at all, it is his ascent rather than his descent — his solemn entry into heaven to receive the reward of his work. But in my view, neither his ascension to the right hand of God, nor his return in person to the earth, is here intended, but, as I have said, it is a scenic representation of his investiture with the rights of universal dominion. As in the Apoca- lypse we find him symbolically " clothed with a cloud, a rainbow on hia head, his face as the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire," and thus arrayed, " setting his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth," to claim and possess what his Father had promised him, even the "heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his posses- sion," (Rev. x. 1, 2; Ps. ii. 8) — so here we have "the Ancient of days" installing him in this dominion over all people, nations, and languages. Well, in thus refusing to recognize here Christ's second coming from heaven to earth, Mr. Bonar writes as if I were imposing some unheard of and violent sense upon the vision. But is it so 7 "The prophet (says Maclaurin) does not represent the Son of man as commg in the clouds of heaven Jro??i heaven to earthy as at the general judgment, but as com- ing with the clouds of heaven from his former residence [the earth] towards the throne of God, which, according to the Scripture style, is heaven. And this is confirmed by the words immediately following, that 'they brought him near before him, ''viz., before the Ancient of days."* " this (says Scott in his Commentary) must point out Christ to us ... . ascending to heaven, the throne of God, to receive the kingdom covenanted to him:'— {Ps. ii. 7-9.) * See Scott's Commentary, ad loc. CHAPTER IV. NO MILLENNIAL REVIVAL OF JEWISH PECULIARITIES. That the unbelieving Jews should look for a rebuilt temple^ a re-established priesthood^ the restoration of their bloody sacrifices^ and an Israelitish supremacy — at once religious and civil — over all the nations of the earthy when tlieir Messiah comes, is not to be wondered at. With these views of Old Testament prophecy, their fathers rejected Jesus and put him to death, as he neither realised their expectations, nor professed to do so ; but on the contrary directed his whole teaching to the uprooting of the preva- lent conceptions of Messiah's character, work, and king- dom, and to the establishing of views directly opposite. Unless they had been prepared to abandon their whole scheme of Old Testament interpretation, they could not consistently have acknowledged Jesus to be the Messiah. But that any Christians should be found agreeing with the unbelieving Jews in their views of Old Testament pro- phecy — that there should be a school of Christian inter- preters, who, while recognizing Jesus as the promised Mes- siah, and attached in all other respects to evangelical truth, should nevertheless contend vehemently for Jewish literal- ism, and, as a necessary consequence, for Jewish altars, sacrifices, and supremacy — is passing strange. It is true that this Judaistic element was not wholly expelled from the minds of the apostles before the day of Pentecost ; it 360 MR. FRY. is true that even after this it had its advocates in some of the infant churches — as the Galatiau and Colossian ; and it is true that, even when extruded thence by the zeal with which Paul attacked it, and the light which he poured upon the Old Testament by his rich expositions, it still lingered, and struggled for a footing, and succeeded in intrenching itself in a number of shallow minds, whose poverty of con- ception in things divine is supposed by distinguished histo- rians to have given them the name of Ebionites (from •ji^as poor.) But characterised as this Ebionitic school was by low views of the Person and Work of Christ, as well as of every thing else in religion, its existence was brief and outside the orthodox Church ; nor has it ever been able to raise its head, save in a few isolated cases, till the present day. The most remarkable fact of all is, that those who held the pre-millennial theory in the second and third cen- turies, seem not to have believed in any literal territorial restoration of the Jews at all. — much less in their millen- nial supremacy over all nations, and the re-establishment of their religious peculiarities. How strangely, in the light of these facts, do the follow- ing extracts from the pre-millennialists of our day strike the ear : — " Zion and Jerusalem," says Blr. Fnj (Rector of Desford), " are to be the great source of spiritual blessedness to the whole world. This ' city of Jehovah' is represented as tke grand centre and emporium of civil and religious power. whitJier all nations resort for their laws and government. ' He shall reign in Jerusalem unto the ends of the earth.' .... But what most surprises us is, that a ritual of worship, so like the Mosaic ceremonial, should again be restored by divine appointment, rather than institutions more analogous to those of the gospel Church ; and especially, that the sacrifices of animal victims should be again enjoined ! For we read of all the various offerings of the Lovitical MR. FREEMANTLE. 361 econom/, not only ' peace-oflfering ' and ' meat-offering,' but * burnt-offerings,' * trespass-offerings,' and ' sin-offerings.' Wo can only reply, such is the divine pleasure. It is not for us to judge what would be best for Israel and for the world at large in this future age." "However averse to our preconceived notions may be the restitution of ceremonial sacrifices, that res- titution exactly corresponds with the prediction in the close of the fifty-first Psalm, where a reference is clear to Israel of the last times : ' Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion : build the walls of Jerusalem. Then wilt thou desire the right sacrifices, an offering and a holocaust; tlmii sludl tJieij offer steers upon thiiu altars:''* " In Ezek. xliii. 26," says Mr. FrecviantU, " it is commanded that the priests shall purge the altar seven days. . . . And up(»a the eighth day and vso forward, the priest shall make the bun it- offerings upon the altar, and the peace-offerings, and God will accept them. Thus the legal ceremonies will be celebrated upon the day of the resurrection of Christ. . . . Then the song of thanksgiving i)i Ps. Ixvi. shall resound through the temple aisle. . . . ' We will go into thy house with hurnt-offerings ; I will offer unto thee burnt-sacrijlces of fallings, with the incense of rams; I will offer bnUocks with goats' And this forms the fourth and last feature [of "Israel's glory after the advent"] viz. the re- newal of sacrificial worship. . . . But it may be asked, Is it com- manded ? Assuredly. Turn to a prophecy relating to times sub- sequent to the restoration of the twelve tribes, and you have the answer (Jer. xxxiii. 17, 18), 'Thus saith the Lord, David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Isi-ael ; neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer hurnt-offerings, and to ki7idle meat-offerings, and to do sacrifice continually.' And in Ezek. xlv. xlvi., the most minute directions as to the manner in which the sacrifices are to be offered, and which in some respects will hid found to differ from the details under the law of Mosesy ■\ * The Second Advent, &c., by the Rev. John Pry, 1822, vol. i. pp. l-^, 583, 585, 586. t Leat Lect. for 1843, ut mpra, pp. 276, 278, 279. 2k MR. PYM. "At that [millennial] time," says Mr. Brock, "the [civil oi political] ascendency of Israel Avill be paravwmit over the Gentiles. Clear to this eflfect are the predictions of the prophets. ' The kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem. . . . Thou shalt beat in pieces many people. . . . The nation and kingdom that Avill not serve thee shall perish. ... Ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles,' &c. The same ascendency shall also be exercised by Israel over the Gentiles in splrikial things. Jerusalem will be the metropolitan city of the converted nations. ' The moun- tain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the moun- tains; and all nations shall flow unto it,' &c." * " Jerusalem," says Mr. Pym, " shall be the metropolis op THE WORLD, f?-om u'/iich tkc law shall go forth, and be the centre op \^•0RSHIP FOR THE WHOLE EARTH. . . . That this shall then dis- ti.iguish Jerusalem above every other city, is apparent from the words of the prophet (Isa. ii. 2, 3), ' The mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains,' &C. ' From one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me ' (Isa. Ixvi. 23). ' Every one that is left of all the nations . . . shall go up from year to year to worship, . . . and to keep the feast of tabernacles.' His people shall be exalted above all others. ' And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your ploughmen and your vine-dressers. But yu shall be named the priests of the Lord, .... ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles,' &c. When I read such passages as these, do I marvel that the heart of an Israelite according to the flesh should beat high in prospect of the future glories of his nation 1 Why, the blood runs faster through my own veins when I consider the predictions of their national greatness upon earth in the ages to come ; much more, then, must it kindle the affections of that people who are the subject of these promises. It would appear from this passage, that the ordinary avocations of life, such as the dressing of vines and the tending of flocks, will be performed for them by the Gentiles, whilst they are to ♦ Lent Lect. for 1846 ("Israel's Sins and Israel's Hopes"), p^ 271-273. MESSRS. BONAR REMARKS. 363 be engaged in the higher offices of being the priests of the Lord.' " * I regret that the Messrs. Bonar must be added to *^ ^57^"^^^^ list of those who have adopted these views. After endea-'^ *^ O^-^ vouring to show that the literal sense of these prophecies, ^^ ^^ and particularly of the last eight chapters of Ezekiel, is the only practicable one — Mr. H. Bonar exclaims, " Why should not the temple, the wor- ship, the rites, the sacrifices, be allowed to point to the Lamb that was slain in the millennial age, if such be the purpose of the Father 1 . . . How needful will [such] retrospection be then, especially to Israel ] How needful, when dwelling in the blaze .of a triumphant Messiah's glory, to have ever before them some memorial of the cross, some palpable record of the humbled Jesus, some visible exposition of his sin-bearing work [i. e., by the sacri- ficing of beasts, as of old !] in virtue of which they have been forgiven, and saved, and loved And if God should have yet a wider circle of truth to open up to us out of his word concerning his Son, why should he not construct a new apparatus for the illus- tration of that truth 7" f On reading these statements, a number of thoughts crowd into the mind, of which the following are a few. 1. Such startling literalism goes a great deal farther than its advocates are willing, or indeed able to carry it. They are compelled to stop short ; and, so doing, it becomes evi- dent that their principles of interpretation are radically wrong. To show this, we have but to go through with the literal interpretation of their own passages. Thus, Isa. ii. 2, 3: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in * Lent Lect. for 1847 ("Good Things to Come"), pp. 165-167. t Coming and Kingdom, to worship him." (John iv. 21-23.) Does this mean that, under the new economy, the wor- ship of Gentiles out of Jerusalem would be as acceptable as the worship of the Jews in it — that the central and sacred character of Jerusalem would continue unchanged ; but that believing Gentiles, though as much " strangers and foreigners" as ever, as truly " aliens from the common- wealth of Israel" as ever, in respect of ceremonies, and Church officers, and modes of worship, would nevertheless get access to Christ and salvation as truly as the Jews ? Could such a construction, by possibility, be put upon the Saviour's language, one could listen to the arguments for tt millennial Judaism. But as, beyond all dou])t, the 370 JEWISH CEREMONIES STILL EXPECTED. Saviour meant to announce that Jerusalem was going to lose its peculiar character — that it would cease to be, even to the Jews themselves, " the city of their solemni- ties, whither the tribes should go up" — that, in fact, it would possess not a whit more of distinctive religious character than the mountain of Samaria, about which the woman consulted him — I cannot but wonder that Chris- tian men, sitting at the Redeemer's feet to receive the law at his mouth, should dream of a revived Judaism, and picture to themselves " believing nations frequenting the" restored " temple, in order to get understanding in the types and shadows ; looking on the sons of Zadok minis- tering in that peculiar sanctuary, to learn portions of truth with new impressiveness and fulness."* Ah ! brother, never more shall Jerusalem be " the city of the great King" — the place of Jehovah's special presence and power, grace and glory, in connexion with a ceremonial worship. " In Salem was his tabernacle, and his dwelling-place in Zion." (Ps. Ixxvi. 1.) But by the work of Christ these localities are stript for ever of their ceremonial sacredness. " Salem" and " Zion" are now in every place where " the Father is worshipped in spirit and in truth." It is this very change beyond all doubt which the apostle designed to express, when he said to the Hebrews, who were cling- ing to the local Jerusalem and the literal Zion, after all their glory had passed away, " But ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living Gtod, the HEAVENLY Jerusalem" — (Hcb xii. 22) — the Zion and Jerusalem of a catholic and spiritual and heavenly Israel — • the only Zion and Jerusalem that will ever, in any religi- ous sense, exist upon earth. To say in the face of such a statement, that the religious peculiarities of the local Jeru- ealem and the literal Mount Zion are either not abolished • Bonar's (A.) " Leviticus." Preface, p. x. INCREASE MATHER ON THE CEREMONIES. 371 at all, or abolished only for a time, to be again restored, is, I must say, intolerable. " The Church-polity," says good Increase Mather— father of the well kno^n Cotton Mather, and a pre-mil- lennialist — " which Israel shall tlien [in their converted and restored state] be under, shall not be a carnal one, not as was from Moses unto Christ, but a very spiritual polity ; for they shall be no more under the Mosaical pedagogy — no more under the ceremonial law It hath been charged upon those who did in the primitive times assert the glori- ous reign of Christ upon earth, that they did also maintain that there would be sacrifices and other ceremonies of Moses' law: So Jerome (on Jer. xix. 10, and on Zech. xiv. 10), saith that the ancient doctors held. I do believe that that is a very injurious charge ; and that it never once entered into the heart of any of those godly and learned teachers in the Church to imagine such a thing. However, sure I am, that the word of the Lord is express to the contrary. Hence, the Jews, after their conversion, are said to be under, not the old, but the new covenant ; that is. not under the old but the new manner (for the covenant of grace, as to the substance of it, is for ever the same) of administration of the covenant. Hence, the Lord saith to Israel, " But not by thy covenant." (Ezek. xvi. 61.) The truth is, that Christ, by his coming, abolished the cere- monial law and nailed it to his cross, and buried it in his grave. And a most loathsome work do they perform, BOTH TO God and man, that dig up the ceremonies out OF THAT GRAVE WHERE JeSUS ChrIST LURIED THEM ABOVE SIXTEEN HUNDRED YEARS AGO."* * The Mystery of Israel's Salvation Explained and Applied : or, a Discourse concerning the General Conversion of the Israelitish Nation. By Increase Mather, M. A., teacher of a Church in Boston, in New England. Printed in the year 1669. Pp. 113, 114. Joseph Psbuy, too, in his comments on those passages in which torn 373 EZEK1EL*S TEMPLE. What would this worthy man have said, had he hfard Mr, A. Bonar expatiating on the lessons to be taught by the restored sacrifices — had he heard Mr H. Bonar dwell- ing on the need of them amidst the blaze of Messiah's glory — had he heard Mr. Freemantle telling a Christian audience, that in the restored temple '• the burnt-offering will be dis- cerned by an enlightened eye, and will call to mind the lost and ruined state of man in Adam — wholly consumed. The shv-offering will set forth actual trespass, shortcoming. The feace-offe.ring and thank-offering^ the abounding and exceeding great love of God our Saviour : As the blood flows from trie victim, the mind will trace the characters of death on account of sin, and in those very characters decipher life in atonement for sin. And as in vision John beheld a Lamb as it had been slain, so will the Israelite behold in reality the type (that is, beasts literally slain) and the anti- type face to face !" ( Ut supra.) When the author of this Lecture adds, immediately after the words quoted, " O happy and blessed period ! In that day shall the flocks of Kedar be gathered together unto thee, the rams of Nebaioth minister unto thee," one feels disposed to ask, Were the two men of the same religion ? But it is said, " The ac- count of this (restored) temple, which occupies chapters xl. to xlvi. of Ezekiel, is embedded in literalities on either side Here, then, lies the difficulty. All seems literal on either side ; and is there to arise, in the midst of this, a great spiritual building, possessing nothing in com- mon with the literalities around it ? The point of difficulty lies ihere'^* To this I unhesitatingly reply, Let the lite- ralities go, if they cannot stand with the naked and unmis- takeable announcements of the Lord of the temple. I do ple-Ianguage is employed, never seems to imagine any but a fi'jmaiive Interpretation of them. ♦ Bonar's " Redemption Drawing Nigh»" p. 99. THE BEGGARLY ELEMENTS. 373 not quite see, indeed, that we are shut up to the alteriui" tive of losing all literalities, or making everything literal. But I am perfectly prepared to part with whatever may be demanded by a firm adherence to the announcements of Christ, True, " there are many dark things in the word ;"* but they will become darker still, if, instead of explaining the dark things by the clear, we explain the clear things by the dark^ making the Old Testament the key to the New. It is this unnatural method which lies at the foundation of all the Jewish expectations of Christians; and never till we reverse the process are we safe from the danger to which Jerome alludes, of Jvdaizing our Christianity^ instead of Christianizing the adherents of Judaism. As a last refuge, we sometimes hear it said, that, though an Aaronic priesthood, and bloody sacrifices, and circumci- sion, and a metropolitan ceremonial at Jerusalem, may be unsuitable to the genius of the present economy, they may, for aught that we know, be consistent enough with one to come. This surely is a desperate argument. Nor should I allude to it, but to ask the reader whether this be the im- pression which he gathers from the Apostle's reasonings on the subject of the ceremonies, in the epistles to the Gala- tians^ Colossians, and Hebrews ? Was it only the abuse of them against which he wrote ? Or was it only their temporary removal which he contemplated, in the view of their ultimate restoration ? Does he not characterise them as, in their own nature.^ " worldly rudiments," " beggarly elements." the mere discipline of minors, as a " bondage" uusuited to the liberty of Christ's freemen ? (Gal. iv.) Are they not represented as " a shadow," of which " the body is Christ" for the entire neglect and abandonment of which Christians ought not to allow themselves to be ^jadged" by Judaizing zealots, who were swarming in • *' Redemption," p. 103. 2i 374 ANTIQUATED SHADOWS. Bome of the infant churches, and whose policy it was to sap and mine whatever was spiritual^ and free^ and catholic in the new economy? (Col. ii.) Is not the priesthood said to be " changed," and the ceremonial institute to be " dis- annulled," expressly " because of the wea/mess and unproJU- ableness thereof V Now, to what order did those "sons of Zadok " belong, the " ministrations" of whose descend- ants in the restored temple are expected to give " new impressiveness and fulness to certain portions of truth ?" They belonged, as every one knows, to that very Aaronic order which the apostle says has been swept oflf the stage of the Church, with all that appertained to it, as a weak and useless thing after Christ's coming. Yet farther, is not the co-existence of two priesthoods regarded as a thing incongruous ; and does not the apostle represent the whole ritual system as in a " decaying,, antiquated, and evanescent" state, when he wrote ? (Chap, viii.) Now, is it conceivable that such language would have been used of a system only temporarily set aside, to be brought back, with a few changes, to more than its pristine splendour ? If such expectations, or any thing like them, are not directly in the teeth of all that the apostle says on the subject of the temple service, he has used language which it was next to impossible not to misunderstand, and which the whole Church, with hardly an exception, has mis- understood. It gives me extreme pleasure to be able to enrich my pages with the following statement of the Duke of Man- chester^ which for acuteness and force of argument is all that I could desire on the subject of this chapter, and which, considering the quarter from which it comes, may have a weight with the brethren from whom I differ which my own statements may not possess. The intrinsic value of the extract will compensate for its length. ADMIRABLE VIEWS OF DUKE OF MANCHESTER. 375 " The sacrifices," says his Grace, " mentioned by Ezekiel, seem t -) me quite unsuitable to any period of the Church aftei the first advent of Messiah ; for, according to the epistle to the Hebrews themselves, the sacrifices mentioned by Ezekiel are those very ones which are done away by Christ. In Ezekiel there is provision for slaying the sin-offering and the trespass- offering (xl. 39). . . The apostle, quoting from the 40th Psalm, says ' Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not ; in burnt- offer- ings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure :' then applying this quotation, he says (Heb. x. 6, 9), ' He taketh away the first that he may establish the second.' The sacrifices that were by the law must be abolished, in order that the offering of Christ might be established. Would there not then be a re- membrance of sin, in opposition to the blessing of the new covenant (Heb. viii. 12), ' Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.' Again, there is mention made of the bullock whose body was to be burnt without the sanctuary (xliii. 21) ; which the apostle applies to Christ suffering without the gate, and to the necessity which there was for those who would enjoy the benefits to be derived from Christ, of going without the pale of Jewish ordinances : while those who con- tinue in the use of the ceremonial law have ' no right' to partake of Christ (Heb. xiii. 10-13). — Again, according to Ezekiel, cir- cumcision was to be imperative not only amongst the Jews, but with strangers (xliv. 9) ; while the apostle tells us (Gal. v. 2-4), 'If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.' — And lastly, in Ezekiel's temple the passover was to have been regularly observed (xlv. 21); but [since] 'Christ our passover has been »u crificed for us,' are we to go back to what are now ' beggarly ele- ments' ? " Perhaps the advocates for the restoration of sacrifices would say they are to be commemorative or eucharistic ; / say this view appears more objectionable than tlie spiritual hypothesis, because that only evades ^cv\\)i\\vQ, this opposes it ; for the object of these sacri- fices is expressly declared — they are for him "that erreth, and they are to reconcile, to cleanse, and to purge (Ezek. xlv. 20; xliii. 20; xlvi. 20). If they were intended as eucharistic, they would not be called ' sms' and ^ trespasses i they would rather be called ' peace ' and ' thank-offerings ; ' but we have these 376 ADMIRABLE VIEWS OF mentioned also (xlv. 17, margin), and distinct from the ' sin and ' Lnrnt-off(;rings.' * ... 1 think it possible that the prophecy ol E?:ekiel may in part become the occasion of those Jews who re- ject Messiah having recourse to those ' beggarly elements ; ' and I THINK IT IS A SUBJECT OF VERY GRAVE CONSIDERATION, WHETHER WE Christians may not put a stumbling-block in the way op THE Jews, by admitting that the restoration op sacrifices, after they have been done away in Christ, can be in accord- ance WITH the will of God To think now of re-esUb- lishing any sacrifices which must be done away in Christ, woald be utterly unsuitable to tlie Church ; it would be turning again to the weak and beggarly elements ; tJierefore all that portion of EzekieVs vision which refers to them, to use the apostle's expression, must have gioian old. . . . " I find in prophetic language sacrifices used figuratively, to denote ])rayer (Ps. cxli, 2); praise (Ps. liv. 6, Jer. xvii. 26, xxxiii. 11) ; thanksgiving (Ps. cvii. 22, cxvi. 17) ; joy (Ps. xxvii. 6) ; righteousness (Ps. iv. 5, li. 19) ; confession (Ps. Ivi. 13) ; contrition (Ps. li. 17) ; judgments (Isa. xxxiv. 6, xlvi. 10, Ezek. xxxix. 17-19, Zeph. i. 7, 8.) I find that some of the instances ad- ditced by the advocates of literal sacrifices, if taken literally, would prove more than those advocates vmnld admit, for they refer not to the Jeips, hit to Gentiles, e. g., Isa. xix. 21 ; Ivi. 7 ; Mai. i. ll.f And when I find in the New Testament that believers are a royal priesthood (1 Pet. ii. 6, 9), and, as priests, partake of the altar (Heb * It IS impossible, I think, that the Messrs. Bpnar, and those who with •them look for the restoration of animal sin-ofl^erings and burnt-ofl^erings, as eucharislic memorials of Christ's death, should not feel the force of this arsfument. t The last of these examples has been commented on for the purpose of showing that the altar of burnt-" ofl'ering" and the altar of "incense" will be not at Jerusalem only, but " in every place," if it is to be taken literally. (P, 368.) His Grace adduces it, and the other two passages, to show that the Gentiles will in that case offer Jewish sacrifices. Is not this what I have termed the Judaization of the whole world ? No- thing can be clearer than that this is what all these prophecies announce, if they are to be interpreted literally ; and if this is too much even for a Jew to take in, we must fall back upon the figurative sense as the only rational and self-consistent one. DUKE OF MANCHESTER. 377 xiii. 10; 1 Cor. x. 16, 21), as priests offer spiritual sacrifices, whether of praise (Heb. xiii. 15), and good works (Heb. xiii. 13, 16 ; Phil. iv. 18), or whether of themselves either in life or death (Rom. xii. 1, xv. 16; Phil. ii. 17; 2 Tim. iv. 6); I am induced to believe that the prophets refer to the spiritual and reasonable services indicated by the typical ordinances, rather than the heggarhj elements themselves. Nor do I think that this mode of interpreta- tion can justly be charged with being a departure from the principle of literal interpretation.* Each of the sacrifices enig- matically signified certain determinate parts of spiritual worship ; the prophets, who lived during the dispensation of shadows, lised the language current at that time, and conveyed the ideas of the things symbolized, under the terras of the symbols them- selves. In saying this, we do not admit any thing arbitrary in the principles of interpretation ; the literal sacrifices were forms by which the spiritual worship of the enlightened Jew was ex- pressed, and shadows of a time of reformation; the prophets conveyed hy words what the ceremonial worship expressed by things; and it is no more arbitrary in the one case than in the other, to say that they predicted not the shadow but the sub- stance, not the form but the spirit of true worship. Nor is there any thing indetei-mlnate admitted; for as the prophets take their language from the ceremonial appointments, and as each species of sacrifice symbolized a determinate idea, so the lan- guage, when used figuratively or symbolically, equally conveys a fixed and determinate idea.f Why may not ' the rams of Nebaioth' ♦ One is almost amused at the jealousy with which his Grace antici- pates and repels this objection. Undoubtedly, he "departs from the principle of literal interpretation" in the only sense in which its advo- cates contend for it; and the grounds on which he defends himself in the next sentence from the charge which his friends will of course, and with justice, bring against him, are the very grounds on which I myself feel warranted and constrained to apply the figurative principle to these prophecies. t Nothing can be more admirable than these defences against the charge of arbitrary and indtterminate interpretation, which is continu- ally made by the strict literullsts. I only hope his Grace will allow ma to take the benefit of it; and if 1 go bey<>nd the legitimate application of t in any case^ I shall gladly submit to his correction. I certainly 2i2 378 DUKE OF MANCHESTER. (Isa. ix. 7), be understood symbolically, as well as 'the failings of Bashan ' (Ezek. xxxix. 18), or * the kidneys of rams ' (Isa. xxxiv. 6). or ' the calves of the lips ' (Hos. xiv. 2) ] If it be said that the Egyptians shall ' do sacrifice and oblation ' (Isa. xix. 21), is it violent to look for the explanation in the following words, * Yea, they shall vow a vow and perform it ] ' Is it unreasonable to suppose that the burnt-offerings and sacrifices of the Gentiles de- note the prayer which all nations will offer in God's house, or even to understand the burnt-offerings and sacrifices of the Jews me7itioned in connexion with the sacrifices of praise, as themselves indicatives OP spiritual worship % * need not. Should his Grace get his eye on Lowers Magazine for Oct.^ Nov., Dec, 1847, he will find in the papers on the ^^ Restoration of the Jev-s,^'' that I am as jealous as he is of " arbitrary and indeterminate'' interpretation. * Finished Mystery, pp. 253-257, 260-262. It may be asked how his Grace " thinks the lati«r chapters of Ezekiel can be understood according to the hteral simplicity of Xhe language, without being con- trary to the analogy of faith." It is soon told. " The promise [of this whole tem- ple-worship] was altogether conditional on their ' putting away their whoredoms, being ashamed of all they had done,' &c. (Ezek. xliii. 9-11.) .... But they diu not take advantage of the pi offered mercy ; tlierefore the promise lapsed, and the Israelites have no warrant to expect that the offer as there made to them, will ever again be proposed." Pp. 256, 257.) I am afraid this will not do. It is the theory of those who deny the future restoration, and even national convention of the Jews; who, finding that a great many more promises than this one are connected with a certain preparation of the people for the reception of them — which prepara- tion was never realized by the ancient Israelites, to whom these promises were immediately addressed — consider them all as lapsed, so far as the Israelites were distinctively concerned in them, and now outstanding only in so far as they in- volve evangelical ideas, applicable alike to Jew and Gentile. His Grace, though he thus easily gets rid of Ezekiel, seems to deduce from other prophecies, •• that a literal temple will be erected, and literal sacrifices offered, although not the typical trespass-offerings and sin-offerings," which he tays tliese other prophecies pre careful not to mention (p. 259) — a difference this between Ezekiel and the other propliets "which Mr. Brown (he says) seems to have overlooked." I think this " important difference " could easily be shown to be imaginary ; but I cannot swell out farther this already too extended chapter. (Compare, however, the sacrifices mentioned as abolished — without respect to either Jew or Gentile — in Heb. x. 8, and the corresponding words in Hebrew, with tho.se mentioned in Isa. Ivi. 7, to which his Grace himself refers.) I may be asked how I explain the last eight chapters of Ezekiel myself. That this is one of the dark and difficult parts of Scripture, is felt by all ; but though no clear light could be thrown upon it, it is something to be able to say what it doet not, and cannot mean. That it was meant for the second temple, or some other SUMMARY. 379 Thus have I shown that Scripture affords no warrant for expecting the restoration of Jewish peculiarities during the millennium ; that the literal way of interpreting those pro- phecies which are thought to express this, is not, cannot be, gone through with by either Christians or unbelieving Jews ; that it brings out opposite and contradictory results, and so must be a false principle of interpretation ; that such expectations are in flat contradiction to the most emphatic declarations both of our Lord and his apostles ; that it is to retrograde from manhood to childhood to look for a conver- sion of the present catholic and spiritual economy into a vast, world-wide, baptized Judaism, having its head-quar- ters on the literal Mount Zion ; and that the eucharistic theory, by which it is attempted to graft this doctrine, of animal sacrifices restored in the millennium, upon the faith of the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world, is, by the admirable showing of one of themselves, as unten- able as it is repulsive to the best feelings of the Christian. which might have been built if tlie Jews had possessed a character wliich they did not — I cannot think, with any light whicli I at present possess. With still ereater confidence do I reject all application of it to any literal third temple to be hereafter erected at Jerusalem. We seem, therefore, to be shut up to one general view of prophecy. The beams of evangelical truth which shine through several of its di- rections, lead me to look for the explanation of the whole in that direction, and to believe that a sober and patient investigation of the typical and symbolical language of the Old Testament, in the light of the New. would disclose in this prophecy— as Mr. A. Bonar says, though not quite in his sexwe — " treasures hid in the sand." All the pains which Mr. H. Bonar has tHken to expose the absurdity and contradiction to which the figurative view of this prophecy has given rise, will never drive me into the literal ; nor is : fitted to have that effect upon any one who looks to Um principles involved in e question. CHAPTER V, MO MILLENNIAL MIXTURE OP FAITH AND SIGHT. We have seen that the pre-millennial theory begets some startling expectations. But I doubt whether any of them will surprise the simple reader of his Bible more than what is put forth upon the vision of Christ in glory by mortal men during the millennium. That I may not be charged with misrepresenting their sentiments, I will give them in their own words, and I shall quote from a variety of authors, that no one may say I palm upon them as a body the peculiar opinions of one or two individuals. " In the millennial state," says Mr. Brooks, " there will be thr OPEN VISION OP Christ." * " It will be a dispensation in which the saints fin the flesh] will continually have personal access TO CHRisT."f " Some are of opinion that the saints will not be ♦ Abdiel's Essays: Investigator, vol. ii. p. 271. t Eleni. of Proph. Interp. p. W\. The Duke of Manchester has here charged me with what I feel it nw cessary, once for all, to repel. If there is one thing which I have striven to avoid, it is putting into the mouths of my opponents what they do not believe, and have not said. To preclude any such charge, I have al- lowed them invariably to speak for themselves, as the large portion of my volume occupied by such extracts (too large many will think) will bear me witness. In some cases, however, to make the extracts intelli- gible to readers not very familiar with the distinctions to which this question has given rise, I have found it necessary to insert in brackets a Blight explanation, for the accuracy of which I am of course responsibleii MR. BKOOK& MR. JiLLIOTT. 381 mingled at all with men in the flesh, in the resurrection; or, at least, that they will only be occasionally manifested to them. I know of no decided Scripture authority for the opinion ; whilst yet I confess, that, judging by the reason of the thing, there appears some degree of plausibility in it. In the meanwhile it is evident that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, are again to dwell in the re- newed earth [during the millennium] ; and as they will be of the resurrection, there seems no just reason why the rest of those who sleep in Jesus should not dwell on it likewise. ... I con- clude, therefore, that the resurrection-saints will undoubtedly dwell on earth, and ' have power over the nations,' though they will probably be nearer to God, and continually behold his glory, in a manner that will not be enjoyed to the same extent by men of flesh and blood.'" * " There must," says Mr. Elliott, " be supposed, I conceive, a most intimate connexion of the earthly Jerusalem with the heavenly ; the earthly Jerusalem being that on, or over which the glory of the new Jerusalem is to rest; like as Jehovah's pillar of fire on the tabernacle in the wilderness, or the more awful glory on the top of Sinai. Here, I say, it would seem that there is to be the meeting point of earth and heaven; and that In reference to these, his Grace says, " Mr. Brown, with the intention of making the sense more clear, has sometimes increased the confusioi« by adding words of his own to the quotations from others. See, for ex- ample, the quotation from Mr. Brooks on this veiy subject," [the one given in the text above.] Now, I will stake my whole credit upon the accuracy of that extract, with three words of explanation in brackets. If Mr. Brooks him self shall say that I have misrepresented or "confused" his meaning — if he shall say that by " the saints " who are " continually to have personal intercourse with Christ," he did not mean '• saints m the flesh," but the glorified saints, I will submit to his Grace's correc- tion. But as the whole passage, to those who read it all, proclaims its own meaning beyond possible misapprehension, I submit whether it was quite right in his Grace to throw out such a charge. I could wish, in- deed, that some of my critics had been as jealous of putting words into my mouth as I have been in their case. I do not apply this remark, however, to the Duke of Manchester, whose references to my statements — though sometimes brought together in rather strange and almost ludi- crous connexions — seem unexceptionably accurate. ♦ Elem. of Proph. In'erp. p. 33. MR. LORD MR. BIRKS. same conjunction to be visiBLY manifested of the nllimate blessedness of the spiiitual [then in glory j and of the nalwiai seed of Abraham [continuing a nation in the flesh] : a conjunction and blending together of the two such, that it is often difficult if not impossible to discern in prophecy where the one ends and the othei begins." * " The gates," says Mr. Lord [of the New Jerusalem] " symbo- lize the access to the glarijied which t/ie nations are to enjoy. That they [the gates] are distributed equally to the several sides, in- dicates that they are to be accessible alike to the nations wher- ever they may reside ; that there is to be no night there, that they [the nations in the flesh] are never to be without the VISIBLE PRESENCE OF GoD ; that its gatcs are never shut, that the nations are to enjoy uninterrvpted access to the glorified In the temple in Jerusalem, the mercy-seat — the symbol of the throne of God in the scene of the visible displays of his presence — was in the holy of holies, wholly withdrawn from the sight of the worship- pers, and beheld only by the high-priest once a year. That there is nx) temple in the New Jerusalem, denotes therefore that the presence of the Redeemer is to be visible to the worshippers at LARGE — not, as under the Mosaic dispensation, veiled from their Bight." t " The manhood," says Mr. Birks, " the mystic heel of Emmanuel, which here below, on the cross, was bruised by the malice of Satan — shall be visibly revealed here on earth in the beauty OF THE resurrection, shall be the source of a world's blessed- ness, and the centre of its holy adoration,":}: " The nations who walk in the light of the New Jerusalem must imply others who are distinct from its citizens, and who walk in the light that beams forth from that city of God The proi)het adds, further, that the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there. This must surely refer to some who are not dwellers in the city, but for whara a free access is thus provided. . . . The nations here mentioned (' They shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it'), are evidently distinct from the * Hor. Apoc. ut supra, Iv. 240. t Expos, of Apoc. p. 531. J Lent Lect. for 1843, ut supra, pp. 208, 209. DR. M*NEILE MR. BICKERSTETH MR. MAITLAND. 383 bride of the Lamb, or from the mystical city, within whose gates they will bring their glory and honour." * '•All" [mankind], says Dr. M Neile, "shall go to Jerusalem, to the feast of tabernacles, and see [with eyes of flesh] the Lord OP Hosts manifested in the human nature of Jesus reigning in Mount Zion." -f " There does," says Mr. Bickersteth, " appear to the author con- siderable evidence that the Lord of glory will so dwell on earth as to be visible in his glory, in a manner, however, and to an extent, that we cannot adequately realise or comprehend. . . . The expres- sions (Luke i. 32 ; Ps. cxxxii. 14 ; Ezek. xliii. 7) are such as to imply bodily and visible presence." ^ " To sum up all in one word," says Mr. Maitland of Brighton, " the coming dispensation will not, I contend, be a dispensation of faith, in the present acceptation of the term. It vnll be of grace, but not of faith. The Jew will not live upon promises, but hold the actual blessing in his hand. In that day they will walk by sight. Thus, there will be a radical difference between ikcir stole and ours. Now, our ichvle economy is purely an economy of faith, and all that is written in our Scriptures is adapted to the furtherance of a life of faith. ' We walk by faith, not by sight.' But it is said, con- cerning that day, ' when the Lord shall bring again Zion,' that then * they shall see eye to eye.^ It shall not be faith, bat eye-sight with them — a visible glory which shall take up Us abode on earth." (Isa xxiv. 26 ; Ezek. xliii. 2-5,)^ On these strange representations of the millennial state, it will not be necessary to say much. Truly, as Mr. Mait- land says, " there will be a radical difference between their state and ours." It is not our Christianity at all. It puts not only the New Testament out of date, but the religion of mortal men which it describes. Every where in Scrip ture, faith and sight, grace and glory, are contrasted ; and * Four Proph. Emp. ut supra, p. 309. t Serm. on Sec, Adv. ut supra, p. 1 16. t Guide, ut supra, pp. 275, 276. 8 Nine Discourses on the Parable of the Ten Virgins, note, p. 178. By the Rev. C. D. Maitland. Second edition, 1831. 384 FAITH AND SIGHT GRACE AND GLORY. the one is represented as the consummation, and oonse* quentlv" as the termination of the other. Here, however, they are brought together, not as two coexistent and con- temporaneous, but perfectly distinct and separated, states — that is at least intelligible — but as in open and visible commanication with each other ; all the nations of the earth walking in celestial light, and their kings bringing to the heavenly city — nay, into it — their miserable '• glory and honour ;" " holding intercourse" with the glorified ; nay, " having continual personal access" to the very Object of all saving faith, and seeing his human nature reigning in Mount Zion ; " walking not by faith but by sight ; seeing literally eye to eye ; a visible glory taking up its abode on earth." What a mongrel state of things is this ! What an ab- horred mixture of things totally inconsistent with each other ! It will not do here to refer, as several do, to. the angelic visits with which individuals under the Old Tes- tament were occasionally favoured ; to the Saviour's trans- figuration, and the appearance of Moses and Elias in glory to the three disciples on the holy mount ; to the many bodies of sleeping saints which arose ; and after Christ's re- surrection went into the holy city, and appeared unto many ; and to Christ himself eating and drinking with his disciples after his resurrection. He that does not see the diiference between the two cases — between such brief, rare, and exceedingly ycbrtial glimpses of the world of glory vouchsafed to a few, and a thousand years^ constant personal access to the glorified Saviour, and open vision of the new Jerusalem hi all its effulgence — he that sees no difference between these two cases, or so little that the truth of the one perfectly reconciles him to the belief of the other — is not likely to be convinced by any thing I could say on the subject. Ordinary readers of the Bible, INCONGRUITY OF THIS, AS EXPRESSED BY PERR"S. 385 however, will probably be of opinion, that if the millennial state be one of sight it is no more of faith^ otherwise sight is no more sight — Mr. Maitland, indeed, seems to go the whole length of that conclusion — and if it be of grace, it is no more of glory ^ otherwise grace is no more grace. And if some should be disposed to waive this consideration, and say, that any thing looking like probable Scripture evi- dence in favour of such mixture of faith and sight would go a great way with them, in spite of all their ideas to the contrary, he would find himself miserably put off on re- ferring to their texts. More slender evidence, to use no stronger term, never was advanced in favour of a view of things which nothing but the most explicit testimony could render credible. Admirable here are the words of Joseph Perry, whose (Bweet humility in referring to his brother pre-millennialists, who held the very views expressed in the foregoing ex- tracts, will not give him a lower place in the estimation of the Christian reader : — " Again," says he, " here is another thing looks very incon- sistent, for converting work to go forward in this perfect state ; and that is, for the saints to live awl converse together, while some are in a perfect, and others in an imperfect condition. For if the great apostle John, so much endued with the Spirit of God as he was, could not bear the visioTuiry sight of Christ in the first of Reve- lations, but fell down as one dead at his feet ; how is it possible, tnen, that any of the saints should behold tke glory of Christ's Per- son 'i/fi that day, — joho will ten thousand times exceed the glory of all created beings, whilst they are unglorified; and therefore this cannot be to, jor how can mortal and immortal, glorified and unglorified, perfect and imperfect, persons converse together? This seems to me to be impossible, I know I am a poor, weak, nothing creature, and not worthy to carry some of these men's books ; yet I cannot in i\xU matter but think that my dear brethren must be mistaken coucerning these things, and that the mistake lies in holdino 2k 386 MR. H. BONAR THE PAVILION CLOUD. THE GRACIOUS AND GLORIOUS ChURCH TO BE TOGETHER AT ONE AND THE SAME TIME, which I cannot see uor believe that it will: but that the gracious Church will be first, upon the wonderful pour- ing out of the Spirit, and that the glorious Church will not be till after Christ's reign by his Spirit in the saints hath been fulfilled, and that then, upon Christ's personal coming from heaven with all the saints, when his wife, the Bride, or whole elect, shall be ready, by having all of them the garments or robes of glory and immortality on, will the glorious Church com- mence, and appear visible in the personal reign and kingdom of Christ."* Mr. H. Bonar leaves this part of our subject un- touched, so far as I have observed ; unless the follow- ing paragraph be considered as his reply to what I have said : — " We do not hold that Christ and his risen saints are to dwell in actual houses of lime and stone, such as we dwell in.f Their dwelling is in the pavilion cloud, or residence provided for them in the New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from God, and which rests over the earth just as the pillar of cloud did of old. From that, as the palace of the king in which they abide, they go forth continually, as vice-royal potentates, to rule the nations of the earti'. Their position, office, and pro- cedure, will be something similar to angels in the present age, who are ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation. Where is the degradation here"? Where is the 'abhorred mixture' of which Mr. Brown I am afraid this statement of what " we hold" will scarcely be accepted by those, at least, who penned the fore- going extracts — if I understand it aright. If " Christ and ♦ Glory of Christ's Visible Kingdom in this World, pp. 227, 228. t I was not aware that any had charged them with coming quite low as this. t Coming, 4&c., pp. 59, 60. EITHER WAY ALIKE OBJECTIONABLE. 387 his risen saints" are tc be shrouded up in this ^^ pavilion cloud'^ from the view" of the mortal inhabitants of the earth, his brethren, in these extracts, have very much misrepre- sented the pre-millennial expectation. The Duke of Manchester compares the view that men in the flesh are t ^ have of our Lord, to that which the disciples had of him in the days of his flesh, and which he says has been happily expressed, as '■'• faith wrapped up in sighty* I am not sure that I comprehend this ; but one thing is clear — it does not mean the " pavilion cloud." A brother who has contributed some able papers to the Quarterly Journal of Prophecy^ said lately to myself that he be- lieved Christ would be as visible to men in the flesh as I was to him, or as the Saviour himself was to the dis- ciples in the days of his flesh ; nor did he see where the , difl&culty lay. A word, now, to both at once. " He shall come (we are told) in his own glory, and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels." (Luke ix. 26.) Who will venture to say that this will not be a glory visible to all men? If it be, what room is there for any rational comparison between such a glorious display, and that to which the disciples were accustomed in the days of his flesh? But if Christ is not to be visible to men in the flesh, we must suppose him first to shine forth before them, when he comes in all his bright effulgence, and then to shut himself in within the " pavilion cloud," and be seen of them no more in their fleshly state. And what vestige of authority is there for that? None what- ever. I might ask, further, if Christ is to be out of sight of those who people the earth during the millennium, what * Finished Mystery, p. 338. 388 VISIBLE KINGDOM WITH CHRIST OUT OF SIGHT. is the meaning of the Personal Reign, and the visible king- dom on the earth ? What will it matter to its mortal in- habitants, if their King is invisible to them, whether he hover immediatdy over the earth, or remain where he now is ? Thus, shape this theory how w€ will, it seems equally unmanageable. CHAPTER Vt. WAY OP SALVATION NO LESS NARROW DURING THE MILLEN NIUM THAN NOW. Very loose is the laDguage indulged in upon this point,— language which, though repudiated by some, is nevertheless the prevailing strain in the contrasts which are drawn be- tween the present and the expected millennial dispensation. " Concerning the numlier of true believers under this dispensa- tion," says Dr. MNeile, " we read, ' Many are called, but few are chosen. Enter ye in at the strait gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat ; because strait is the gate and nar- row is the way which leadeth unto life, and feio tliere be that find it. Many will say to me in that day. Lord, Lord, have we not pro- phesied in thy name, &c. ; and then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me ye that work iniquity.' Con- cerning the cho.racter of true believers, we read, ' Love not the world, neither the things of the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. The friendship of the world is enmity with God ; whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world, is the enemy of God. Therefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord.' These passages of Scripture avowedly belong to this dispensation. They have Applied in every age, and do still apply to the true dis- ciples of the Lord Jesus : But if the world become Christian, the world will no longer persecute Christians. If all the families of the earth be blessed with eternal life, the way of life will be NO LONGER NARROW. If thc \ourld bccomc Christian, then Chris- 2k3 390 IR. m'nEILE, MR. MAITLAND, MR. WOOD, MR. BROOKS. tians cannot separate from the world. It is obvious, that in the passage from our present state to a state of universal holiness^ these characteristic sayings of the New Testament must cease rO HAVE ANY" APPLICATION, AND BECOME OBSOLETE, NOT TO SAY FALSE,"* " The least consideration," says Mr. Maitland, in the note al- ready quoted, " will serve to show that the New Testament supposed a suffering kingdom, and that its encouragements, exhor- tations, warning t^ were Addressed to a people confilcting with, the world, the jlesh, and the devil. The Master, as he delivered it, said, ' I am come to send fire on earth, not peace, but a sword ;' and on this supposition is the whole revelation founded. Now, if we turn to the promises of God concerning the state of the world, affer his ancient people shall have been brought in and made the light of the nations (as given in Isa. xi. xxv, Ix. and elsewhere), and carry the exhortations and warnings of our dispensa- tion to a people conditioned as they shall be, we shall at once see h&iv ill adapted they would be to their times and circum- stances, Christ says to his Gospel-church in every line, if not in word yet in spirit, ' Watch and pray, lest ye enter into tempta- tion : Behold I come as a thief, — a snare : be ye therefore like servants which wait for their Lord.' Take this thought with you to the sixtieth of Isaiah, and mark the incongruity. If such precepts as these were still needed, the condition there described could not exist. Holy fear and jealousy, from the sense of sur- rounding dangers, would effectually check the tide which we see flowing there. Their condition is evidently one not militant but triumphant." " When," says Mr. Wood, " the nations say, ' Come and let us go up to the house of the Lord,' shall it be true, then, that ' strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it V "f Once more, " Surely," says Mr. Brooks, " the kingdom will be already come, when all the kingdoms of this world shall have become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. With what propriety, then, could Tnen any longer be exhorted to ' seek ' and to ' lay up trea* * Lect, on the Jews, ut supra, pp. 78-80. 1 Affirmative Answer, p. 32. REMARKS MILLENNIAL REST. 391 «Mr,' and ' hope for ' that which they will already be in possession o/r* The confusion of thought which all these passages mani- fest, is such as can only be accounted for by the difficulty of defining a state which is made up of the most incongruous elements. Let us try to bring order out of it. 1. When the world ceases to persecute Christians, it will only be that on a great scale, which on a small one has been seen hundreds of times in the past history of the Church, and, on a scale smaller still, occurs in the domes- tic circle every day. " The7i had the churches rest" says the historian of the Acts, after Saul of Tarsus had been transformed out of a bloody persecutor into a glowing Christian, and, '' walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied." (Acts ix. 31.) Such rest, and such blessed consequences of it, have been more or less experienced in the Church from age to age since that time. A?id what will the millennium be ' — in one blessed feature of it — but this same rest^ and these same consequences of it. over the whole earth 1 But what in this ease (say our friends) becomes of such pas- sages as these, " In the world ye shall have tribulation ;" " I am not come to send peace on earth, but a sword ;" " The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father," &c. ? Why, just what becomes of /.hem when " one of a fiamily," after having been the object of incessant and virulent opposition from an ungodly household, is blessed to the gaining of every one of them — when "those who spake against him as an evil-doer, do, by his good works which they behold, glorify God in the day of visitation." Of course the father is not now " divided against the son," &c. They are " all of one mind ; they live in peace, and the God of love and peace is with them." * Abdiel's Essays, vX supra. STRAIT GATE — NARROW WAY. There is manifestly no difference at all between this case and that which we expect during the millennium over the whole earth. The extent is nothing. The principle is the only thing of coL^'equence, and who does not see that that is the same in both cases ? Yet you build out of this an argument for a new dispensation ! (Compare Isa. xi. 9 ; ii. 3, 4; xxxii. 15-i8.) 2. The argument for an entirely new state of things during the millennium, from the words, " Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it," while it resembles the former one in shallow- ness, grates more upon the ear, and is more vicious in its tendency. It proceeds on a misapprehension of the real point of our Lord's statement, and unduly magnifies what is the least important part of it. What makes " the narrow way" to be narrow, is not that " few find it," but it is becavrse of its narrowness that it is found by few. It is not because " many there be that go in thereat," that the way they take is called " the broad way," but it is be- cause of its breadth that so many frequent it. Tke one way means just the course which pleases the flesh, is congenial to the carnal taste of every natural man, and consists in following the bent of corrupt nature ; therefore it is called " broad,^^ — easily trodden, as its " gate" is said to be " wide" — easily got in at. The other way means just the opposite of this — resistance to all the desires of the natural man, the mortification of the flesh, obedience to the promptings of the opposite principle — the new, spiritual, heaven-born nature. If this be correct, it follows not only that men during the millennium, just as much as now, will naturally prefer the " broad" to the " narrow" way, if they be born in sin as we are, but that, left to themselves, every one in all time will walk in the former, and none at all in the latter : that the wonder is, not that " few," but that any FEW FIND IT. 393 find it, and that these feiv find it purely in virtue of a super- natural principle, emancipating them from the " earthly^ sensual, devilish" desires to which, in common with all other men, they are naturally in bondage. Now, as this is the secret of ani/ man's finding the narrow way, so is it the secret of every man's finding it who is ever conducted to " life" upon it. What, then, is the difference between the present and the millennial state, in respect of this way ? Just the difference between grace plucking more brands out of the fire than now — between a less and a greater number of converted and holy perso?is. That is all. It is said, The way will no longer be narrow, when, instead of few, maiiy find it 1 That is to make its narrow- ness to arise from its unfrcquentedness. By so saying, you do something far worse than make the cause the effect, and the effect the cause ; you put the real narrowness of the one way and breadth of the other out of sight altogether, and represent the millennial state as one in which men will not find the way of life to be what it is to us — a state in which they will not have to struggle against the corrupt tendencies of the natural man — a state in which the cor- ruption of nature either will not exist at all, or will not have those characteristics which make it what it is, and which have been always the same since the fall. If this is not what you mean, your argument is inept, and your lan- guage fitted only to deceive. But surely it will not then be said, " Few there be thai find it," and if not, will not this statement be then inappli- cable ? The answer, if answer the question needs or merits, has been furnished already. " The father is" no longer " divided against the son," when the father joins the son in the bonds of the Gospel. When the sword of persecu- tion is sheathed in any land, the Saviour's words, " I am not come to send peace on aarth, but a sword," before 394 LUST OF FLESH AND EYE, A.ND PRIDE OF LIFE— realised there, cease of course to be descriptive of the actual state of things in that land. In these and similar state- ments of Scripture, it is the principle of eternal hostility, between him that is born after the flesh and him that is born after the Spirit, which is to be seized upon. In this originates all the actual opposition to the cause of Christ and the members of his body which is displayed. It varies, of course, in the forms which it takes, in the places where it occurs, and in the extent to which it is permitted to go : sometimes the worse triumphs over the better, and puts it down ; at other times it is the reverse ; and the time is coming when those that are born after the flesh shall be the tail and not the head, all the world over. But who would ever speak of such statements as the above being superseded, either now — wherever true religion triumphs, in fiimilies, cities, or countries — or hereafter over the whole earth ? So with the " few" that now find the narrow way, compared with what will be witnessed during the millen- nium. As the way will be the same then — and narrow then in the same sense and for precisely the same reasons as now — so it will be nothing else than grace triumphing then over nature in more persons, and to a greater extent^ than now. 3. "If the world," says Dr M-Neile, "become Chris- tian, then Christians cannot separate from the world." Is it possible that such a fallacy should stumble any one acquainted with Scripture language ? What definition of that "u'orZ-^" from which Christians are commanded to separate, is given in the very passage which he quotes ? " Love not the world," says the beloved disciple, " neither thf things that a,re in the world. For all that is in the WOrldj THE LUST OF THE FLESH, AND THE LUST OF THE EYE, AND THE PRIDE OF LIFE, is not of the Father, bid is of the worldV Will none of these exist during the millennium, or require to Ve separated from ? Take w: )5 riches. — one of "the things (now) in the world," and the love of which must be in this passage forbidden, seeing it is said to be "the root of all evil." Will this not be " in the world " during the millennium ? or will money be any thing else then than what it is now, or will the " love of money " be more lawful 1 " The lust of the flesh" — will that be extinct during the millennium, or may it be then cherished? " The lust of the eyes"— will that also be gone ? And " the pride of life " 1 Or will they be any thing else then than now? The question, it will be observed, is not. Will men then rise superior to those things ? but, Will they have them to resist ? Dr. M'Neile's argument, if good for any thing, is this, that men during the millennium will not need to be warned against the love of the world — not because they will have so much of the Spirit that the world will make no impres- sion upon them, though even that were no reason why they should never be warned — but because there will then be no world to love — no lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life, to require warnings against. And when we have got this length we are still not far enough ; for unless it will then be lawful to " love" the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever, since ' the crea- ture' will exist during the millennium, and quite as at- tractive, I should suppose, as ever it has been since the fall, there will be the very same reason then as now for the apostle's counsel, " Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world." The reader will now know what to gather from Mr. Brooks' question, " With what propriety could men any longer be exhorted to ' seek,' and to ' lay up treasure,' and to ' hope for ' that which they will be in possession of ? " As this is spoken of the millennial condition of mortal men, it e".ther means that they will, in the state of mor- 306 SUMMARY. tality, be in possession of heaven, and heaven's treasures, so as no longer to need hoping for them, as poor mortal men now liave, who, with all " the first-fraits of the Spirit " they enjoy, are forced to " groan within themselves, waiting" for a very different state; — or else it has no meaning. I am inclined to think, that neither solution is perfectly correct. All the meaning which the statement has, is to the effect just expressed ; but as I feel persuaded the author does not and cannot go that leng-th, the rest must be set down to the nature of the expectation actually entertained, which in vain will any one attempt intelligibly to express. In fine, the millennial state, according to the foregoing representations of it, will not be our Christianity at all. It has none of the characteristics of a slate of grace. ; or, if this should be protested against as an unfair inference from their statements, let them give up contrasting the present with what they call the millennial dispensation. As well may they term the change from the persecuted to the peaceful state of the Church before and after Constantino, a change of dispensation ; as well may they call by the same name the change from the bloody Mary to Elizabeth of England, and similar changes in Scotland and all the other kingdoms of Protestant Christendom. True, the change will be vastly more extensive^ 'permanent^ and glo- rious.^ that is to characterise the millennial period. But will there be one element in it that has not been already realised, and is not from time to time witnessed, on 9, smaller scale ? Not one. When " the sovereignty of the world has become our Lord's and his Christ's " (Rev. xi. 15) ; when the kingdom and the dominion, and the great- ness of the kingdom, under the whole heaven, is given to the people of the saints of the Most High ; when Christ's dominion is from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends SUMMARY. 39? of the earth ; when men are blessed in him, and all nations call him blessed ; when they have beaten their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks — nation not lifting up sword against nation, and none learning war any more : — then, of course, all the earth will be at rest and be still, save in the unwearied activities of well-doing. But even then, as the flesh will lust against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, so salvation in every case will then be as much a triumph of grace oyer nature as now. CHAPTER VII. MILLENNIAL BINDING OF SATAN WHAT IT IS NOT. ANT» WHAT IT IS. This is the last feature of the millennial period on which the simple truth of God's word has been obscured by un- authorised expositions. Pre-millennialists maintain — nor are they quite alone in this instance — that a total cessa- tion OF SATANIC influence during the millennium is pre- dicted in the following passage of Scripture : — Rev. XX. 1-8, 7 : " And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled ; and after that he must be loosed a little season. . . . And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison," &c. Before examining this passage, let me put this question to the humble and dispassionate inquirer : If the expecta- tion of an entire cessation of Satanic influence be indeed scriptural, how comes it to pass that no mention is made of it, nor so much as a hint given of it in all Scripture, but in this solitary passage, in a book the import of whose symbols has divided the Church to this day ?* * They must be sadly at a loss who send us for additional evidence to Isa. xxiv. 21, 22, That the general 'dea expressed in that passage is HE THAT COMMITTETH SIN IS OF THE DEVIL. 399 What candid person can refuse to admit that this ig suspicious 1 But this is not all. Not only is the thing nowhere else, but the expectation is contradicted by the whole teaching of Scripture elsewhere. There are three passages which express very clearly the mind of God upon this subject. The first is, 1 John iii. 8-10 : " He that committeth sin is of the devil ; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin ; for his seed remaineth in him ; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil ; whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God," &c. Let me entreat attention to the teaching of this pas- sage. It divides men into two great classes — those who sin, and those who sin not — styling the one class " the children of the devil," or those who are " of the devil ;" and the other class " the children of God," those who are " born of God," or who are " of God." Farther, when the apostle says, " He that committeth sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning," the meaning plainly is, that every sinning child of Adam is not only the seed of the old serpent, but is actuated by him in all the sin which he cherishes and commits. The same thing is manifest from the words that follow : " For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the (Forks of the devil," or despoil him of his children and of Bymbolically developed in this of Revelation, is perfectly possible. But to adduce it as another proof of the total cessation of Satanic influence, only shows to what shifts they are reduced. The Duke of Manchester Bees in '' Rom. y.'n. 20," a direct reference to this millennial binding of Satan ! (p. 24S ) 400 SATAN STRIPPED OF THE POWER OF DEATH OVER, their services ; till wliich time every son of Adara, in wLat ever age and under whatever dispensation he maj live, is possessed and actuated by the wicked one. In short, no- thing can be more evident than that the apostle, in this passage, makes the devil an inseparable part of the fallen system and reign of sin, the parent of all its hateful brood, and the life of all its black fruits ; that he is dispossessed only in the persons of those who are " born of God ;" that such regenerate souls, and their escape from the devil's family and service, are the spoils of Christ's conquest over Satan in the days of his flesh ; and that all who are not vitally connected with this victorious Saviour are still the devil's children and servants, and all the sin they cherish and practise just the service they render him, " the works of their father which they do." So much for men as living under a fallen system. The next passage views them as victims of death under that system, by virtue of their connexion with the first Adam, but emancipated through vital connexion with the second Adam : Heb. ii. 14, 15: "That through death he might destroy him THAT HAD THE POWER OP DEATH, THAT IS, THE DEVIL ; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." "What " the power of death'^ is which the devil " had" till Christ stripped him of it on the cross, I have already endeavoured to express (p. 159). But the legal triumph of the Redeemer on the cross is one thing ; his actual tri- umph over the enemy, in any given case, is never till the prey be taken from the terrible, till " the brand be plucked from the fire," in the day of converting grace. All the power which the old serpent acquired oyer men, in righteous re- tribution for hearkening to his will — and, in particular AND BRUISED UNDER, NONE BUT BELIEVERS. 401 the " power of death" — he unquestionably retains still over all who do not savingly believe on him, and over believera themselves till they are in Christ ; for it is of them only that the apostle says, and of them only is it true, that they are " delivered who were all their lifetime subject to bond- age." In that "bondage to the fear of death," then, over which the devil presides, all are held who believe not — over them he still has " the power of death." This is brought clearly out by the third and last pas- Rom, xvi. 20: "The God op peace shall bruise Satan under YOUR FKET shortly." This is spoken for the comfort of struggling Christians • — announcing the speedy termination of all their troubles and annoyances, by the bruising under their feet of their grand adversary. This way of speaking clearly supposes that all that is hostile to the Christian, of whatever sort, is under the active presidency of Satan, and so holding of him, that the bruising of him under our feet — getting our feet upon the neck of Satan — is equivalent to the complete de- struction of all that stands in the way of our salvation. If, then, there be a total cessation of Satanic power during the millennium, it must imply that, along with him, every thing that stands in the way of a sinner's salvation has been taken Old of the way. But as few are prepared to go this length, the millennial " binding" of Satan must mean something short of this. Taking these three passages together, then, they show clearly the connection of Satan with man in his fallen state. With that state he is bound up. As it came in by him, so it holds of him, and is never parted from him, "VVe are in bondage to sin and him at once — we shake off both together. Sin and he arc insepirable companions^ 2l2 402 BEARING OF THESE TRUTHS. on earth and in hell. The tyranny of both is destroyed in regeneration ; the partial power of both remains till death, in the regenerate — but that of the one Tiever more^ and never les>j than that of the other ; and at death, the believer sees the backs of both together.* If this, now, be Scripture doctrine, the question of a total cessation of Satanic influence during the millennium is settled. If mankind during that period will get ahofvse the law and conditions of the fall^ then may Satan have no power over them, and nothing to do with them. If man- * Mr. H, Bonar coTnments upon this and the preceding paragraph, as they appeared in my first edition, at great length, addressing himself to it once and again in the course of his volume. At one time he sees a denial of the personality of Satan ; at another, a denial of the possibility of sin existing without the agency of Satan, and so, a denial of the total depravity of human nature. In view of this, he tells me I '* stand on Blippery ground." He " shall not employ," however, "language betoken- ing any suspicion of my opinions regarding Satanic influence, for he has no such suspicion." For this I should be more grateful, if I thought I had written any thing to merit such suspicion, ^ut I am quite content to leave thai question to the intelligent reader of what I have written. I have slightly altered the former of the two paragraphs, which Mr. Bonar assails, merely to bring out what every one must have seen to be my meaning; but I have purposely left both paragraphs very much as they were, to show that I adhere to what I wrote. Not a word was said im- plying the impersonality of Satan; not a word to throw doubt upon the total depravity of human nature, or the possibility — if God had so willed it— of man being left to manifest that total depravity without any inter- ference, the most remote, from Satan. But I had nothing to do with such possibilities. The only question handled in my paragraphs related to the matter of /act -whether the word of God warrants the belief that the depravity of human nature will ever be separated, in the way alleged, from the agency of "its father the devil." I have given some scripture grounds for believing that it will not, and that is all. The whole criticism I regard as frivolous in the extreme. Let my arguments be answered; but criticism of this sort will never advance the truth. I do not apply these remarks to what Mr. Bonar has said on the way in which Satan is to be bound, and on my conception of what that bind- ing is. His argui.ient on these points will be noticed in its proper placa BINDING OF SATAN — WHAT IT IS. 40r kind will not be divided, as now, into the two great classes of regenerate and unregenerate ; if all will be of one class — " born of God ;" if there will be none who " commit sin" and " do not righteousness," — none who either die out of Christ, or, though not dying at all, are not vitally united to the Resurrection and the Life — then^ but only then, will thr devil have no " children," none who are " of him," doin^ bift work, yielding him service, and, " for fear of death," kept " all their lifetime subject to bondage " In a word, if the 'xnregenerate be gone ; if sin in the regene^ rate, with all its inseparable evils, be gone ; if the fall itself be gone, durio/^ the millennium — then, undoubtedly, will it be distinguished by a total cessation of Satanic influence. But as this is not alleged — as no pre-millennialist has got this length — the doctrine which is built upon this one text of Scripture raust be erroneous. Having now seen what the predicted " binding" of Satan is not, let us now inquire what it is. Happily we possess a key to such language which all must admit to be unexcep- tionable. The Apocalypse is the best interpreter of itself; and a very little attention to its way of representing Satan's power , and loss of power, will make all plain. Ti> chap. a. it is said of Pergamos, that " Satan's seat," or *- throne {dpovosy was there," and that " there Satan dv/'^i.'" (Verse 3.) This certainly refers to the powerful ]}e.rty which Satan had in that place, and the dominant in- fluence which through them he exercised in opposition to the gospel — a party made up of persecutors on the one hand, and licentious corrupters of the truth on the other.* * "This," says Scott, "must denote that Pergamos was not only a very wicked place in other respects, but also that it was, as it were, tha head-quarters of both persecution and heresy, the two principal engines of the devil in opposing the pure gospel of Christ, and that from thence ihest dire evils di^uaed their baleful influence to other cities J^ 404 SATAN CAST OUT HIS PLACE NOT FOUND. If this be correct, the U7iseating or dethroning of Satan in Pergamos — his banishment from "where he dwelt" — would not mean the total cessation of his infiuerice in that city, but just the destruction of the party which represented him, and did his work in opposing the gospel there. In chap. xii. we read : " And there was war in heaven : Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and pre^'ailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which de- ceive th the whole world : he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven. Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ; for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time." (Verse 7-12.) The general voice of Protestant interpreters pronounces this to be a symbolic prediction of the fall of Paganism, and the Christianization of the Roman empire — the prophetic " earth" — under Constantino. The " heaven" of the vision — the high places of the empire — is the disputed field, whose it shall be; whether the dragon who had it shall keep it, or Christ, who had it not. shall get it. The empire was Pagan, idolatrous, bloody. There " Satan's throne was — there he dwelt." Possessing it as the very life of it, influencing and directing all its movements, he used it as a dread engine of hell to crush the gospel and extirpate the Christians. This FALL OF PAGANISM DENOTED. 405 is the view of it given in the opening verses of the chapter, where the Church is represented as ready to give birth to her offspring — a race of Christians who were ultimately to rule all nations with a rod of iron, or, in other words, to crush all her enemies, and rule the world. To prevent this destruc- tion of his kingdom, Satan is seen as " a red dragon" — a bloody persecutor — having " seven heads and ten horns, and crowns upon the heads ;" which just means the empire, as is known to all familiar with the symbols of this book. In this character, then — as the very life and moving spring of the empire, " he stood before the woman who was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born" — in plain terms, to exterminate the Christians. Now Christ is resolved he shall not only fail in this, but lose even the ground he had. The empire shall no longer be wielded by him as a terrible engine against the Church, and its power shall change hands. Its high places shall be occupied by the very party, and for the very interest which he was determined to crush. The heaven of the vision is lost — the high places of the empire are wrenched away from his grasp. The Christians supplant the Pagans in the throne, and all spheres of authority and influence under it. The empire, in this sense, is Christianised. What now becomes of him ? He is " cast out into the earthy and his angels" — his minions in the war for Paganism — " are cast out with him ;" and while rejoicings are held over his ex- pulsion from the one sphere, a woe is pronounced over the other, because the devil has come down to it, all the more enraged since this first victory warns him to set his house in order, and be ready to quit that too. In other words, being expelled from power in the higher places of the em- pire, he is driven to try what he can do to keep possession in the lower — to preser re the Paganism of the masses, and the remote parts of the empire, and turn it still against the 406 THE VICTORY Church, in the *ray either of opposition to it, or corruption of it.* Now, here I would ask a question or two : 1. When " the dragon was cast out of the heaven" of this vision — •" neither was his place found any more in hea' ven" — was there a total cessation of Satanic influence in those high places ? Nothing of the sort is intended, and no such thing came to pass. He lost his party. He had no more a friend in these high places. And even thia means, not that there were no children of the devil there, but only that he got nobody in those places to sustain his Pagan cause from that time. 2. When upon this " a loud voice was heard in heaven, saying, Now is come salvation, and strength, and' the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ ; for the accuser of our brethren is cast down," &c, — are we to understand that up to this time there had been no salvation, no strength, no manifestation at all of the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ? Certainly not. It means that the saving truths of the Gospel — before strugglingfor preservation in the earth — had become triumphant : that a hitherto weak cause and party had won its way to " strength," or a strong posi- tion ; that " the kingdom of our God, and the power of hia Christ" had, in these events, taken a glorious start — earnest of universal sway. All relates, not to the coming in of any thing new, but to the progress of what had been for cen- turies finding it hard, in the heat of continual persecution, to keep its ground. 3. When, in connexion with Satan's expulsion, we read the following description of his trade, which was thus, in a sense, ended — " And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world — he was cast out" — it irresistibly suggests * See the commentatoi's. HOW OBTAINED. 407 t"he description of the 20th chapter, which it is our object to illustrate, as in all respects parallel with it, though far inferior in grandeur and comprehensiveness of symbol. The names given to the devil are in both places the same ; and so is the description of his business — deceiving the world. And as this leads us to believe that the ^^ deceptio?i'^ in both cases is similar — not of course by means of the same things, but of the same public character, with the view of keeping his ground in both cases in the same sense — so it suggests the same effect as following that expulsion in both cases. In both cases he is driven out from his former standing and power against the Church and cause of Christ: in the latter case more universally and more thoroughly than in the former ; but that is all the difference. 4. When it is said that " the devil was cast out into the earth^^ does that mean that Satanic influence was for the first time brought then to bear upon the persons included under that term ? Undoubtedly not ; but only that, hav- ing lost his hold of the high places, he sought to create a party amongst those represented by this symbol. He did not " come down to them" in their individual capacity, or with the view of ruining their own souls — the vision has nothing to do with that — but he came down to get them stirred up against the Gospel. But, most important of all— • 5. How was the expulsion of Satan out of the heaven of the vision brought about ? " They" — the Christians — " overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony ; and they loved not their lives unto the death." Two things, it seems, did it. They " believed in their hearts, and they confessed with their mouths the Lord Jesus." By the one, in the privacy of their own conscience, they got cleansing and holy courage to do the other before men ; and in doing it, " they counted not their own lives 408 SYMBOLIC LANGUAGE OF THE APOCALYPSE. dear unto them" so that the savour of that blessed name might be spread abroad. This carried, at length, all before it. The Pagans were unable to stand before the heroic testimony of pardoned men ; they were beaten, routed, and fain to quit the field. The Gospel,, in the persons of its living adherents — or rather Christ in his people — triumphed over Paganism, in the persons of its blinded votaries, or rather over Satan in his heathen tools. And yet, while the defeat on the one hand and the victory on the other, were just error flying before truth — true religion triumphing over and expelling false — and, in consequence of this, the votaries of each changing places in the empire — this is represented as an expulsion of the unseen head of the defeated interest^ leaving the battle-field in ex- elusive possession of the victorious Redeemer. " The great Dragon was cast out" — that is the symbol : " They (the Christians) overcame him by the blood of the Lamb" — that is the plain, the divinely authorized explanation of the SYMBOL. It is impossible not to see the bearing of all this upon the explanation of the opening vision of the 20th chapter. As we proceed in tracing the style of this symbolic book regarding Satan, we find the same empire again in posses- sion of the dragon, in another form. The seven heads and the ten horns are there as before ; but the crowns are now on the horns, (chap. xiii. 1.) This refers to the empire after it fell before its Gothic invaders, and was broken up, and at length consolidated into ten independent kingdoms. The engine he now wields, by means of the empire, is eccle- siastical. He has turned Christian in order to destroy Christianity. He betrays it with a kiss. He first heathen" ises Christianity and the Church, and then he wages war — with all the strength of the empire, in connexion with its ecclesiastical chief of the seven hills— against " the ■ATAN*S DEFEAT IN ANTICHRIST's DESTRUCTION. 409 saints of the Most High" who will not submit to, and fall in with his heaven-blaspheming, Christ-dishonouring, soul- destroying system. It is Popery. But in this last and most formidable character he is des- tined to be " cast out," as before. The battle here also is of the same character, and won in the very same way. " These (ten horns, or kingdoms of the Papal dragon) shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall over- come them" — in the same sense as we saw he did in the days of Paganism — " for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings ; and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful." (Chap. xvii. 11.) To make this army of " called, chosen, faithful soldiers of Jesus Christ," to be the glorified saints who will come with him at his second appearing, is every way preposterous. It is manifestly the same company of faithful ones mentioned in the I44ii chapter, and described as "the undefiled" party, who, amidst the almost universal unfaithfulness to Christ's truth and cause, ''follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth." (Ver. 4.) It is a battle, just as before, between Chrisfs truth and the devil's lies, in the persons of their respective adherents among rmn. The lies are different, but the lying character of both systems, and their enmity against all that stood in their way, is the same. Christ is represented as coming out of heaven on a war horse, as the captain of a band of celestial horsemen, and with all the insignia of his trampled rights, as the prophet, the priest, and the king of his Church, to give battle to the confederate enemies of his blessed sway. The battle is fought and won. " The beast" — antichrist — " is taken," and goes whence it came — to hell. " The remnant are slain" — the adherents of the defeated interest are crushed — and all xQvu^xmwg appearance in behalf of it vanishes. (Chap. xix. 1 1 to end.) The capture of the beast, and the consignvient of ii to hell, 2m 410 NO PARTY FOR SATAN IN MILLENNIUM. having reference to a public body, a vast organised confede^ racy, must be interpreted according to the only way in which retribution can light upon such bodies. And how littlo individuals, as such, have to do with the whole subject, ap- pears from the songs of triumph which here, as before, are sung over the glorious issue : " Rejoice over her, thoa heaven, and ye saints and apostles and prophets, for God hath avenged you on her, (xviii. 20.) Now, the Papal system denoted by •' her" was not in existence for ages after " the apostles and prophets" had, as individuals, gone the way of all the earth. Yet they are said to be avenged on Babylon. What can this mean, save as the victory of their doctrine or principles which the Papal system sought to destroy? In the same sense we are to interpret every similar statement in this book. So, likewise, are we to understand such sayings as these, " Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." It is just the cause of the Lord which has become triumphant over the dragon's Anti-chris- tian, as before over his Pagan party. Well, we have found one party of the dragon falling after another ; and we naturally look to be told lahat party he is to be allowed to form next. The answer of the 20th chapter is — None at all. He is removed from the earth, and chained up for a thousand years, during all which period he shall no more deceive. the nations. After what we have found to be the style of this book, on the subject of Satan's " deceptions" — after the key with which the preceding part of it has furnished us, for opening these perfectly similar representations — can the meaning remain doubtful? It is just this: That, during that happy period, the cause of Christ should carry it every where, and Satan be allowed no lodgment in any spot on the globe to form a public party in opposition to Christ ; that in thia sense, his trade will be at an end ; that representatives and HOW EFFECTED. 4l1 tools for the doing of such work, he will have none — as if men should wonder where he was, and go in search of hiiUj but find him nowhere — he has been swept off the stage. But are we not warranted to go a step farther 1 This symbolical seizure and chaining of the enemy — is it the effect of mere sovereign power carrying off the field a troublesome foe, out of pity to a Church unable to cope with and cast him out ? Is it something done for the Church's relief, and altogether without the Church's instru' mentality ? Has the Church, in all time before, " come to the help of the Lord against the mighty" ; and has the Lord, reversing all his former methods, come now to the help of the Church against the mighty ? I think not It is Christ's doing, doubtless ; but it is his doing in and by his Church. " The strong man armed long kept his palace, and his goods were in peace ; but now, a stronger than he cometh upon him," in his living Church, " and taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils." The " dragon is laid hold on,^^ in the same sense precisely as "the beast was taken" (xix. 20.) The Church will do BOTH ; not only defeating Antichrist, but thereafter, for a thousand years, never permitting tJie devil to gain an inch of grmind to plant his foot on over the wide world* Let the reader now say whether this interpretation does not perfectly correspond with all that we have found to be the undisputed dominion and spiritual glory of the Church in the latter day. If it does, then observe what follows from it. There is in this case no new revelation made at all, but only— as the manner of the Apocalypse is known to be — a * " Do the tares (allowed by Mr. Brown during the millennium) not require one inch of ground to grow upon ?" {Mr. H. Bonar, p. 46.) If there be any thing in this, Mr. Bonar will have to answer it himself, aa he also allows sin (which certainly is not wheat) during the millennium. But there is nothing in it. I speak of a public jiaHy espousing error and evil 413 EXTENT OF SATANIC RESTRAINT. conrentrated representation of all that is elseivhere said, in a way, and with a charm, quite its own. On the other hand, supposing this not to be the true sense of the vision, but that the pre-millennialists are right in holding that it means the total cessation of Satanic influence on the earth, then it is not only a revelation made here alone — when, if true, it might have been looked for, and could scarce fail to have dropt in numberless other places — but it is a reve lation in direct opposition to the whole teaching of Scrip- ture elsewhere. SUPPLEMENTARY REMARKS. In case the strong denunciatory criticism of Mr. H. Bonar on the contents of this chapter should lead any reader to think that I have put forth something novel, rash, and dangerous, I add a few paragraphs on the subject, and the rather, as it is one of some interest in itself 1. As to the extent to which Satan is to be restrained in the latter day, I have expressed only the view of the majority of expositors, in rejecting the notion of a total ces- sation of Satanic influence. Up to the middle of the seventeenth century, nearly all divines thought that this " binding of Satan" began either with the gospel itself, or with Constantine. Did such think that the influence of Satan had totally ceased upon earth, or that any such thing was the sense of this prophecy? Of course not. Then, as to subsequent expositors, who take the fulfilment of the prophecy to be future, I need do no more than name such as Durham, Vitringa, Daubuz, Lawman, President Ed- wards, and Faber, who, with many others, understand the prophecy as I do, not of an entire cessation of Satanic influence, but relatively to his former permitted power to corrupt, divide, persecute, and waste the kingdom of Christ. DURHAM. 413 " T\vo ends," says Durham, "or reasons are set down to cleai the angel's proceeding: 1. He is bound, 'that he should deceive the nations no more;' that is, kept from having such influence to delude the world, as he had done before,* who first made them a'l heathens and idolaters generall}', then after that made them all to worship the beast, and himself in him, so that there was scarce the face of a visible Church. Now, he shall not get thai liberty so universally to delude nations and eclipse the face of Christ's Church, as he had done. Nor, 2, ever after that shall he get the world so generally to ignorance, superstition, idolatry, and persecution against the godly, as formerly he had done. Thus * deceiving no more ' is not to be understood simply [absolutel}'], but with respect to such extent and success, and is here added to sig- nify a new restraint put upon him beyond what is in his ' casting to the earth,' chap. xii. ; where, though he was put from open persecution, yet did he follow, and that not without success, a new way — by deceit, chap. xiii. ; but now is he restrained, in a great measure, from that also This ' loosing ' of Satan out of prison must be in reference to his former binding, et contra, that as he was restrained from engaging the nations in such open and universal hostility against the Church as had been, now his loosing must be the giving of him some link loose, to * If the reader will bear in mind that this Commentary is a posthu- mous publication, and consists of lertures delivered by the author from week to week to his congregation, in addition to two sermons, his won- der will be, not that an occasional imperfection should occur in the struc- ture of his sentences, as I have left uncorrected here, but that such im- perfections are so few. When one thinks of his active labours, and the solid works he prepared for the press, and the early age at which he died {thirty-six, 1658), he will probably regard him as a rare light in the Church of God. While preparing these lectures on the Revelation, he set apart a considerable pnrt of one day in every week for prayer, doubtless for light. And I venture to say, that though his views on some points are confessedly unsatisfactory, there is not one commentary on the whole book of Revelation of equal age, that any one would put in com- parison with it, and hardly one of any age which, for solidity of matter and closeness of reasoning on structural questions, is likely to reward the patient studer.t more, even though inclined to dissent from the au- thor's conclusiom The reader will perhaps excuse this little digrea- sion. 2 M 2 414 EXTENT OF SATANIC RESTRAINT VITRINOA. be able to bring more of that about than during the time of his restraint^ as appeareth in the two verses following: 1. In that ' he went out to deceive,' and more vigorously set about it. 2. In that he did it more successfully than formerly, yet not without a link upon him; so THAT HIS BINDING IS NOT ABSOLUTE beforc, more than his loosing is now, but comparatively.^ * "The sense of the emblem," says Vitringa — "of seizing, binding, casting into prison, shutting up and setting a seal upon Satan, that he should deceive the nations no more — is, that Satan, during this time of the thousand years, should be so powerfully and effectually bridled, and by the Divine hand restrained, that he would seem to be confined within the well- secured and closely-shut barriers of the abyss, and there by * mighty power kept prisoner, 'that he might not seduce the na- tions.' Which what it means, can there be room for doubt 1 Satan ' seduces the nations' when he inspires them with de- signs hurtful to the Church of Christ : that is, when he excites in them the love of superstition, idolatry, and false religion, and hatred of the true ; and when, under the influence of this base affection, he instigates and drives them on to rage against the Church, the true people of God. For though there are various other kinds of Satanic seductions, this is the specific kind of seduc- tion iritended here, as is clear from this vision (v. 8), and from the parallel visions (chap. xii. 9), and as may easily be gathered from the very word vXavav (' seduce,') which has respect to religious doctri?ie (Matt. xxiv. 5, 11) This, then, is the first character of this time: 'Satan bound and imprisoned' — not educing the nations to false religion, and to the persecution of the saints. During this period there shall be no public persecution of the Church. No new and false religion adverse to that of Christ shall arise; no idolatry or superstition which, in nations insti- gated by the devil, might lead to the persecution of the Church. If, however, any nations ' in the corners of the earth ' (verse 8) should persist in the erroneous views of their ancestors on reli- gion, Satan should not succeed in getting them to undertake the vindication and propagation of that religion of theirs, so as to disturb the peace and happiness of the Church When it is said that Satan is to be ' loosed ' again at the end of thig ♦ Expos, of Book of Rev. ad. lac REMARKS. 415 millennium, it is just as if the prophecy had said, that God would permit Satan again to disturb the state of the Church by a new and last effort." * Let me request the reader's attention to the distinction which Vitringa draws between the ordinary temptations of Satan, and those specific efforts against the Church and cause and truth of God to which alone this prophecy has respect. Not only did this eminent divine and student of pro- phecy not hold any total cessation of Satan's influence dur- ing the millennium, but he carefully confines the predicted restraint to those specific operations of his which affect THE Church. The same does Durham; and although I am far from denying that there are those who take the re- straint to be absolute, I will venture to affirm that, with the exception of pre-millennialists, it is just in proportion to their general acuteness and accuracy as interpreters, that we shall find expositors agreeing with or differing from Vitringa and Durham on this point. Let the reader mark, too, in what way both these interpreters arrive at this sense of the prophecy. They both refer us to the parallel visions in this same book, particularly that in chap. xii. 9. Now this is the very ground which I had independently taken. I consi- dered the Apocalypse the best interpreter of itself, and traced its manner of representing the agency of Satan down to the millennial " binding." Who will deny that this is the na- tural and proper way of settling the point ? Yet not a word do I find on this in all that Mr, Bonar has written. He is abundant enough on the symbolic language employed in the passage itself, endeavouring to show that it can moan nothing else than such a local incarceration as is incompa- tible with the least exercise of power beyond the precincts of his prison. One thing, however, is certain, that the fallen angels are expressly said to be not only " cast down * Anakris. Apocalyps. ad cap. xx. 3, 8. 416 HOW SATAN WILL BE RESTRAINED. to Ag/Z," but to be " in chains," there " reserved unto judg ment" (2 Peter ii. 4), from which expressions we should certainly draw the very same conclusion as Mr. Bonar does regarding the chaining of Satan in the abyss, were we to insist on taking the language by itself. But as we know by sad experience how compatible the incarceration and enchainment of Satan in hell is with the exercise of large power among men on the earth, we should be extremely careful not to expound such symbolic language without the aid of other and clearer representations of the same thing, lest we should put upon it a sense which was never intend- ed, not to say a sense directly opposite to the teaching of Scripture in its most naked and unfigurative passages.* 2. A few words now on the way in which this restraint on Satan is to be effected. I said, that instead of its being done merely far the Church, it would be brought about by the instrumentality of the Church itself This is but an opinion, however, and I have so expressed myself as to make this more evident than in the former edition. At the same time it is an opinion for which I think there are good grounds, though it may or may not be held without aifecting one's general view of this millennial vision. The first thing which guided me to this conclusion was • Homer represents the cessation of war for thirteen months as ^ chaining down oi Mars with strong fetters, in a prison of brass, for that period : TA^ ^itv Ap/jj, hrt fiiv Qrof Kpartpos t E^iaXrqf, IlaiJe; AXw^os, inaav Kparepb) svi Seffjxa.', XoXifeW S'ev Kepufiit) SeSero rptaKaidcKa jitivas. —11. E. 385-387. Similarly Virgil ; — Dirse ferro et compagibus arctis Claudentur Belli portae; Furor impius intus, Saeva sedens super arma, et centum vinctus ahenis Post tergum v.odis, fremet horridus ore cruento. —jEn. i. 293-298. APOCALYPTIC PHRASEOLOGY. 41? the undoubted sense of the parallel vision in chapter xii. There, as we have already seen, the symbols employed in the vision are afterwards translated into plain speech. There " the war in heaven" turns out to have its battle- field in the high places of the earth ; the " fight between Michael and his angels and the dragon and his angels" is just the struggle bet wee a the friends of each here below (or between themselves in the persons of their friends) ; and the victorious party, which in the vision is " Michael and his angels," is just the Christians, or Christ in them — be- lieving men sprinkled with the blood of the Lamb, un- daunted in witnessing for Jesus, as became pardoned men, and ready to go as sheep to the slaughter for his name's sake — " They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death." Thus is the devil represented as cast out of the Pagan world by the instrumentality of believing men. Still more to our purpose is the vision of chap, ix., whc/e we find " the key of the bottomless pit" given to a man, who opens the pit. This man is symbolized by " a star" which was seen to "fall from heaven," that is, as is gen- erally agreed, an apostate minister. " To him (says the vision) was given the key of the bottomless pit ; and he opened the bottomless pit." Are we to take these symbols in a material and local sense ? If so, they will be some- what difficult to manage. But if we take the meaning to be, that this man, ^'giving place to the devil" and proving faithless to Christ, was permitted to act as a great engine of hell over a wide territory, till then nominally Christian, but yielding little fruit unto God — all is clear and consis- tent. Farther, on the opening of the pit we are told there issued so dense a " smoke" (fumes of error), that " the air was darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit." If you 418 HUMAN INSTRUMENTALITY. take this in a local sense, you must suppose that these ei- rofs were till then shut up in the abyss while '• the Prince of ddrkyiess'^ was Tiot there, and not to be there till the mil- lennium ; that they issued forth not under his presiding in- fluence at all ; and that they darkened the religious atmo- sphere simply and solely by the agency of this apostate "star." See what comes of taking these symbols in so crass a sense as Mr. H. Bonar would seem to contend for. But if we take them to denote spiritual tiuth, and the sense here to be simply, that hellish error was permitted to overspread a nominally Christian territory through the instrumentality of a fallen minister of Christ, we have a consistent and worthy sense, the sense almost universally put upon the language.* Well, if an apostate minister may open the pit and darken the air with the smoke of it, may not Christ's faithfal servants, acting in his name, do the reverse? May not tlie Sun of Righteousness arising on the Church, and shedding his warm bright beams of truth and grace over its obscured territories, chase back the darkness whence it came, and the Prince of darkness himself, shutting the pit upon them both ? If it be not too much for men, when '• the key is given to them," to open the pit and let out its baleful contents, is it too much for ♦ It will be of no avail here to conjure up Dr. Bush, and such-like, to show that, by our way of interpreting the symbols, they get rid of a great deal more than we are willing to part with. There are those who can distinguish things that differ; who, in seeking to avoid Scy^Za do not think it necessary to rush into Charybdis; who, holding the maxim, Tlieologia symbolica non est argumeiitativa, neither build doctrinal sys- tems out of symbols, nor reject the truths which are plainly revealed, merely because, over and above the plain revelation of them, they are in- vested also with pictorial forms. I may here add, that I have purposely refrained from all histoHcal ap- plication of the above vision, confining myself to the sense of the sym,' hols, which is the same on any historical application of them. I think there is some reason to doubt whether the generally received applicatioa U the right one. THIS VIEW SUSTAINED BY CHRIST HIMSELF. 419 the friends of Him to whom the key is not said to be give 1, but who is said to " have the key of the bottomless pit" (Rev. XX. 1 ; compare chap. i. 18), in right of con- quest, not only to " overcome the dragon by the blood of the Lamb," &c., but to chase him back to the abyss, to shut in the tyrant, and keep him close prisoner, thereby merely undoings as instruments of Christ, what the instru- ments of the devil confessedly did ? What says the Redeemer himself when the seventy re- turned to him with joy from " healing the sick, casting out devils, and preaching the kingdom of God," as he com- manded them. •' Lord," said they," even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." (Luke x. 17, 18). Was this a local fall ? Nay, but a fall from power. And was it merely so much of his power as he lost by the brief labours of these seventy disciples that the Redeemer " saw ?" No, certainly ; it was a prospective view of the whole conquests of his people oyer the enem}^ " through his name ;" and if so, it will not be easy to show that the millennial seizure, binding, and imprisonment of the dra- gon, are any thing else but one great act of this drama per- formed by the same parties — " the devils subject unto us through His name." But what says the Redeemer again ? " When a strong man armed keepeth his palace his goods are in peace ; but when a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him^ he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusteth, and divideth his spoils" (Luke xi. 21, 22.) " How can one enter a strong man's house and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man, and then he will spoil his house?" (Matt. xii. 29.) Now every one admits that this " coming upon," •' overcoming," and "binding" of Satan, is not properly a struggle betweeo 420 CONFIRMATORY EXTRACTS ANDREAS PAROUS. the persons of Christ and Satan (whatever may pass ho- tween them in the unseen world, of which we know no- thing). It is a conflict of interests upon earth.* And aa it is by the instrumentality of the truth, and of living Christians, that all the triumphs of Christ over Satan are achieved upon earth, and this is styled by the Lord himself the seizure and binding of Satan, why may not the same symbols, as employed with a little greater fullness by his beloved disciple, signify the same thing ? Of course I do not exclude those providential restraints which have in every age concurred with the truth in the triumphs of the cause of God. So far from excluding these, I think it likely that the whole moral, social, and political arrange- ments by which, under the overmastering influence of re- ligious principle, the millennial era will be distinguished, will present one vast breastwork of providential restraints upon evilj proclaiming to the enemy of souls the utter hope- lessness of raising up his fallen kingdom during all that period. All I mean to convey is, that I see no reason to think the restraining power will be put forth miraculously^ immediately^ or altogether apart from those instrumenta- lities which God has, in every previous age, employed in " destroying the works of the devil." " This binding of Satan," says Andreas, one of the earliest com- mentators, "is the overthrow of the devil, which is accomplished by the power of the Lord's passion : for by this is the strength of Satan bound." t " The sura of it," says Parous, " is the victory of Christ over Satan, of which it is said, ' Now is the Prince of this world judged ;' * Mr. Bonar will here tell me that I am in danger of losing the person ality both of Christ and Satan, and introducing a conflict of abstractions^ by srjch language. But as I believe it to be quite appropriate, so I have no fiar of its being misunderstood. t Quoted by Parcetis. CONFIRMATORY TESTIMONIES DURHAM. 421 * I saw Satan fall as lightning frovi Heaven;^ ' T/ie Prince of this world sluUl be cast out' " * " The angel," says Durham, " hath ' a great chain in his hand.' This shovveth his subordination to Christ's sovereignty, who effectually restraineth him He ' layeth hold on him ' by his power, as one in fury and anger — he grippeth him. The paity gripped and bound is described just as in chap. xii. to show (1.) that it is the same devil that was cast down to the earth that is now furtJier bound; (2.) that we may have some help to knit this story of the serpent to the foregoing story of that same party. He ' bindeth this serpent ' — tied him up as it were — and that for a long time, even ' a thousand years.' He ' cast- eth him into the bottomless pit,' which he feared; that is, putteth him not only from magistracy, and open persecution, as before (chap, xii.), but also restraineth him from such underhand dealing as he had before, and discovereth him and his working in a co?isiderable degree beyand what was; and he ' shutteth him up, and sealeth it' (as Dan. vi. and 17), to show the certainty of that restraint and the superi- ority of the angel [by whom Durham understands Christ] over him, that he shall no more suffer Satan to go by [beyond] his order and march to see [or observe] him, than one shut up in prison can go forth either by violence or subtilty."t " Nothing, therefore," says Marckius, " is denoted by ' the angel's having a great chain in his hand,' but the all-sufficient power of Christ to bridle Satan, and at his pleasure to keep him in, like a captive whom he suffers not to escape or to stir. With this power, if you choose to join the word and Spirit of Christ, by which he works, we willingly agree ; and we think this better than introducing here [with Paraeus and others] the whole passion of Christ, by which he obtained authority over Satan.":): I thinli it worthy of notice, that President Edwards — whose excellent " History of the Work of Redemption," when it " comes to show how the success of Clirist's re« * The historical application which these authors make of the prophecy is of no consequence : it is their view of the symbols, and their recognition of the instrumentality of the truth, in the binding of Satan, which I quote them for. — In Apoc. Comment, ad loc. 1612. t Expos, ad loc. X In Apoc. Comment, ad loc. 1689. 2n 422 CONFIRMATORY TESTIMONIES EDWARDS. demption will be carried on from the present time till Antichrist is fallen and Satan's visible kingdom on earth is destroyed," is minute, interesting, and scriptural — takes no notice of the millennial binding and iyicarceraiion of Satan, as a distinct and separate exercise of Chrisfs power, from those other strokes by which his kingdom is to be overthrown. "This," says he, "is a work which will be accomplished by means, by the preaching of the gospel, and the use of the ordinary means of grace, and so shall be gradually brought to pass The Spirit of God shall be gloriously poured out for the wonderful revival and propagation of religion This pouring out of the Spirit of God will not etfect the overthrow of Satan's king- dom, till there has first been a violent and mighty opposition made Christ and his Church shall, in ' the battle of that great day of God Almighty,' obtain a complete and entire victory over their enemies Consequent on th\s victory, Satan's visible kingdom on earth shall be destroyed. When Satan is conquered in this last battle, the Church of Christ will have easy work of it When the devil was cast out of the Koman Empire, .... it was represented as Satan's being cast out of heaven to the earth (Rev. xii. 9) ; but it is represented that he shall be cast out of the earth too, and shut up in hell (Rev. xx. 1-3). This is the greatest revolu- tion by far that ever came to pass This shall put an end to the Church's suffering state," &c.* Once more :— "With respect," says Mr. Faber, "to that binding of Satan which immediately precedes the millennium, it must plainly be considered as a transaction not visible to human eyes. The power of the evil spirit being effectually restrained through the well-nigh universal prevalence of true religion, perhaps also his seductive influ- ence being specially coerced by the direct, though unseen interfer- ence of the Almighty, he is said, by an easy and natural image, to be chained fast," &c.t * History of Redemption, Period III., Part 2, Sect. 1. t Sacred Calendar of Prophecy, vol. ill. p. 4G8. YET NOT URGED CONFIDENTLY. 423 Such are the grounds on which I conceive that this mil lennial "binding of Satan" is not to be viewed as a miraculous physical removal from the earth of our spiiitual adversary, apart altogether from the ordinary instrumen- tality by which all previous victories over him have been achieved ; but, on the contrary, just by a more signal forth- putting of all these instrumentalities than has ever yet been witnessed. And I have added a few extracts that go to show that this conception of the matter is far from being a novelty of my own, as has been represented. Nevertheless, it may be without sufficient foundation ; and I am far from wishing to dogmatise upon it. I leave it for the consideration of those whose familiarity with the symbolic language of prophecy, soundness of judgment, and general accuracy in conceiving of divine things, may enable them to throw further light upon the subject. In sketching the leading features of the millen- nial period, the practical bearings of this point will come before us in the following chapter, and supersede the no- dty of any summary here. CHAPTEE YIII. LEADING FEATURES OF THE LATTER DAY ITS CLOSE, AND THE " LITTLE SEASON" T PERSONAL APPEARANCE. THE "little season" TO SUCCEED IT, UP TO TaE LORD'S As eacli of these topics has received more or less illustra- tion in the foregoing chapters, it is but a brief concluding sketch that I intend here. The burden of Old Testament prophecy is " the suffer- ings of CHRIST and THE FOLLOWING GLORIES" (rag fitrt ravra Jo^aj, 1 Peter i. 11), Or the glorious results of these sufferings. Under this comprehensive title may be timbraced all the prophetic announcements of Messiah's kingdom, as a kingdom of truth, righteousness, peace, glory. It is seldom lined off into stages of advancement ; and only in the chronological prophecies have we any thing like distinct periods in the new economy, marked eras in Christianity, indicated. Messiah's reign is for the most part held forth as one magnificent whole ; and though resistance, warfare, corruption, defection, revival, victory, do at times chequer the scene, yet the prevailing aspect in which the kingdom of Christ is hymned in the prophetic Scriptures is its fuilest state of development upon earth, losing itself in the superior glories of the celestial and eternal state. This remark -will enable us to correct two opposite mis- takes. One class of interpreters see scarcely any thing but the millennium in propJiecy ; another will hardly allow that it is there at all. Professor Alexander^ for example. UNIVERSAL DIFFUSION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 426 in his admirable critical work on the Prophecies of Isaiah, anxious that we should look on all the great evangelical prophecies as a whole, is jealous of the least attempt to connect them with 'particular periods or specific events in the economy of grace ; while Fry^ and even Fraser^ say of almost every prophecy " The whole of this refers to the millennium." There is a right and a wrong element in both these views. These prophecies undoubtedly announce the kingdom of Christ as a whole ; and, as the essential features of that kingdom are never wholly wanting at any period under the gospel, so there is no age at which the fulfilment of these evangelical predictions is not more or less realised, and no Christian who may not himself be- come a living monument of the truth of them. In this re- spect, therefore, to say nakedly, and without very careful explanation, that this or that prediction refers wholly to the millennium, is fitted to mislead. At the same time, since it is impossible to deny that the kingdom of Christ is to a great extent held forth under a degree of expansion and development which it has not yet reached^ but is surely destined to attain ; and since this future stage of the kingdom of Christ — this era of Christianity, currently styled the latter day — answers to no period in the history of the world but that which in apocalyptic phrase we call the millennium^ we are not to be restrained from saying that such prophecies, in their full earthly sense, point to that wished-for day, and, in the loftiest sense of all, stretch beyond it. Keeping this remark in view, I proceed to notice the dis- tinguishing features of this period. 1. It will be characterised by the universal diffusion of revealed truth. " The earth shall he full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the [bed, or channel of the] sea." (Isa. xi. 9.) " A very expressive figure," says Dr. Henderson, " do- 2n 2 426 LEADING FEATURES OF LATTER DAY noting that no portion of the inhabited globe shall be de» titute of the true knowledge of God." " As much," says President Edwards, as to say, " as there is no part of the channel or cavity of the sea any where but what is covered with water, so there shall be no part of the world of man- kind but what shall be covered with the knowledge of God." What a change from the present state of the world ! — the darkness that covers large and densely peopled por- tions of the earth, and gross darkness the peoples, to fly before the light of revealed truth ; — the dark places of the earth to be irradiated by the beams of the Sun of Righteous- ness, and have " li«rht in all their dwellino-s." " And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering that covereth all peoples, and the web that is woven over all the nations." (Isa. xxv. 7.) This manifestly contemplates an illumination of the world, which, though in progress of fulfilment ever since the gospel, the rod of Christ's strength, went forth out of Zion, will have its full accomplishment onl}'^ when the darkness which every where broods over the world is dispersed, and the day-spring from on high shall pour its noontide splen- dour over this wretched world. 2. It will be marked by the universal reception of the true religion, and unlimited subjection to the sceptre of Christ. " Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheri- tance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy pos- session." (Ps. ii. 7.) " He shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the T»ver unto the ends of the earth. They that dwell in the wilderness [probably the wild, untamed, savage tribes] shall bow before him, and his ene- mies shall lick the dust [" shall be constrained to bow"J. The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents : the kings of Sheba and Seba shall oflfer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him : all nations shall serve ONE RELIGION AND ONE LORD 427 him." (Ps. Ixxii. 8-11; Zech. ix. 10.) "All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto the Lord ; and all the Idndreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For THE KINGDOM IS THE Lord's, and he is the Kuler among the nations. All the fat ones of the earth shall eat and worship:* all they that go down to the dust [every mortal] shall bow before him." (Ps. xxii. 27-29.) "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many peoples shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths : for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." (Isa. ii. 2, 3.) " And it shall come to pass, that from one new-moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to wor- ship before me, saith the Lord." (Isa. Ixvi. 23.) And the Lord shall bb king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one." (Zech. xiv. 9.) "Go, make disciples of all nations; baptizing them," &c. (Matt, xxviii. 19.) " The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard-seed, which indeed is the least of all seeds ; but when it is grown it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof" (Matt. xiii. 31, 32.) "And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The sovereignty of the world hath become our Lord's and his Christ's, and he shall reign for ever and EVER." (Rev. xi. 15.) What prospects for the world are these ! All the poly- * The allusion here, and in verse 26, is to the ftast upon the sacrifice under the law. The sacrifice here is Christ Crucified, and the prediction is, that the greatest upon earth shall enroll themselves members, and celebrate the rites of the Christian Church, professing to derive all they iesire to enjoy from Christ. 428 LEADING FEATURES OF LATTER DAY — • theism of the Pagan nations, with its cruel, licentious, and degrading rites, and its myriads of •' lying vanities," utterly abolished ; the Mohammedan imposture, by which millions are held enslaved, brought to an end ; the obstinate un- belief of the Jews, with the curse of God upon them, gloriously removed ; the soul-destroying errors, blasphe- mous superstitions, idolatrous rites, and cruel despotism of Popery, which have sat like an incubus upon Christendom for ages, together with all deadly heresies, and professed infidelity, swept away ! " One Lord, one faith, one BAPTISM," for the whole world ! Not that we are war- ranted to look for a universality of vital religion, or the saving conversion of all mankind. The reverse is evident from many passages, and will be made manifest enough when the " little season" which follows the millennial period shall arrive. But the outward reception of the truth, and professed subjection to Christ, will be universal. " The kingdom of Christ," to use the words of President Edwards, " shall, in the most strict and literal sense, be extended to all nations and the whole earth." 3. It shall be a time of universal peace. " He shall judge between ('j'^a) the nations, aud decide for many peoples ; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks : nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." (Isa. ii. 4 ; Mic. iv. 3.) " The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the serpent's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in UNIVERSAL PEACE. 420 all my holy mountain : for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." — Isa. xi. 6-9.) [n the first of these passages, the uniyersal peace pre- dicted is announced as flowing directly from the universal reception of the truth. " God," says Fraser, paraphrasing the verse, " shall set up the government of his grace over the nations : He shall by it correct their fierce passions ; £0 that those who lived in mutual and continual enmity shall mutually embrace, and eagerly promote the blessings of peace." Calvin notices the emphasis that lies in the " learning war no more" — not only shall they cease to practise it, but even outlive the use of arms. The second of the above passages is taken in the same general sense by the overwhelming majority of expositors. " These words," says Prebendary Lowth — " ' for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord' — are a proof that the expres- sions used in the f' regoing verses are metapliorical. " "What was obviously implied," says Dr. Henderson, " in the preceding description is now expressly stated, and the cause of the wonder- ful change specified — the extension of the knowledge of Jeho- vah. This latter circumstance further shows that the language of the description is figurative." '• The selfish," says Scott, *' the penurious, the rapacious, the contentious, the ambitious, the savage, the subtile, and the malicious, would lose their peculiar base dispositions, and become harmless, sincere, peace- able, benevolent and affectionate; they would live together in harmony, hearken to instruction, and be guided by gentle per- suasions and entreaties. So that the change would be as evi- dent and surprising, as if the wolf, the tiger, the lion, the bear, and other fierce carnivorous animals, should learn to be gentle and harmless as the lamb, the kid, the calf, or the cow ; to associate with them, to graze the pasture as they do, or to feed on hay and straw : and should be so tractable that a little child could lead them," &c. " Vltringa gives," says P -ofessor Alexander, " a specific 430 LEADING FEATURES OF LATTER DAY meaning to each figure in the landscape This kind of exposi* tion not only mars the beauty, but obscures the real meaning of the prophecy."* Before lea^'ng this last passage, let the reader observe the absurdity of taking " God's holy mountain" (Zion) literally here. To say that they should "not hurt nor destroy in alV^ — that insignificant elevation called Zion, in the city of Jerusalem, and especially to say that the piiet of this petty rising ground would be owing to " the earth being filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea," is so exceedingly puerile, that one can only stand amazed at the tenacious consistency of the literalists in going through with their principle of interpre- tation in this instance. But if we take " Grod's holy mountain" — which at that time was the centre of the true religion, the meeting-place of Johovah and his reconciled people, where he " communed with them from above the mercy-seat and from between the cherubim," through the sprinkling of blood — as a familiar and endeared name for the Church or kingdom of Messiah, yet to be co-extensive with the earth itself, all is plain. When the knowledge of the Lord shall settle down upon every region, every spot of the earth, as the bed of the ocean is occupied and over- * I commend this remark of Professor Alexander to Mr. H. Bonar. Though he exposes, not without success, some attempts to assign a dis- tinct spiritual idea to each of these figures, he does not thereby overthrow the figurative sense of the prophecy. Calvin and Hengstenberg think there is in the prophecy an ultimate reference to the deliverance of a groaning creation from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. "Possibly there is,'" says Alexander, while Henderson considers it " in the last degree improbable " For myself, observing how the Lord and his apc^tles stretch their views of the pro- phecies over the head of all the changing conditions of the earth and of the Church into the final, everlasting state, I should be disposed to saj with Professor Alexander, provided it be allowed that the peaceful clicrac- ter of Messiah' s reign is the direct subject of the prophecy. SPIRITUAL POWER AND GLORY. 431 spread by its mighty waters, — when it shall work itself into the texture of human society all over the world, uni- versal peace shall come in its train. 4. It will be distinguished by much spiritual power and glory. Under this general expression I include copious effusions of the Spirit, saving conversion on a scale hitherto unpa- ralleled, ecclesiastical unity and peace, spiritual prosperity, shining ordinances, bright tokens of the Lord's presence with his people, as well in their secular as sacred occu- pations. On this head I refrain from quoting passages, just because every description of the fruit of Christ's suf- ferings, of the gift of the Spirit, of the conquests of grace, of the Lord's presence with his people, and the light, life, freedom, purity, and joy, resulting from it, will then be realized to an extent before unknown. Let us suppose what President Edwards describes as the state of the little town of Northampton, in New England, during the revival which visited it under his ministry, to spread from town to town, from country to country from continent to continent — place after place catching the blessed gales of the Spirit, and •' the spices" of a universal "garden of the Lord" " flowing out." "Presently upon this," says thit distinguished man, "a great and earnest concern about the great things of religion and the eternal world became universal in all parts of the town, and among persons of all degrees and ages ; the noise among the dry bones waxed louder and louder : all other talk but about spiri- tual and eternal things way soon thrown by ; all the conversation in all companies, and upon all occasions, was about these things only, unless what was necessary for carrying on their ordinary secular business. They seemed to follow their worldly business more as a part of their duty, than from any disposition they had to it. The only thing in their view was to get the kingdom of heaven, and eveiy one appeared pressing into it: the engaged- LEADING FEATURES OF LATTER DAY ness of their hearts in this great concern could not be hid ; it appeared in their very countenances. The work of conversion was carried on in a most astonishing manner, and increased more and more; souls did, as it were, come by flocks to Jesus Christ. From day to day, for many months together, might be seen evi- dent instances of sinners brought out of darkness into marvellous light, and delivered out of a horrible pit and from the miry clay, and set upon a rock, with a new song of praise to God in their mouths. This work of God, as it was carried on and the num- ber of true saints multiplied, soon made a glorious alteration in the town ; so that in the spring and summer following, in the year 1735, the town seemed to be full of the presence of God: it never was so full of love and joy, and yet so full of distress, as it was then. There were remarkable tokens of God's presence in almost every house. It was a time of joy in families, on account of salvation being brought to them ; parents rejoici7ig over their children as 7iew-born, arid husbands ever their loives, arid wives over their husband:^. The goings of God were then seen in his sanctuary; God's day was a delight, and his tabernacles were amiable. Our public assemblies were then beautiful; the congregation was alive in God's service. In all companies, on other days, on whatever oc- casions persons met, Christ was to be heard and seen in the midst OF them. Our young people, when they met, were wont to spend the time in talking of the excellency and dying love of Jesus Christ, the gloriousness of the way of salvation, the wonderful, free, and sovereign grace of God, his glorious work in the con- version of a soul, the truth and certainty of the great things of God's word, &c. Those amongst us that had been formerly converted were greatly enlivened and renewed, with fresh and extraordinary visitO' lions of the Spirit of God. Strangers were generally sui-prised to find things so much beyond what they had heard, and were wont to tell others that the state of the town could not be conceived of by those that had not seen it. This seems to have been a very extraordinary dispensation of Providence. God has in many respects gone out of, and much beyond, his usual and or- dinary way. The work in this town, and some others about us, has been extraordinary on account of the universality of it, affect- ing all sorts of persons, sober and vicious, high and low, rich and poor, wise and unwise. A loose, careless person could scarcely find another in the whole neighbourhood; and if there was any on« IN-BRINGING OF ALL ISRAEL. 433 that seemed to remain senseless or unconcerned, it would be spoken of as a strange thing-." * The worthy author calls this, as he might well do, " a verj extraordinary dispensation of nrovidence." But what if it should yet become " a very ardiJiary dispensation of pro- vidence ?" " God (says he) went in many respects out of arid much bei/ond his usual and ordinary way." But if this very thing should become, in the latter day, "his usual and ordinary way," what will his " very extraordinary dis- pensations of providence" be — those exceedings of his ordi- nary Self, when he goes, as we have no reason to think but he will go, " out of and much beyond" this ? And how else can it well be imagined that those glorious results are to come to pass, which we are taught to look for in Buch texts as the following : " Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day ? or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children." " A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation : I the Lord will hasten it in its time." — (Isa Ixvi. 8 ; Ix. 22.) 5. The in-bringing of ^^ all IsraeV^ will signalise that day. The Old Testament evidence on this subject has been much controverted, but it is sufficiently evident even from the New. Without quoting those passages which in my judgment imply, though they do not explicitly announce, a general conversion of the natural Israel,! I rest on the following passage : ♦ Narrative of the Revival of Religion in New England, pp. 65-68, 74. Collins' Edit. 1829. t I refer to Matthew xxiii. 39; Luke xxi. 24; Acts i. 6, 7; (iii 191)j 2 Cor. iii. 15, 16. 2o 434 LEADING FEATURES OF LATTER DAY Eoin. xi. 26-29 : " And so all Israel shall be saved : as il w written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn an-ay ungodliness from Jacob : for this is my cove- nant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As con- cerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes : but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repent- In this chapter the apostle teaches that the rejection of God's ancient people under the gospel is to be taken with two limitations : first, that " even at this present time (the period of rejection) there is a remnant according to the election of grace ;" and next, that the peofle at large — the bulk and body of the nation — as contradistinguished from this elect remnant, shall yet be brought in. In proof of this, the apostle carries us back not only to the prophets — to Isaiah (lix. 20), and Jeremiah (xxxi, 31-34) — but to the Abrahamic covenant itself " As touching the election (of Abraham and his seed), they are beloved for the fathers' sake" — dear to God because of their ancestral connections, their lineal descent from and oneness in covenant with those " fathers" with whom God originally established his cove- nant. " For (adds the apostle) the gifts and callings of God (referring to the covenant with Abraham) are without repentance."* Let the reader but try to realize what their conversion will * If this perpetuity of the Abrahamic covenant, as respects the natural seed, be admitted on the authority of the apostle, it will be difBcnlt, I think, to avoid admitting their territorial restoration ; the people and the LAND of Israel being so connected in numerous prophecies of the Old Testament, that whatever literality and perpetuity are ascribed to the cne, must, one would think, on all strict principles of interpretation, bo attributed to the other also. Without entering, however, on that ques- tion here, I beg to refer to Lowers Magazine for October, November, and December 1847, in which the question is handled at some length. IN-BRINGING OF ALL ISRAEL. 43S be as held forth to us in the sure word of prophecy. Take, for example, Zeehariah's well-known description of it : ^'And ] will pour upon the house of David, and v^on the inhabitanti of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications : and they SHALL LOOK UPON ME WHOM THEY HAVE PIERCED, AND THEY SHALL MOURN FOR HIM, as oiie mourneth for his only son, and shall he in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-barn. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jeru- saZem, as the mo^trning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Mcgiddon. In THAT DAY THERE SHALL BE A FOUNTAIN OPENED TO THE HOUSE OF David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for SIN AND FOR UNCLEANNEss." — (Zech. xii. 10; xiu. 1.) The first step in the wondrous process here described is the descent of the Spirit upon them nationally^ and in his proper relation to Jesus, whom it is his ofiice and delight to " glorify" ia the souls of men. And first he comes upon them as a '' spirit of grace^'' to which they are '' twice dead" — devoid of it, as all are by nature, but over and above this judicially graceless, if we may so express it. This will bring them into a convinced, humbled, anxious state — a state of gracious broken-heartedness, prompting them to " confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, and that they have walked contrary to the Lord, and that He also hath walked contrary to them, and hath brought them into the land of their enemies. Their un- circumcised hearts shall thus be humbled, and they shall accept the punishment of their iniquity." But along with this he shall come as a " spirit of supplications^^ leading them " out of the depths to cry unto God" for mercy and light. In this frame, " their heart now turned to the Lord, the vail drops from their eyes" (2 Cor. iii. 14-18), and au object of surpassing glory, yet to them of startling and heart-breaking aspect, stands confessed before their view. It is Jesus. " They look" (by faith) on Him 436 LEADING FEATURES OF LATTER DAY whom they had pierced — pierced as no others had ever pierced him; and discerning now in that bleeding Saviour, under the overpow^ering teaching and grace of the Spirit, their own very Messiah, their hearts melt within them, their repentings are kindled together, and they mourn for him as one mourneth for an only son, and are in bitterness ns for a first-born. Once He came to his own, and his own received him not. But "at the second time Joseph shall be made known to his brethren ; and the house of Pharaoh shall hear the weeping," as one has touchingly said. O what an unexampled mourning will that be ! for its intensity — " as the mourning of Hadadrimmon ;" for its universality — '• the land shall mourn ;" for its individuality — "all the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart." But the most glorious feature of it will be its evangelical churacter. It will be the pure fruit of a believing " look upon Him whom they have pierced." As when the Lord turned and looked upon Peter, he went out and wept bitterly ; so that look on a bleeding Saviour — pierced by their own hands — wounded thus in the house of his friends — will open the sluices of their heart's deepest and purest emotions. Their head will be waters, and their eyes a fountain of tears. And 0, when they see that blood which as a nation they murderously shed, turned into a fountain open to themselves for sin and for un cleanness — when they find their robes washed and made white in that very blood of the Lamb — how will they water a free pardon with their tears, ho rt generously will they detest forgiven sin (to use Dr. Owen's words), how will they be disposed to exclaim to their Gentile brethren every where, " Come, hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul !" for the apostle's spirit of great sor- row and continual heaviness of heart for them, •• of whom as concerning the flesh, Christ came," and for his glowing ASCENDENCY OF TRUTH AND RIGHTEOUSNESS. 43*5 expectations of the benefit ourselves as Gentiles would ex perience from their conversion ! And the drops of that spirit are certainly falling upon the churches. But showers are needed. " Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briars — until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high /" But " I the Lord will hasten it in its time." 6. The ascendency of truth and righteousness in human affairs will distinguish that day. This has been so frequently and fully adverted to in the foregoing chapters, that any thing said on it here would be but repetition. Let it suffice to refer to the following among the multitude of passages which express this : — " There was given to the Son of Man dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, and nations, and languages, should serve him Judgment was given to the saints of the Most High ; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, should be given to the people of the saints of the Most High." (Dan. vii. 14, 22, 27.) " I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judg- ment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as had not Avorshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads and on their hands ; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thou- sand years They shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. (Rev. xx. 4, 6.) "We shall reign on the earth," (chap. v. 10,)* " All kings shall ♦ Nentiquam intelligenda est [haec pericopa] de tempore Judicium secuturo, cum seternitas laeta incoelis turn git agenda; neque de regno mundano et corporali . . . sed de communis fidelibus omnibus regni spiri- tualisexercitioin omnium popsessione, sui gubernatione juxta Dei legem belle gesto contra hostes cum successu laeto, judicio denique deiis; quae, omnia in hac terra obtinent, et obtinebunt illustrius in laetiori quem ex- pectamus Ecclesiae statu, illustrissime autem in novissimo Christi ad* ventu. (Marckius, ad loe.) Quae pericopa necessario intelligenda est de illo statu, quo '* judiciuia 2o2 438 LEADING FEATURES OF LATTER DAY fall down before him ; all nations shall serve him Men shall be blessed in him; all nations shall call him blessed." (Psalm Ixxii. 11, 17.) " The Lord shall be king over nil the earth." (Zech. xiv. 9.) " The nation and kingdom that will not serve thee* shall perish ; yea, those nations shall utterly perish." (Isa. Ix. 12.) " All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto the Lord ; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. All the fat ones of the earth shall eat and worship," &c. (Psalm xxii. 27, 29.) " Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom, thou mayest rnake princes in all the earth." — (Psalm xlv. 16.) By this last prediction I understand the same thing as in Daniel, " the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the WngdiOva under the whole heaven^'' being '-'•given to the people of the saints of the Most High." In that golden Psalm, the Bride of Christ was exhorted to " forget her own people and her father's house," on her union to " the King," and assured she shall have rich compensation for all the natural delights which she abandons ; for she shall have a glorious progeny of her own, who shall yet rule the world. "It shall be," says Edwards, "a time wherein religion shall tradendum erat Sanctis" de quo Daniel (vii. 27). . . Praeviderunt sancti, et ex Oraculis perspexerunt, aliquando eventurum esse, ut Christiana Religio in orbe caput extollcret et suppressis religionibus falsis et super- stitiosis, in ipso Romano imperio summam obtineret auctoritatem. Quae res, si tenuissima Christianismi initia contemplemur, et illorum condi- tionem temporum, plane videbatur incredibilis, et omni spe major. Sancti tamen, verbo Dei eruditi, magnam banc rerum catastrophen, quaa tandem efTectum sortiri coepit sub Constantino, praeviderunt, et spe sua anticiparunt ; et id ipsum vel maxime et hac Revelatione discere cupi- verunt. Unde itaque clarissime liquet scenam ccelestem quae hie exhibe- tur, exponendam, esse de statu Ecdesice ut se habet in his terris. — (V'l- TRiNGA, ad loc.) * That is, the Church of God, consisting of the natural Israel under Christ, and the believing Gentiles '♦ grafted into" their " good olive tree;*' not to " serve," or refuse to join themselves to it, and conduct all theii iffairs o»i ts principles, will be their ruin. TEMPORAL PROSPERITY. 439 in every respect be uppermost in the world. It shall be had in great esteem and honour. The saints have hitherto for the most part been kept under, and wicked men have governed. But now they will be uppermost. The kingdom shall be 'given into the hands of the saints of the most High God' (Dan. vii. 27), and ' they shall reign on earth ' (Rev. v. 10). ' They shall live and reign with Christ a thousand years' (Rev. xx. 4). In that day such persons as are eminent for piety and religion shall be chiefly promoted to places of trust and authority. Vital religion shall then take possession of kings' palaces and thrones, and those who are in highest advancement shall be holy men. (Isa, xlix. 23). ' And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers.' Kings shall employ all their power and glory and riches for the advancement of the honour and glory of Christ, and the good of his Church : Isa. Ix. 16, *Thou shalt suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck the breast of kings.' And the great men of the world, and the rich merchants, and others who have great wealth and influence, shall devote all to Christ and his Church : Ps. xlv. 12, ' The daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift; even the rich among the people shall entreat thy favour.' "* A prospect this, so different from any thing hitherto seen, that one could gladly expatiate upon it. But I must hasten to notice one other distinguishing feature of the latter day. 7. It will be characterised by great temporal prosperity. Here also it is unnecessary to quote passages. For if " godliness be profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is" as well as " of that which is to come" ( 1 Tim. iv. 8) ; if " all these things shall be added unto" those who " seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness" (Matt. vi. 33) ; if all temporal blessings, in short, are expressly and in numerous prophecies repre- sented as coming in the train of the new covenant bless- ings — can it for a moment be doubted that when the six ♦ History of Redemption, Period 3, Part 2, Sect. 1. 440 SETTING OF THE MILLENNIAL SUN. foregoing characteristics of the latter day shall be realised this seventh one will find its place ? " Then shall the earth yield her increase, and God, even our own God, shall bless us." — (Ps. Ixvii. 6.)* " We need not," says Fraser, " have recourse to that miraculoua fniitfulness of the earth which Papias feigned, in order to fulfil this prophecy. Plenty is the natural consequence of the moral change which takes place in the world at the millennimxi. The imiversal righteousness of that happy period will prevent des- potism in government, anarchy in the people, as well as the devastations of war, by which the earth is left uncultivated, or its produce is destroyed. The religion of that period will civilise savages, and destroy among civilised nations the numerous occu- pations that minister to the lawless passions of men ; thus directing a great multitude of the human race to the useful arts of agriculture, who had been formerly idle, and a burden upon the labours of others. The love universally felt and practised in that period, will lead those who have abundance to distribute cheerfully and freely to the necessities of those who may be in need."t But the sun of this bright day is destined to set — graditally, doubtless, as gradually it shall rise. That it will follow the usual laws of spiritual decline, there is every reason to believe. The church of Ephesus seems to have retained for thirty years every external mark of pros- perity. " I know thy works" — said Jesus to that church ♦ See for example, Isa. xxx. 23, 24 ; Jar. xxxi. 12 ; Ezek. xxxiv. 26, 27; xxxvi. 29, 30-38; Amos ix. 13; Zech. viii. 12.— It is of Mttle conse- quence whether we refer these prophecies to a past time, to a future time, or to no particular time, — considering them as fulfilled whenever the spiritual state to which these blessings are tied in the prophecies is realised, and just in proportion as it is realised. For even on this last view they must have an ample fulfilment in the latter day, because then the necessary conditions will be to a very large extent realised. t Key to the Prophecies p. 429. THE DECLINE GRADUAL. 441 from the skies — " and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil : and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not. and hast found them liars : and thou hast patience, an(J[ hast borne,* for my name's sake, and hast not been weary,"t — (Rev. ii. 2, 3.) What more could have been paid to the commendation of a church than this 1 Nothing, one should think. Yet was there a worm at the root of all : " Nevertheless I have this against thee, that thou hast left thy first love'^ (verse 4). How deep a descent was implied in this, is but too evident from what follows : " Remember, therefore, from whence thou a.rt fallen, and repent, and do the first works''' (verse 5). The " works" seem to be all there, but, not done under the promptings of their " first love," they were not " the first works ;" and the threatening, " I will come unto thee quickly, and remove thy candlestick, except thou repent," shows how near they were, amidst all their seeming prospe- rity, to a fatal decline, when the animating principle of love was at so low an ebb. What then have we to suppose, but that towards the close of the latter day an Ephesine spirit shall steal over the Church ; her activities in well- doing not sensibly diminished — her universal consistency much as it was — but springing now not so much from the warmth of present affection as from the mechanism of habit, and lingering recollections of the past. The jealoug Lord of the Church is now toiicljed, and his Spirit grieved, the withdrawal of whose sensible presence in divine ordi- nances, and gracious operations in the whole circle of Chris- tian duties, will of course accelerate the decline. " Our Be- loved has withdrawn himself aid is gone." No more will he "commune with them," as he was wont, "from above ♦ The best MSS. reverse '.he order of these verbs, f HKoiriUKas, or tKOTTiaajii for KeKjitfxas. 442 8ATAN AT LENGTH LET LOOSE. the mercy-seat, and from between the cherubim ;" for " th« glory of the Lord has gone up from the cherub." " The foundation of God, indeed, standeth sure ; having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his." But "they are not all Israel that are of Israel," even during the millennium ; and this will now be sadly seen. Settling upon her lees, her external prosperity proving a snare to her — secularity in the Church takes the place of spirituality, inconsisten- cies increasingly appear, and her influence for good upon the world at large grows less and less And just as on a small scale, in some little community like that of Northamp- ton^ as described by Edwards, after the remarkable sense of God's presence over the whole town had begun to wax feeble, the still unconverted portion of it, though subdued and seemingly won over to Christ, would, by little and little, recover themselves, and at length venture forth in their true character — so will it be, in all probability, on a vast scale at the close of the latter day. The unconverted portion of the world — long constrained by the religious influences every where surrounding them to fall in with the spirit of the day, catching apparently its holy impulses, but never coming savingly under its power — this portion of mankind, which we have reason to fear will not be small, will now be freed from these irksome restraints, no longer obliged to breathe an atmosphere uncongenial to their nature, and " feign submission." Now, " the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" — never slain — will re-assert their claims with an urgency proportioned to the restraints till now placed upon them by victorious spirituality, and with a success proportioned to the dimi- nished power and inclination to resist them. And then will the Lord be provoked to let loose upon them "the roaring lion." Though, of themselves, they have already ^^ given 'place to the devil," yet his every motion is, and THE "LITTLE SEASON." 443 ii\er has been, under higher control. Now, he is at once morally and judicially free. " The house from whence he went out (or was put out) is empty, swept, and garnished' — unoccupied by his Rival and ready waiting his return. "When the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison — for a little season — and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle : the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city : and fire came do\vn out of heaven from God, and devoured them." (Rev. XX. 7, 3, 8, 9.) Many writers seem to think, that the whole of what is here described will be accomplished with such rapidity as not to deserve the name of a period in Church history. For this, however, there is no ground, either in the pas- sage itself or in any analogy from past experience. The " little seasorC^ expressly assigned to these movements plainly shows it to be a distinct period ; and as it is men- tioned in immediate connexion with the thousand years, and as following directly on it, we must take its " littleness" in point of duration, relatively to that lo7ig period. Were it to extend through one, two, or three centuries, it would still be comparatively " little," if we take the other period for a literal millennium. " Since it cannot be imagined," says Faher, " that the whole world will plunge at once from piety to impiety, both common sense and general experience may teach us that a considerable time will elapse ere the children of men will become so thorougliiy depraved as to enter into a regular combination for the purpose of extirpating the small remnant of God's faithful people."* ♦ Sacred Calendar, iii. 478. Bengel, as I have already stated, takes it to be a period ejiceediog « 444 NATURE AND EXTENT OF THE " DECEPTION." " To deceive the nations" here, does not mean every kind of deception. As he was shut up " that he shoald deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled," and is now loosed and goes forth " to deceive the nations" once more, the deception must be of the same character in both cases — to organize a new apostasy, and through them to make a fresh attempt against the Church of God upon earth. So the commentators generally agree. There is no sufficient reason for taking " the nations that are in the four quarters (or corners) of the eartW to mean some particular nations at its remote extremities, so to speak. Under this impression, coupled with the mystic names " Gog and Magog," some have given lists of un- civilized nations answering, in their opinion, to the descrip- tion. The expression is clearly employed to correspond with the figurative' description of the Church, as " the cam'p of the saints and the beloved city'^ — " images (says Scott^ borrowed from the affairs of Israel in the wilderness and in Canaan.-''* The Church being represented under this figure, as occupying one central sacred spot — once a reality, but now, under the gospel, only a figure — her enemies are described as sweeping from the ends of the earth towards this spot ; and of course, in order to this, Satan is described as going out thither to collect his forces. Thus understood, the expression denotes the 7iations uni- versally^ or over the whole extent of the earth.\ century ; while Faber, in the sentence immediately following that above quoted, reckons it at three hundred and thirty-five years, faking the words, "Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the tt oiisind three hundred and five-and-thirty days" (Dan. xii. 12), to refer to the thousand years of the millennium, and the "little season" to succeed it. Some even extend it farther; but where there is no light, !is I believe, our wis- dom is to be silent. ♦ See also Vitringa, ad loc. t Compare Job i. 19 ; Isa. xi. 12 ; Ezek xliii. 20 ; xlv. 19 ; Rev. vii. 1 THE ASSAULT ITS OBJECT. 445 The names " Gog and Magog" carry us back to the account which Ezekiel gives (xxxviii., xxxix.) of an un- provoked, formidable, but abortive attack on the people of Israel peacefully settled in their own land, by some power or powers called by these same names. Fraser, Faber, and others, take both attacks to relate to the same event ; but looking, not only at the passages themselves, but at the usual way in which Old Testament events are referred to in the Apocalypse, we are led, with the majority of commenta- tors, to an opposite conclusion — that the events are in character analogous^ rather than in fact the same. The object of Satan is very explicitly stated — " to gather them together to battle." The temptations fro?n which he was restrained being strictly of this nature^ he is now loosed just to organise a confederacy against the Church again. By what steps he will proceed, and on what precise questions the quarrel will ostensibly be raised — whether he will set up a new religion^ or whether, as seems more probable, he will breathe into them an anti-religious spirit, that cannot rest so long as God has any open friends, and Christ any witnesses, and the Church exists as a visible body — we can- not tell, and shall in vain attempt to determine. One thing only is certain — he will succeed in raising a mighty party, ^* the number of whom is as the sand of the sea" (an ex- pression, however, not to be pressed too far ; see Gen. xli. 49 ; Judges vii. 12 ; and 2 Sam. xvii. 11.) One may wonder at such success ; but the past history of the struggles of the serpent's seed against Christ and his people, teaches us to wonder at nothing which he gets liberty to do. The bright latter day has set ; the generations that adorned it have died ; and other generations have arisen that " know not Joseph." In process of time they may come to deny that matters were ever much better than they are, and laugh at every assertion of the sort. Impati3nce of the yoke of reli- 2p 446 VASTNESS AND CONFIDENCE OF THE ENEMY. gion will in all probability come to be the uniting principle and animating motive of this vast party. '' No oppression," says Fraser, " is so grievous to an unsanctified heart as that which arises from the purity of Christianity. A desire to shake off this yoke is the true cause of that opposition Christianity has met with from the world in every period, and will, it is most likely, be the chief motive to influence the followers of Gog in his time."* Their " going upf on the breadth of the earth," denotes their sweeping all before them in their advances against the Church ; while their " compassing the camp of the saints and the beloved city," seems to be an allusion to the close investment of Jerusalem by Sennacherib, king of Assyria. The daring and blasphemous assumptions of that heathen monarch and his men of war, their undoubting confidence of success, and their profound and godless security, up to the moment when the angel of the Lord smote the host — will doubtless find their like at this final investment of " the beloved city." " As it was in the days of Noe, so it shall be also in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat, they draftk, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot ; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they build- ed ; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is re- vealed."— (Luke xvii. 26-30.) " Yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety ; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail ♦"Key, ut supra, p. 455. t Grotius notices the military character of this phrase, referring to i Sam. xi. 1, I Kings xx. 1, and Isa. xxxvi. 1, as parallels. THE LAST CRISIS. 44T upon a woman with child ; and they shall not escape." — (1 Thess. V. 2, 3.) " There shall come iji the last days scoffers, walking after theil own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming V —(2 Peter iii. 3, 4.) " When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth V — (Luke xviii. 8.) And just as faithful Hezekiah and his people, shut in by an enemy sufficient to overwhelm them, could only " lift up their prayer for the remnant that was left," saying, " This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy ; for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth : incline thine ear, Lord, and hear ; open thine eyes, Lord, and see ; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent to reproach the liv- ing God," (Isa. xxxvii. 3, 17) — so will the faithful in this final struggle feel their case utterly hopeless but for some signal interposition from on high. Accordingly, they are represented as " crying to him day and night, ^^ and because he "bears long with them" (Luke xviii. 7), some will give it up in despair, while the hearts of others will fail them for fear of being left to the will of their enemies. In these circumstances, of confidence on the one side and fear on the other — when the enemy is saying, " I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil" — the tremu- lous cries of the remnant that is left enter into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. " Shall not God avenge his own elect, that cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them ? I tell you, he will avenge them speedily." No manifest sign of interposition, it would seem, will be given. As " the sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar," and " then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven" (Gen. xix. 23, 24), so when the last 44S THE CONSUMMATION. enemy of the Church shall be ready to swallow up the camp of " the saints and the beloved city," then " fire shall come down from God out of heaven, and devour them." Whether there will be any interval^ or of what length, between this act of signal vengeance and the Personal Ap- pearing of Christ, we have not sufficient ground to deter- mine. Fraser, Faber, and those who take their views of " Gog," suppose that the " seven months" which Ezekiel speaks of, as spent burying the carcases of these victims of justice, are an indication that " the last day will not quite immediately follow" this judgment. Their grounds, how- ever, are not convincing ; and the probability is that this will be the immediate precursor of " the last trumpet." For the final judgment of the devil himself is recorded in the very next verse, and just before the account of the last judgment. Be this as it may, we are now brought — as far as the light of revelation goes — to the concluding scene. " Cor- ruption," says Fraser^ " following after the purity and happiness of the millennium, serves to prove fully what had been shown partly before, that unsanctified human na- ture cannot bear prosperity, because it leads men to resist God's authority, to gratify their own lusts at the expense of violating his laws, and defacing the beauty and order of his creation ; that all the ordinary means of grace, that all the common and extraordinary dispensations of Divine providence, which the wisdom of God devised, and his long-suffering patience exercised for the reformation of the human race, are inefi'ectual to reform the whole, and that the malignant distemper of sin requires a more violent remedy. Accordingly, the world now ripe for destruction, and the Church for eternal salvation, God sets his throne for the last judgment."* '• Then," says Edwards, " will ♦ Key, ut supra, pp. 462, 463. CHRIST NOW COMES TO JUDGMENT. 449 come the time when all the elect shall be gathered in. That work of conversion which has been carried on from the beginning of the Church, after the fall, through all those ages, shall be carried on no more. There never shall another soul be converted. Every one of those many millions whose names were written in the book of life be- fore the foundation of the world, shall be brought in ; not one soul shall be lost. And the mystical body of Christ, which has been growing since it first began in the days of Adam, will be complete as to number of parts, having every one of its members. In this respect, the work of re- demption will now be finished. And now the end, for which the means of grace have been instituted, shall be obtained All the effect which was intended to be accom- plished by them shall now be accomplished. All the great wheels of Providcneo have gone rouud — all things are ripe for Christ's coming to judgment "* " Even so, come. Lord Jesus ! " • Hist, of Red. ut supra. 8p2 PART III. OBJECTIONS. OBJECTIONS. A NUMBER of objections to the doctrine of the foregoing passages have already been noticed, and sufiSciently replied to in the progress of our argument. Some, however, I have reserved for separate consideration here. And I begin with the strongest of all, — the only one, indeed, which ap- pears to me to have much force. OBJECTION FIRST: The coming of Christ is expressly said to be for the de- struction of Antichrist ; and, as that is confessedly pre- millennial, so must the coming of Christ be. The passage on which this argument is founded I shall give in full. 2 Thess. ii. 1-8: "We beseech you, brethren, by* the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon moved from [the steadiness of] your mind,t or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as from us, as if the day of Christ were immi- nent. Let no man deceive you by any means; for [that ♦ Or " concerning." Several eminent critics seem to question whether inep is ever used as an adjuration, as in our version. But that it signifies *^/or the sake of" in classical writers, is undoubted (see ex. gr. II. G, 466), and it is rendered per in the Vulgate, and by Erasmus, Beza, Calvin (though alternatively with de), and many others. 'f' aaXevdiji/at axo r. vooi. 454 OBJECTION FIRST. day shall not come] unless there come the apostasy first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God, or that is woi-shipped ; so that he [as God J* sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Re- member ye not that, when I was with you, I told you these things. And now ye know what withholdeth that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of ini- quity doth already work : only [there is] one who hinder- eth,t till he be taken out of the way. And then shall the lawless one:}: be revealed, whovi the Lord Jesus^ shall destroy with the spirit of his mouth, and shall abolish with the brightness of his coming." On this passage, I can say with the venerable and acute Mr. Faber, that it is " the only apparent evidence for the pre-millennial advent which, after long thought upon the subject, I have been able to discover." In stating the argument, however, from this passage, Mr. Faber does it no justice. He says it lies here, that an advent of Christ being mentioned in both epistles to the Thessalonians. and the advent of the first epistle being confessedly his second personal advent, the advent of the second epistle, to destroy the Man of Sin, must needs be the same second advent. This is hardly a fair statement of the argument ; nor is liis answer to it more satisfactory. He thinks the Thessaloniana had been " led to imagine that the advent of Christ to destroy the little horn, or the Man of Sin, so graphically described by Daniel, was close at hand ; " j| and that it is this mistake which the apostle corrects in the passage before us. Now, for my part, I see no ground to think the Thessalonians were troubled about the Man of Sin at all. To me it s^i-ora^ * wf ^tov, omitted by nearly all modern editors. f ^ovov h KaTtx^t^v aprt twf, k. t. \. "^ b avofiOf. ^ Iijffsws added by the modern editors. H Sacred Calendar, ill. 437. OBJECTION FIRST. 455 manifest that the time of Christ's second personal advent was what excited and unsettled the Thessalonians ; and that the apostle brings in the apostasy and the Man of Sin quite incidentally^ to show how mistaken was the notion that all things were already ripe for Christ's second coming. In this view of the passage, then, the argument for the pre- millennial advent from it will stand thus : — Here is a pas- sage in which the express subject of discourse is the second " coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering to- gether unto him," (v. I) ; to guard against the notion that this " day of Christ " (his personal coming) was " at hand " or " imminent." (v. 2), we are informed that a great apos- tasy would have to be consummated in the Christian Church, and the Man of Sin to be revealed ere Christ come (v. 3-8) ; and therefore, when the apostle adds, of this anti-christian power, " whom the Lord shall destroy with the spirit of his mouth, and shall abolish with the bright- ness of his coming" is it not most natural to take this " coming " to destroy the Man of Sin to be the same personal coming of which the apostle was discoursing, and that hav- ing told them before what events Christ could not come, he now tells them for what purpose he would come, namely, to destroy Antichrist, and consequently before the millen- nium? I think I have put this argument fairly, and with all its force. Let us now endeavour to weigh it dispassionately. 1. There can be no doubt, that the whole passage admits of a consistent and good explanation on the view of it above given. Nor is this view confined to pre-millennialists. Those of our elder divines who looked upon the millennium as past already, and considered the destruction of Antichrist as the immediate precursor of the eternal state, understood this " coming of the Lord " to destroy Antichrist, of his second personal advent. There are other opponent? of the 456 OBJECTION FIRST. pre-millennial theory, who explain this coming to destroy the Man of Sin, of Christ's second coming. They make " the apostasy," " the Man of Sin," '^ the lawless one" here spoken of, to embrace all the einl, apostasy, and opposition to Christ, which are to exist till the consummation of all things ; in which case, the destruction of it will of course not be till the second advent. In neither of these views, however, can I concur. As I do not believe that the mil- lennium is past already, I do not think the destruction of Antichrist will be immediately followed by the eternal state. And as I think it manifest that the apostle is de- scribing, not apostasy in general, and all the opposition to Christ which is to arise in the world, but a specific apostasy. out of which was to spring a specific enemy of Christ and his Church, T am constrained, by all the laws of exact in- terpretation, to apply the destruction here predicted to thai specific enemy so minutely described, and the '• coming of the Lord" here announced — whether personal or figu- rative — to a ■pre-millennial coming. But, 2. It is beyond all reasonable dispute, that the temporal judgment of any wicked community — whether political or ecclesiastical — by the agency of second causes, is in prophetic language described as " the coming of the Lord,^^ and " the day of judgment " to that community. Thus was Isaiah to foretell the destruction of Babylon by the instrumen- tality of the Medes and Persians ? This is the strain of his language : " The day of the Lord is at hand,- it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty Behold the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate, and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven, and the constellations thereof, shall not give their light ; tlie sun shall be darkened in his going forth, Uid the moon shall Twt cause her light to shine. . . . I will shake OBJECTION FIRST. 457 the heavens, artd the earth shall remove out of her flace, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah."— (Isa. xiii. 6, 9, 10, 13, 19.) Similar language is used with respect to Egypt : '^* 3ehold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt ; and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his p-esence^ and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it."— (Isa. xix. 1.) So of Assyria : " Behold, the name of the Lord cometh from far, burning with hii anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire: and his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck.* .... And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of his glorious ann, with the indignation of his anger, and the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones For Tophet is ordained of old ; yea, for the king it is prepared ; he hath made it deep and large : the pile thereof is fire and much wood ; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, shall kindle it." — (Isa. XXX. 27. 28, 30, 33.) So of J'iriisale.m. through the instrumentality of the Chaldeans : *' Behold, the Lord cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains * Compare chap. xi. 4: "He (Messiah) shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked person." These are the words which the apostle employs in the passage before us—" Whom the Lord Jesus shall destroy with the spirit qf hit morith, and abolish with the brightness of his coming." 458 OBJECTION FIRST. s/udl be molten wnder him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as waters that are poured down a steep place. For the transgression of Jacob is all this," &c.— (Mic. i. 3-5.) So of Jerusalem, through the instrumentality of the Romans : " And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the TERRIBLE DAY OP THE Lord comc." (Jocl ii. 30, 31 ; compare Acts ii. 16, 19, 20.) " Verily I say unto you. Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man bb COME."— (Matt. X. 23.) So, in a word, of the Church of Sardis : "If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as o, thief ^ and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee." — (Rev. iii. 3.) It will be of no avail to allege that some or all of these passages point ultimately to the personal advent of Christ, and that Babylon. Egypt, Jerusalem, Sardis, are in that case to be viewed as typical of powers and parties then existing. It is enough if it be admitted (and who can dispute it ?) that " the Lord " is in all these passages re- presented as " coming " for the destruction of the commu- nities just mentioned, and that in those cases the coming could only be figurative. From these examples it is evi- dent, that a figurative coming of the Lord for such purposes was quite familiar in prophetic phraseology ; that the mere occurrence of such language in a prophecy would not ne- cessarily suggest to any one well versed in its langu^^ge, the personal advent of Christ, but rather the reverse ; that, as the apostle Paul was profoundly read in the Scriptures, OBJECTION FIRST. 459 and deeply imbued with their spirit and style, it cannot be thought strange that he should fall in with it in this re- spect, by speaking of a bright coming of Christ to destroy the. anti-chrislian power, meaning a figurative advent, and not his second personal coming. This being the case — since such a sense of the apostle's phraseology, taken by it- self, is perfectly familiar in prophetic language — the only question is, Does the whole passage forbid such a sense 1 is there any thing in the subject and context to make such a sense harsh and unnatural ? If so, I for one would not adopt it. For in most cases, the scope of an author is a far better clue to his meaning than any criticism on parti- cular words. Let us try the passage, then, by this test. The precise object of the apostle, be it observed, was not to tell the Thessalonians when or even in connexion with what events Christ would come. His one object is expressed by himself as plainly as possible, namely, to dissipate the notion " that the day of Christ was at hand^^ or " imminent.''^ This object is sufficiently gained by the announcement of an apos- tasy yet to be consummated, and the Man of Sin yet to be revealed in the Christian Church. By this they would be taught that matters were very far from being ripe for the immediate coming of Christ. But our apostle is not accus- tomed to dismiss great topics, even though only incidentally noticed, with the topic which occasioned the mention of them ; and often the digression occupies more space than the subject which drew it forth. So it is here. The sub- ject is the second coming of Christ ; the digression relates to the apostacy and the Man of Sin. Having disposed of the primary subject, he expatiates on the incidental one, going into very interesting details regarding the anti-chris- tian character and blasphemous pretensions of this ecclesi- astical power; the preparations already in being for his manifestation ; the unnamed obstacle still existing to his 460 OBJECTION FIRST. formal development, and the revelation, on the removal of this obstacle, of the dreaded enemy, destined nevertheless to perish by the spirit of the Lord's mouth, and the brightness of his coming ; his Satanic origin and diabolical arts for de- coying men ; the mischief he was to be permitted to work ; the causes of his success, and the class of persons whom he would find prepared to swallow his lies to their souls' de- struction. These details extend over ten verses^ while the intimation of the destruction of this power by the brightness of the Lord's coming occupies the half of one verse in the. very centre of these details, and is introduced quite paren- thetically, even in the middle of a sentence — the detail being continued through four subsequent verses. Looking at the whole passage in this light, I can see no- thing requiring us to take this incidental " brightness of his coming" to be the same with that personal " coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering unto him," the error about which had been already corrected. I do not saj'- it cannot be. All I say is, I see nothing which imperatively requires us so to understand it. In answer to the question, Which is the more probable sense of the phrase, " bright- ness of his coming," here ? I answer by reminding the reader how all great judicial visitations — all inflictions of public vengeance on a great scale, whether on political or ecclesiastical bodies — are described in language drawn from the final and personal coming of the Lord to judgment.^ and how, for the judgment of Antichrist especially, the Lord is uniformly represented as "coming" in the awful pomp of retributive justice — with all the solemnities in which he will ever appear at the great day — which day, however, we have seen that it is not ; and then asking the reader whether Paul, familiar ivith such language, and copying not only the general style but the precise phraseology of the prophets, when describing the Man of Sin's destruction in the very OBJECTION FIRST. 461 language in which his doom had been written already to his hand, is not to be interpreted according to the uniform se?ise of Scripture prophecy^ on the subject of which he pro- fessedly treats 1 3. What is here ascribed to " the brightness of Christ's coming," is in Daniel ascribed to the Church itself as the instrument of Antichrist's destruction.* A careful attention to this fact will show the extreme improbability of the " com- ing" here being Christ's second personal advent. 4. When the Socinians quote with an air of triumph such passages as these, " My Father is greater than I " — (John xiv. 28) ; " Then shall the Son also himself be subject to Him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all" (1 Cor. xv. 28) — in proof of the per- sonal inferiority of the Son, it would be uncandid to deny that these and like passages, taken by themselves^ and without the light thrown upon them by other portions of revelation^ do seem to teach this inferiority ; and that, when we never- theless assert the absolute personal equality of the Son to the Father, we seem to violate the natural sense of those passages. It is only by a careful comparison of Scripture with Scripture, that the perfect consistency of such state- ments with the supreme deity of Christ is made to appear. In like manner, though it would be uncandid to deny that " the brightness of Christ's coming," to destroy Anti- christ, may explain perfectly well of his second personal coming, and that if we take this passage by itself and with- out the light thrown on it by other portions of Scripture^ that does seem to be the coming intended ; I have no hesitation in affiming, that if we will but deal with this passage as we do with those which seem to favour the Socinian scheme, we shall soon be convinced that the ♦ See Part II. chapter iii., particularly pj . 352-354. 2(i2 462 OBJECTION SECOND. second personal advent is not the coming of Christ here in tended.* OBJECTION SECOND: The coming of the Lord announced in the following passage can be no other than his personal coming ; and as the time of this coming is when " the times of the Gentiles have been fulfilled," that is, at the fall of Antichrist and immediately before the millenium, it follows that this is the time of the second advent.] Matt. xxiv. 29-31: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heaven shall be shaken : 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. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a t'^umpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one * Some insist that the "coming" here must be personal, because the word {irapovaia) rendered " coming," is never used but of a 'personal coming.* Were I disposed to trust to such materials, I might argue the opposite of this from the very next verse, where the same word is em- ployed to denote the ^* coming of the Man of Sin" — certainly not an in- dividual person, but a wicked, apostate, anti-christian system or power (of which it were absurd to regard the Pope as any more than the nomi- nal head — a head, too, which has often been a-wanting whilst the life of the system has been entire). But what matters it either way ? It is admitted that the Lord is said to "come" figuratively in many places of Scripture; and if so, since the figure — to be a good one — must be taken from his pej-so7ial coming, of course any word expressive of a per- sonal coming must, just on that account, be suitable for expressing his figurative coming, t It is unnecessary to give references here, as every defence of the pr* millennial theory contains this argument, » Brooks, Elem. pp. 18&-177. Wood, Affirm. Answ. p. 63. OBJECTION SECOND. end of heaven to the other." (Compare Luke xx!. 24-27.) That these words point ultimately to the personal advent of Christ and the final judgment, I have not the least doubt. Nor do I question that when, " the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled," they will receive an accomplishment. To both these I will speak by and by. But the first ques- tion ought to be, What is the direct and primary sense of the prophec}' ? Those who have not directed their atten- tion to prophetic language will be startled if I answer, The coming of the Lord here announced is his com,ing in judgment against Jerusalem — to destroy itself and its tem- ple, and with them the peculiar standing and privileges of the Jews as the visible Church of God, and set up "the kingdom of heaven" (or gospel kingdom) in a manner more palpable and free than could be done while Jerusalem was yet standing. I say this application of the words, as their direct and primary sense, will probably startle those unacquainted with the prophetic style. But all hesitation on the subject will cease if we will but allow the Scripture to be its own interpreter. And, 1. Our Lord decides the sense of his own words, when he says of this entire prophecy, almost immediately after the words quoted, " Verily I say unto you, This genera- tion SHALL NOT PASS TILL ALL THESE THINGS BE FUL- FILLED." — (Matt. xxiv. 34.) Does not this tell us as plainly as words could do it, that the whole prophecy was meant to apply to the destruction of Jerusalem ? There is but one way of setting this aside, but how forced it is, must, I think, appear to every unbiased mind. It is by translating, not " this gencratiorC (h y^vea avrffy l)ut " this nation shall not pass away ;" in other words, the Jewish nation shall survive all the things here predicted ! 464 OBJECTION SECOND. Nothing but some fancied necessity, arising out of their view of the prophecy, could have led so many sensible men to put this gloss upon our Lord's words. Only try the effect of it upon the perfectly parallel announcement in the previous chapter : " Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. . . . Wherefore, behold, I send you prophets and wise men and scribes : and some of them ye shall kill and crucify ; and some of them shall ye scourge in your syna- gogues, and persecute from city to city : thai upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you^ All these things shall come vpon this generation.''^ (tv Ttiv yeveav ravTnv Matt, xxiii. 32, 34-36). Docs not the Lord here mean the then existing ge?ieration of the Israelites ? Beyond all question he does ; and if so, what can be plainer than that this is his meaning in the passage before us?* In this case, the coming of the Lord here announced is just his figurative coming to " judge" and destroy Jerusalem, with all the judicial consequences of that coming. 2. Language equally strong with that of this prophecy is not only used in a figurative sense, and in a great variety of cases — showing that the figurative sense is a fixed and recognized sense in prophetic style — but it is expressly ap- plied to this very event of the destruction of Jerusalem, where we have inspired authority for so understanding it. * It is not enough to argue, as Mr. Faber does, that the primary mean- ing of the word is '' nation," and that the sense put upon it by our trans- lators is but the secondary sense ; for many words are used chiefly in their secondary sense. His examples of New Testament usage are, I think, against his own conclusion ; and if the Greek Concordance be con- sulted, the usage will be thought rather the other way. But, setting aside such criticism, the one question, I conceive, is, Can the word be rendered *' nation " lere, without putting a forced, not to say foolish sense upon the wlv.'le statement? I think not. OBJECTION SECOND. 465 1 have already shown that the judgments of the Lord on Babylon, Egypt, Jerusalem, at the time of the captivity, and the Sardian church, are announced in language quite as strong as that of the passage before us. I here add one other example : — Rev. vi. 12-17 : " And the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood ; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together ; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bond man, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the moun- tains : and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and HIDE us prom the face op Him that sitteth on the THRONE, AND FROM THE WRATH OP THE LaMB : FOR THE GREAT DAY OP HIS WRATH IS COME; AND WHO SHALL BE ABLE TO STAND ]" Who that is ignorant of the prophetic style would not be startled to learn that the personal advent of Christ, and the last judgment, is not the primary and proper subject of this sublime prophecy, and that the fall of Paganism in the fourth century of the Christian era, is the historical event here symbolically announced ? Yet the great majority of commentators, including some of the staunchest pre-mil- lennialists, so expound this prophecy. I am not here con- tending that this is the event predicted. All I say is, that, strong as the language is — as strong as that of the prophecy we are examining — some of the ablest and most judicious commentators understand by it a figurative coming of Christ, and a figurative " day of wrath" against the Pagan world.* ♦ Ex. Gr., Durham, Vitringa, More, Daubuz, Lowman, Newton (Bp), Paber, Elliott. "The general :ntent of this vision," says Mr. 466 OBJECTION SECOND. All the commentators I refer to admit that this and similar comings to judgment are but preludes to the per- sonal advent and the personal judgment ; and such, I freely admit, is the prophecy before us. But I think it must now be allowed, that if it can be shown that our Lord meant nothing else primarily or immediately but the judicial overthrow of Jerumlem. there is nothing in the mere gran- deur and strength of his language to prevent us taking that view of it. Now I have shown, from our Lord's own solemn declaration, that the generation then existing were to witness the fulfilment of the whole ; and I have only now further to show that in other prophecies, which we have inspired authority for applying to the destruction of Jerusalem, the same prophetic style is employed as in this prophecy. " And it shall come afterwards," says Joel — or " in the last days," as Peter renders the phrase — " that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into Elliott, for example, "does not seem to me to have been difficult to un- derstand. It surely betokened some sudden and extraordinary revolution in the Roman empire, which would follow chronologically after the aera of martyrdoms depicted under the seal preceding — a revolution arising from the triumph of the Christian cause over its enemies, and in degree universal." After quoting, as illustrations of suoh symbolic phraseology, several of the passages which I gave under the former Objection, and some others, he adds, " In which passages, it will be well, I think, to ob- serve what is said of the presence of the Lord as manifested, though act- ing by human agency ; and again, of the day oj" the Lord and his fierce anger being shown in tht subversion of the former political government, &c. ... All which being put together, there will not, I believe, remain a single syrnbolic phrase in this prophecy of the sixth seal unillustrated, or — with the interpretation referring it to a political revolution such as has been given — unconfirmed by similar figures in other prophecies, to which the scriptural context has itself already furnished a similar interpreta* tion. ' {Hor. Apoc. ut supra, i. pp. 208, 217, 218.) OBJECTION SECOND. 46T darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great AND THE TERRIBLE DAY OP THE LORD COME. And it Sliall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered." &c.— (Joel ii. 28-32.) The apostle Peter, quoting the whole of this passage, expressly declares that the first and the last parts of it were fulfilled at the Pentecostal effusion of the Spirit, and the conversions immediately following it. Evident there- fore it is, that the " great and terrible day of the Lord^^ — bound up with these events as part of one and the same great chapter of church history — is no other, according to inspiration itself, than the day of Jerusalem's judicial de- struction* Again, ** Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me : and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall sud- denly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in : behold he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day op HIS COMING ] AND WHO SHALL STAND WHEN HE APPEARETH 7 for he is like a refiners fire, and like fullers' soap," &c. (Mai. iii. 1, 2.) "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord : and he shall turn ♦ "In connection," says Dr. Henderson, " with this period of the rich enjoyment of divine influence, Joel introduces one of awful judgment, called as usual, "^^'^'? D'i'^, the day of Jehovah, the precursors of which he describes in very alarming language. That the destruction of Jeru- salem and the Jewish polity is intended, most interpreters are agreed. .... To render more prominent the tremendous nature of the final judgment of the Jews, when their city and polity were destroyed, it is not merely called niH"^ Dl-> but ^5'^i2^^ binsfl nl.Ti ni"', the great and fearful day of Jehovah— terms which are employed by the prophet Malachi, iv. 5 (Hebrew— iii. 23) in refert>jice to the same event." (On the Minor Prophets, ad loe.) 468 OBJECTION SECOND. the heart of the fathers to the children," &c.— (Chap, iv 5, 6.) Taking the questions contained in the first of these passages hy themselves^ who would ever doubt that they refer to the second coming of Christ and the last judgment ? And yet it is absolutely certain that they do not. He whom Messiah calls in this prophecy, " my messenger" — afterwards called " Elijah the prophet" — is so expressly declared to be John the Baptist, both by the angel who announced his birth (Luke i. 17), and by our Lord himself once and again (Matt, xi. 13, 14; xvii. 10-13), that no doubt of this being the right application of the words can remain on the mind of any who bow to such authority.* Of course, in that case, " the great and dreadful day of the Lord" can be no other than what Joel describes in identical terms — the day of Jerusalem's judicial destruction. When it is said, '• The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple — but who may abide the day of his coming ?" the pro- phet refers indeed to Christ's first coming, but stretches it onwards till after his ascension, and the awful reckoning which he made with the Jewish nation and Church for rejecting him, by the destruction of their whole state through the instrumentality of the Romans. I might add the following : " Verily I say unto you. Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son op ♦ " Upon the circumstance that our Lord uses the future tense {ep-j(t' rat) shall come, some Christian interpreters have attempted to establish the hypothesis, that the prophecy is still to be fulfilled before his second advent; but he is obviously speaking in the style of language employed by the prophet, to whom the event was future, and in adaptation to the opinion of the scribes, though he immediately corrects what was erro- neous in their notion, declaring that the event was no longer future, buf had actually taken place in the person and ministry of John. It is truly surprising that any one should still persist in giving to the prophecy an aspect still future, in the very face of an exposition at once positive and iDliiUihle."— {Henderson. Min. Proph. ad loc.) OBJECTION SECOND. 469 MAN BE come" (Matt. X. 23) — which Mr. Bivks actually stretches out to the second advent ! (p. 332.)* " Verily I say unto you, There he some slanding here^ which, shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom)'' (Matt. xvi. 28) ; or as Mark expresses this coming of the Son of man, " till they have seen the king- dom of God come with powef^ (Mark ix. 1); or more simply still, according to Luke, " till they see the kingdom of God'' (Luke ix. 27. )t We have thus seen that a figurative advent of the Lord to the judgment of any wicked community, is a familiar idea in prophetic style ; and that this very event, of the destruction of Jerusalem, is so described in several prophe cies, for the application of which we have inspired autho- rity : so that when our Lord assures us that that coming of his, and the judgments announced by him, would be wit- nessed by the generation then living, we are prepared by Scripture itself to acquiesce in this as just one of the many examples of a figurative advent of Christ to judgment, ex- pressed in all the grandeur usually employed to descrik'9 his personal advent and the final judgment. \ * Se venturum Christus promittit, priusquam totam Judaeam peragra- verint: nempe quia per Spiritus sui potentiam regnum suum illustrabit, ut vere apostolis affulgeat gloria ilia et majestas, quae adhuc eoa latebut, (Calv. ad Ice.) t The plain meaning of this announcement, in all its varying forms, is, that the establishment of "the kingdom "—sometimes called "the kingdom of God," sometimes " the kingdom of heaven," but meaning the Gospel kingdom — would be witnessed by those of his auditors who should survive the overthrow of Jerusalem — at that time the chief obsta- cle to its manifestation. The connexion between this coming and the personal advent, mentioned in immediate connexion with it (Matt, xvi. 27), will be presenth adverted to. Kut compnre what is said of the spiritual and bodily resurrections in John v. 24-29. X " Many attempts," says Dr. Urwick, " have been made to anatomize this prophecy, and exhibit separately the parts which relate to the inv* 2r 470 OBJECTION SECOND. On this prophetic phraseology, no ono has written with such clearness and force as Mr. Faber. The following passage is well worthy of the reader's attention : — " The judicial punishment or destruction of a nation is to that nation the day of judgment, or the great day of the Lord's con- troversy, or the day of the Lord's judicial advent: for in the very nature of things, to no other judgment can a nation, as a nation, be subjected. This circumstance has introduced a sys- tem of very peculiar phraseology into the writings of the He- brew prophets. Wicked nations have their day of judgment in this world ; when, in their national capacity, they are arraigned, and convicted, and temporally punished. Wicked individiials have their day of judgment at the end of this world ; when Christ, at the time of his second advent to judge both the quick and the dead, will finally pronounce upon each person his irrevocable sentence of happiness or of misery. The similarity of these two judgments, in regard to principle^ could not be overlooked . hence, in a mode of composition which specially affects hiero- glyphical grandiloquence, we shall not wonder to find that all the solemnities of the future literal day of judgment, such as the second advent of the Messiah, the erection of his dread tribunal, his awful session as an universal Judge, his infliction of punish- ment upon the impious, and his award of retribution to the pious, should be employed, symbolically, to represent the tempo- sion of Jerusalem by Titus, and the parts which regard the judgment of •he world at the last day. I have not met with any thing satisfactory in this way. If any man could have done it well, Bishop Horsley was the man : he had learning, ingenuity, power, and determination enough for it. Yet one cannot read the sermon in which he attempts to separate the prophecy of the ' coming' from the prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, without feeling that a giant is grappling with a difficulty he cannot master. The statement of our Lord, 'Verily I say utito you, This generation shall not pass till these things be fulfilled,' puts it, I think, beyond question, that the whole range of the prediction was to have an accomplishment before the then race of human beings should all hav« died from the facs of the earth." (Second Advent, p. 5, note.) OBJECTION SECOND. 471 rnZ judgment of a wicked nation, and the temporal deliverance of God's faithful people, on this present sublunary globe. In short, the literal future judgment both of the quick and of the dead, and the literal second advent of Christ with the clouds of hea- ven, are poetically, though appropriately, used as a type, or sym- bol, or hieroglyphic, of any eminent judgment inflicted here be- low upon any impious nation or community, through the instru- mentality of those secondary causes which God may be pleased to call into effective actio? "* On the distinction here so clearly drawn between public bodies or communities — whether civil or ecclesiastical — and individual persons^ Mr Faber deduces the following canon for determining whether the advent and judgment an- nounced in any prophecy is to be understood literally or figuratively. '' When the judgment of some distinctly specified, or plainly insinuated, wicked empire or community is de- scribed, as being effected by the coming of the great day of retribution, and by the advent of the Lord with the clouds of heaven, then the temporal judgment of that particular empire or community is alone intended, and the language in which it is set forth must be understood figuratively^ not literally. But when the judgment of no distinctly speci- fied, or plainly insinuated empire or community is thus de- scribed, then the coming of the great day of retribution, and the advent of the Lord with the clouds of lieaven — being mentioned generally with reference to the whole world, and not particularly with reference to some special body politic — must be understood literally, not figuia- tively?' t This canon, founded upon a distinction wliich pervades the whole language of Scripture, will commend itself, I * Sacred Calendar, i. 225-227. t Sac. Ca ill. 466. 472 OBJECTION THIRD. believe, to the judgment of every dispassionate student of the Bible, in proportion as it is closely tested. OBJECTION THIRD: " A full and distinct narrative of the Lord's appearing from heaven is detailed by the prophet [in the Apocalypse] just before the millennium, and forms its immediate intro- duction. (Rev. xix. 10.) On the other hand, after the millennium there is not found one syllable in the prophecy expressive of such an advent. The testimony of this fun- damental vision [to the pre-millennial advent] is decisive and complete."* "It may be affirmed, no doubt," adds the acute author just quoted, " that the advent in chap. xix. is figurative only, and that a real advent occurs after the millennium, when Satan has been loosed, and the fire descends from heaven. But the stubborn fact remains unaltered, that the vision expressly reveals an ad- vent in the former place, and in the latter passes it by in silence. To maintain the theory, we have to commit a double violence: we have to explain away the advent where it appears openly and in plain terms, in the prophecy ; and we have to introduce it where the Holy Spirit gives no token of its occurrence. It is difficult to see how any interpretation could be censured with more justice as both adding to and taking away from the words of the prophecy. Let any Christian read the two chapters in question (Rev. xix. xx.), laying aside every previous notion, and with a simple desire to hear the voice of God's Spirit, and I see not how he can escape from the evident conclusion. The second advent of our Lord, as described in the latest prophecy of Scripture, does not follow, but precedes, the millennial kingdom." This is strong language certainly, and it will be admitted that the objection is put as forcibly as possible. Let ua examine it then. ♦ Birks' Four Prophetic Empires, ut supra, pji. 329, 330. OBJECTION THIRD. 473 What is this " full and distinct narrative of the Lord's appearing from heaven," which is ^^ detailed'^ in Rev. xix. ? It is as follows : " And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse ; and h« that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and "make war. His eyes were as a tlame of tire, and on his head were many crowns ; and he had a name wriHen, that no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. . . . And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth : and all the fowls were filled with their flesh." — (Rev, xix. 11-16, 19-21.) Tnily there is " detail " here ; but this is the very thing which shows it not to be the personal coming of Christ. For where, let me ask, is there one undisputed, unequivocal announcement of Christ' 3 second personal coming in which such details oc(mr, or ariy details at all 1 All we read is just the fact of his o:)ming. And no wonder ; for as it 2r3 474 OBJECTION ifilRP. will be sudden, so it will be instantaneous and miiversaUy visible. " The Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels ;" " To them that look for him shall he appear, without sin, unto salvation ; " " He shall come to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that be- lieve ; " " Looking for the blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ ; " " When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also," &c. ; and even in the Apocalypse itself, " Behold, he Cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him," &c. Is there aught of " detail " here ? Why, the absence of all detail is just the most sublime feature of each of these announcements of Christ's second coming. Only think how it would do to prefix to any one of them what Mr. Birks flays of Eev. xix. 11, &c. — " A full and distinct nar- rative of the Lord's appearing is here detailed by the pro- phet." The incongruity is apparent. I draw, therefore, just the opposite inference from Mr. Birks. The narrative and detailed character of this vision convinces him it is a vision of the second advent ; and that is just the thii«^ that convinces me it is not the second advent. But further, what can you possibly make of this as a vision of the second advent 1 Will Christ personally and visibly fight against '• the beast and the kings of the earth, and their armies," personally and visibly gathered together against him 1 " We know (says Mr. Gipps,) the overwhelm- ing effects produced by the manifestation of Christ's glory, or of portions as it were of that glory, upon those who beheld such manifestation, some of whom were his own saints, puch as in Dan. x. 6—9 ; and at his transfiguration, Mark ix. 6, Luke ix. 32-34. We are informed of the ap- pearance of one of his angels at his resurrection, and of its effect upon the guard of Boman soldiers (Matt, xxviii. 3, i^ : Af the effect of his appearance to Paul and his com- OBJECTION THIRD. 475 panions (Acts ix. 3-7, xxii. 9-11); and lastly, of his ap- pearance to John himself (Rev. i. 17), the glory of which was so overwhelming to him, although he was the beloved disciple, and leaned upon Jesus' breast when manifest in his humiliation as man, that John fell at his feet as dead. Can we, I would ask, when we read these accounts, con- ceive, that when Jesus comes in person in his own glory, and that of his Father, with all his holy angels, any created being, any worm of the earth, any sinful child of man, will either dare or be able to make war against him in his per- son ? The very absurdity involved in this idea would of itself prove to my mind that the event foretold in chap. xix. 11, &c., cannot be the second or any personal coming of Christ."* But it may be said, if this be not the second advent, where does it occur in the Apocalypse after this ? " After the millennium (says Mr. Birks) there is not found one syllable in the prophecy expressive of such an advent." True, for this is symbolical and figurative ; and it would be somewhat difficult to conceive how the personal descent of Christ from heaven to earth could be symbolically repre- sented. But when I read thus, " And I saw [after the millennium] a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face ( or presence.^ irpoaanrov ) the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them," and connect this with Peter's announcement, " The day of the Lord will come as a thief, in the which the heavens shall pass away, and the earth and its works be burnt up," (2 Pet. iii. 10), I see the Lord personally present in the one passage, while the other informs me he has only then come. Thus no attempt is made in the Apocalypse to pic- ture by symbols the personal advent, but in place of it he is beheld in his great white throne — just come ; with which * First Resurrection, ut supra, pp. 6, 7, note D. 476 OBJECTION FOURTH. agree the words of Jesus himself, " When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory." (Matt. XXV. 31.) OBJECTION FOURTH : When the beloved disciple beheld the redeemed in vision, sitting on thrones, with golden crowns upon their heads, and heard the halleluiahs which they poured into the ear of the Lamb, the last note, it seems, of their song of praise was, "We shall reign on the earth." (Rev. v. 10.) This passage is quoted in almost every defence of the pre-millennial theory, but without an attempt to show that it proves any thing which we deny — as if the sound of it were quite enough to convince the reader that it belonged exclusively to that scheme. Now, in order to make this out, two things must be proved. First, That the reign here anticipated means the personal reign of those who sang this song of praise to the Lamb ; and secondly, That it means their reign during the thousand years, and not in the eter- nal state. Many, who reject the pre-millennial theory as wholly unscriptural, understand the words " We shall reign on the earth," to refer to the glory of the redeemed in " the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteous- ness."* In this case, the passage proves nothing in favour * " What," says Mr. Fairbairn^ " can we make of the ascription of praise from the elders, representatives of a redeemed Church, when they give glory to the Messiah, as having ' made them kings and priests unto God, and they shall reign upon the earth T Or what of the closing scenes, where the evangelist sees a new heaven and a new earth in the room of those which had passed away, and the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven to settle on the renovated earth 7 We cannot doubt who are kings and priests, or with whom they are to reign ; and it were surely strange if there could be any doubt of the theatre of their dominion; "When it is so expressly denominated the earth.'' (Typology, vol. i. pp 467, 478.) OBJECTION FOURTH. 477 of the pre-millennial scheme. But T am not satisfied with this view of the passage. I agree with Durham. March, Vilringa, Lowman, and the majority (I take it) of exact expositors, who take thie to be a vision of the Church, not in its disembodied state, but as it now is, upon earth, with the Lamb slain enthroned in the midst of it, and " inhabiting its praises" (Ps. xxii. 3), "sending forth into all the earlK'' those mystic " horns and eyes" of his — that sevenfold plenitude of fower and wisdom, for the ingathering of his elect " out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation," and for the protecting, ruling, and perfecting of the gathered Church " unto the day of redemption." In this case, the anticipations of the Church, in the words we are considering, relate more to the ultimate triumphs of Chrisfs cause upon earth during the present state, than to the glorified condition of the saints. It is not " the spirits of just men made perfect " anticipating this resumption of their bodies in the resurrection-state, and their reign with Christ in glory on the earth when that state arrives ; but it is the infant Church of Christ in flesh and blood, strug- gling against " tribulation, and persecution, and peril, and sword, for Christ's sake, killed all the day long, and ac- counted as sheep for the slaughter, unable, without miracles of divine interposition and relief, to survive the combined and protracted assaults of her enemies, much less to over- power them, to carry all before her, to subdue the world under her religion and her Lord, and reign with undisputed sway over the whole earth. Yet this is anticipated as cer- tain, and joyously sung by the choir of throned elders — bright earnest of the " reign for ever and ever," when '• that which is perfect being come, that which is in part shall be done away." * * See the extracts from Marckius and Vitringa on this sense of th« , pp. 437, 438, note. 478 OBJECTION FIFTH. OBJECTION FIFTH : Christ assures the twelve, that " in the regeneration^ when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory ; they also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." (Matt. xix. 28; Luke xxii. 30.) Now, "what (asks Mr. Elliott) is the regeneration {jtaXiyyevtaia^ spoken of, but the state when Christ shall make all things new (Rev. xxi. 5), and this earth be restored to paradisia- cal blessedness? In which state, however, and over which renovated earth, Christ here declares that the apostles (evidently raised from the dead for the purpose) shall, together with their Lord, have the authority and government."* Expressed in this general form, there is nothing here which I am disposed to object to. But the passage is ad duced to show that the state of glory will be co-existent with the restored nationality of the Israelites ; and that, while inhabiting Palestine in flesh and blood, they will be under the rule of the twelve glorified apostles. To such an interpretation I demur. Not a single commentator that I can find takes this view of it, or seems to have imagined that such a construction might be put upon it.-| * Hor. Apoc. ut supra, iv. 207. See also Birks, ut supra, p. 333, t This remark applies even to Bengel, who of all expositors of note was the most likely, from his prophetical opinions, to take some such view. After stating that, as '• in the time of the Judges, the Israelites were under a theocracy, so in the prior millennium, their enemies beinor cut off', the restored Israel will have Judges, Is;i. i. 26," he adds, *' But this promise to the apostles looks beyond that.''^ (Bengel, by the way, with one or two early students of prophecy, took '* the thousand years of Satan's binding," Rev. xx. 2, 3, to be not the same with •' the thousand years of the saints' reign with Christ," verse 4; and thought the one millennium would be prior to the other, and both before the second ad- vent. In this respect, their views coincide so far with those of Perry aiid others.) OBJECTION FIFTH. 479 Nor do I find pre millennialists themselves making any use of it in their scheme. Several of them draw out the de- tails of the millennial kingdom, as they expect it to be, with considerable minuteness Mr. Elliott^ for example, does so* But though he opens up a vision of earth and heaven — mortal and immortal — meeting together, blending seemingly into one, or interlacing each other so that the mind is bewildered as it tries to fix the fleeting shadows of his half-poetic, half-mystic, half-expository representation — this feature of twelve thrones, one for each of the apos- tles, from which to exercise rule over the twelve tribes of the re-constituted Israel in Palestine, forms no part of it. He speaks of " the perfected company of the redeemed, the general assembly, the glorified sons of God," being " en- trusted with the new earth's government, subordinately to Christ himself" But nothing of these " apostolic thrones" appears in his description. Even Mr. Birks, though he deduces an argument from this passage, seems not to rely greatly on it, but merely says it points, not obscurely.^ to the truth he is contending for (that the advent will precede the millennium.) " Lest," says Calvin, " the disciples should think they had lost their pains, and repent of the course they had entered on, Christ reminds them that the glory of his kingdom, which as yet lay hidden, would come into manifestation, as if he had said, There is no reason why this mean condition should discourage you; for I, who scarcely have a place among the basest, shall yet mount the throne of majesty. Wait, then, for a little while, till the time for the manifestation of my glory shall arrive. What, then, does he promise them 1 Why, that they should be partakers of the same glory. For by assigning them thrones, from which they should judge the twelve tribes of Israel, he compares them to ambassadors or prime ministers, who in a royal council occupy the first seats. We know that the apostles * Hor. Apoc. ut supra, pp. 240-242. 480 OBJECTION FIFTH. were chosen twelve in number, that thereby it might be seen that God designed by Clirist to gather together the scattered remnant of his people. This was the* highest dignity; but it lay as yet concealed. Clirist therefore suspends their expectations till the final manifestation of his kingdom, when they should at length reap the fruit of their election. For though by the preaching of the gospel the kingdom of Christ shone partially forth, there can be no doubt that Christ here speaks of the last day In order to prevent mistake, Christ distinguishes between the commencement and the consummation of his king- dom." * " Then," says Scott, " he will make all things new, and the apostles will be his assessors in judgment ; the world and the Church will be judged according to their doctrine, and they will appear dis- tinguished from all their brethren in Christ." "In the day," says Bishop Hall, "of the great restoration of all things, when the elect shall enter on a new life of un- speakable glory, even in that great and dreadful day when the Son of man shall sit upon his throne of majesty to judge the quick and the dead, then shall ye, my apostles, who are now despicable and mean, have the honour to sit upon several thrones, to second and assist this awful act of final judgment on the rebellious Israel." f I quote these passages, not as expressing the sense of our Lord's words precisely as I should myself perhaps do ; but as showing how, amidst varying shades of thought upon the " twelve tribes" and .'-twelve thrones," the same gene- ral idea prevails among expositors. Calvin's remarks coin- cide most with the view which I have been led to take of the passage * In Nov. Test. Comm. ad ioc.—See also Marckii Expect. Glor. Fut. J. Chr. L. iii. c. xvi. § xii.— xiv. t Quoted in Scott's Commentary. To much the same effect, Dodd* ridge. OBJECTION SIXTH. 481 OBJECTION SIXTH : In 1 Cor. XV. 23, 24, " three events are specified, sepa- rated by two marks of sequence in time. There is the re- surrection of Christ, the first-fruits — an event prior by at least 1800 years to the second advent. There is after- ward, at the coming of Christ, the resurrection of them that are His. Afterward there oometh the end, at the final resurrection. ' Christ the first-fruits ; afterward (c«tra) they that are Christ's at his coming; then (etra^ cometh the end,' &e. The terms of order naturally imply an inter- val like that between the resurrection of Christ and his advent, to ensue between the advent itself and that end iu which death is to be destroyed."* This argument, though found in almost every defence of the pre-millennial theory, is of the slenderest possible de- scription. *' The words eiro and sksito" says a sensible reviewer quoted by Dr. Hamilton, "as well as their English equivalents {l/Len and aftc7icarr/s), when they happen to denote sequence of time, may denote any sequence you please, either immediate or remote, either that in which the events follow each other rapidly, or that in which they follow each other slowly and consequently at long intervals. You may say properly enough, a man v/inked fost witli the one eye, tJteii with the other, and after tfiat with the other again ; and you may say with equal propriety, the world was first made, then was it drowned with the deluge, and aftei'wo/nls it will be coTisuuied by fire. The tken and the afierwards are precisely the same in both these cases, although in the one case each in- terval of the sequence occupies only the twinkling of an eye, while in the other it occupies many centuries, or even millen- niums. There is therefore nothing to be made of the stubborn adverbs. Interrogate them as you please, you are never a whit the wiser. They will not tell you either how short or how long • Birks' Proph. Emp., ut supra^ pp. 339, 340. 28 482 OBJECTION SIXTH. how near or how distant ; and, if you want information on thesa points, you must look to some other quarter."* " I cannot," says Mr. Gipps, " find any passage in which the. interval of time between two events, whose order is marked by the word eira, the7i, is a long interval.! We have in this chapter two verses in which two events are noticed, that follow one another in order, but are separated by a long internal — viz., v. 23, in which the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of his people are noticed ; and v. 46, in which the succession of the spiritual bodies of believers after their natural bodies is noticed. In each of these verses, the event in the first part is separated from that which follows in the latter part, hy a. lo7ig interval ; and in each the order of time is denoted, not by the adverb etra, but by another adverb eveiTa. And we may observe, that while there is an order of succession between the three events noticed in verses 23 and 24 (namely, 1. The resurrection of Christ ; 2. The resurrection of his people ; 3. The end) ; yet the adverb ereira — denoting the order of succession between the first two (Christ's resurrection and that of his- people) where the interval is long — is no longer used to denote the order of succession in the latter two events (the resurrection of Christ's people, and the end), but is changed for tira, as if for the purpose of marking to us that though there is a regularity of order in the three events thus noticed, yet there is not a regularity as to the length of interval ; so that the adverb suited to denote a long interval {tntiTo) in v. 23, is changed in v. 24 to ttra, an adverb suited to denote a short interval, as the instances given below, I think, prove. As far, therefore, as we can collect any argument from the use of the adverbs, rr«ra and cira, in this passage, it would lead me to con- clude, that while the interval between the first two events — the re- suiTCction of Christ, and that of his people — has been in our view long; the interval between the last two — the resurrection of Christ's ♦ Modern Millennarians, pp 187, 188. t " Upon that point, however, the reader can judge for himself by re- ferring to the following passages, which are, I believe, all in which ura occurs: — Mark iv. 17, 28, viii. 25; Luke viii. 12; John xiu. 5, xix. 27, XX. 27; 1 Cor. xn. 28, xv. 5, 7; 1 Tim. ii. 13, iii. 10; Heb. xii. 9; Jamea i 15." OBJECTION SEVENTH. people and the end — will be one which in our view would be es- teemed short."* OBJECTION SEVENTH: The " rest," or sabbatism ( ffappaTKTfios ), which the apostle says "remaineth for the people of God" (Heb. iv. 9) — meaning the departed saints — seems to indicate some septenary of time, the which could scarce be any other than the seventh millennium of the world. Now, without entering at all minutely into chronological details, it is evident from our present actual position near the end, on the lowest computation, of the worl. t-t^-/ GENERAL INDEX. Advent, personal, expected on both sides, 9, 10 ; commendable pro- minence given to it by pre-mil- lennialists, 13, 488 ; place of it in the Bible and the system of truth, 14-19, 23-25 ; events to precede it, 34-38 ; uncertainty of time of it, 27-29, 446-449. Advent, figurative, to judge pub- lic bodies, civil and ecclesiastical, 456-468, 464-472 ; to judge Anti- christ in particular, 345-350, 352, 358, 453-462, 464, 465, 472-476; Faber's canon for determining whether any predicted advent be figurative or literal, 471, (and see 470.) Austria revolution in, 355. Baptism, with all the training that follows on it, terminates at second advent, 106, 107. Ceremonies, Jewish, revival of— See Peculiarities. Conflagration, final, as represent- ed by pre-millennialists, 294-298, 303-305 ; all-involving, all-reduc- ing, 299-303. David, house, key, throne of, 139, 140, 143, 149. Death, its relation to second advent, 20-25; the last enemy, 158, 159; second death, 231, 232, 241-243 ; power of, wrested from Satan only in case of believers, 400. Deception of the nations, the final, 443, 444. Events, alleged distinction between, and periods, 45-47. Excitement about Christ's coming: 42, 43, 48, 49. JF'aith, mixture of, with sight, on pre-millennial theory, 380-384 ; remarks on this, 384-388. Fleshly state, alleged everlasting continuance of, 168-172 ; remarks on this, 172-176. Gate, strait, 389-397. Gog and Magog, 66-71, 443-448. Grace, mixture of, with glory, on pre-millennial theory, 380-384 ; remarks on this, 384-388 ; as con- trasted with glory, 486 ; as con- trasted witl\ nature, 486. Heavens and earth that are now, their final destiny, 10-12, 302, 303; passing away of, 299-303. Heavens and earth, the new, as re- presented by pre-millennialists, 306, 307 ; characterized by un- mixed and perfect righteousness, 306-309. Hope, the patience of, 51, 52. Huss, his dream, 252. Intercession of Christ terminates, for saving purposes, at second advent, 116-118. Jews, inbringing of, 433-437; terri- torial restoration of, 378. Judaizing character of pre-millen- nialism, 6, 42, 136, 137, 359, 360, 365, 366. Judgment, the last, 24, 25, 103-105, 206, 207, 211-216, 268-291, 449; views of, taken by pre-millenni- alists, 260-266 ; remarks on these. 266-268 ; righteous and wicked judged together, 269-287; diffi- culties of pre-millennial theory of, 288-290. Judgments^ temporal, connected 492 INDEX. with introduction of millennium, 321 322 ; on public bodies, civil and ecclesiastical, and on Anti- christ in particular — see Advent, figurative ; confounding of with last judgment, 261, 285, 289, 305, with note t, 356-358. Kingdom of Christ, pre-millennial theory of, 125-130; explanation of terras regarding, 130-134; apos- tolic views of, 135-166 ; same ground taken bypre-millennialists and unbelieving Jews regarding, 136, 137;— of grace, 338-342, 343, 392-397; delivering up of, 154- 158; what it is, 160-162; whatit is not, 162-166. Lamh^ in midst of throne, 141. Leaven ^ parable of, 35, 332. Life, book of, 207-209, 213-216, 239, 240. Life, Prince of, 146. Literalism, 363-370, 372, 373. Lord and Christ, 138, 139. Lord^s Supper, terminates at second advent, 103, 109. Millennium, whether a definite thou- sand years, 27, 28; how brought about, 313-324; bearing of the views of pre-millennialistson this point, upon the sufficiency of the Church's present resources and on missionary effort, 313-324 ; not characterized by unmixed right- eousness, but belonging to the mixed state of the Church, 157, 325-334 ; just the full develop- ment of kingdom of grace in its earthly state, 335-356 ; leading features of, 424-440; close o^ 440-442 ; uncertainty of time of beginning and end of, 28, 29, 440- 442 ; why not in New Testament, save in Apocalypse, 333, 334, 486. Miracles, expectation of, in connec- tion with introduction of millen- nium, 322-324. Mustard seed, parable of, 35, 338. Mystical body of Christ, complete- ness of, at second advent, 53-61 ; denial of, by most modern pre- millennialists, 73, 82-97 ; virtual admission of, 74-80 ; presentatioa of, to Christ at his coming, 57. Paganism, fall of, 3, 246-8, 404- 408. Papacy, the, 246, 248, 256, 257, 29&- 299, 352-356, 408-410. Pavilion- c\ou6, 386. Peace, characteristic of latter day, 428-430. Peculiarities^ Jewish, revival o^ expected by pre-millennialists, 359-363; remarks on this, 363- 374. Pre-millennial controversy, in what circumstances it agitates the Church, 1 ; theory stated, 4 ; di- versities, 5, 6 ; prejudices in fa- vour of, and against, 7-9 ; irrele- vancies, 9-12; elements in it which at once fascinate the car- nal and attract the spiritual, 487. Priest upon his throne, 141. Prince of life, 146. Prince and Saviour, 151. Prosperity, temporal, to charac- terise the latter day, 439. 440. QuicHies ' 486, 487. of Scripture, 50-52; Regeneration, the, 478-480. Reign on the earth, 476, 477. Remonstrants, Dutch, 193. Restitution of all things, 37, 38, 147, 148. Resurrection, the, views of, by pre- millennialists, 167-176 ; alleged co-existence of, with the mortal state, 179-181 ; remarks on this, 181--189; of wicked at Christ's coming, 190; alleged evidence for a prior resurrection of saints examined, 191-199 ; proof to the contrary, 199-217. Resurrection, the millennial, pre- sumptions against its being lite- ral, 219-228; untenable argu- ments for the figurative sense, 229 ; internal evidence for its be- ing a figurative resurrection, 231- 259. Righteousness, unmixed, character- istic not of millennium, 306, 325-334 ; but of the new heavens and new earth, 306. INDEX. 493 Rig-hfeousness, mixed, characteristic of millennium, 329-334, 425-439, 485, 486. Sabbatism, remaining for people of God, 483. 484. Satftn, hindins of, not a total cessn- tion of his influence, 399-403. What it is, 403-411. Loosing of, Inst struggle, capture and doom, 443-448. Scottish Church, fathers of, their views of second advent, 29, 30. Scriptu7-es, object of, exhausted by second advent, 101-105. Admis- sion of this, 109-114. Seitson, the little, 204, 233-235, 238, 239, 289, 290, 296, 443-448. Sight, as contrasted with faith — See raith. Sleep, applied to death of believers, never to death of Christ, 194. Soons " of Scripture — see Quick' lies. Spirit, work of, terminates, for sav- ing purposes, at second advent, 119-121. Aamission of this, 122, 123. Effusion of, in connexion with introduction of millennium, 321-324. Sto7}e becoming a mountain, 336, 337. Tares, parable of, 205, 325-334, 485. Temple, Ezekiel's, 360-379. Trump, last, 204, 205. Way, narrow, 387-397. Widow, importunate. 41, 42. World, evangelization of, betori Christ's coming, 34, 35, 317-321. «T INDEX OF TEXTS, ILl USTRATED, QUOTED, OR REFERRED TO. Genesis xix. 23, 24, p. 447. xli. H9, p. 445. Exodus XV. y, p. 447. xvi. 30. p. 484. XX. 11, p. 165. xxxii. 32, p. 214. Numbers xiv. 9, p. 347. Deuteronouiy xxxii. xxxiii. p. 62. Judges V. 28, p. 7. vii. 12, p. 445. 2 Samuel xvii. 11, p. 445. Job i. 19, p. 444. • Psalms ii. 7, 426 ; 7-9, p. 358 ; 8, p. 348. iv. 5, p 376. xii. 7, p. 300. xxii. 27-29, p. 427, 433. xxvii. 6, p. 376. xli. p. 189. xlv. 12, p. 439; 16, p. 438. li. 17. 19, p. 361, 376. liv. 6, p. 376. Ivi. 13, p. 376. Ixvi. 13-15, p. 361. Ixvii. 6, p. 440. Ixviii. 31, p. 486. Jxix. 29, p. 214. Ixxii. 8, 11, p. 426, 427; 11-17, p. 438. Ixxvi. 1, p. 370. Ixxxix. 28-37, p. 166. cii. 26. p. 303. cvii. 22, p. 376. ex. 1, p. 152, 153, 155; 2, p. 349. cxvi. 17, p. 376. Canticles iv. 6, p. 489. viii. 14, p. 7. 51. Isaiah i. 25, p. 300 ; 26, p. 473. ii. 2, 7, p. 362-367; 3, p. 214, 427 ; 4, p. 428, 457 ; 3, 4, p. 392; 11, 17, p. 349. Isaiah iv. 3, &c.. p. 214. viii. 18, p. 160, 161. ix. 6, 7, p. 144. xi. 2, p. 142 ; 4, p. 457 ; 6-9 428, 429; 9, p. 325, 326 392, 425 ; 12, p. 444. xiii. 6, 9, 13, 19, p. 456, 457. xix. 1, p.457; 21, p. 376,378. xxii. 22, p. 143. xxiv. 21, 22, p. 398, 399; 25, p. 383. XXV. 6, p. 180-182 ; 186-188 ; 7, p. 426. xxvi. 13, 14, p. 238, 349, 350; 19, p. 251. XXX. 23, 24, p. 440; 27, 28, 30, 33, p. 457. xxxii. 13, 15, p. 437 ; 15-18, p. 392. xxxiv. 6, p. 376, 378. xxxvii. 3, 17. p. 447. xlvi. 10, p. 376. xlix. 23, p. 439. li. 15, 16, p. 307. liii. 11, p. 160, 165; 12, p 159. Ivi. 7, p. 376, 378. Ivii. 2, p. 23. Ix. p. 390. Ix. 7, p. 377, 378; 12, p. 438; 16, p. 439; 21, p. 169, 325 ; 22, p. 433. Ixv. 17, 18, p. 179, 184, 185, 296, 298 ; 20, p. 157. Ixvi. 8, p. 433; 22, p. 184^ 296 ; 23, p. 477. Jeremiah xvii. 26, p. 376. xix. 10, p. 371. xxxi. 12, p. 440; 31-31 p. 325, 434. xxxiii. 11, p. 376; 17, 18 p. 361. INDEX TO TEXTS. 495 Ezekiel i. 18, p. 161. xiii. 2-5, p. 383; 9-11, p. 214, 378. xxxiv. 26, 27, 29, 30, 38, p. 440. xxxvii. 12-14, p. 251. xxxviii., xxxix., p. 445. 17-19, p. 378. xl. xlvi., p. 372. xliii. 2-5, p. 383; 9-11, 378; 20, 21, p. 375, 444 ; 26, p. 361. xliv. 2, p. 353 ; 9, p. 366, 375. xlv. xlvi., p. 361. xlv. 17, p. 376; 19, p. 444; 21, p. 375. xlvi. 20, p. 375. xlvii. p. 293. Daniel ii. 34, 35, 44, p. 335-342, 351, 352, 354. vi., p. 421. vii., p. 297, 342-358; 11, p. 298 ; 14, 22, 27, p. 228, 437-439. X. 6-9, p. 474. xii. 1, p. 214 ; 2, p. 199, 201 ; 3, 205, 6 ; 7, p. 300 ; 8, p. 2. Hosea vi. 2, p. 251. xiii. 14, p. 180. xiv. 2, p. 378. Joel ii. 28-32, p. 458, 466, 467. iii. 1-15, p. 268 ; 17, p. 366. Amos ix. 13, p. 440. Micah i. 3-5, p. 458. iv. 3, p. 428. Zephaniah i. 7, 8, p. 376. Zechariah vi. 12, 13, p. 141, 152. viii. 12, p. 440. ix. 9, 10, p. 336, 427. xii. 9, 10, p. 300, 435. xiii. 1, p. 435. xiv. 5, p. 62; 9, p. 349, 438, 477; 10, p. 371; 17-19, p. 156, 293; 21, p. 366. Malachi 1. 11, p. 326, 367, 368, 376. iii. 1, 2, p. 467. iv. 5, 6, p. 467, 463. Matthew vi. 33, p. 439. vii. 14, p. 113, 390; 21-23, p. 272, 273. viii. 11, p. 87. X. 23, p. 458, 469 ; 32, 33, p. 269; 34, p. 390-394. Matthew xi. 6, p. 216 : 13, 14, p. 468. xii. 29, p. 419. xiii. 3-33, 36-50, p. 34, 35, 306, 332 333, 338, 339 ; 30, 47, p. 287, 306, 325-334; 31, 32, p. 477; 43, p. 205, 206. xiv. 9, p. 347. xvi. 24-27, p. 14, 271 ; 27, 28, p. 273, 469. xvii. 10-13, p. 468. xix. 28, p. 478. xxi. 43. xxiii. 32, 34-36, p. 464 ; 39, p. 433. xxiv. 5, 11, p. 31, 414; 6, p. 49, 29-31, p. 462; 33 p. 44 , 34, p. 463. XXV. p 195; 1-13. p. 276; 5, p. 40; 10, p. 105,272; 14-30, p. 272, 273 ; 19, p. 40; 31, p. 476; 31-46, p. 263 266, 273-275 ; 46, p. 227. xxvi. 41, p. 390. xxviii. 3, 4, p. 474; 18-20, p. 34, 106, 107, 162, 273, 317, 318, 474, 477. Mark iv. 17, 28, p. 482. viii. 25, p. 481, 482; 38, p 269. ix. 1, p. 469 ; 6, p. 474. xvi. 15, p. 273. Luke i. 17, p. 468. V. 33-39, p. 18. viii. 12, p. 482. ix. 26, p. 387 ; 27. p. 469 ; 32- 34, 474. X. 20, p. 214. xi. 21, 22, p. 159, 419. xii. 8, 35-37, p. 15 ; 39, 40, p. 103 ; 46, p. 276 ; 49, p. 390. xiii. 24, p. 197; 25, p. 276. xiv. 14. xvii. 26-30, p. 103, 105, 446. xviii. 1-8, p. 41, 42, 447. xix. 11-27, p. 39-41; 13, p. 17. 101. XX. 35-37, p. 4. 8. xxi. 24-27, p. 433, 462. xxii. 30, p. 478. John iii. 4, p. 259; 29, p. 89, 90; 36, p. 192. iv. 21-23, p 369, 370; 54, p. 227. 496 INDEX TO TEXTS. John V. 17, p. 165; 28, 29, p. 201- 203, 227, 276, 277; 25-29, p. 243. vi. 39. 44, 54, 56, p. 91, 92, 179,' 193. vii. 38, 39, p. 120, 131. X. 27, 28, p. 243. xii. 47, p. 105. xiii. 5, p. 482. xiv. 1-3, p. 21 ; 16, 17, 26, p. 120; 19, p. 193;28, p. 461. XV. 26, p. 120. xvi. 7, 14. p. 120; 19-22, p. 19. xvii. 9, 24, p. 179 ; 22, 24, p. 92, 161. xix. 27, p. 482. XX. 27, p. 482. Actsi. 6, 7, p. 433; 10, 11, p. 21. ii. 16, 19, 20, p. 458 ; 29-36, p. 138-141; 33, p. 120; 34-36, p. 152, 153. iii. 13-15, p. 146; 19-21, p. 37, 38, 147-149, 433. iv. 26-28, p. 150, 151. V. 29-31, p. 151. ix. 3-7, p. 475 ; 31, p. 391. X. 41, p. 198 ; 42, p. 287. xiii. 34, p. 198. xvii. 31, p. 104, 198, 277, 278 ; 32, p. 198. xxii. 9-11, p. 475. xxiv. 15, p. 198. xxvi. 23, p. 193. Romans i. 4, p. 198. ii. 2-16, p. 104, 278, 279 ; 7, p. 227. viii. 1, p. 93, 94; 9, It, p. 92,243; 17, p. 25; 19-23, p. 11, 240, 303; 29, 30, p. 92, 165; 44, p. 11. xi., p. 237 ; 15, p. 251. xii. 1, p. 377. xiv. 10-12, p. 234. XV. 9, p. 159 ; 16, p. 377. xvi. 20, p. 399-402. I Cor. i. 7, 8, p. 16. iii. 12-15, p. 14, 281, 282. iv. 5, p. 279. vii. 31, p. 303. X. 16, 21, p. 377. xi. 26, p. 17. 108, 109. iXii. 28, p. 482. XV. p. 192; 5,7, p. 482; 12, 13, 21, 42, p. 198; 20-23, p. 177, 178, 194; 23. p. 54-57; 23,24, p. 177, 178, 227, 481, 483; 24-26, p. 153-166; 28, p. 461; 47 p. 165 ; 51, 52, p. 204 54, 55, p. 180. 2 Cor. iii. 14-18, p. 433. V. 9-11, p. 279; 17, p. 185 Vi. 2, p. 202 ; 17, p. 113. vii. 15, 16, p. 433. X. 4, p. 353 ; 3, 4, p. 356. Galatians iv., p. 373. V. 2-4, p. 375. Ephesians i. 10, p. 165. ii. 14, 15, 19, p. 363, 369, V. 5, p. 132, 237 ; 25-27, p. 57, 58, 77, 160, 163, 165. Philippians i. 6, 9, 10, p. 16, 17. ii. 17, p. 377. iii. 11, p. 195, 196; 20, 21, p. 11, 16,102, 195, 196, 227. iv. 3, p. 214 ; 18, p. 377. Coloisians i. 18, p. 11, 165 ; 20, p. 165 ; 22, p. 60, 66 ; 28, p. 282, 283. ii. p. 374 ; 9, p. 164 ; 15, p. 158. iii. 4, 5, p. 15. 1 Thess. i. 3, p. 51. ii. 12, p. 287; 19, 20, p. 283, 284. iii. 13, p. 60. iv. p. 192 ; 14, p. 193, 194 ; 15, p. 16, 17; 16, p. 17, 123, 204 ; 17, p. 233. V. 2, 3, p. 446, 447 ; 23, p. 2 Thess. i. 6-9, p. 53, 59, 279-281, 285; 7-10, p. 103, 160, 304 ; 10, p. 227. ii. 1, p. 64 ; 1, p. 2, 3, 42- 52; 1-8, p. 453-462; 8, p. 352, 355. 1 Timothy ii. 13, p. 482. iii. 10. p. 482. iv. 1-3, p. 36. V. 24, 25, p. 284. 2 Timothy i. 10, p. 158. ii. 12, p. 93. iii. 1-3, p. 36. iv. 1-3, p. 36 ; 1, p. 165i 286, 287 ; 6, p. 377 ; 8l p. 16, 439. Titus ii. 11-14, p. 23-25. iii. 5, 6, p. 120. Hebrews i. 3, p. 165 ; 10, 12, p. 30aL INDEX ro TEXTS. 497 Hebrenrsii. 9, p. 194; 13. p. 161; 14, 15, p. 158, 400-402. iv. 3, p. 484; 9, p. 483, 484. vii. 25, p. 118, 119, 123. viii., p. 437 ; 12, p. 375. ix. 12, 24-28, p. 116, 117; 27, 28, p. 24, 25, 121, 227. X. 5, 9, p. 375 ; 8. p. 378 ; 12, 23, p. 153, 154 ; 37, p. 31. xi. 40, p. 87. xii. 9, p. 482; 22, p. 370; 23, p. 64, 274; 26, p. 298. xiii. 10, p. 376, 377; 10-13, p. 375, 377 ; 15, p. 377 ; 16, p. 377. James i. 15, p. 170, 174, 482. V. 7, p. 101. 1 Peter i. 4, ,5, 13, p. 227; 11, p. 424; 13. p. 15, 102. ii. 5, 9, p. 376. iv. 6, p. 287 ; 4, 12, 13, p. U. 2 Peter i. 11, p. 287; 19, p. 2, 18. 101, 104. ii. 4, p. 416. iii. 3, 4, p. 37, 447; 7, p. 104 ; 7. 10, 12, p. 14, 62, 284, 485; 7-13. p. 292- 295, 303-305, 309; 8, p. 51; 10, p. 475; 13, p. 180, 184. IJohnii. 12, p. 202; 15, p. 114; 16, p. 394, 395 ; 28, p. 15, 284 ; 28, 29, p. 227. iii. 2. p. 16, 227; 8-10, p. 399-402. iv. 17, p. 284. V. 12, p. 192. ;ude 14, 15, p. 14 ; 24, p. 59. Revelation i. 5, 6, p. 163 ; 7, p. 14 ; 17, p. 475 ; 18, p. 145, 159. 419. ii. 2-4, p. 441; 3, p. 403, 404 ; 7, p. 227. iii. 1, p. 120 ; 3, p. 458 ; 5, p. 214, 284; 7, 8, 12, p. 143, 144. V. 6, p. 120, 142; 10, p. 211, 228, 230, 437-439, 476, 477 ; 12, p. 162. vi. 9-11, p. 211, 228, 246- 248, 255-258 ; 12-17, p 465, 466. vii. 1, p. 444 ; 3, 4. p. 211; 9, 13, 14, p. 271; 15, p. 211. ix., p. 417, 418. X. 1, 2, p. 458 ; 2, 7, p. 211; 7, p. 336. xi. 2, 3, p. 211, 343; 11, p. 251 ; 15-18, p. 165, 211, 212, 237, 345, 351, 396, 477. xii., p. 421; 6, p. 211, 343; 7-12, p. 404-408, 417 ; 7, p. 62. 63, 343 ; 9, p. 414, 422 ; 14, p. 211, 343. xiii. 1, p. 403; 5, p. 11, 343; 8, p. 209, 214, 215. 239; 11, 15, p. 249; 16. p. 212. xiv. 1, p. 211; 4, p. 409; 11, p. 211. XV. 2, p. 211 xvii. 1, p. 409; 8, p. 215, 239 ; 14, p. 62. xviii., p. 297 ; 2, 6, 20, p. 257; 7, p. 355; 9. p. 298; 20, p. 410. xix. 2, 3, 6. 20. p. 211; 5, p. 212; 6-9, p. 63; 11-15, p. 236, 286, 304, 353,354, 409, 411,472- 476. XX., p. 191 ; 1-3, 7, p. 393-423; 1, p. 419; 2, 3, p. 204, 211, 478; 4, p. 2, 211; 5, p. 208; 4-6, p. 218-259, 437, 439; 7-9, p. 68, 71, 156, 157, 239, 443; 11- 15, p. 206-217, 227, 239, 240, 268, 284-286, 303, 309. xxi. 1, 2, p. 184. 293, 302, 308, 309 ; 2, 9. p. 63; 3, 4, p. 180, 211; 7, 8, p. 2)4. 270; 24, p. 98, 99 ; 27, p. 215. xxii. 1, 3, p. 163, 164; 12, p. 105; 12-15, p. 270, 271; 19, p. 214; 20, p. 51, 98. t> INDEX OF AUTHORS QUOTED, OR REFERRED TO. Alexander, Professor, 189. 429, 430. Ahted, 233. Andreas, 420. Ash, Dr., 229, 230. Augustin, title motto, 3-5, 20, 87, 99, 201, 214, 215, 217. Auriol, Mr., 77. Barker, Mr., 123. Bengei, 16, 17. 20, 25, 40, 41, 55, 58; 60, 63, 98, 147, 148, 194, 195, 225, 230. 237, 247, 273, 276, 283. 285, 287, 306, 351, 443. 444, 478! 484. Bernard, 19, 20. 31. Bickerstetfi, Mr., 27, 56, 59, 75. 80, 82, 83, 83-90, 95, 112, 113, 127. 128, 133, 168-170, 172, 173, 175, 202, 210, 265, 266, 304, 306. 307, 365, 383. Birks, Mr., 88, 170, 171, 173-175, 191, 194-198, 202, 208. 234. 259. 265, 270, 272, 307. 309, 382, 383, 472-476, 478, 481. 485. Bogue, Dr., 319, 320. Bonar, Mr. A., 29, 43, 44, 56, 59, 82, 84^. 85, 90-98, 267, 268, 297, 298, 301. 302, 316, 317-319, 363, 370, 372, 373, 376, 379. Bonar, Mr. H., 27, 45, 82, 180, 183-189, 267-270.274, 316, 319- 321, 356-358, 363, 376, 379, 386, 387. 402, 411, 412,415, 418, 420. Brock, Mr., 78, 171, 362. Brooks, Mr.. 66, 109-112, 128-130. 133, 137, 138, 261, 304, 305, 314. 321, 380, 381, 390, 391, 395, 396. 462. Broim (VVainphray), 303. | Burchell, Mr., 5, 6, 70, 71. Burgh, Mr., 5, 97, 217, 221, 224, 225, 294, 295. Burnet, Thomas. 66. 67. Bush, Dr., 222, 357, 418. Calvin, 55, 58, 87, 147, 154, 185- 187, 429, 430, 469, 479, 480, 484. Chrysostom, 40, 41. Cocceius, 200. Dallas, 207, 263-265, 269. Dalfon, Mr., 27. Daubuz, Mr., 412, 465. Dibdin, Mr.. 79. Doddridge, 480. Dodwell, 224. Dujficld, Dr., 43. Durant, 7, 74, 75. Durham, 63, 64, 99, 213, 214, 223, 302, 303, 357, 412-415, 421, 465. Edwards, President. 412, 421, 42i 431-433, 439, 442. 448, 449. Elliott, Mr.. 147, 180, 210, 221, 238, 239. 245, '246, 252-254, 268, 271, 273, 274, 296, 297, 299-301, 328, 381, 382, 465, 466, 478-480, 483, 484. Emerson, 357. Faber, Mr., 222, 412, 421, 422, 431- 433, 439, 442, 448, 449. Fairbairn, Mr.. 10, 476. Eraser, Mr.. 259, 440, 446, 448. Freemantle, 361. 372. Fi-y, Mr., 360, 361. Gipvs, Mr., 222, 230, 239-241, 309 474, 475, 482, 483. INDEX TO AUTHORS. 499 Griesbach, 98, 292. GroHus, 214, 215, 299, ?no, 336, 446. Hall, Bishop, 480. Hamilton, Dr., 229, 481, 482. Hare, Archdeacon, 86. Henderson, Dr., 425, 426, 429, 467, 468. Hengstenberg, 430. Henke, 357. Hill, Dr., 208, 209. Homer, 416. Homes. Dr., 39, 65, QQ. Horsley, Bishop, 45, 51, 52. IreneBus, 224. Jaspis, 188. Jerome, 5. Jus/in Martyr, 224. Lachmann, 98, 247, 271, 292. Lactantius, 47, 65. i/ei'/, David, 137. Lisco, 39. Lor(/, /Vfr., 88, 171, 172, 175, 208, 382. 385, 386. Lawman, Mr., 41^, 465. LoirM, Prebendary, 60, 184, 189, 352, 353, 429. Ijuther, 55, 61. MacLaurin, 358. MA'ei/e, />/-., 69, 113, 114, 127, 155- 157, ISO, 267, 313, 314, 315, 32.5. 326, 329, 330, 36 7, 383. 389, 390, 394, 395. Magazine, Free Church, 141, 142, 210. Magazine, Lowe's, 378, 434. MaiUand, Mr. (Brighton), 298, 383, 385. Manchester, Duke of, 27, 43, 44, 47, 56, 57. 59, R2-87, 114, 123, 127, 128, 152, 153, 15.5, 209, 337, 338, 365; 374-378, 3^0. 381, 399. Marck, 99, 193, 194, 200, 201, 214, 215, 421, 437, 477, 480. Marsh, Mr. E. G., 259. Mede, Jo.^eph, 44, 45, 223, 265, 305, 336, 347, 351. Mather, Ina-casc, 371. Merle D'Aubignc. 252. Moor De, 10,' 119, 201. More, Dr. Henry, 230, 465. Newton Bishop, 221, 223-225, 259, 465 Ogilvy, Mr., 294, 315. Olshausen, 86. Owe7i, Dr. John, 24, 118, 119. Perry, Joseph, 67-69, 122, 148, 149, 371, 373, 478. Piscator, 66, 230. Prophecy, Quarterly Journal of, 141. Prophecy, Tracts on, No. 2, 327, 328 Pyrn, Mr., 362. Review, British Quarterly, 235, 249 Review, Presbyterian, 126, 331. Rollock, Principal, 29. Rutherford, 29, 30. Scholz, 98, 247, 292. Scott, Mr. J., 69, 70. Scott, Thomas, 184, 185, 229. 357, 403, 429, 480. Sixtus Senensis. 65. Stuart, Moses, 225, 230, 246, 336, 337 Swedenborg, 183. Symington, Dr. W., 1 19 Tertullian, 203. 224. Tischendorf 93. 247. 271, 292. Tregelles, Mr., 93, 237, 247, 271. Trench, Mr. 273. Turretin, F., 119. Ticiss. Dr., 65. 7)/so, Mr., 10, 294, 315. Urwick, Dr., 10, 25, 41, 469, 470. Venema, 200. Virgil, 416. Vitringa, back-title notto, 99, 147, 222. 412. 414, 415 429, 437, 438, 444, 465, 477. Wetstein, 98. Winer, 195, 196, 246. Whitby, Dr., 222. Wood, Mr., 133, 139-141, 155-157, 363, 390, 462. Woodward, Dr., 112. Year, Christian, 97. THE END. 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