THE
FIRST REPORT
OF THE
GENERAL CONFERENCE OF CHRISTIANS
HELD IN BOSTON, OCT. 14,15, 1840.
PUBLISHED BY JOSHUA V. HIMES.
" Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jeeus, which ie taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."
Acts i. 11.
BOSTON:
14 DEVONSHIRE STREET. 1842.
EXPECTING THE ADVENT OF
THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.
REMARKS
In presenting this work to their constituents, and to the public, the Pub-lishing Committee have allowed each author to express his own views in his own way; and it is matter of surprise, that articles prepared without consulta-tion or mutual acquaintance of their writers, upon topics of highest interest on which Christians often disagree, should accord in doctrine, as these disserta-tions and discourses do, both among themselves, and with the great body of the Conference. Any exception to this, worthy of notice,, is found in two par-ticulars: 1. Prescribing a date for the time of the second advent; 2. Regard-mg the return of the Jews.
As..hi..pre?cribjng the time,,the Committee state the fact of difference: com-ment is unnecessary. Those. who, prefix the date, give the reason ; and the reason is interesting and worthy of close attention, though it fails to convince. A date there is, in which this most stupendous event will take place, and dis-claiming the knowledge of it does not allow one to refuse the right hand of fel-lowship to others who think they have found it.
As Jojhe return of the Jews, the main body of the Conference think they־ are. not to return in this world, but only in “ life from the dead.” Some, however, think they return in this world. This is a point of deepest interest—to the Jews, and the wise will not rush to a conclusion respecting it; hut will rather search with deference the mind of the Spirit portrayed in the Bible.
A plausible objection has been made to the antiquity of the doctrine of the near coming of the Lord, which deceives some, to wit, That a hope chenshed by the apostles, and by them soon expected to be realized, is not a proper hope for us to cherish, and to expect soon to realize; because the experience of eighteen hun-dred years is enough to prove it a false hope, an ignis fatuus) which no man in his senses can cherish and pursue.
This objection lurks in the bosom of men, who are restrained from uttering it by its manifest impiety ; men who will not reject a doctrine of the apostles, neither can they readily discover a defence from the charge of insanity, in fol-lowing a faith which many generations have failed apparently to realize. F6r them we observe :—
“Far” and “near” are wholly comparative; their value and power depend on their connexion, whether with time and this world, or with eternity and infinite space. At night, morning draws near; and in the sleep of death, the morning of the resurrection. Eternity admits of points of time two thousand years in duration, scarcely visible to faith; and infinite space admits of points two millions of miles in diameter, scarcely visible, yea, invisible to the natural eye. The holy and blessed God shows to finite mortals works of his hands so remote, that the diameter of the earth’s orbit around the sun is a mere point in space compared with their immeasurable distance : even a thousand millions of miles is to their infinite distance, as nothing, in the eyes of an astronomer! 0
OF THE
PUBLISHING COMMITTEE.
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fool to think, and mad to say, that with Him whose works are so extended, eternity is limited j and two thousand years of experience is enough to prove the delusion of His promise; and the ages of the church are sufficient to con· vict His holy apostles of mistaking the times; and also to warrant the wise at this day in departing from His counsel, and from the example of the primi-tive church! The mighty God, who regards the nations as the fine dust of the balance; who stretches. o.ut the heavens as a curtain ; whp marshals their in· numerable hosts, and calls every one by its name j who slings the moon about the earth by invisible cords, the earth about the sun, and the sun with its plane· tary train around some centre, as of the cluster of the Milky Way : He can speak to his creature man of a period of two thousand years, as a very short time. The sun in the heavens has moved during that period many thousand miles every hour, without having very sensibly receded from one portion of the heavens, or approached the other j and the period of two thousand years may be, and probably is, less to the whole time of the sun’s circuit around his un· known centre, than two days are to the earth’s circuit around the sun. The mighty God is able to announce the near approach of the Sun of Righteousness, and to require the apostles, and the generations from their age to this, to be· lieve, and to proclaim it · and also to fulfil his word, though many ages sleep in death yet, before his glorious appearing.
We are children in knowledge, and our duty is, to believe implicitly what our heavenly Father tells us. When first told the earth is round, who did not sup· pose it was a round plane ? and when further told it is a globe, inhabited beneath and all aromd) what child ever failed to know better? it being self-evident to chil-dren that men cannot live in the. antipodes, and walk and do business, without falling off. The mysteries of the world to come are greater to the profoundest human intellect, than the things of this world are to little children ; and their fplly in disputing with their teachers is incomparably less, than that of the man who sets up the experience of the world, to refute the promise of the world’s Maker, Redeemer, and coming Ring. If the child cannot believe the earth is inhabited all around, it is due to his teacher, and to the wisdom of age, to sub-mit his judgment, and to restrain his unbelief. No less is it due to the word of God by his apostles, to hearken to what they say; and if any doctrine of theirs seems to contradict our common sense, it becomes us to consider that we are; of yesterday and know nothing;—the great Newton himself being, in his own esteem, a child playing with pebbles on the shore of know· ledge, while the great ocean stretched beyond him.
The objector insists : “ If the event 7ras at hand in the apostles’ days, reason, manhood and philosophy cry out upon him who thinks it has not already come to pass.”
Reason, manhood, and philosophy do no such thing. They admit and ap· prove of paradoxes in the visible world greater than this. The passage of light is in this world instantaneous: it is only by the eclipses we learn to measure its flight; and by following on to know, we learn that stars are visible by the telescope, whose light has been longer in coming to us than this wrorld has had a being:—that is, a thing instantaneous on earth, is above six thmsand years in heaven! And the great and incomprehensible One, who ma4e all worlds, and made the light to traverse his realms with messages of his glory, (which mes-sages time has not been long enough for light to bear through the vast regions of his empire,), is faithful and,true to his word, and will fulfil it to the letter, notwithstanding he promised eighteen hundred years ago to. come quickly, and
5
has not appeared yet; and notwithstanding men do scoff, and ask, in the words of the prophet, “ Where is the promise of his coming ? ”
The Almanac of heaven*־is made up׳ of seasons and of cycles imperfectly known to man; and when it records the sign of the coming of the Son of Man, in language to make every reader of the holy word, in every age and genera* tion, look out for the day of judgment and of righteous retribution, it mercifully regards his nature, to neglect what comes not within the reach of his own time and arm; and it urges him to holiness by the very highest motive, if he will receive it; at the same time no delusion is practised, for the dead realize, what the living will soon prove to be accurately true, the fidelity of the prom-ise: “ Surely I come quickly : Amen.”
The dissertations in this Report are prepared by men of devout habits, of in-dependent and thinking minds, who do not fear to combat error because it is intrenched in high, and even in holy places: men who fear God, and reverence high and holy places; but able, at the same time, to distinguish between the place and the tenant; men willing to engage with angels of light for the truth of Jesus and his word, not with scoffing and railing, but in the fair exhibition of his faith, doctrine, and life. The discourses on the Chronology of Prophecy exhibit patient industry, close reflection, and a formidable conclusion; seeing that many ages have been wont to regard the time of this world as only six thousand years. The discourses on the Judgment, the Second Advent, and the Restoration of Israel, are fraught with revealed truth, set in plain light and clear, with fresh aspects of the most solemn, personal, and joyful interest. We are of “ Israel,” or we have no part in Christ; and rce have part in “Isra-el’s ” promises, chief among which is that of a restoration. But our Holy Land is not Palestine under the curse ; our holy city is not Jerusalem which is in bondage with her children; our King is not the prince of this world: but our hope, our promised land, our holy city, is in the world to come with “ Jesus and the Resurrection,” where “ there shall be no more curse.״ “ The former things are passed away ;—behold, I make all things new.”
The discourse on' the Millennium contains matter of high interest, drawn from original fountains; and seems completely to overset the commonly received doctrine on that subject. For it must be confessed by intelligent divines, that the popular doctrine of the millennium is a modem one, totally unknown to the primitive end martyr church : so modern that it has never a place in the formula of the faith of any church, Catholic, Greek, Roman, or Protestant; but all their creeds involve the contrary : a doctrine alike op-posed to the divine economy with all past ages, and opposed to the promises relating to this world, and to the destiny of man ;—the law and the prophets uniting with the gospel to teach the vanity of this life, and the reality of the resurrection, and of the world to come.
The attention of divines is called to these subjects. We hope that learned and gifted minds will be faithful to examine, and bold to speak the truth on this world’s Millennium, with a view to dissipate the thick-darkness which shrouds from the sight of thousands “the blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God, and our Savior Jesus Christ.”
HENRY DANA WARD,
JOSHUA VAUGHAN HIMES, WILLIAM CLARK.
DEPOT OF
second mm pmlmwi,
14 DEVONSHIRE ST., OFFICE OF THE “SIGNS OF THE TIMES.”
All communications relative to the Signs of the Times, and Publications on the Second Advent, should be addressed to JOSHUA V. HIMES, 14 Devon-shire Street, Boston, Mass.
Important Works
ON THE PROPHECIES OF THE SECOND ADVENT OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST.
Miller on the Second Coming of Christ.—In one volume. This work con-tains nineteen Lectures; to which is. added a Supplement, containing a Chronological Chart of the prophetic periods, with an explanation.. Price 50 cents.
Millers Life and Views —In one volume. This work contains a Sketch of Mr. Miller’s Lite, his Chronology, the Chart and Exposition, eleven new lec-ttires, reviews, letters, dec. Price 50 cents.
Bible Student1 s Manual.—This work is compiled from Mr. Miller’s works, designed for a pocket note-book and manual. It contains the Chart, Rules of Interpretation, &c., with blank paper, for notes. Price 25 cents.
An Address to the Public, and especially the Clergy, on the Near Approach of the Glorious, Everlasting Kingdom of God on Earth. By J. Litch. Price 25 cents.
No. L, Second Advent Report of General Conference, held in Boston, Oct. 14th, 15th, 1840. This is a very able and important document: it contains two discourses from Mr. Litch on the Second Advent—Chronology of Pro-phecy. One from Rev. Henry Jones, on the Restoration of Israel. Two from Mr. Miller on the Chronology of the Prophetic Periods—Judgment. One Discourse, in three parts, by H. D. Ward, on the Millennium. 174 pages. Price 37 cents in boards, 25 cents in pamphlet.
No. II., Second Advent Report of General Conference, held in Lowell, June 15th, 16th, 17th, 1841. This is a very able and important document: it contains the Proceedings of the Conference, Circular Address, Dissertation on .Christ’s Second Coming, Signs of Christ’s Second Coming quickly, by Rev. Henry Jones. The Kingdom of God on Earth at hand, the Fall of the Otto-man Empire, and Dissertation on the Millennium, by Rev. Josiah Litch. Price $20 per hundred, and 25 cents single.
Scriptures Searched.—By Henry Jones. This is truly an evangelical work, and will be read with profit. Price 624 cents.
Present Crisis.—This is a valuable little work, by Rev. John Hooper, of England. Second American edition. Price $7 per hundred, 10 cents single.
Miller’s Works.—In one volume. New edition, $1,00.
Thoughts on the Second Coming of Christ—Just published. An Irish work, first published; in Dublin, in 1831. It is a very valuable work.
Hymn Book.—“Millennial Musings: A choice selection of Hymns, de-signed fur the use of Second Advent Meetings.” ' By J. V. Himes and J. Litbh. Price $2,40 per dozen, 20 cents single ; in paper covers, 17 cents.
Miller on “ The True Inheritance of the Saints,” and the 1260 Days in Daniel and John. With an Address to the Low Hampton Conference. 20 cents in boards, 121 cents in pamphlets.
Review of Eight Fundamental Errors in Miller’s Theory, pointed out by Charles K. True and Wm. C. Brown, in Zion’s Herald, March, 1840 By J. Litch. Price $3 per hundred, 1 cents single.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONFERENCE
ON THE SECOND COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, HELD 1N BOSTON, MASS., OCTOBER 14, :15,1840.
The brethren, assembled in the ChardomSt. Ghapel, Oct. 14j5 at 10 o’clock A. ;M. J. V. Himes, the pastor officiating in this Chapel, took the desk, and read the following call of the Conference, with appropriate: remarks.
:, The undersigned, believers in the Second ,Coming and Kingdom of the Mes* siah uat tod,״ cordially’ unite in the eall of a general Conference of oar brethren of the United'States, and elsewhere, who are also looking for the advent near, to meet at Boston, Mass., Wednesday, Oct. 14, 1840, at 10 o’clock A. M., to continue two days, or as long as may then be found best.
The object of the .Conference will not be to form a hew organization in the faith of Christ; nor to assail others of our brethren who differ from us ;in regard to the period and»manner of the advent; but to discuss the whole sub-ject faithfully and fairly, in the exercise of that spirit of Christ in which it will be safe immediately to meet him at the judgment seat.
By so doing, w׳e may accomplish much in the rapid, general, and powerful spread of “the everlasting gospel of the kingdom at hand,״ that the w^ty of the Lord may be speedily prepared, whatever may be the precise period of his coming.
Having read the call, a chairman pro tempore was called for, and Henry D. Ward was chosen. David Millard ad-dressed the Throne of Grace;
The chairman made the! following remarks on the object of the meeting :־—
My Brethhen and Friends :—We have convened on a
Eeat and solemn consideration, the near coming of our ord in his kingdom^ It becomes us %q> understand*, and to let others know, that ours is not :a; new.doctrine. Sound Christians in every age have cherished it; it was the uni-versa! faith of the primitive church; it is the plain doctrine of the New Testament. The novelty which seems to char-acterize our views, takes its color from the errors of a fallen church, and will be entirely removed by the inspection of
PROCEEDINGS OF THE
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the gospel, and of the records of the ages of the martyr-church.
The disciples came unto Jesus, after he had told them of the overthrow of the temple; and they asked him of these things, when they should be, and what should be the sign of his coming, and of the end of the world. He replied to them at large; but of the time when, he replied particularly, as follows:—
“But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of he&ven,; but: my Father׳ only. But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For ,as in the days of Noah* they knew not, until the flood came, and took them all away ; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”* Nevertheless, he taught them espe-dally that the time would be short, and added, “Watch, therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.”f
In his last discourse with his disciples, recorded in the 14th, 15th, and 16th chapters of John, he warns them of his being about to leave them ; and promises them the Com-forter; and, moreover, that he would be absent but “a little while;” only a short time. In chapter xvi. 16, he says: “A little while, and ye shall not see me; and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father. Then said some of his disciples among themselves, What is this that he saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see me; and again, a little while, and ye shall see me; and, Because I go to the Father? They said, therefore, What is this that he saith, A little while ? We cannot tell what he saith.”
The same difficulty attends on “some of his disciples” to this day; they do not understand uihe little while” he spoke of. They cannot conceive how it could embrace a period of eighteen hundred years; and, therefore, they do not know, neither can they tell what that means, UA little while” But that it embraces the whole period from the Lord’s ascension to his second advent, is manifest from the fact, that the Holy Spirit was promised, and is given, to be the guide and comforter of his disciples during that ‘ ‘little while”
The uncertainty of the time is everywhere set forth in the Scriptures, and.frequently in the. symbhl of a thief in the night; and likewise: its shortness is insisted upon in many remarkable passages. Among these, I cite that in Heb. x. 37, where the apostle,: having in mind their despondency under the protracted delay of the Lord’s coming, exhorts
f Matt. xxiv. 42.
* Matt. xxiv. 36—40.
GENERAL CONFERENCE.	3
them to patience, that after they had done the will of God they might receive the promise, and not faint in their hearts, and so fall short of the glory of God; and then he adds, with the most vigorous expression, to assure them both of his coming, and that very soon, these memorable words: “For yet a little while, and he that shall come toill come, and will mt tarry;” he will make no unnecessary delay,
I could cite many passages of the same sort out of the Scriptures, but I content myself with one more, found in Rev. xxii. 20: “He which testified! these things saith, Surely I come quickly.” These are proofs that the Lord taught, in his last communications with his disciples on earth, that he should come again at an unexpected hour, and that quickly; not in the article of natural death, but in the clouds of heaven, and' the resurrection of the dead. For “this same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” And J1i§_ coaling is by no means a daily event, or an occasion of national judgment, or any other thing, but this only: “unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation in the end of the world, to judge the quick and the dead, in his king-dom.
ThaJUliis >vas the manner ijq. which the primitive ages of .tbe.^QbA1xQh <1mderstood the Holy. Word, is manifest from thej*. records; but before I quote them you may please to hear the high testimony of two imperial Csesars, to the same truth, from their throne of empire over the known world.
The first of these royal witnesses is Domitian, under whom St. John was banished to “the isle of Patmos for the t word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Gibbon relates, on the authority of Eusebius and Hegesyp-pus, that the expectation of the Lord s coming in his king-dom, about the end of the first century, was so general, and so confidently entertained, that the report of it came to the ears of th’e temperor, and troubled him; as the coming of the wise men to Jerusalem at the birth of Christ troubled Herod, and all Jerusalem with him. Domitian had brought before him from Judea some of the royal seed of David, surviving in grandsons of Jude the Lord’s brother; and he demanded of them if they were of the family of David. They said it was most true. Then the emperor would know what kind of a kingdom they expected, and when it would be. They replied, that it is not a terrestrial kingdom, but celestial, and its time is in the end of this world. The emperor, seeing
* Heb. ix. 28.
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their hands were hard, and they were poor laboring men, despised them, and set them at liberty, not regarding the kingdom to come, if he might be allowed to have that which is now here.
The other emperor who is witness for our doctrine, is the nephew of Constantine the Great. His name is Julian, called the Apostate; because he was educated a Christian, and when he came to the throne, he disowned the faith, and restored the worship ,of the vain gods of the heathen. The Christians of that day, A. D. 360, feared lest he would turn to persecute them again; but in a letter preserved by Baro-nius, Julian assured one that he would not molest the Chris-tians generally; but there are some, he said, who have made themselves rich on the plunder of the Valentinians, whose wealth he should distribute among his soldiers, that these believers might go lighter on their way to the kingdom of heaven, which even now they expect. Thus the apostate emperor taunted the believers of his age for their folly in continuing, even to that time, to look for the coming and kingdom of the Lord proclaimed in the gospel; and he mocked them for entertaining the hope of the Lord’s coming in his kingdom, which continued to distinguish the church in the fourth century.
From this testimony of crowned heads, and enemies of our faith, X, turn to ,the witness of the early and eminent Christian martyrs, to prove the same thing out of their meek lips, to wit: that they verily understood the gospel to be glad tidings of the near coming of our Lord in his king-dom, and in the end of this world, even as we believe at this day.
St. Clement of Rome, whose name is held in the highest Tespect ’ aihong the Christians of antiquity, and who is counted a saint in the Catholic church, and by whose name our Episcopal brethren call one of their churches in New York, flourished A. D. 95; and about that time wrote two letters to the church of Corinth, in the name and behalf of tl\e presbyters atid brethren of the church of Rome. In the first of these letters, Clement speaks of the coming and king-dom of our Lord on this wise:—“Let that be far from us which is written: miserable are the double-minded,* and those who are doubtful in their hearts; who say, These things have we heard, and our fathers have told us these things; but, behold, we are grown old, and none of them has happened unto us.f 0 ye fools ! consider the trees; take the vine for example: first it sheds its leaves, then it puts forth
f 2 Pet. iii. 4.
* James i. 5.
GENERAL CONFERENCE.
buds, after that it spreads its leaves, then its flowers, then come the sour grapes, and after them follows the ripe fruit. You see how in a little time the fruit of the trees comes to maturity. Of a truth, yet a little while, and his will shall be accomplished suddenly, the Holy Scripture itself bearing witness that he shall quickly come, and not tarry;* and the Lord shall suddenly come to his temple, even the Holy ONE whom ye look for.”f—Clem. 1 Cor. xi. 11.
The texts embodied in these words prove, that St. Clement entertained the same conceptions of divine truth, in which we are assembled together this day.
Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, an illustrious martyr of the year A. D. 107, in a letter written at an advanced age, while he was waiting to be offered to the lions, said to Poly-carp, “We ought to endure all things for God’s sake, that he may bear with us. Be every day better than other: consider the times, and expect him who is above all time, eternal, invisible, though for our sakes made visible.”j The injunction to “consider the limes, and to expect” the coming of the Lord, was not more suitable A. D. 107, than it is in this day; and in accordance with its counsel we have come together to consider the times, expecting the approach of our Lord.
Justin Martyr, in his second apology to the emperor, Antoninus Pius, A״. D. 150, section 7, says, “Wherefore God delays also to make the overthrow and dissolution of all the world, that wicked angels, demons, and men should survive no longer, only on account of the seed of Christians; —since unless it were so,—the fire of judgment falling, would dissolve all things,” &c. Thus we find this eminent martyr looking for the end of the world, and for the judg-ment day.
A^ p. ^192^ Clement of Akxaqdriaj in his address to the heathen, says, “Therefore, Jesus cries aloud, personally urging us, because the kingdom of heaven is at hand; he converts men by means of fear.” In the same fear, sinners become converts at this day ; and we assemble together in the same view of the kingdom at hand which Clement urged upon the people of his age.
bishop of Carthage, a martyr, and one of the most distinguished fathers, in commenting on the Lord’s prayer, thy kingdom come) says, among other things, “We pray for the coming of that our kingdom, which has been promised to us by God, and was gained by the blood and passion of Christ. The kingdom of God, dear brethren,
t Ig. to Pol. 1. 15.
f Mai. iii. 1.
* Heb. x. 37.
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PROCEEDINGS OF THE
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may stand for Christ himself, whom we daily wish to come, and for whose advent we pray, that it may be quickly marti-tested to us.” In the same spirit and hope we assemble here, praying for, and believing near, the glorious advent of our Lord in his heavenly kingdom, as St. Cvprian did, A. D. 250.
A. D. 350, St. Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, on the apostle’s creed, says, “Our LoVdTesus Christ ttien comes from heaven, and he comes with glory at the end of this world, in the last day. For this world shall have an end; and this created world shall be made anew; but as to the time, let no one be curious. And venture not thou to declare when these things shall be; nor, on the other hand, abandon thyself to slumber. For he saith, ‘ Watch, /or in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.’ But seeing that it behoved us to know the signs of the end, and whereas we are looking for Christ, therefore, that we may not be deceived and perish,” &c. Precisely in the same sense with the eminent St. Cyril, of Jerusalem, we convene here this day, “ seeing it behoves us to know the signs of the end, and whereas we” also are looking for the Lord’s appearing.
This Cyril was of the age of Julian the Apostate, who reviled Christians with, even to that time, expecting the King to come in his heavenly kingdom; which plainly Cyril deserved, and St. Chrysostom, and St. Jerome, and the mul-titude of later saints; but few Christians, however, would merit this reproach of the apostate, were he to cast it at them on the stage of life now.
We come here, my brethren and friends, to revive this apostolic doctrine, and to renew the faith of the gospel after the image of primitive Christianity.
ן We assemble here to awaTren our own sympathies, together with the slumbering faculties of our fellow-Chris-; tians, to the doctrine of the Lord’s coming, as it was held by ; the great reformers of the sixteenth century: not to contend ; with opposers, not to dispute among ourselves, not to raise : the banner of a new sect; but out of every sect to come into the unity of the faith as it is in Jesus, with charity toward all, ourselves in the exercise of Christian liberty, and not afraid of obloquy for the sake of our coming Lord.
One word from John Milton, author of Paradise Lost, and of Paradise Regained; a name not to be despised by the men of this age, though he entered fully into the doctrine of the Lord’s coming, a9 we do at this day. In a prayet for Fjngland, he calls on the Lord, and concludes with say-ing, “When thou, the eternal and shortly expected King, shalt open die clouds, to judge the several kingdoms of the
GENERAL CONFERENCE.
world, and---------shalt put an end to all earthly tyrannies,
proclaiming thy universal and mild monarchy through heaven and earth.״ *
I have brought these things to your notice, that we may be able to meet the very door all charges of light” and novely. which unlearned men are sometimes ready to cast upon the faith and practices  of the primitive church, the reformers, and many of the most renowned of the clergy and laity of England, and of our own country.
The Conference sung the following hymn:—
:	“From whence doth this union arise,
That haired is conquered by love ?
It fastens our souls in such ties That nature and time can’t remove.
It cannot in Eden be found,
Nor yet in the paradise lost;
It grows on Emmanuel’s ground,
And Jesus’ dear blood it did cost.
My friends are so dear unto me,
Our hearts are united in love;
Where Jesus is gone we shall be,
i	In yonder blest mansions above.
O why then so loath to depart,
Since we shall ere long meet again?
Engraved on Emmanuel’s heart,
A,t distance we cannot remain.
And when wte shall sec that bright day,
United with angels above,
No longer confined to our clay,
Overwhelmed in the ocean of love,
0 then with our Jesus we'll reign,
And all his bright glory shall see,
And sing hallelujah, amen,
Amen, even so let it be.”

A committee of nominations was appointed, to report in the afternoon.
'Josiah Litch, of Eastham, occupied the remainder of the moriiing, enlisting the attention of the Conference to an elaborate discourse on Christ’s coming in glory.
Wednesday, Oct. 14, P. M.
The brethren engaged in singing, prayer, and, social con-ferenee, until three o’clock, when the chairman took his seat, and the committee appointed in the morning made report, and accordingly the following appointments were made, viz:	
HENRY DANA WARD, Chairman.
David Millard, Josiah SeaveY, J. Lord, R. W. Reed,
Assistants.
7
8	PROCEEDINGS OF THE
Henry Jones, P. R. Russell, Secretaries.
Committee of Arrangements. J. V. Himes, J. Litch, Joseph Bates, Charles F. Stevens, Stephen Goodhue.
Committee of Finance and the Roll Daniel Merrill, Wm. Clark Calvin French, Nathaniel Billings.
J. V. Himes read a letter from Bro. Millet’s son, Low Hampton, Washington Co., N. Y., stating the illness of his father, which deprived the Conference of much anticipated satisfaction in his presence.
The chairman then delivered a discourse on the history of the doctrine of the millenium, showing, from records of antiquity, the progress of the doctrine, and its changes, from its origin to this day; and also its incompatibility with the faith once delivered to the apostles and saints.
Wednesday Evening, Oct. 14.
Conference opened with singing and prayer, and mutual exhortation. Henry Jones presented some extracts and re-marks on the Confessions of Faith and the Standards of the churches, relating to the second coming of Christ, &c., sustaining the sentiment of Mr. Ward’s discourse on the milllenium.
Extracts from various Church Creeds, and Remarks, communicated by Henry Jones.
REPOJRMED^JDCTCn^CmjRCH^.
tlArticle 37—Judgment. Finally, we believe, according to the w0Td of God, when the time appointed bv the Lord, (which is nnknown to all creatures,) is come, and the number of the eject complete, that our Lord Jesus Christ will come from heaven corporally and visibly as he ascended, with great glory and majesty. * * * Therefore we expect that great day with a mast ardent desire, to the end that we may fully enjoy the promises of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Rev. xxii. 20.״*
If, indeed, as this church here publicly declare, they look for or “expect that great day” of Christ’s coming, &c., with a most ardent desire, then “fully” to “enjoy the promises of God,” surely they “are looking out for it at hand, rather than more ardently desiring its being a thousand years off.״
PRESBYTERIAN AND CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES.
u Question. Wherein doth Christ’s exaltation consist?
“ Answer. Christ’s exaltation consisteth in his rising again from the dead on the third day ; his ascending up into heaven ; sitting on the right hand of God. the Father, and in his coming to judge the world at the last day. *	*	*
Question. What do we pray for in the second petition ? [of the Lord’s prayer.]	·
“Answer. In the second petition, which is “thy kingdom come,'1 we pray that Satan’s kingdom may be destroyed, [utterly, at Christ’s doming] that the king-
* R. D. Church Psalms and Confessions.
ο
GENERAL CONFERENCE.
dom of grace may be advanced, ourselves and others brought into it, and kept in it, and that the kingdom of glory may be hastened.”*
In these questions and answers, found also in the “West-minster Assembly’s Catechism,״ which has long been a doctrinal platform of the Presbyterian and Congregational churches, they virtually deny the now popular doctrine of Christ’s coming again to reign spiritually, or to have part of his “exaltation״ in a rnillenium of this world, beforeJiis coming “in his kingdom to judge the world at the last day.” If then, as they further say, we should pray, and pray in faith, that these great events of “the kingdom of glory״ at the judgment of “the last day״ “may be hastened;״ wo cannot, of course, desire, nor pray in faith for their being delayed, so long as to give time for a temporal rnillenium first. And though they have refrained, and very justly too, in my own view, from fixing a time, I cannot but cordially harmonize with them in their published faith on this sub-ject, with my most earnest and daily prayers that all those things, with the very “kingdom of glory, may be hastened.״
RTISG$PAi» ®BURCH.
uArticle 4. Christ did truly rise from dea?th--he ascended into heaven,
and there sitteth until he return to judge all men at the last day.”f
THE APOSTLE’S CREED.
11 He [Christ] ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father} from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.”f
NICE AN CREED.—COMPOSED A. D. 325.
u He [Christ] ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God And he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead, whose kingdom [then coming] shall have no end.”f
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH.
“ Article 3. Christ did truly rise from the dead,—he ascended into heaven, and there sitteth until he return to judge the world at the last day.”]:
Without fixing a time, the Episcopal and Methodist churches here, also, seem expressly and purposely to ex-elude from their public faith the now common notion of Christ’s “invisible appearing,״ as it has been called, to reign spiritually during a rnillenium of this world, and previous to the resurrection. For, surely, they can mean no less by affirming as they do, distinctly and positively, that, having “ascended into heaven,” he “there sitteth, until he return to judge all men,” or “to judge the world at the last day.” Though at this much later period of time, in the fulfilment of the prophetic signs of the day at hand, our conviction of
f Church Prayer Book.
* Presbyterian Church Confessions. % Discipline Meth. E. Church.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE
10
its special nearness should be deeper than had we lived in their day. Surely, their phraseology is right still, and will continue to harmonize with the doctrine of Christ, John, and others of the holy writers, that “the kingdom, of heaven is at hand” until, as the lightning from heaven, this very kingdom shall come.
So far as I can yet learn, this flattering and secular doc״ trine, if it may be so called, is so altogether modern, that there is no denomination of Christians nor individual church which has published it to the world as an article of their creed. Should any individual of the congregation know of one instance to the contrary, they are requested to report accordingly to this Conference before its close. And yet, it is supposed to be a fact, from the most diligent researches, that in case of the several evangelical denominations who have adopted a uniform creed for their whole sect, as in case of the above, they have also condemned or excluded the doctrine of a mere spiritual coming and reigning of Christ himself, before his actually coming, “ with power and great glory” “to judge the world at the last day.” And after all these long standing and yet abiding public professions of disbelief in a millenium of Christ’s invisible reign in this present evil world, the darkness on this subject is now so great, by reason of the false prophet and otherwise, that there are supposed to be multitudes of the watchmen of the denominations making these very professions, who, after all, are so sanguine in the opposite faith, that is, of a mil-lenium in this world, before Christ’s real return with his kingdom, that they seemingly dare not admit to their pulpits this blessed doctrine of their own creeds, that Christ’s second or next coming is at hand, with a kingdom and millenium to be glorious and everlasting, and the sure portion of all them ‘ ‘ that love his appearing ”
J. Litch followed with an able discourse on the Chronology of Prophecy,	■'־־ ״'
The exercises of the evening concluded with reading the Circular Address, by Henry Jones, which will be found in the conclusion of the proceedings.
Thursday, Oct 15, A. M.
Conference opened with religious exercises.
A Committee of Foreign Correspondence was chosen, con-sisting of J. Y. Himes, Wm. Miller, Η. I). Ward, J. Litch, Henry Jones.
And a Committee of Publication, consisting of Η. D. Ward, J. Y. Himes, Wi\i. Clark.
11
GENERAL CONFERENCE.
After which, Hemy Jones delivered a studied discourse on the restorationA6fTsraeIj showing it to be the restoration of ־GfodTs helievinglsrael to the “New Jerusalem.״
Thursday, Oct. 15, P. M.
Opened with prayers and mutual exhortation. The Con-ference heard from different members very interesting re-ports of the introduction and progress of the doctrine of the kingdom of heaven at hand in the various places of their abode. Among them were Russell of Springfield. Litch of Eastham, Millard of Fairhaven, Lincoln of Portland, Me., and Reed of Strafford, Vt. After which, the communion of the Lord’s Supper was administered by Messrs. Russell and Litch to some two hundred or more communicants of differ-ent evangelical denominations, many of whom were from remote distances. During, and after, this service, interest-ing remarks were continued by a number of the friends of the cause. And such a time of remembering the Lord’s death till he come, among his scattered and divided people, has hardly taken place since the “falling away first״ took place.
Thursday Evening, Oct. 15.
J. V. Himes presented the discourses which Wm. Miller had prepared for this .Cqnfereuqe, and now had forwarded; one on the Chronology of Prophecy, the other on the Judg-ment. The latter was read by Bro. H., and listened to with deep interest and profound attention.
RECOMMENDATION OF THE “SIGNS OF THE TIMES.״
, Resolved, That we heartily approve of the establishment of the paper in Boston, Mass., called “The Signs of the Times״’ edited by Joshua V. Himes, for the dissemination omgfit on the subject of the near approach of the glorious kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; and we believe it calculated to do immense good to the souls of men, by leading them to a more diligent study of the Holy Scrip-tures, and awakening in them a more earnest desire and effort to be prepared for the great and glorious event.
Resolved, That we earnestly recommend that all our friends, believers in the kingdom near, exert themselves to increase its circulation, by obtaining subscribers among their acquaintances, and thus assist in extending the know-ledge of the coming of the Lord, and leading men to a pre-paration to meet him.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE
12
“The Literalist,” a republication of sound treatises by eminent divines of England, on the doctrine of the Second Advent, now issuing from the press of Orrin Rogers, Phila-delphia, Pa., we regard as a valuable auxiliary to the study of the prophets; and we cordially recommend it to the patronage of the Christian public.
ANOTHER CONFERENCE.
Resolved, That our Committee of Correspondence be authorized to call another General Conference, as soon, and at such place, as they may deem expedient.
J. V. Himes proposed raising FIVE HUNDRED DOL-LARS to publish the Acts of the Conference, wliich, being advocated in an animated address from him, and also from J. Litch, was sustained by the addresses of several others, and by the spirit and contributions of the Conference.
The Conference now sung the following hymn :—
i{ When thon, my righteous Judge, shalt come To call thy ransomed people home,
Shall I among them stand ?
Shall such a worthless worm as I,
Who sometimes am afraid to die,
Be found at thy right hand ?
I love to meet among them now,
Before thy gracious throne to bow,
Though weakest of them all;
But can I bear the piercing thought,
To have my worthless name left out,
When thou for them shalt call ?
Prevent, prevent it, by thy grace!
Be thou, dear Lord, my hiding place,
In that expected day ;
Thy pard’ning voice 0 let me hear,
To still each unbelieving fear,
Nor let me fall, I pray.
Let me among thy saints be found.
Whene’er th’ Archangel’s trump shall sound,
To see thy smiling face;
Then loud, through all the crowd, I ’ll sing,
While heaven’s resounding mansions ring With shouts of boundless grace.״
And closed with the Benediction.
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GENERAL CONFERENCE.
CIRCULAR.
THE ADDRESS OF THE CONFERENCE ON THE SECOND ADVENT OF
THE LORD, CONVENED AT BOSTON, MASS., OCTOBER 14, 1840.
The first General Conference on the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, unto “all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.״
Beloved Brethren:—The Lord Jesus, in his last dis-courses with the disciples, abundantly testified, that he will come again, in “a little while,״ for their salvation; and for the execution of righteous judgment upon the quick and dead, in the glory of his heavenly dominion. He began his public ministry on the earth by proclaiming this holy gospel of his kingdom, that men should repent and turn to God, because “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.״ For this he taught his disciples daily to pray, saying, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.״ And as a memorial of his death, a symbol of his resurrection, and a pledge of his shortly returning in that promised kingdom, he instituted the Sacrament of his Supper, and enjoined its observance, till he comes. And he foretold signs of his return, which coming to pass before our eyes, we feel con״ strained, with holy fear and humble joy, to remember his gracious words: “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemp-tion draweth nigh.״
It is written for onr admonition, on whom the end of the world is come, that “when he shall have accomplished to scatter the'power of the holy people, all these things shall be accomplished.״* We see that power scattei'ed beyond all precedent, in the strife of parties in Christendom; and in the efforts made to rally the world around the banner of various denominations in Zion, for the hope of a thousand years’ triumph before the Lord’s appearing, rather than to awaken all nations with the gospel trumpet, to expect the coming King, and to gather themselves around the banner of Jesus and the resurrection, “for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand.״
The primitive church was a victorious host: it went forth from Jerusalem conquering and to conquer. The nations were* subdued before it: enemies were converted by the patience and hope of their Christian victims; which patience waited for the coming of the Lord, and which hope took hold on heaven, not on a temporal millenium. All the ages,
* Dan. xii. 7.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE
14
from the day of Pentecost’s illumination to the extinction of the imperial power in Rome, confessed the faith, once for all, delivered to the saints, that Christ’s kingdom is at hand, not of this world, but of “ the celestial world” to come. When the apostasy had corrupted the body of the church, and the glory had departed from Israel, the calamity of the holy people was manifest in their indifference toward the deferred hope of the Lord’s coming, and in their lively wor-ship of departed spirits, relics of saints, and graven images.
The darkness which overcast the horizon of Christendom after this has procured, for a long period, the name of “the dark ages.” The eye of faith was feebly directed to the Lord’s near coming, and the church was given “over to believe the lie” that the blessed God had given the domin-ion of this world to the administration of one bishop. And in that same day in which the intrepid reforr^ers encoun-tered the Latin hierarchy, and threw off the papal yoke, they revived the fainting hope of the Lord’s appearing for the overthrow of anti-christ, and the dispensation of the final judgment.
Whether the reformers were right or not, in this view of the Lord’s doctrine, they girded their loins, they fought the battle, and they won the victory of the reformation; and, right or not, in this view of the Lord’s doctrine, they accorded exactly with the faith of the ancient church; and in this view they laid the foundations of the creeds and standards, and confessions of faith, of every Protestant denomination; so that on them no man can build the hope of a kingdom for Christ, or his people, in this world; and as they were right in this view of the Lord’s doctrine, and the ancient church • was right in the same view, the great majority of their nomi-nal followers are wrong; for now the church of the reforma-tion^ also, Jias forsaken hsijirsijojfy and holds the doctrine of the kingdom in this world,—a doctrine never admitted at all in the ancient church, nor in the churches of the reformation until within the last century.
Our object in assembling at this time, our object in ad-dressing you^ and our object in other efforts, separate and combined, on the subject of “the kingdom of heaven at hand,” is to revive and restore this anpient. ,faith, to renew the ancient landmarks, to “stand in the ways, and see and ask for the old paths, where is the good way” in which our fathers walked and the martyrs “found rest for their souls.” We haye no purpose to distract the churches with .any new inventions, or to get to ourselves a name by starting another sect among the followers of the Lamb. We neither con-demn, nor rudely assail, others of a faith different from our
15
GENERAL CONFERENCE.
own, nor dictate in matters of conscience for our brethren, nor seek to demolish their organizations, nor build new ones of our own; but simply to express our convictions like Christians, with the reasons for entertaining them which have persuaded us to understand the word and promises, the prophecies and the gospel, of our Lord, as the first Christians, the primitive ages of the church, and the pro-foundly learned and intelligent reformers, have unanimously done, in the faith and hope that the Lord will “come quickly,” “in his glory,” to fulfil all his promises in the resurrection of the dead.
A&Jbfilieyersjy^	and yet u terrible, jay of the
Lord” “at hand,” it doesmorbecome us to judge, censure, or condemn others who see not as we do' in regard to this subject, nor to show our zeal for the faith by personally denouncing scoffers and gainsayers. We desire to be hum-ble before the Lord, to defer all judgment to that tribunal, before which we ourselves must shortly stand; and mindful of his goodness who rescued us from the snare of delusion, in which we were taken once in common with the rest of our brethren, we would be charitable toward all, and espe-daily patient with opposers and revilers, who substitute abuse for‘ argument, and pervert our opinions before they venture to try them by the law and the testimony. We seek not the honor of this world, nor do we fear its frown; but in the meek and quiet spirit of the gospel, we would walk in all the ordinances of our respective churches blame-less, and exhibit in the purity of our lives the holiness and power of the doctrine we profess, in the hope of the appear-ing of our Lord in his heavenly kingdom.
Though in some of the less important views of this momentous subject we are not ourselves agreed, particularly in regard to fixing the year of Christ’s second advent, yet we are unanimously agreed and established in this all-absorbing point, that the coming of the Lord to judge the world is now specially “nigh at hand.”
We are also agreed and firmly persuaded, that the popu-lar theory of a thousand years, or more, of the spiritual and invisible reign of Christ 11·in this present evil world” where death reigns unto the coming of the Lord in his glory, is altogether unscriptural, and naturally tending to comfort sinners in their evil ways, and to dishearten the faithful; inasmuch as it takes away heavenly and eternal promises from the latter, only to convert them to the temporal use of the former, should they live, as they hope, to witness and enjoy millenial bliss in the conversion of themselves, and of this world.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE
16
We are also agreed, that at the very commencement of the millenium the Lord will come in the glory of his Father, and all the saints with him, and that the sinners then remain-ing alive and ungodly will be slain by the sword of the Lord, or “taken” and “cast alive, with the beast and the false prophet, into a lake of fire burning with brimstone,”* in-stead of being all converted to the obedience of the gospel.
Again, we are agreed and harmonize with the published creed of the Episcopal, Dutch Reformed, Presbyterian, and Methodist churches, together with the Cambridge Platform of the Congregational church, and the Lutheran and the Roman Catholic churches, in maintaining that Christ’s second and only coming now will be “to judge the world at the last day.”
The popular creed, that he is coming to reign invisibly and spiritually in this world, first, at least, a thousand years, is so modern that it has never gained admission into the public creed or confession of any denomination in Christen-dom ; on the contrary, the Lutheran confession of Augsburg, and the English confession and articles of faith, published A. D. 1552, under the hand of the eminent divines who were martyred in the reign of Queen Mary, publicly brand the doctrine of a kingdom for the pious in this world, prior to the resurrection, as “a Judaizing notion,” and they expll-citly “condemn those who circulate it.” * * *
We do not u condemn those who circulate the Judaizing notion;” it is the eminent reformers of Germany and Eng-land, who have done it three centuries ago, in times that tried the souls of men, and purified the faith of the churches. We condemn no man; nor yet is it reasonable that we should be condemned for calling the attention of the churches to one of the first principles of the oracles of God, and the attention of the children, our brethren, to the wise counsel and severe reproof of our fathers, the great reformers.
We are not of those who sow discord among brethren, who withdraw from the fellowship of the churches, who rail at the office of the ministry, and triumph in the exposure of the errors of a secular and apostate church, and who count themselves holier than others, or wiser than their fellows. The gracious Lord has opened to us wondrous things in his word, whereof we are glad, and in view of which we rejoice with trembling. We reverently bless his name, and we offer these things, with the right hand of our Christian fellow-ship and union, to all disciples of our common Lord, of every sect and denomination, praying them, by the love of the cru-
* Rev. xix. 11-20.
IT
GENERAL CONFERENCE.
cified Jesus, to regard “the promise of his coming,” and to cultivate “the love of his appearing,” and to sanctify them-selves in view of his approaching with power and great glory; although; they conscientiously differ from us in minor points of faith,.׳or reject some of the peculiarities which exist in individuals of this Conference.
We do not seek to excite the prejudices of our fellow-men, or to join, with those who mock at sin, or who scoff at the word of promise of the great Jehovah, or who lightly esteem the offices and ordinances of the church, or who empty of their power the threatenings of the holy law, or who count the blood of atonement a useless thing, or who refuse to worship and honor the Son of God, even as they honor the Father; nor do we refuse any of these, or others of divers faith, whether Roman or Protestant, who receive and heartily embrace the doctrine of the Lord’s coming in his kingdom: for reason and experience unite to teach, in the words of the apostle, that “every man’s work shall be made manifest; for the day shall declare it;” and the vivid apprehension of its approach tries and consumes the wood, and hay, and stubble, among our opinions, and we all become, by gentle necessity, the lambs of one flock, and are led into one fold, under the hand of the chief Shepherd and Bishop of souls.
We appeal to the sectarian standards, to history; and to the primitive churches before “the falling away;” but we rely mainlv; on the holy oracles of ,divine revelation for the support of our views, convinced that the Old Testament alone also is able to make us wise through faith unto salva-tion. We deeply feel that the success of the gospel of the kingdom at hand depends on our faithful use of the Scrip-tures of the Old and New Testaments; and that the secular interpretation of the Old Testament is fearfully heretical which considers it as being silent on the subject of Christ’s coming to judgment, to raise the dead, and to dispense ever-lasting rewards.
The Bible is its own interpreter, independent of human commentaries; spiritual things are compared with spiritual; and the Old Testament is paraphrased in the New.
A common error is, to interpret a large proportion of the spiritual and everlasting things of the Old Testament, together with the words “everlasting” and “forever” when joined with divine promises and threatenings, as though they were limited to scenes and events of a secular and temporal nature; which is an error against the holiness and truth of God, annihilating to the power of his word, and dangerous to the souls of men. The Most High in his word always speaks of infinite and everlasting things literally, 3
PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONFERENCE.
18
and should by such terms be taken to mean everlasting things, and not something of infinitely less importance than what the words clearly imply.
In βηέ, we purpose not to confer with flesh and blood in the promulgation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, coming in his kingdom, but watching thereunto with all prayer and supplication, we desire to persuade men to repent and be converted, that the body of the elect may be accomplished, and the Lord may hasten his coming. Such are the sur-passing riches of his grace, that sinful men are permitted to uIove his appearing” and to “look for” it with this confi-dence, that when he “shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory,” “fashioned like unto his glorious body” The heart of the humble believer is drawn out to meet the coming of our Ij0rd with holy joy, and fruits of benevolence and love, as the bosom which feels the love of a mortal beats with lively emotion and active exertion, in hopes of the loved one’s speedy return.
Dear Brethren, inasmuch as we “know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh,” shall we not one and all “give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip,” and that day come upon us unawares? We cannot be our-selves prepared too well, or too soon, to meet the Lord at his coming, and to stand, with the assembled universe, before his awful bar; “ knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ; but he that doeth wrong, shall receive for the wrong which he has done; and there is no respect of persons.” Mill-ions of our fellow-mortals slumber over these tremendous con-siderations, because they regard them as not very near; and millions of professors say openly, by their lives, and by their lips, “peace and safety,” which is a sure index of the apostle, pointing to the very time in which, “then sudden destruction comoth upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.”
Let us, then, ourselves, “no longer sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober; let 11$ cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on this armor of light, for” most surely now “the night is far spent, and the day is at hand”
“ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all”
HENRY DANA WARD, Chairman.
Secretaries.
HENRY JONES. P. R. RUSSELL,
A DISSERTATION ON
THE SECOND ADVENT.
I
BY JOSIAH LITCH.
It is with deep emotion, friends and brethren, I stand before you at this time and on this interesting occasion. The purposes of our meeting are so novel, the objects to be accomplished so grand and vast, and the theme to be discussed and contemplated so glorious, as to inspire the heart with the most sublime and ennobling views and feelings. For we meet from various and distant places, on an occasion such as our own country, if not the world, has never before looked upon. We meet to contemplate our blessed Savior’s glorious advent near. We meet to comfort one another with these words, and to exhort one another, and so much the more as we see the day approaching.
The objects to be accomplished by the convocation of this conference, are not to assail others who do not see with us on this momentous subject j not to con· tend with each other on points of minor importance connected with the doc-trine we hold, and on which we do not all see alike as yet j for we have one rallying point on which we are all agreed, viz: That the glorious kingdom and personal appearance and reign of our Savior is at hand, near, even at the door: on this ground we meet and unite. On all other points we think and let think, and hold each one alone responsible for his own sentiments. Nor yet do we meet thinking to hasten or retard the glorious day when Christ shall reign universally; for we are well assured that God, in his time} will show who is the Blessed and only Potentate, the Kino of Kings and Lord of Lords. But we meet with the hope—
1.	Of deepening in our own minds the habitual conviction of the near approach of the day of God, and the importance of constant preparation for the event.
2.	We hope to do something toward awakening the world generally, hut es-pecially the church, to turn their attention to this subject, examine the evidence which now is before the public, and which is every day developing itself, of the kingdom of heaven at hand.
3.	We meet for the purpose of attempting to embody a series of arguments relative to this subject, and׳of presenting them to the public for their consider^.· tion and instrtiction.
4.	And, finally, we meet to drink more into the spirit, to strengthen the bobd of union among ourselves, and to devise ways and means for the more rapid spread of this, to ns, soul-cheering doctrine of the kingdom near.
4
DISSERTATION ON
2
Those who have called and will be active in the support of the present con* ference, make no pretension to worldly honors, wealth or fame ; but consider it their highest glory and greatest joy, Mary-like, to sit at Jesus’ feet and learn of him who is meek and lowly in heart j for well assured they are, that if they do but rightly understand the kingdom of God, they will, like good house-hold* ers, be able out of God’s treasury of truth to bring forth things new and old, and minister to each one a portion in due season.
As it has fallen to the lot of your speaker to address you on the present Occasion, your attention is invited to the consideration of the following subject.
2 CHRONICLES VI. 16-18.
Now, therefore, 0 Lord God of Israel, keep with thy servant David, my father, that which thou hast promised him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit upon the throne of Israel; yet so that thy children take heed to their way to walk in my law, as thou hast walked before me.
Now then, 0 Lord God of Israel, let thy word be verified, which thou hast spoken unto thy servant David.
But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth ? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built!
A very cursory examination of this text, will show that Solomon, in this clause of his dedicatory prayer, refers di-rectly to the promise of God to David, of an everlasting successor to his throne. That both David and Solomon understood more to be implied in that promise than merely a regular succession of temporal kings, is also very evident, from the manner in which both speak, whenever they touch the theme; and, also, from the writings of other inspired penmen. What they did understand and teach on this sub-ject, it will he the object of this discourse to show. In doing this I shall show—
I.	That God did promise to David an everlasting sncces-sor upon his throne.
II.	That this promised successor was Christ
III.	The character of Christy the heir and successor of David.
IV.	This being, according to God1 s promise, will in very deed dwell with men on the earth.
V.	The manner and objects of his advent and abode among men on the earth.
I. God did promise το David an EVERLASTING SUC-CESSOR UPON HIS THRONE.
' It will not be necessary on the present occasion to multi-ply texts in support of the propositions laid down, although appropriate ones might be found to any reasonable number; but as the truth of a proposition does not depend on the
3
THE SECOND ADVENT.
uumber, but on the explicitness of the texts produced, I shall confine myself to a few of the most clear and striking under each head. Those who may wish to pursue the sub-* ject farther, can do so at their leisure.
1.	The first text I shall present in support of this propo-sition, is 2 Sam. vii. 12—16 : “ And when thy days be ful-filled, and thou shall sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy ,seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.
“ He shall build a house for my name; and I will estab-lish the throne of his kingdom forever.
“ I will be his father and he shall be my son. If he com-mit iniquity I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men :
“ But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, \vhom I put away before thee.
“And thy house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee: thy throne shall be established for-ever.”
That David understood this covenant to extend to an everlasting state, appears evident from his reply, verse 19: “ Thou has spoken also of thy servant’s house for a great while to come. And is this the manner of man, O Lord God 7” As much as to say, all human and temporal thrones will have an end; but this is to endure forever: it is not to fail or end; hence, it is superhuman, and in an everlasting state. Again, the continued succession through time was conditional, but the everlasting succession was sure, and in no wise depended on the faithfulness or unfaithfulness of David’s children.
2.	Another text of the same import must suffice on this point. Psalm lxxxix. 20: “I have found David my ser״ vant; with my holy oil have I anointed him.” Verses 27— 37: i: Also I will make him my first-born, higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him forever-more, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed
ALSO ,WILL 1 MAKE TO ENDURE FOR EVER, AND HIS THRONE AS
the days of heaven. If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgression with a rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Never-theless, my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure FOREVER, and his throne
DISSERTATION ON
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as the sun before me. It shall be established forever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.”
If the above promises are to be confined to a temporal state, they have utterly failed: for hundreds of years have passed by since David has had a son on his throne in Israel. Nor can any temporal revival of the house of Israel answer to the promise, however long it may continue; for no temporal period can endure forever. But the promise is yet sure: For—
II.	This promised successor is Jesus Christ.
Matt. i. 1, affords ample testimony as to the heirship of Jesus Christ to David : “ The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” This text settles the first question, whether Christ is truly the seed of David. But is he also the seed \vho is everlastingly to sit upon David’s throne?
Luke i. 32, 33: “ He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” The question is here settled, that Christ is the promised son and successor of David, and is everlast-ingly to inherit his throne. There is to be no end to the duration of his kingdom. If an end can be found, where there is no end, then it may be proved that the reign of Christ on David’s throne will terminate; and not before. But is Christ the very seed which God sware to David should sit on his throne forever? “ Therefore being a pro-phet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of th£ fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne.”* The way is now open to notice—
III.	The character of Christ, the heir and successor of David.
1.	Hf. is a man, possessed of a soul and body. Of the truth of this proposition, I presume, no farther evidence will be demanded than has already been given. For if he is the son of David, “ according to the fleshfl then is he a man, and possessed of all the attributes of man. But he is not only ״ David's so??, the son of manfl but he is also—
2.	The Son of God. I do not now speak, however, of his divine nature, but of his human. Nor am I about to enter into a long and labored argument on this point; but with one single quotation from the word of God, and an appended re־ mark. I will leave it. “The angel answered and said unto
* Acts ii. 3D.
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THE SECOND ADVENT.
her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore that holy thing which shall be bom of thee shall be called the Son of God.”*
No other inference can be drawn from this text than that Jesus is the Son of God, after the flesh, through the power of the Holy Ghost, in as true and as literal a sense as he is the son of David. Of those who contend for the doctrine of the Divine, Eternal Sonship of Jesus Christ, I would in-quire, if they believe the divinity of Jesus Christ to be a thing7 a created object? But yet it is “that Holy Thing” which is called the Son of God.
.3. He is the Mighty God. “ For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given : and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Coun-sellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to order it and to establish it with judg-ment and with justice, from henceforth and forever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this.”f
But you do not suppose that David and Solomon under-stood the character of Christ in the same light as set forth in the above text? Indeed I do. That David did, there is full evidence; and that Solomon imbibed the same idea, is clear from our text.
Take, for instance, the text quoted by the Savior to con-found his enemies: u The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool.”;(: “ If David then called him Lord, how is he then his son?” This they could not explain. Nor can it be satisfactorily explain-ed on any other hypothesis than that here laid down. Take another example from Psalm xlv., 6th verse, where David speaks of the things he had made touching the king; and which Paul applies to Christ: “ Thy throne, 0 God, is forever and ever; the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness and hatest iniquity; therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.”^ Let us now turn to our text. Solomon had just completed the first house dedicated to the worship of Almighty God. This house had been devised by David, but built by Solomon. But no sooner had David devised the plan of building a house for God, than the regal character of Jesus Christ, as the son and successor of David,
$ Heb. i. a
t Ps. cx. 1.
f Isa. ix. 6, 7.
* Luke i. 35.
DISSERTATION ON
6
was for the first time announced to man. The seed of David was announced as the builder, proprietor, and ever-lasting possessor of the house and throne. Accordingly, when the house was completed, the king assembled the house of Israel, to dedicate the temple to the Great Proprietor. He begins by calling to mind and rehearsing the covenant of God with David, of an everlasting successor. Evidently he did not consider himself the one. After contemplating the greatness of the promise, as if lost in wonder, he exclaims, “ But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house which 1 have built! ”
What else can we infer from the manner in which the wise man introduced the exclamation, than that he believed God had promised to David, his father, a successor, to inherit that house, as well as to sit on his throne, who should pos-sess the nature and perfections of Deity? It must mean that, if it means anything, or if there is any connection between the verses of our text, or indeed between any of the different parts of Solomon’s prayer. The truth seems to be this: Jesus Christ in his humanity is both the Son of God and the son of David. In this person, as Paul expresses it, “ God was manifest in the flesh.”* Or yet again : “ For in him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” j־ “I Jesus have sent mine angel,” &c. “I am the root and the offspring of David.”{ Such is our Savior. Such the being who “died for us;” who “tasted death for every man;” who “is the propitiation for our sins,” “and also for the sins of the whole world.” Death was the penalty of the Divine law. That penalty Jesus Christ has sufFered instead of the sinner. God can now be just and yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.
Christ is now “ the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence.” That church, redeemed from among all nations, by his blood, is now Abraham’s seed; the house of Jacob; and the house of David. “ For if ye are Christ’s, then are ye Abram’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Christ is the head, the church the body of that head ! There is a mysterious union between Christ and his people: “For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all one.” But in what sense are Christ and his people one? Paul answers, “ We are mem-bers of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.” “But I
* 1 Tim. iii. 16.	f Col. ii. 9.	f Rev. xxii. 16.
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THE SECOND ADVENT.
can never believe such a mystery !״ “ How can this be?״ It is no more mystery to you, my hearer, than to Paul, when he wrote it; for he added, “this is a great mystery; but I speak concerning Christ and the church.״ Every true Christian, then, is a member of Christ’s body, flesh, and bones. And if thus, how holy ought he to be !
0,	what a glory gathers around the theme of redemption by Jesus Christ! Shout, then, ye saints of the Most High ! Shout unto God with the voice of triumph ! Unto him who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, unto him be glory, in the church, by Christ Jesus, forever I 0!
“ Angel, assist our mighty joys,
Strike all your harps of gold;
But when you raise your highest notes. His love can ne’er be told! ”
Christ is the believer's life. “ Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.״ “And when die who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.״ Well might the apostle call it “that great love wherewith he loved us! ״ And can we wonder that the poet also should sing, or can we forbear to sing with him,—
“ 0 love, the bottomless abyss,
My sins are swallowed up in thee;
Covered is my unrighteousness,
No spot of guilt remains on me,
While Jesus' blood, through earth and skies,
Mercy, free, boundless mercy cries.”
He is “ the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.” And as many as receive him, to them he gives power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Come, then, perishing sinner, to this Savior.
But I am wandering. I only designed to show the rela-tion existing between Christ and the church as a reason why he will not ׳live in glory and leave her behind ; but that he will come again and receive her to himself: For—
IY. This glorious being, according to God’s promise,
WILL IN VERY DEED DWELL WITH MEN ON THE EARTH.
We have so long been accustomed to contemplate the kingdom of Jesus Christ as a spiritual dominion; and the throne of David on which he reigns as being either in hea-ven, or in the human heart, that it is with extreme difficulty we can bring ourselves to look at this subject in the plain, simple and scriptural light in which alone we ought to view it. The reason of this seems to be this: in looking at the
DISSERTATION ON
8
Divine and glorious character of Christ, we lose sight of his humanity. We forget that he is the son of David, an earthly monarch. But such he in reality is : no less so now than when he was on earth. If he has now gone into hea-ven and is seated at the right hand of the throne of Cod, that is not to be his eternal abode. He is there now ; with, and by, his own blood, as bur advocate with the Father; and there he will sit, until his foes become his footstool. He is there in the holy of holies, as our great High Priest, in his own proper person, body, soul and Divinity, thenceforth expecting until his foes become his footstool.
1.	Jesus Christ is to dwell on the earth ; because the Lord God has given to him by promise the throne of his father David.* That throne was an earthly one, or on the earth, and not in heaven. Hence, if Christ sits forever on David’s throne, he must dwell on earth, and at Jerusalem.
2.	He xoill dioell on earth, because the inheritance of the uttermost parts of the earth is to be his. “Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree; thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. And thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”f The holy hill of Zion which God has chosen, there to dwell forever, as his desired rest, is on earth, and not in heaven.
“ The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David ; he will not turn from it: Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne. If thy children will keep my covenant and my tes-timony that I shall teach them, their children shall also sit upon thy throne forevermore. For the Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest forever : here will I dwell; for I have desired it.” Again, “ There will I make the horn of David to bud.”t
3.	Daniel saw in vision, after the destruction of the emblematical beasts, the representatives of earthly govern-ments, “One like the Son of man, coming in the clouds of heaven; and he came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him: and there was given him a kingdom and dominion, that all kingdoms, nations and tongues should serve him.” Again, “ The kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting king-
* Luke i. 33.	| Psalm ii. 6—9.	$ Psalm cxixii. 11—14,17.
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THE SECOND ADVENT.
dom.״* If the kingdoms represented by the beasts were on earth, so also will be that of the Son of man : for it is to be reared upon the ruins of the other kingdoms.
4.	The Church, the saints of God, are Christ's body. The head and body must be united in one and dwell together. But “the meek shall inherit the earth.״ “Such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth.״ “ The righte-ous shall inherit the land and dwell therein forever.״! If these promises are true, and the people of Christ are to be where he is, he must reign and dwell with them on earth. Thus shall “ the kingdoms of this world become the king-doms of our Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.״!
And then it shall be said, “ Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men ; and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain ; for the former things are passed away. And he that sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.״ They are what they purport, and not mystical. The great problem will then be solved. Yes, God, even that God whom hea-ven, even the heaven of heavens, cannot contain, “will in very deed dwell with men on the earth." Yes—
“ From the third heaven, where God resides,
That holy, happy place,
The New Jerusalem comes down,
Adorned with shining grace.
Attending angels shout for joy,
And the bright armies sing,
Mortals, behold the sacred seat Of your descending King.
The God of Glory down to men Removes his blest abode,
Men, the dear objects of his love,
And he their smiling God.”
The way being thus prepared, we are to inquire—
Y. Into the manner and objects of his advent and abode on earth among men.
1.	“ The manner.״ That Jesus Christ, the promised seed of David, has come in the flesh, that he was “ bom of a virgin,” “in Bethlehem,״ &c., are facts so clearly attested, that an argument to prove them to any who believe and read
* Dan., chap. vii. f Matt. v. 5. Ps. xxxvii. 11, 22, 29. J Rev. xi.
2
DISSERTATION ON
10
the Bible, would be entirely needless. But all the above-named facts were once matters of prophecy, and have been so fulfilled. And yet the prophecies which foretold them were no more clear, than that that same being who has gone into heaven and set down on the right hand of the throne of God, shall come again in a manner altogether unlike his first advent. If the one has been accomplished,, so will the other be in due time.
Let us then hear the testimony of God on this point: “ 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.”* But how shall he come the second time? “And when he had spoken these things־, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly 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 so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath-day’s journey.”!
In this text the prophecy is explained and illustrated by the statement of a matter of fact. If, therefore, Jesus Christ went to heaven in his own proper person, in a cloud, we must look for him in the same person and the same manner. This text might suffice on this point; but I will give one more: “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 forth his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”! This certainly is coming “ to them that look for him without sin (or a sin-offering) unto salvation.” If so, it is his second coming.
Again : All the tribes of the earth shall see him and mourn. Hence, his appearance must be visible to all the world. But such an appearing has never yet taken place. And among all who have endeavored to refer jt to the destruction of Jerusalem or to other circumstances, none have ever had the fortune to find one single witness to testify he saw such a scene as the coming of the Son of man on that occasion. Indeed, if there is any meaning in language, if we may ever
t Matt. xxiv. 30, 31.
f Acts i. 9—12.
* Heb. ix. 28.
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THE SECOND ADVENT.
depend upon the testimony of the Bible, we must look for a yet future and literal coming of the Son of man in the clouds Of heaven.
Once more: I wish to inquire, by what authority are the wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, false prophets and false-christs of the chapter construed as being literal, and then so immediately, in the same connection, without any intimation of a change from a literal to a figurative ,mean-ing, the appearing of the real Christ is called a spiritual or figurative appearing. I protest against such violence to plain scripture.
2. The objects of his advent and abode among men.
(1.) To destroy the wicked of the earth. “And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, taking ven-geance 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; when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe in that day.55* Here is a testimony that the wicked, all who do not obey the gospel, will be destroyed from the presence of the Lord when he comes. This earth is to be his abode, and the wicked must be banished from it.
Again : “ Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. And thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.55f According to this text, when the Son of God comes to take possession of his inheritance, he will break and dash in pieces his ene-mies.
Once more: “ The good seed are the children of the kingdom ; the tares are the children of the wicked one ; the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world ; the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this 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. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.55{ All this is to take place at the end of the aion, age, ox time. The wicked are all to be gathered out of Christ’s kingdom which he has purchased.
\ Matt. xiii. 37—43.
f Ps. ii. 8, 9.
* 2 Thess. i. 7—10.
DISSERTATION ON
13
Take one text more: “For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slaim”* This is to take place at the time when the dead live.
(2.) The second object is, to raise from the dead, and glo-rify the righteous. “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God : and the dead in Christ shall rise first.”·(־
“Marvel not at this; for the hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unt.o the resurrection of damnation.”{ The object of the resurrection of the righteous is, that they may live forever.
“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.”^ But how shall they who are Christ’s at his coming rise? The apostle answers, verses 42, 43, 44, 52, 53: “It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption: it is sown in dis-honor, it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power ־. it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.” “The dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” Yes, the children of God know that when he shall appear, they shall be like him, for they shall see him as he is.
“0 what a blessed hope is ours,
While here on earth λνβ stay! ”
Christ is the believer’s life. “And when he who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory.” It was this blessed hope which cheered the patri-archs, comforted the prophets, supported the apostles, and bore up the martyrs amid the flames. They looked for and “desired a better resurrection.”
(3.) The third object of his advent is, to change to irrnnor-tality the living saints; and to receive to himself, forever, both the dead and living in him.
“Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling
f 1 Thess. iv. 14, 16.
$ 1 Cor. xv. 22, 23.
* Isa. xxvi. 21. t John v. 28, 29.
13
THE SECOND ADVENT.
of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”*
Again : “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we be ever with the Lord.”f
An idea has been entertained that when the seventh or last trump shall sound, and the mystery of God be fin-ished, a state of unparalleled anarchy will ensue, during which Christians will be the objects of the hatred and per-secution of the wicked; and a time of martyrdom ensue. But if we may believe the apostle, instead of meeting perse-cution at the last trump, the Christian wilt be glorified in the twinkling of an eye; and be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and be forever with him.
Thus also the Savior: “And they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he shall send forth his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”:[
(4.) The fourth object is, to burn and renew the heavens and the earth, and fit it up as the abode of the saints.
“Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished : 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 melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteous-ness.”'{»	“His promise.” Where has God promised this ?
“For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh : and the slain of the Lord shall be many.” “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing,
f 1 Thess. iv. 16, 17.
$ 2 Pet. iii. 6, 7, 10, 13.
* 1 Cor. xv. 51, 52. X Matt. xxiv. 30, 31.
DISSERTATION ON
14
and her people a joy.* This is God’s promise, and this God will perform when he comes ill glory.
“And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before wap preached unto you: whom the heavens must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets, since the world began.”f Here we are told that God has promised a restir tution of all things, by the mouth of all his holy prophets, since the world began. Also, that the heavens must receive Jesus Christ until that time. “Sit thou at my right hand, until Ϊ make thy foes thy footstool.”! “And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet.”§ They shall be Christ’s footstool. The earth is to be restored to its paradisical state, and under Jesug Christ, the second Adam, all things are to be subdued. There shall then be no more curse; neither sorrow nor cry-ing; neither shall there be any more death.
110 glorious hour, 0 blest abode!
I shall be near and like my God,
And sin and death no more control The sacred pleasures of the soul.”
(5.) The fifth object of his advent and abode among metii is) to reign iipon the throne of David 0ve1m the house of Jacob forever and ever.
Ήβ is Abraham’s promised seed, to whom the promise of the land of Canaan was made for an everlasting possession. But who are the house of Jacob, over whom he is to reign ? Not all the literal descendants of Jacob; for “they are not all Israel \Vho are of Israel;” and while they shall come from the four winds, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of God, the Jews, as such, shall be cast out ; and only those who are Christ’s, and Abraham’s seed, will find admission. “Henceforth,” says the apostle, “know we no man after the flesh; yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, [as a Jew] yet now henceforth know we him so no more.” As a Jew, then, Christ himself will no more be known; but as the head of the whole church, both Jew and Gentile. “Therefore, if any man be in Christ he is a new creature,” (not a Jew or Gentile;) “old things are׳ done away, and, behold, all things have become new.” Thp Jewish economy, and distinctions originating in it, are done away, and the subjects of David’s throne are new creatures, members of Christ’s “body, of his flesh and his bones.”
f Acts iii. 20, 21. $ Mai. iv. 3.
* Isa. lxvi. 15, 16. lxv. 17, 18. t Ps. ci. 1.
1«
THE SECOND ABVENT.
“Wfc are the circumcision, who worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” From these, and a multitude of other texts of the same im-port, it is very evident that the subjects of David’s throne and kingdom, in its everlasting dynasty, are not the Jewish nation as such, but Christ’s redeemed people from among ail nations. Far in him “shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.”
When, therefore, the Son of David sits on the throne of his glory, and says to those on his right hand, Come, ye blessed, and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, he will say it not to the Jews, but to all who have ministered to him; ih the persofi of his disci-pies.
I am aware of the difficulty of conceiving of the glorious and personal reign of Christ on earth, as a man among men. And L think, also, that I can perceive the oauses of that difficulty.
1.	The first cause is the fact, that for ages Christ has almost universally been contemplated by the church in the character of some mysterious, glorious, and spiritual person-age, seated on his Father’s throne, where he shall forever sit. It is true, we have been taught that he will come again to judge the world in the last day: but yet, such has been the manner in which even that truth has been taught, it has appeared more like a dream than a reality. In short, the whole subject of a future state of being has seemed to be wrapped up in mystery; and our teachers and keepers have all but forbidden us to inquire or examine anything in refer-ence to it. The clearest definition I can form of the almost universal feeling and belief on the subject of a future heaven, is, that when we die, we shall go up to heaven, and there our happy spirits shall wear a dazzling crown of glory, have a golden harp, and sing praise to God and the Lamb forever and ever. I have found it one of the most difficult points of doctrine I have ever undertaken to impress on my hearers, to make them understand and feel, that Jesus Christ is a real man, and not a pure spirit, and that at the resurrection the souls and bodies of his saints will be reunited, and, as real men, restored to God’s perfect image, that they will really reign in glory with Christ. The church, it is to be feared, do not to this day understand and feel the fact of the real, personal, human as well as glorious character of Christ. It is hard to eradicate old, long-cherished, and favorite views.
2.	We have so long been accustomed to look at Christ almost exclusively in his Divine character, that, like the wise man, we are filled with wonder and doubt at the very
DISSERTATION ON THE SECOND ADVENT.
15
mention of the idea of his dwelling on earth and among men. Yet such is the glorious mystery, which was hid from ages and generations, but is now made manifest to his saints: “That in the dispensation of the fulness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in him.״
When, then, the earthly image* is reduced to chaff, and the wind carries it away, the stone which smites it shall become a mountain and fill the whole earth. When the four beasts are given, to the burning flame, the Son of man shall have given him an everlasting kingdom. The king-dom and dominion under the whole heaven shall be given to the saints. At the end of the world, (age,) when the wicked are cast into a furnace of fire, then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. And when the seventh trumpet sounds, "the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ, and
HE SHALL REIGN FOREVER AND EVER.
* Dan., chap. ii.
A DISSERTATION ON
THE CHRONOLOGY OF PROPHECY.
BY JOSIAH LITCH.
After the exceedingly interesting address with which we have been favored on the doctrine and history of the milleninm, it seems to be an appropriate time for the introduction of another topic, viz., about what time may we expect the glorious kingdom of God to be revealed?
I am aware of the fact, that we are not all agreed with regard to time, and that there are stropg objections in some minds against designating any par* ticular period, as the epoch of the kingdom. And with those brethren who thus .differ from me, I have no disposition to stop to contend for one moment, espe-dally while they teach and are endeavoring with all, their power to impress the feet, that the day is now specially near at hand, even at the very door; and that we are constantly to look for it. But with my own views of God’s word, I can but believe the time to be A matter of revelation, and a proper subject of investigation. But for the views I may this evening present, I do not wish anybody but myself to be held responsible. If they are sound and scriptural, let them have their weight and influence; if unsound and anti-scriptural, let them fall to the ground and be forgotten.
The Chronology of Prophecy is the theme before ns. But what is “the chronology of prophecy?” What but the chronology of time? What is prophecy, where does it commence, and how far extend? are questions to be dis-cussed in the present address.
1.	What is Prophecy? Webster defines it, “prediction,” a “foretelling” A prophecy, then, foretells what shall be in futurity.
2.	Where does Prophecy begin? Prophecy began with , the exercise of God’s moral government over man. And,
3.	Prophecy extends through time, into an eternal state of being.
Having defined the first question, it will be unnecessary to dwell longer on it. We therefore shall proceed to sus-tain the position taken in answer to question second, viz., that “prophecy began with the exercise of God’s moral government over man.”
6
DISSERTATION ON
2
Man was the last piece of the Divine workmanship on the creation week. This finished, and a race of moral agents produced, God rested the seventh day from all his works which he had made.	.	✓
Let us, then, attend to the use the apostle Paul has made of this act of Divine procedure. “ For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath if they shall enter into my rest; although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he spake in a' certain place of the seventh day on this wise,
‘ And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.’ The argument is, that although from the foundation of the world a rest was provided for man, yet those, and those only, who believe shall inherit it. He also draws from the texts he quotes, three inferences :—
1.	That God’s rest on the seventh day was typically prophetic of a future rest for his believing people; that they should be distinguished from others and enjoy it.
2.	That the rest which Joshua gave the Israelites in Ca-naan was not that promised rest; for had it been, he would not afterward have spoken of another day. But he did, by David, afterward speak of another day. Therefore, there remalneth a rest for the people of God.
Perhaps, however, it may be objected, “although the Sabbath is a type of the future rest which remains for the people of God, yet it does not exactly follow that it is a prophecy of it.” But let us look at this point. A type is an image and representative of another and subsequent object. Does not, then, the very idea of a type presuppose the subsequent existence of its anti-type Ί Unless it does, it is no type at all. Hence, if the Sabbath is a type of a future rest for God’s people, the promulgation of that type is a pro-phecy of the anti-type. It follows therefore that prophecy, and prophecy of a future rest for God’s people, began with the exercise of God’s moral government over mail, the seventh day from the beginning of the creation.
To give the chronology of prophecy, is to trace its his-tory from period to period, from its origin to its consumma-tion.
Let us inquire, then, more particularly, what the Sabbath prefigures and predicts.
1.	That it predicts a future rest for God’s people, we have already seen.
2.	It has been an almost universal opinion of the church, both Jewish and Christian, that the Sabbath prefigures a
* H0b. iv. 3. 4.
3
THE CHRONOLOGY OF PROPHECY.
glorious state of rest for the church during the seventh thousand years of the world. The principal arguments in favor of this, are briefly as follows :—
1.	God made the world in six days and rested the seventh ; and constituted the Sabbath a type of future rest. So we may expect that after the troubles and commotions of six thousand years, there will be a rest of a thousand years from all these sorrows.
2.	The institution of the Sabbaths and jubilees among the Jews, has been considered typical of the same thing.
3.	The third argument is from 2 Pet. iii. 8: “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.” This being spoken in reference to the “ Day of the Lord,” and the time of its coming, it has been argued that the writer intended to intimate that each day of the creation week is typical of a thousand years of time before the final and everlasting subjection of all things, and the Son himself becomes subject to him who did put all things under him, and God is all in all.
4.	The fourth, and I think strongest argument, is from the 20th chapter of Revelation; where a 1000 years’ reign with Christ and God is promised to the saints before the final resurrection and destruction of all foes. This 1000 years will be the grand jubilee of the redeemed of earth.
With these remarks, I will no\v proceed to show that the chronology of prophecy, as recorded in the Bible, presents us with seven thousand years from the beginning of thq exercise of God’s moral government over man, to the final period of the conquest of all GodTs enemies, and when Satan, death and hell, with all whose names are not written in the book of life, will be cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death.
The first typical prophecy of this glorious rest was insti-tuted A. Μ. 1, the first month and seventh day of the month.
Soon after this event, siu entered into the world, and death by sin. But God immediately interposed, and re-newed the prophetic promise of a final restitution of the fair works of his almighty hand through the woman’s con-quering seed.
Long and dreadful has been the conflict which has ensued, and during all this period the venom of the old serpent has been displayed in biting at his glorious conqueror’s heel. But the word of prophetic promise makes the issue sure. “ The kingdoms of this world” must and will yet become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever.
Leaving this bubbling spring of hope to a lost world, we
DISSERTATION ON
4
will trace its chronology in the rippling stream through sue-cessive centuries. *For with the exception of Enoch, who foretold the coming of the Lord to execute judgment on the ungodly, the allusions to the great Deliverer are few and slight to the time of Abraham. Attention is now invited to the following chronology:
At this point of time the rippling brook which began its course with the promised triumph of the woman’s seed, begins to enlarge and deepen in its onward course. After the death of Terah, God called Abram into the land of Ca-naan, and gave to him and his seed after him, as an ever-lasting possession, all the land on which his eyes looked. He also promised that in him all the families of the earth should be blessed.* From this time the general promise of deliverance to the world through the woman’s seed was restricted to the family of Abram; then to Isaac; after-ward to Jacob; and of the sons of Jacob, to the house of Judah. From the same period also began the 430 years’ sojourn of the holy family. “Now the sojourning of the chil-dren of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was 430 years. And it came to pass at the end of 430 years, even the self-same day, it came to pass that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.”f
’ From this text a difficulty has arisen, as to the time when the 430 years began; whether at the call of Abraham, or from the time Joseph was sold into .Egypt. But according
* Gen. xii. 3, 7. Acts vii. 4.	f Ex. xii. 40, 41.
Creation, A. M. 1.	yrs m. d. A.M. B.C.j-Booki chap, verse
X. Adam to Seth,	130	130 4157 Gen. ~3	5־
2.	Seth to Enos,	105	«	6
3.	Enos to Cainan,	90	“9
4.	Cainan to Mahalaleel,	70	“	12
6.	Mahalaleel to Jared,	65	“	15
6.	Jared to Enoch,	162	“	18
7.	Enoch to Methuselah,	65	“	21
8.	Methuselah to Lamech,	187	“	25
9.	Lamech to Noah,	182	“	28
10.	Noah’s life on leaving the Ark,	600	1 27 1656 2501	8	13,14
11.	Shem, from flood to Arphaxad,	2	11	10
12.	Aiphaxad to Salah,	35	'	«	12
13.	Salah to Eber,	30	“	14
14.	Eber to Peleg,	•34	16 ״ ׳
15.	Peleg to Reu,	30	“:	18
16.	Reu to Serug,	32	“	20
17.	Serug to Nahor,	30	«	22
:18. Nahor to Terah,	29	“	24
19. Terah’s age at death,	205	2083 2074	32 ״
______	___ ____________1427 I ___
5
THE CHRONOLOGY OF PROPHECY.
to Clarke, the Samaritan Pentateuch and Alexandrian Sep-tuagint both read the text as follows : “ Now the sojourn-ing of the children of Israel and their fathers which they sojourned in the land of Canaan and in the land of Egypt, was 430 years.” With this also! agrees St. Paul, Gal. iii. 17, where he reckons 430 years from the promise of God to Abram, to the giving of the law. Therefore it was 430 years from Abram’s call at Terah’s death to the Exodus.
Although the Bible gives us a history of Joshua’s life and administration, together with his age at his death ; and also the history of the subsequent interregnum and ad-ministration of the Elders, yet it does not furnish us with (tata as to the time either continued. Joshua lived a hun-dred and ten years.* Caleb, another of the spies sent by Moses to spy out the land of promise, was forty years of age when Moses sent him; and as we may suppose their ages were somewhere in the neighborhood of each other, it is not unreasonable to suppose Joshua was 45 at that time. Then 40 years would bring him to 85, when he went up with Israel IiiLt! Uaiiaau. II au, lie was me xuler 01 Isiaei Zf) years. And this perfectly accords with Josephus’s chronology.
It is very evident from Judges, first and second chapter to the fifteenth verse of chap. 2d, that after the death of Joshua, although they had no particular leader, they were many years engaged under the direction of the Lord in conquering and settling the country, until after that whole generation were dead. But for the continuance of that interregnum no period is given ; Josephus, however, has fixed it at 18 years, and this appears to me a reasonable time. At least it is better, it appears to me, to adopt the testimony of this emi-hent and credible historian, than to indulge ourselves in wild conjectures at this late period of the world. From this final settlement of the land among the tribes begins the 450 years spoken of by Paul, Acts xiii. 20, during which God gave them Judges, until the time of Samuel the prophet.
* Josh. xxiv. 29.
y’s. m. d. A.M. B.C. Book. ch. verse. !
1. Sojourn in Egypt,	430	Exod. 12 40,41
2. Sojourn in the wilderness, 40	Josh. 5	6 Joseph.
3.	Joshua after Moses,	25	Ant.,
4.	Interregnum after Joshua, 18	2596 1561	Book 5.
_________________________ 513	_____________________
DISSERTATION ON
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After the death of Eli and his sons, which closed the 450 years of the Judges, Samuel began the administration of the government of Israel. How long that administration con-tinned before Saul was anointed king, does not appear on the face of the history. But that it was 20 years, is quite Clear to my mind. For after the death of Eli, the ark of Odd remained in the country of the Philistines 7 months.* After that it was carried back, and abode in Kirjath-jearim
a long time, How long it romained there, is uncertain, but
certainly until some time after the death of Saul, which was at least 60 years; for it was not removed until the reign of David. The 20 years, therefore, mentioned 1 Sam. vii. 2d, must refer to something beside the time the ark abode at Kirjath-jearim,
The third verse of the same chapter begins a history of Samuel’s labors, up to the time the people asked a king.! Are not the 20 years, then, to be understood as the chro-liology of ־that period of Samuel’s administration, rather than !he time of the abode of the ark at Kirjath-jearim ? I do not See that the text can be reconciled with the facts in any other way. If others can discover a better mode of harmon-feing it, I shall be happy to learn it.
I would read the place thus: “And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjath-jearim, that the time was 10ng.n§ Here I think the history of the ark, from Eli’s
* 1 Sam. vi. 1. f 1 Chron. xiii. 6.	$ Chap. viii. 5. φ Verse 2.
yrs. m. d., A. Μ. B. C. Book. chap, verse
Servitude to Mesopotamians, 8	J.udg. 3	8
,2. Othniel,	40	“	11
3.	Eglon,	18	“	1'4
4.	Ehnd,	80	“	30
5.	Jabin,	20	4	3
0. Barak,	40	5	31
V.. The Midianites,	7	!	0	1
8.	־ Gideon,	40	8	28
9.	Abimelech,	3	9	22
10.	Tola,	23	10	2
11. Jair,	22	«3
12. The Philistiiles,	18.	“	8
13.	Jephthah,	6	12	7
14.	Ibzan,	,7	“	9
15.	Eloh,	10	*	11
16.	Abdon,	8	“14
17.	The Philistines,	40	13	1
18.	Samson,	20	15	20
19.	Eli,	40	3046 1111 1 Sm. 4	18
______________________\m___________________________________
THE CHRONOLOGY OF PROPHECY.	T-
death to the time of David, ends. Then begins the history of Samuel and Israel, from Eli’s death to the appointment of Saul to be king of Israel. “ It was 20 years : and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only; and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” This history of the mourning of Israel, and exhortation, is perfectly natural after their defeat, and the death of Eli and his sons. It is more natural than it is to place it subsequent to the return of the ark.
yrs. m. d. A. Μ. B. C Book, chap, verse
1.	Samuel,	20	1 Sm.	7	2
2.	Saul,	40	Acts	13	21
3.	David,	40	6	3146 1011	2 Sm.	5	4,5
י______________________6 100____________________________
At this point another advance is made in the develop-ment of the glorious plan of salvation, and triumph of the womans seed. David, of the tribe of Judah, and family of Jesse, was chosen as God’s favorite; and to him God gave the promise of a Son to sit forever on his throne. To this Son the heathen were to be given for an inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession.
A temporal succession was promised to David condition-ally : if his children kept God’s law. But the everlasting Son and successor was unconditionally stfre. The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David; he will not turn from it: Of the fruit of thy body will I set on thy throne. Accord-ingly we have an uninterrupted succession of kings of Da-vid’s line, from Solomon until Zedekiah was carried captive into Babylon.
After this, that succession was broken, and the nation was ruled sometimes by their enemies, sometimes by the high priest, who also acted as king, and sometimes by a petty king, independent of the high priest. But through this long period the house of David was preserved distinct, even until the promised seed of David was born. Since that time it has been lost in the other tribes.
DISSERTATION ON
8
After Zedekiah’s captivity we are indebted rather to pro-phecy than biblical history to carry on the line of chrono-logy. The house of Judah being in captivity, we are depen-dent on the history of their oppressors, guided by the light of prophecy, with here and there a beacon-light of bible history, to direct our steps. The 70 years’ captivity which began in the 3d year of Jehoiakim’s reign,f and 19 years before the captivity of Zedekiah, affords us the first step after the end of Zedekiah’s reign.J We are told the cap-tivity should last 70 years; and that at the end of 70 years, God would punish the king of Babylon and that na-tion for their iniquity. But Babylon and Chaldea remained unpunished until that night in which Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans, was slain. God then punished the king with death, the nation with bondage, and the city with ruin. The seventy years must, therefore, have ended at that time.
The captivity began in the first year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, who, according to both the Bible and Rollin, reigned 45 years. From the third year of Jehoiakim, he farther reigned eight years.
* Jehoram began his reign in the 5th year of Joram, king of Israel; Jeho-shaphat being still king of Judah. 2 Kings vin. 16. Joram, king of Israel, began ׳his reign in the 18th year of Jehoshaphat. 2 Kings iii. 1. Jehcram, therefore, reigned but five years alone, and three with his father-eight years.
(־ Dan. i. 2.	J Jer. xxv. 12.
|yrs. m. d. A. Μ. B. C. Book, chap. vetse
1. Solomon,	40	1 Kings. 11	42
2.	Rehoboam,	17	14	21
3.	Abijam,	3	15	1
4.	Asa,	41	“	10
5.	Jehoshaphat,	25	22	42
6. Jehoram,*	5	2 Kings. 8 16,17
7.	Ahaziah,	1	“	26
8.	Athaliah,	6	11	3,4
9.	Joash,	40	12	1
10.	Amaziah,	29	14	2
11.	Azariah,	52	15	2
12.	Jotham,	16	“	33
13.	Ahaz,	16	16	2
14.	Hezeldah,	29	IS	2
15.	Manasseh,	55	21	1
16.	Ammon,	2	“	19
17.	Josiah,	31	22	1
18.	Jehoahaz,	3	23	31
19.	Jehoiakim,	11	“36
20.	Jehoiachin,	3 10	2 Chron. 36	9
21.	Zedekiah,	11	3577 580	“	11
430	6 10
THE CHRONOLOGY OR PROPHECY.	9
From the fall of Babylon to the 7th year of the reign of Artaxerxes, king of Persia, we have but little chronological data in the Bible, either historical or prophetical. But we have the history of that period marked out for us, partly as matter of history and partly prophecy. The exact chrono* logy, however, we are left to obtain elsewhere. But we have! seen the correctness of Rollin in giving the chronology of the Babylonian kings to make out the 70 years’ captivity; and are we not bound to receive his testimony respecting the Medo-Persian monarchs 7 Of the reign of Darius the Mede, after the death of Belshazzar, we have ample testi-mony in the kible; and so also of Cyrus the Persian. In the third year of Cyrus* Daniel had a vision, in which he, was toldf that there should afterward stand up three kings in Persia, and that the fourth should be far richer than they all; and that he should, through his power and riches, stir up all against the realm of Grecia. These four predicted kings, with the one then reigning (Cyrus), £nd Darius who had reigned, ate 6 Medo-Persian kings to the rich Greek invader. That this rich king was Xerxes, who invaded Greece With an immense army of several millions, there can be no reiasofiable doubt. And history furnishes us with just that number of kings who reigned in that time : 1. Darius the Mede. 2. Cyrus. 3. Cambyces. 4. Smerdis the Ma-gian. 5. Darius Hystaspes. 6. Xerxes the Great. Then follows Artaxerxes, whose history we have in Ezra and Nehemiah. It was in the 7th year of his reign, first month and first day of the month, that Ezra and his people began to go up to Jerusalem.J From the same time &lso began the famous 70 weeks of Dan. ix. 24th, to the cutting off of Messiah. The 7th year of the reign of Artaxerxes, there-fore, forms an important era in biblical chronology. Ac-cording to Rollin, the chronology of the Medo-Persian kings is as fOlloWs :
* Ran. x. 1.	f Dan. xi. 2.	\ Ez. vii. 7,9
2
yrs. m. d. A.M.| B. C. Book.
Jehoiakim,	8	1
Jehoiachin,	3 10
Zedekiah,	11
1. Nebuchadnezzar farther reign’d 26	Rollm’s
2. Evil Merodacfc,	2	Chronology.
3.	Neriglissor,	4	u
4. Laborosoarched,	9	“
5.	Belshazzar	18	3628 529	“
___________________________________70	10______________________________
DISSERTATION ON
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It will be proper at this point to sum up what we have gone over, and then take our departure, guided by prophecy, down the stream of time.
_____________________Creation.______________________| yrs. mo. ds. A.M.
I From the creation to the time Noah left the ark,	1656	1	27 165&
2.	From the flood to the call of Abram at Terah’s death, 427	2083
3.	From Abram’s call to the Exodus,	430	2513
4.	Journeying in the wilderness, Joshua and Interreg-
hum,	83	2596
5.	Judges and servitude to various nations,'	450	3046·
6.	Samuel, Saul, and David,	100	6	3147
7.	From the beginning of Solomon's reign to Jehoia-
kirn’s captivity,	411	3	3558
8.	From Jehoiakim’s captivity, third year of his reign,
to Belshazzar’s death,	70	10 3628
9.	From death of Belshazzar to seventh year of Arta-
־ xerxes’	reign,	71	7	3700
_______________________________________________13699 [	6	7
Here, then, we find ourselves within six months of the end of the 3700th year of the world.
The above computation is supported by plain, positive bible testimony, with the exception of Joshua, the luterreg-num, Samuel, and the Medo-Persian kings. The history, or fact of their existence, the Bible gives, but not their exact chronology. The twenty years of Samuel, however, ought in justice to.form an exception to these exceptions: for I can but believe it is designed rts the true date of Samuel’s administration. The other three are attested by the most popular and credible of all ancient historians now extant. It is true, it is not inspiration, but the very best of unin-spired testimony. So that to A. M. 3700* the biblical history of the world forms a perfect chain, with not one link want-in#. י ;.· :.■־■;.־
Aw! f her, point of difficulty I Ml here notice. For as the objection is abroad, unless it be met and removed it must militate against this plan. The alleged difficulty is briefly this: that according to 2 Kings xiv', 16—23, and xv. 1, there
years, months, days. A. Μ. B. C.
1.	Darius the Median,	2
2.	Cyrus the Persian,	7
3.	Cambyces,	7
4.	Smerdis the Magian,	7
5.	Darius or Ahasuerus,	36
6.	Xerxes,	13
7.	Artaxerxes Longimanus,	6	3700	457
__________________________________71	7	__________________
11
THE CHRONOLOGY OF PROPHECY.
must either have been an interregnum in Judah of eleven years, between Amaziah and Azariah, or some king not mentioned in the Bible must have reigned that time. Ac-cording to the above texts, Jeroboam, son of Jehoash, king of Israel, began to reign in the fifteenth year of Amaziah, king of Judah. Amaziah lived afterward fifteen years: making his whole reign twenty-nine years. The last fif-teen years of his reign would consequently be contemporary with Jeroboam’s first fifteen years, and then his son should have succeeded him the first part of Jeroboam’s sixteenth year. But according to ch. xv. 1, Azariah began to reign in the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam’s reign; leaving an interregnum of eleven years.
This is a serious difficulty among chronologers; there being no intimation in the text that any other king reigned over Judah during that period; nor yet does it appear, from the manner in which Azariah’s reign is introduced, that much time elapsed between his father’s death and his own coronation. I cannot, therefore, believe there was an inter-regnum of eleven years between him and his father. The marginal reading of verse 1st, chap. 15th, if correct, (and I shall give presumptive evidence at least that it is,) removes the difficulty : “ This is the twenty-seventh year of Jero-loam's partnership with his father, who made him consort at kis going to the Syrian wars. It is the sixteenth year of Jeroboam's monarchy.”
This reading, also, removes another difficulty, which can be met in no other way. 2 Kings xv. 8, we learn that in the thirty-eighth year of the reign of Azariah, king of Judah, Zachariah, son and successor of Jeroboam, king of Israel, began to reign. But if Jeroboam’s reign was only forty-one years in all, as stated chap. xiv. 23, and eleven of those was an interregnum in Judah, then there must have been twenty-three or four years interregnum in Israel after Jeroboam’s death. Take twenty-six, the time of Jeroboam’s reign in his twenty-seventh year, from forty-one, and we have fifteen years remaining, for the reign of Jeroboam contemporary with Azariah; take that contemporary reign of fifteen years from thirty-eight, the year of Azariah’s reign when Zacha-riah began to reign, and it leaves an interregnum between Jeroboam and Zachariah of twenty-three years. But it is not pretended that there were over eleven years interreg-num in Israel at that time. And if we allow eleven years partnership for Jeroboam with his father, before his own monarchy began, fifteen contemporary with Amaziah, and twenty-six contemporary with Azariah, it will give him his forty-one years, and leave just eleven years interregnum in
DISSERTATION ON
12
Israel after his death. Then, also, we can find no place for an interregnum in Judah. I believe this to be a true solu-lion of the difficulty, and am Avilling to meet the most rigid criticism on this point..
We now leave the past with a period of 3700 years from the creation to the seventh year of Artaxerxes king of Persia.
Immediately after the close of the seventy years’ captivity in the first year of Darius the Mede, Daniel understood by books that the Lord had threatened his people with seventy years’ desolation. That seventy years being then ended, Daniel set himself, by prayer and supplications, with confesr sion of sin, sackcloth and ashes, to seek God for himself and his people. While thus engaged, Gabriel, a divine xnessear ger, was sent to instruct him respecting the time of the coming and death of Messiah: Daniel 9th chapter. After announcing the object of his visit, he said, verse 24, “Se־■ venty weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, to seal up the vision and prophecy, to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to anoint the Most Holy.”
Verse 25: “ Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jeru-salem, unto Messiah the prince, shall he seven weeks, and sixty and two weeks; the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.”
Verse 26: “And after threescore and two weeks, shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself; and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.”
Verse 27: “ And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week; and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease,” &c.
These weeks were not weeks of days, hut of years. Seh venty sabbatic years = 490 years. See Lev. xxv. 3, 4.
To show׳ the fulfilment of this prediction, I shall present an extract from Furguson’s Astronomy, for which I am indebted to my respected brother Fleming, of Portland* through “ The Signs of the Times”
“ This commandment was given to Ezra by Artaxerxes Longimanus, in the seventh year of that king’s reign. (Ez^ ra vii. 11—26.) Ezra began the work, which was afterward accomplished by Nehemiah, in which they meet with great opposition and trouble from the Samaritans and others, dur-» ing the first seven weeks, or forty-nine years.
“ From this accomplishment until the time when Christ’s
13
THE CHRONOLOGY OF PROPHECY.
messenger, John the Baptist, began to preach the kingdom of God, sixty-two weeks, or four hundred and thirty-four years.
“ From thence to the beginning of Christ’s public ministry, half a week, or three and a half years.
“And from thence to the death of Christ, half a week, or three and a half years; in which half week he preached and confirmed the covenant with many. In all, from the going forth of the commandment till the death of Christ, seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety years.”
“And lastly, in a very striking manner, the prophecy foretells what should come to pass after the expiration of the seventy weeks, viz. the destruction of the city and sane-tuary, by the people of the prince that was to come; which were the Roman armies under Titus their prince,” 06c.
“ Now,” continues the astronomer, “ both by the undoubt-ed canon of Ptolemy, and the famous era of Nabonasse, the beginning of the seventh year of the reign of Arta-xerxes Longimanus king of Persia, who is called Ahasuerus in the book of Esther, is pinned down to the 4256th year of the Julian period, in which year he gave Ezra the above-mentioned ample commission: from which count 490 years to the death of Christ, and it will carry the same to the 4746th year of the Julian period.” Before proceeding, however, with the extract, I will introduce an explanation of the Julian period from Dr. A. Clarke. “ The Julian pe-riod is a factitious era, conceived by Joseph Scaliger, to facilitate the reduction of the years of any given epoch to that of another. This period is the result of the lunar and solar cycles, and the indictions, multiplied by each other. Thus, multiply 19, the lunar cycle, by 28, the solar cycle, and the product will be 532; multiply this sum by 15, the cycle of ipdictions, and you will have 7980 years, which constitute the Julian period. The first year of the vulgar era of Christ is placed in the 4714th year of the Julian period: whence it follows, that to find any year of our Lord, 4713 years must be added ·to that year, and it will give the year of the Julian period sought. For example, to find the present year of our Lord, 1840, add to it 4713, and we have 6553 of the Julian period.” But to return to Fur-guson’s calculation. He proceeds:
“ Our Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath: and it is plain, from St. Mark, ch. xv. ver. 42, and St. Luke, ch. xxiii. ver. 54, that Christ was crucified on Friday, seeing the crucifix-ion was! on the day next before the Jewish Sabbath; and according to St. John, ch. xviii. ver. 28, on the day that the passover was to be eaten, at least by many of the Jews.
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“ The Jews reckoned their months by the moon, and their years by the apparent revolution gf the sun; and they eat the passover on the 14th day of the month Nisan, which was the first month of the year, reckoning from the first appearance of the new moon, which at: that time of the year might be on the evening of the day next after the change, if the sky was clear. So that their 14th day of the month answers to our 15th day of the moon, on which she is full. Consequently, the passover was always kept on the day of full moon.
“ And the full moon at which it was kept, was that one which happened next after the vernal equinox. For Jose-phus expressly says, (Antiq. B. iii. ch. 10,) the passover was kept on the 14th day of the month of Nisan, according to the moon, when the sun was in Aries. And the sun always enters Aries at the instant of the vernal equinox; which, in our Savior’s time, fell on the 22d day of March.
“ The dispute among chronologers about the year of Christ’s death, is limited to four or five years at most. But as we have shown that he was crucified on the day of a paschal full moon, and on a Friday, all that we have to do, in order to ascertain the year of his death, is only to com-pute in which of those years there was a passover full moon on a Friday. For the full moons anticipate eleven days every year, (twelve lunar months being $0 much short of a solar year,) and therefore once in every three years, at least the Jews were obliged to set their passover a month farther forward than it fell by the course of the moon, on the year next before, in order to keep it at the full moon next after the equinox. Therefore, there could not be two passovers on the same day of the week, within the compass of a few neighboring years. And I find by calculation, the only passover full moon that fell on a Friday, for several years before or after the disputed year of the crucifixion, was on the 3d day of April, in the 4746th year of the Julian period, which was the 490th year after Ezra received the above-mentioned commission from Artaxerxes Longitpanus, ac-cording to Ptolemy’s canon, and the year in tf-hich the Messiah was to be cut off, according to the prophecy, reck-oping from the going forth of that commission or command-ment: and this 490th year was the 33d year of our Savior’s age, reckoning from the vulgar era of his birth; but the 37th, reckoning from the true era thereof.
“ And when we reflect on what the Jews told him, some-time before his death, (John viii. 57,) ‘Thou art not yet fifty years old,’ we must confess, that it should seem much likelier to have been said to a person near forty, than to one
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THE CHRONOLOGY OF PROPHECY.
but just turned of thirty. And we may easily suppose, that St. Luke expressed himself only in round numbers, when he said that Christ was baptized about the 30th year of his age, when he began his public ministry; as our Savior himself did, when he said he should lie three days and three nights in the grave,
“ The 4746th year of the Julian period, which we have astronomically proved to be the year of the crucifixion, was the 4th of the 202d Olympiad; in which year, Phlegon, a heathen writer, tells us there was a most extraordinary eclipse of the sun that ever was seen. But I find by calcu-lation. that there could be no total eclipse of the sun at Jerusalem, in a natural way, in that year. So that what Phlegon here calls an eclipse of the sun, seems to have been the great darkness for three hours at the time of our Saviors crucifixion, as mentioned by the evangelist: a darkness altogether supernatural, as the moon was then in the side of the heavens opposite to the sun; and therefore could not possibly darken the sun to any part of the earth.״
Thus we are brought down, by astronomical accuracy, to A. D. 33, and find it the 4746th year of the Julian period. The present is A. D. 1840. 4713, the year of the Julian period at Christ’s birth, added = 6553 of the Julian period. 4256, the year of the Julian period in the 7th year of Arta-xerxes, from the present, 6553, leaves 2297 years since the 7th of Artaxerxes. Here, then, we only want three years of 23Q0 years since that point. 3700, A. Mu the 7th of Artaxerxes; and since him	2300, to 1843.
6000 years to 1843, A.D.
Having traced the first typical prophecy from the creation through 6,000 years, down to A. D. 1843, we have gained, to say the least, highly probable evidence, that the great Jubilee will come in 1843. But we will now return to another prediction of the same glorious event.
Vision of four Beasts; Daniel, 7 th chapter.
In the first year of Belshazzar, A. M. 3610, and B. C. 547, according to the foregoing plan, Daniel had a vision of four great beasts, which he was told were four kingdoms which should arise successively and fill up the time from then to the coming of the Son pf man in the clouds of heaven to possess his everlasting kingdom. And when he ,should so come, those beasts were to he slain and their body be given to the burning flame. And until then the saints were to be
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16
persecuted and worn out; but then, and not till then, the saints will possess the kingdom. 80 the great Jubilee can-not come until the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven. Then will come the rest which remains for the people of God. 1 hope every one will read the chapter carefully, and see if there is any place for a rest for the saints, or for a millenium, until the Son of man comes in the clouds of heaven.
The four kingdoms thus predicted, and the only four which can be found to have successively existed and filled up the whole period of time from Daniel to us, are, 1. The Chaldean kingdom, existing when Daniel wrote. 2. The Medo-Persian kingdom, which succeeded it, after the death of Belshazzar. 3. The Grecian kingdom, of which Alex-ander was the head. 4. The Roman government, which swallowed up the others, and exists in its papal form to the present day. But it is acknowledged on all hands, that this Roman government must expire before the millenium, in any shape, arrives. If so, then, before the millenium, Christ must appear for the destruction of the body of the
Vision of the Ram he Goat, and 2300 days. Daniel, 8th ■'	chapter.
Two years after the foregoing vision, A. M. 3612, and B. C. 545, Daniel had another vision, representing in substance the same kingdoms, commencing with the second, which is the kingdom of Media and Persia, which was presented under the emblem of a ram with two horns. This ram was overthrown by a rough goat from the west, which Daniel was told was the king of Grecia. The great horn, the first king; the four horns which came up after the great one was broken, were four kings, or four kingdoms which were to arise after the first king’s death. That the great horn or first king was Alexander the Great, all commentators are agreed. The four kings or kingdoms into which his king-dom was divided, were, Syria in the north, Egypt in the south, Persia in the east, and Greece, or Macedon, in the west. The little horn which sprang up out of one of these was the papal power; which was set up and established by authority of the Greek emperor Justinian, A. D. 538. This little horn has waxed great and persecuted the saints up to the present time. But ultimately he is to be broken without hand.
After this vision had been presented to Daniel’s view, he
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THE CHRONOLOGY OF PROPHECY.
heard, verses 13, 14, “one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision, concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot? And he said unto me, Unto 2300 days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.”
There are here four questions to be decided: 1. What is the sanctuary7 2. What is the host? 3. What is meant by 2300 days? 4. When were those days to begin?
1.	What is the “ sanctuary ?” It is the church of God. Heb. viii. 1, 2 : “Notf *of the things we have spoken this is the sum: we have such: an high priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.”
Qf what sanctuary is Jesus Christ the minister* but. thp church, composed of all his spiritual people, dead and living? This sanctuary will be cleansed from all defilements and corruption at the resurrection of the just; arid be presented spotless before his throne, with exceeding joy.
2^.JVhat is “ the lrnt ?’’ The ..j|gppl.e, of. Gad who com״ pose the sanctuary or church, ία their individual capacity, each one being one of God’s host. Ex. xii. 41:	“ And it
came to pass, at the end of 430 years, even the self-same day, it came to pass that all the Lord’s hosts went out from the land of Egypt.” This people were emphatically God’s people, his visible church. The whole church and all the members of it are to be in a depressed and imperfect state Until the end of the 2300 days, and then be cleansed.
3.	What is meant by “2300 days?” Not 2300 literal days, but 2300 years, each day representing a year; as in many other places in the Bible. That Daniel did use a day for a year, is demonstrated in the fulfilment of the time, times, and dividing of time, chap. vii. 25, and other places. This also will he shown more clearly in answering question
4.	Wkm did those days begin? 1. They did not begin at the time uhe vision was seen ; for had they begun then, B. C. 545, they would have ended A. D. 1755, which they did not; for the sanctuary is not yet cleansed.
2.	There is no time mentioned in the vision of the eighth chapter, when the 2300 days were to begin. Nor did Daniel know when they were to begin. For he says in the last verse he was sick certain days, and he “was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.” Now he did understand the meaning of the images of the vision, for they had been explained. He kne\v also that the end was to be at the time appointed, for he was told this. But the meaning of
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DISSERTATION ON
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the time, and when it began, he did not know, or understand, for it had not been revealed.
But, at the close of his prayer, as related chapter ix., Gabriel, the same heavenly messenger who had explained the vision of chapter viii., again appeared and announced to Daniel, “ I am now come to give thee skill and understand-ing. Therefore, understand the matter and consider the vision.” What matter and vision was he to consider and understand? Why, evidently, one familiar to both him and Gabriel; the one Gabriel had partly explained, but which Daniel did not fully understand. This vision he now came to perfect, and relieve the mind of the prophet.
To give him the key for understanding both the nature of a prophetic day and when to commence the time, he gave him the famous prophecy of seventy weeks, to be accom-plished from the time of thp going forth of the command-ment to restore and build Jerusalem, to the cutting off of Messiah. In one week there are 7 days. 70 χ by 7 = 490 days. But, as shown already, it was just 490 years from the decree of Artaxerxes, king of Persia, for the re-establishment of Jerusalem, to the death of Christ. Therefore, a day in the prophecy means a year.
That decree, we have seen above, was given, according to astronomical calculation, in the 4256th year of the Julian period. Then 2300 years will bring us to the 6556th of that period, which will be A. D. 1843, and the 6000th year of the world. Then the sanctuary will be cleansed; or, as the Savior says, Matt, xiii., “ Then shall the righteous,” after the gathering out of the wicked, “ shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”
My hearers, do you beheve the Bible? Then how will you evade the force of these two arguments, perfectly har-monizing as they do with regard to the time when the g'reat Sabbath of rest for the people of God shall be ushered in ?
I beseech you, treat it not lightly; but give diligence, watch and pray, that when he comes you may be blest; for blessed is every one whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing.
But if that servant say in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming, and begins to beat his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken, as many Christians, or rather professors, are doing at the present day. of political excitement, the Lord of that servant will come, in an hour he looketh not for him, and cut him asunder, and appoint his portion with hypocrites.
DISSERTATION ON
THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL.
BY HENRY JONES, OF NEW YORK CITY.
The restoration, or return of the Israel of God to their uown landis abundantly revealed in the Scriptures, and probably admitted by believers generally; though admitted in their own way of understanding the words of the promise. And while they differ somewhat in certain matters of this return, they generally agree in giving it a very close con-nexion with the second coming of Christ in his glorious kingdom. There are two very common and prominent views now taken of this subject, even among ourselves who advo-cate Christ’s coming and kingdom at hand. Some of us firmly belieyp that the Israel of the promise are the Jews, ί&έ literal descendants of Abraham,—that the land promised on the return is the country of Palestine, or former Canaan; and that the promised return or gathering is the literal going back of the natural Jews from all countries to that literal country. Those of us who advocate this view of the prom-ised return, do it only as a supposed indispensable prepara-tory step to the soon-expected coming of the Son of man With his everlasting kingdom. In thus doing, it is natural for individuals to feel that nothing can prepare the way for the Messiah’s glorious return, until the Jews, as such, shall be thus removed to the land of Palestine. Accordingly, should we all adopt this understanding of the promise and engage in the w0Tk of preparation for it, and should we unite all our efforts in it; we should, in our own view, be laboring most directly and expressly in preparing the way for the Messiah soon to come.
But others of us, in looking out also for the now imme-diate coming of our blessed Lord to redeem, and finally deliver all his people, consider that the literal and unbe-lieving Jews have nothing to do with these restoration and returning promises. We consider, rather, that the Israel to whom all such promises are made, are God’s true saints, or
DISSERTATION ON THE
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Israel only־ by faith in Jesus Christ,—that the land of prom-ise is a “ heavenly country,” or this earth new-created, so as to become the promised “new heaven and new earth” for their eternal abode; and that the promised restoration, or return of God’s Israel, is the final gathering of God’s saints, also called Israel, from all nations of the whole world, into this glorious “ heavenly Jerusalem” at the resurrection of the dead, and second appearing of Christ, in which “ Jeru-salem” they will all dwell a fid reign with hAn ifi their promised everlasting life, or forever and ever.
Thus, we consider this restoration, or return of Israel, to be one of the mighty events of Christ’s second coming itself ן and not as a lingering work done by mortals in the flesh, as only a preparation for it. In fearing to be found of our Lord among those who, in any Way, say, “rtvy Lord delayeth his coming,” it naturally seems to us, that the theory of ttie unbelieving Jews’ return, preparatory to the coming of Christ, is only as an imaginary mighty block before the chariot׳ wheels of the Almighty; while, indeed, there is no such obstruction in the way of his coming suddenly as the lights ning from heaven, to save his people, and to destroy his: unbelieving enemies, both Jew and Gentile. And thus, it naturally seems to us, that such a hindering of ourselves to remove a mere imaginary impediment of the Lord’s coming, must also, m an equal degree, hinder our necessary united and loud blowing of the trumpet in Zion, to “ sound the alarm in God’s holy mountain,” that “ all the inhabitants of the land” may “ tremble” in view of “ the day of the Lord —nigh at hand” Or of Christ’s coming, at the very u door” instead of its being off beyond the natural Jews’ return to Palestine.
Of course, the view now to be taken of this Subject, is, that the glorious return' of the Messiah is flow specially df hand, without any foretold literal return of such Jews first; and that these restoration, gathering and returning prmiiiseS' all belong rather to God’s believing Israel or saints, who, at the now soon coming of Christ, are to return and come to “ Mount Zion ” “׳with songs and everlasting joy upon their ' heads ” where “ sortow etna sighing shall flee away”
In undertaking to establish this position', I proceed—
I.	TcTshow its harmony with some of “the first prineb-pies of the'oracles of God.”
ΪΙ. Its harmony with certain other scripture facts.־
Ill:1 Its harmony With those returning promises, as dk-plained by their several Connexions. And, 1 ׳ IV. To show an apparent misapprehension in some of the
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RESTORATION OF ISRAEL.
supposed most prominent arguments in favor of such a literal return.
I. I proceed to establish the position by showing its harmony with some of "the first principles of the oracles of God;”
1. It harmonizes with the scripture principle, that the very word “ Israel and its parallels, in the promise, mean the saints, and׳ not the unbelieving Jews. In seeing that this is a true scripture principle, it will be remembered how Christ himself explained it, when the unbelieving Jews pretended that they were the true Israel, or children of Abraham; he told them boldly that they were rather of their “ father the devil” ' And thus has an apostle decided the same question, by saying that “ he is not a Jew,” or Israelite, “ who is one outwardly; but he is a Jew who is ■one inwardly" that “ they are not all Israel who are of Israel,” or not all saints who may call. themselves so; and that “ all Israel” truly, or all the saints, “ shall be saved,” though not so of all the natural Jews. Further, he tells us that "they which, are of faith,” or are true believers, '1the same ate the children of Abra-ham,” or “ Israel” truly; and that they which he of faith "are blessed with faithful Abraham” And again, he says, “ If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”. And what a palpable contradiction it would then involve, to say, that the unbelieving Jews, of  their "father the devil” are rather Abraham’s seed, to inherit all these restoration and returning promises.
2. The position is proved by the scripture principle, that the divine promises made to a believing Israel, are quite too great and glorious to be inherited in a temporal Canaan, and can only be received in an everlasting " heavenly Jerusalem” 0r city of God. Without multiplying proof, as might be done exceedingly, in showing that this is a scripture principle, we have only to remember, that, as now shown, all true saints are the Israel of the promise, and that, as all the saints agree, their promise is for an everlasting rest in heaven, and־ not for a Palestine of this world. And further, the apostle sets this question beyond all appearance of doubt, in telling us of the seed of Abraham, as numerous as “ the stars of the sky' in multitude, and as the sand of the sea-shore innumerable that these all died in faith,” i. e. being true believers, " not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were persuaded of them and embraced them, and confessed that they were pilgrims and strangers on the earth” Them the same apostle proceeds to call over by name, a catalogue of saints, including Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and many others, even “ of whom the world was not
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worthy” and says “ these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us; i. e. some better thing for us all, as such enduring saints, than a mere worldly inheritance before death. If a temporal Canaan were the true promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and that vast multitude of the true Israel by faith, where most of them lived and died, then certainly they received that promise before their death; and the apostle would be wrong to say that they did not, and that they rather confessed themselves pilgrims and strangers on the earth. This apostle also further explains this u better thing” of the promise, and says it is “ a better country, i. e. an heavenly; and proceeds to call it also  "the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” According to this scripture principle of the promise, and according to these clear explanations by the apostle, the divine promise-to Abraham and all his true seed by faith, to the last, must be fulfilled to them in a “heavenly Jerusalem” and never in the return of unbelieving Jews to Palestine.
3.	The scripture principle that God’s word, containing Israel’s promises, "is spiritual,” is understood to show, that such promises cannot, of course, be so secular, or carnal, as the return of the natural Jews to Palestine. The apostle in his commentary upon “ the law,” and “ the testimony ” of “ Moses,” and u the prophets” says: “ We know that the law is spiritual; as though we all ought to know, that the promises of this spiritual word of the Lord, are not so carnal as to gratify the carnal mind of unbelieving Jews, in a temporal land. And this same apostle, in all his instructions, dwelt on spiritual things, while reasoning “ out of the Scriptures” of the Old-Testament promises, and says, that he only compared “ spiritual things with spiritual,” as an “ able minister of the” divine word, “ not of the letter, but of the spiritfor, as he said, “ the letter killeih, but the spirit giveth life” Christ also affirms the same; being by his spirit in the prophets when ,they wrote, to inspire their writings and make them his own, he says of his own words, (surely including those of the promise in the Old Testament) u My words are spirit and they are life ” These inspired commentaries on the spiritual and life-giving promises of the Old Testament, certainly forbid our supposing them to be so carnal and life-destroying, as a temporal land, for unbelieving Jews, even should they afterwards come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved.
4.	The scripture principle that all interpretations of the promise, which flatter the wicked, are false interpretations, shows that the saints .are to enjoy these returning promisee
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RESTORATION OF ISRAEL.
in heaven, rather than the natural Jews in Palestine. For certainly, there is nothing but who who! wo!” to be said to the wicked Jews except they repent, while the prophets are condemned by the Lord who shall prophesy smooth things unto them, or daub with untempered mortar, saying “peace, peace, where there is no peace” And what could be more directly prophesying smooth things, and saying peace, peace to the unbelieving Jews, than telling them, that the Abrahamic promises for a land, are all theirs, and for a worldly possession? And what flattering song of seducing spirits could have more effectually flattered them to remain so long as they have still unbelieving Jews ?
5.	The scripture principle that all interpretations of the divine promises are false which naturally diminish the “ comfort” of the spiritual mind, or u make the heart of the righteous sad,” shows that these returning promises are for the saints, and not for the Jews, a worldly land.
The Lord everywhere aims to comfort the faithful saints with exceeding great and precious promises; and requires all his prophets or teachers of his word to do the same. And they did it anciently, in such words as, “ Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people“ Strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees;” “ Let not your heart be troubled;” “ Wherefore comfort one another ,” &c. And further, the Lord severely reprobates those who " with lies make the heart of the righteous sad” But certainly, to take these precious returning promises away from spiritually-minded saints, who, like Abraham and other pilgrims, have their hearts set on them, in pursuit of a heavenly and promised country, could only make them sad, so far as made to believe that they were intended rather for the ungodly Jews in the present world.
6.	The principle that the infinite and everlasting things of God’s word are always to be taken literally, and never figuratively, shows these gathering or returning promises for a land to be for the saints a “ heavenly country” rather than for the Jews’ return to Palestine. It will be remembered that this promise of a land, to Abraham and his seed, was originally for an “ everlasting possession,” and for an “ inheritance forever,” and that the predictions of its fulfilnaent frequently connect it with the things of the “judgment” —“ day of the Lord”—coming of “ God”—unew heavens and new earth,” and with eternity itself. Now, unless we admit the opposite apparent monstrous principle, that the Lord himself borrows infinite and everlasting things, and even eternity itself, as mere figures of finite and momentary things; certainly, all these infinite and everlasting things
DISSERTATION ON THE
c
are literal, and will be fulfilled at the literal “judgment”— literal “ day of the Lord”—literal “coming of the Lord” with a land or city for the saints which will be literally “everlasting” and literally and “forever” “their own land” or “ heavenly country ”
II.	As proposed, 1 proceed to prove the position before us, by the presentation of a few scripture facts on the subject.
1.	It appears to be a scripture fact, that ten of the twelve Jewish tribes are not as a distinct people now on the earth; and never have be|en, since their bodies were entombed, soon after their utter revolt and being cast off by the Lord. And if not. they can never literally go back. And though some may suppose they yet remain, as the aborigines of America, or elsewhere, as a distinct people, it is certain that no such thing is anywhere foretold of those ten tribes by the prophets either of the Old or New.Testament«. More than this, it does rather plainly appear from 2 Kings, chapter xvii., that on being conquered by Shalmanezer, king of Assyria, they immediately became amalgamated with the Assyrians, all the common enemies of the Lord. And sure, it is plain enough, from the whole connexion, that they had no desire to keep themselves distinct as a peculiar people of God, for they utterly renounced him, and all their former privileges as his people, and wilfully mingled themselves with his enemies, and became his enemies before being cast off. And as further proof that they did so amalgamate themselves with God’s common enemies, it will be recollected how Christ, some hundreds of years after, went through Samaria, where they had formerly dwelt as a distinct nation; and how ready he found the woman at the well, and many others of the Samaritans, to believe on him, as their expected Messiah; though the more self-righteous Jews disowned them as Jews altogether, and would have no dealings with them. And who were those Samaritans where the ten tribes dwelt, and were looking for the same Messiah as the other Jews, if they were not the mingled descendants of those ten tribes? Then .where, else on earth shall we now look for those tribes, but in the dust of Samaria and Assyria, or in the mingled blood of the Gentiles in all the world, and in ourselves, for aught we know?
2.	It is a facT, that in ail the New-Testament sayings about Israel, and Israel’s promise of being “ grafted in”— of beedming “life from the dead,” &c., there is not a word said which can be construed as expounding any of the Old-Testament return-promises to Israel, as foretelling the natui ral Jews’ return to Canaan. But surely, had! Paul and the other inspired expounders of the Old-Testament promises
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RESTORATION OF ISRAEL.
so understood them, they would naturally, repeatedly, and clearly have so explained them, instead of speaking of them so exclusively and uniformly as given rather for “a better country; that is an heavenly ”
3.	It is also a fact, that Christ, in his three years’ preaching to the Jews personally, never explained any of the divine promises as for the natural Jews’ return; neither did he ever give them the least kind of a promise of anything good on their remaining Jews. And yet, he personally, distinctly, repeatedly, and even roughly too, denounced them all as Jews; calling them“Pharisees” “hypocrites,” “fools” “serpents” and a “generation of vipersand as guilty of the blood of all the prophets from first to last. And as such, he threatened them with the sure “damnation of hell” and with their utter desolation as a “house,” people; or “gem-ration” when at his coming they must acknowledge him as the “blessed” Vof the Lord” But had Christ understood Moses and the prophets as foretelling a return for the natural Jews, as many do now, why did he not sometimes say, as many have said since that time, that the Jews were God’s peculiar people,—his covenant people,—his chosen and elect people, and that, as natural Jews, they were entitled to the promises of Abraham’s children, rather than deal with them so roughly, as even to denounce them as the children of the devil, and not to “escape the damnation of hell?”
4.	It is also a fact, that Abraham, who was the first man to have inherited a temporal Canaan, if that had indeed beenthe “everlasting possession” promised his natural seed after him, never for a moment inherited it for himself. It is true, he dwelt on it as a stranger, during a short pilgrimage, dwelling in tents, going where he would, to sojourn ; and that he, and Isaac, and millions of his posterity, lived and died there; yet inspiration tells us that God never gave, even Abraham, any “inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on ; yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him ”* Why shall We then say, that the natural Jews shall yet go there to inherit it as “meverlasting possession” seeing that their natural father, Abraham, lived and died there without in-heriting a foot of it for himself?
5.	It is further a scripture fact, that Abraham, the father of the faithful, never understood the promise to be for a worldly inheritance. He neither sbught it, nor desired it. But he did rather seek “a city which hath foundations, whose builder and xohose maker is God” And so it Was with all
* Acts vii. 5.
DISSERTATION ON -THE

his ancient believing posterity. They had “no continuing city” 0n earth, and expected none here, to fulfil their blessed promise of a city of rest; but confessed rather, “ that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth ” in pursuit of their promised land, “better country” and “ heavenly Jerusalem ” And could the present surviving natural Jews, on going to that land, any more inherit it, as the! promise to Israel, than did the millions of their ancestors who lived׳ and died there, without receiving, or looking for, their promised possession in that country?
III.	Our position is to be proved, by showing its harmony with those promises of “return,,’ as they explain themselves Where recorded.	.
1. " For I will take you [Israel or saints) from among the heathen, [unbelievers, or enemies of God] and gather you ,Out of all countries, and will bring you into your awn land,”*
If there be any scripture promises for the natural Jews’
־ return to Palestine, this, surely, is one of the most prominent ׳׳ of them. But in seeing that this is a promise fora heavenly land for the saints, rather than for the natural Jews’ return, We need only to remember, that mortals ear have no land, nor possessions of “ their own," in this world, where they are all but stewards of the Lord’s goods, for the moment, and then to give account for their improvement while “the. silver and the gold, and the cattle” yea, and “ the' world, and the fulness of it” areal! the Lord’s. And yet, the saints have a “land” “better country,יי or“heavenly Jerusalem” which is, and will be, “their own land” literally, And forever and ever ; being their promised possession, and purchased for them by the blood of their adorable ,Redeemer.
In further seeing that such is the blessed nature of this promise, its connexion tells us that it will be fulfilled when God shall have perfectly “cleansed” this gathered and returned people; and they shall be his people, and he “trill be their יGod;” and. when this promised land shall be “like the garden of Eden” And in case the natural Jews should literally return to Palestine, would that: literally fulfil this heavenly promise? Could they literally inherit it “forever and ever “ tike five garden 'of Eden? -
2.	“ Behold, I trill gather them [Israel or saints] out of all countries, whither 1 have driven them, in mine anger, aid in my fury, and in great wrath, and trill bring them again to this place, and cause them to dwell safely"
This, also, is one of the most conspicuous passages many ; times understood to foretel the natural Jews’ literal return.
Ib. 25-29, 35.	 Jer. xxxii. 37.
* Ezek. xxxvi. 24.
9
RESTORATION OF ISRAEL 
But in understanding it rather as promising the final return of God’s wandering and scattered: spiritual Israel who become Israel by faith in Christ) to their own “heavenly country” let us consult the connexion of the promise. (1.) The promise itself represents its fulfilment to be where, and when, they shall “dwell safely” But sure, heaven is the place for the׳ saints forever to “dwelt safety” with God, rather than mortals still on trial and in the flesh. (2)  The next verse 40 the promise represents their habitation or “land," where gathered, as being where they will “fear” or worship God “forever” which the Jews certainly if returned could not do literally, in a worldly Canaan, unless Palestine shall forever survive the final conflagration. (3) The next following verse represents the place of the return as being where God will never “turn away from them to do them goad ;" and where they shall not “depart from” him. And where else but in heaven can this be literally fulfilled? But a literal fulfilment it must have. (4.) The next onward verse shows, that these gathered Israelites or saints, on returning, are to be “planted” there, with the “ whole heart and soul” of the Almighty. And just so sure as this will be literally fulfilled to the saints, now soon, at Christ’s coming to gather them into heaven as his elect, just so sure, the unbelieving Jews will have no part in it, while rather they, if remaining such, must be planted deep as the bottomless pit in the lake of fire. (5.) And the next verse still onward represents the return as taking place where and when God “ will bring upon” the returned Israel 11all the good that” he has “promised them.” This, again, can, and will be literally fulfilled to God’s believing Israel, on their being gathered soon  at Christ’s coming with his angels, for the purpose; while it never will, and never Can, be literally fulfilled to natural Jews in a Palestine of this world, unless "All the good” of  God’s promises belong to this world only,
3. “ And I will bring your brethren [Israel at saints] for an offering to the Lord, out of all nations, ——— to my holy mountain Jerusalem, ——— and I will take of them for priests and Levites, saith the Lord.”*
This is another of the most clear predictions, as supposed by some, of the literal return of the natural Jews to prepare the way for Christ to come afterwards. Butin seeing that this, also, is a promise for the saints’ return to their promised heavenly and everlasting country, and not for the mere Jews a temporal Canaan,-- The passage explains itself, by representing its promised “Jerusalem” as being God's “holy
* Isa. 20,2h
2
DISSERTATION. ON THE
10
mountain” which is apparently the* same as “the Mount Zion” where the innumerable multitude of the saints are to stand, with'-^Ae Lamb of God” where with “loudvoicee” ׳they will all sing the “new song” of the “redeemed,” and shall forever continue their high praises, in “harping with their harps.”* (2.) The passage also explains itself, !by showing the promise of return fulfilled when God will make them “priests” &c. This appears to־be the :same promise to the saints as that which promises their being made “a kingdom of priests, an holy nation /”f and that they shall be “kings and priests unto God” to “reign with him on the earth” “new earth” “forever and ever.”% Of course; the natural Jews must repent and be converted from their Juda-ism, before having any part in this blessed and, glorious return of the true and faithful Israel. (3.) The next verse represents the gathering, also, to be when there shall be a “nexo heavens and nexo earth” and when the then gathered 1 Israel shall remain before him as long as that blessed arid, of course, everlasting habitation for the saints “shall remain before him” (4.) The next following verse represents this bringing back of God’s people as taking place, when they :shall look upon the slain “carcasses of the” wicked, where “their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched;” and when made “an abhorring xmto all flesh.” (5.) The fif-teenth and sixteenth verses of the same connexion represent (the same bringing back of Israel to be when “ the Lord wiU come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire,” and when “the slain” by the Lord’s sword “shall be many.”
Most surely, all this matter of the Lord’s finally bringing back his people “out of all nations” is one of the most awa-kening prophetic descriptions of the Lord’s coming himself to judgment which could be given; and will be now quickly and literally fulfilled; in his terrible and yet glorious appear-ing with his everlasting kingdom, in the gathering of all his saints out of all countries into their promised heavenly city, and in the utter destruction of his then abhorred enemies. This description of the infinitely momentous event, by Isa-iah, is perfectly the same, and almost to the very letter, and in every particular, as that given of it by Christ himself, in multiplied instances, both in the! Evangelists and Revelation, where seemingly too plain to be misunderstood, even by a child. And is not this foretold‘ieturn and gathering of Israel the same as that foretold by the same prophet Isaiah
* Rev. xiv. 2. f Ex. xi£ 6. t Kev־.־i. 6. r. 10. xxii. 5. Isa. lxv. 17,18.
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RESTORATION OF ISRAEL.
on another occasion, where he says, “ The ransomkd of ike Lord shall return, and come to Zion [1Mount Zion’] ,with songs, and wet fasting joy upon their heads,” when uthey shall obtain joy and gfadness, and sorrow and ,sighing shall fee away,” and when, as the connexion shows, uGod will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense ” to “ save” his then gathered people?* And what has this to do with Palestine, or the natural Jews ?
These are a few of the most conspicuous passages, the interpretations of which, have probably led most of us to conclude, that the literal return of the natural Jews is a very considerable: part of the Old-Testament prophecies; while yet, as now exhibited, they only, and rousingly faretcl the everlasting and infinite affairs of the saints* glorious and final return to “ Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem”\ in triumph over the perishing, and utter destruction of all the unbelieving, and powers of dark-ness, in u the battle of that great day of God Almighty ” It will be found, also, by examining all the parallel prophe-cies of Israel’s return, that they are faithfully explained by their several connexions, not, as foretelling the natural Jews’ literal gathering to Palestine, but rather the saints’ literal return to the New Jerusalem city, where now, very soon, as the signs of the times and fulfilment of prophecy abun-dantly indicate, Christ, the great Judge, will come, in his glory, to usit upon the throne of his glory,” to u gather before him all nations,” to useparate” the righteous forever from the wicked, to pronounce and execute the irrevocable sen-tence of the everlasting promise and curse, in the presence of the assembled universe. Then, to be sure, .the natural Jews will all be literally gathered; the believing on the Judge’s right, but the unbelieving of them on his left hand. In further support of the same position, 1 am to show—
IV.	That there is an apparent misapprehension in some of the supppsed most prominent arguments in favor of the Jews’ literal return, to prepare the way of Christ to come, in his glory, afterwards.
1.	Probably most of us have been led to suppose, that it is absolutely unaccountable how it is, or why it is, that the Jews have so long been continued, and are yet, a distinct nation or people, under all their discouragements in main-tabling it, unless it be, that the Lord may yet carry thtem back, and thus fulfil the prophecies of Israel’s return. With־-out attempting to decide particularly why the Jews have kept themselves so distinct and peculiar as a people, and yet
* Isa. xxiv. 4, 10.	f Heb. 3ώ. 22.
DISSERTATION ON THE
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not to be carried back to Palestine; it does seem that we may see, if we will, somewhat howit has been brought about. And has not this long and far proclaimed “Jewish fable” or “doctrine” socalled, of the Jews’ general and lite-ral return, naturally tended to judaize them, or make them remain Jewish, against all accompanying attempts to chris-tianize or denationalize them ? And has it not been virtually saying, “peace, peace” to the wicked Jews, to flatter them with the carnal doctrine of all the return-promises of God as though made to them, and to be fulfilled in treasures upon earth, though they remain unconverted and blaspheming Jews, in crucifying afresh the Son of God, until the fulfilling of such promises 7 And what unconverted and wicked men would not like, and much choose, to remain as a nation dr people, in a condition where, according to the testimony of the Christian church, they may retain a sure claim to the great promises of the Old Testament, and to be fulfilled too in just such treasures as their unbelieving hearts naturally desire? And why should they not naturally desire to remain Jews, under such testimony, and where they can assure their unbelieving hearts of being the special objects of the divine favor, rather than Christians, supposed thus to have no part in those Jewish and worldly promises 7 And why should they, while yet unconverted Jews, and lovers of the world, be willing to give up their Judaism, and thus in a moment, without an acknowledged substitute, to tear their hearts from so many supposed golden earthly promises? And why should they be willing to suffer as a nation, and their children after them, the common lot of poor Christians, who, as a people or nation, are acknowledged by Jews and ׳Gentiles, of every class, as having, in this world, no promised portion, “no continuing city ?” And would not the Jews be much more readily denationalized, and christianized too, should the whole voice of the Christian church towards them be. suddenly changed, so as no longer to sing to them this syren song of divine promises their own^ while yet in their Judaism? And would not the opposite course, if suddenly and faithfully adopted towards them, be even electrical? Or what if the Christian church should, now at once, put away all her remaining Judaisms, and say, with trumpdt voices, “ W o ! wo! wo!” to you, unbelieving Jews! you, “Pharisees, scribes, hypocrites!” “except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish;” and “Repent ye. for the kingdom of heaven is at hand;” without a promise, of any kind, in all the Old Testament, for one of you while yet remaining unbelieving Jews, and crucifiers of the Messiah, already come in the flesh, as everywhere foretold in the Jewish
13
RESTORATION OP ISRAEL.
Scriptures? Would not such a gospel as this preached to them, as Christ did it, and bid his followers do it, rather stir them up, make them tremble, and, by the co-operating Spirit of God, lead them to see their׳ miserable condition, in so long standing; it out against Christ? And would it not: naturally lead them to flee from thfe wrath to come, and to
Bfor the now expected sudden, second coming of the 1 to judgment, to destroy every remaining unbeliev-ing Jew, with the second death, rather than flatter them to remain Jews, as they have been, with false, carnal, and Jewish promises?
2.	Most of us may have been led to believe in the natural Jews’ literal return to prepare the way of the Lord, from the alleged supposed fact, that hitherto the prophecies concern-ing them have all been literally and faithfully fulfilled. The most noted of these supposed fulfilled Jewish predic-tions, are, (L) their* being “driven’1·and■■ “scattered among** allnations(2.) their having become a hissing and ■01 by-word;” and (3.) their having been now long experienc-, ing the “curse” of the Lord for the guilt of their!fathers in rejecting and crucifying the true Messiah. It is true that the Jews are very much scattered among the nations, though by no means so much 80, as the people or nation called Christians, much later on the field of action than the Jews. Neither is it true, that in thus becoming scattered, they have always been specially abused, and driven from nation to nation, because I can now bring, and design to bring full and authentic testimony from credible Jews themselves, that they! have ►gone, and are now living; generally, where they have chosen to go; for the best success in their mercantile business,—that had they chosen it, they could all have loca-· ted themselves, in Christian nations; and could have brought their population more together in one nation; and even into Palestine; had their mercaaitile interests permitted it, as they Would, had they been more · like others; an agricultural and; mechanical people.	־ v	- . .׳
And With regard to their hAving! long since become a “by· word” and a “hissing*’’ in the earth, as frequently foretold of Israel; it is believed, and will be found on examination, that this prophecy is now fulfilled rather with the people called Christians, than with the natural Jews. Tte Jews, like cithers opposed to Christ’s holy requirements, tilay have felt thefnselves reproached *and hissed by their suppbsed enemies; the Christian Gehtiles) Catholics, &e., but surely there has been scarcely enough of anything about them which has. Been godly, or contrary to their profession as Jews,-to excita the reproaches and hisses of God’a open enfenaies of any'
DISSERTATION ON THE
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nation־. But with Christian nations, the descendants of the Christian fathers, and with the professed and most evangelical part of them, it is true, in ail the earth, as it were, they have become a proverb, a by word, and a hissing; say, far more so than in case, of the consistent and unwavering Jews. But this reproach has not befallen the Christian־ church, or Israel, by reason of her consistent Christianity; but by reason of her present hypocrisy, in continuing her high profession and outward show of all her religious forms and possessions as public as possible, in every way. And yet, she has so far left her first love, and cast away the spirit of primitive Christianity, in giving place, as she has, to an almost nameless host of popular and gross sins and abomination nations in common with a political wicked world, also calling themselves Christian, that it must be allowed, though it is humiliating in' the extreme, that this fulfilled ·prophecy of Israel’s becoming a hissing, &c., is a hundred fold more appropriate to the truly devoted Christian, than to the natural, Jews;	
And as it- respects the alleged present literal fulfilling of' prophetic curses against the Jews, for their fathers’ sins, as analogous to their soon expected literal return; there are certainly in it, some points which are objectionable and unscriptural.
(1.) It is quite aside from scripture, that “the children's teeth shall be set on edge because their fathers have eaten sour grapes that they should ever be cursed for their fathers’ sins. (2.) It is considered grossly unscriptural to say that the penal׳ curses of God’s law are executed upon Jews or other sinners while yet on probation ;י or in mere; momentary afflictions or sufferings; while the entire oppo-' site rather is true, viz.,. that such curses wilt be interminable-at the close of probation, and in the: world of wo. For while on probation; though the wicked suffer, and though the Lord afflicts, he does it  not willingly; nor grieves the children of men.” And during the period of probation, God:is certainly pouring out his mercies Upon them, and not the vials of his curves and wrath, so that it is of his mercies that sinners are not already uconsumedt” 5 	.	-
And as to these afflictions, observation tells us, that the righteous have the fullest cup of them,'while the, scripture also says "Many are the afflictions of the righteous ”arid they are uplagued all the day while the wicked rather are those who prosper in this world” who “ increase in! riches' Having “ mare than heart could wish” So it is also that the Wicked rather have their " good things” now, and the righteous their things”. All this hinders the un
15
RESTORATION OF ISRAEL.
derstanding of the prophetic curse as now literally fulfilled upon the heads of the still living Jews.
And further, it is not admitted that, in any sense, the Jews, as a nation, are suffering above all others the afflictions of this world. The black and red men of America, immensely more numerous than the four or five millions of Jews in the world, it is too well known, to our shame, have, for two hundred years, suffered a hundred fold more from inhuman hands, than the Jewish nation has suffered from all quarters; though the black and red men have so suffered, exclusively, as it appears, because of the peculiar characteristics of their respective nations. And why shall it be said that the Jews, as a nation, are suffering peculiar afflictions or privations? They say themselves that it is not so; while, if they please, without changing their religion, they can enjoy equal civil and political rights among the Christian nations. True Christians, certainly, cannot persecute and oppress them for their unbelief in Christ; and being of the world, the world, which loves his own,, cannot hate them for their unbelief. And besides, we see that they are not an oppressed, cast down and greatly afflicted people, as a nation; while rather we count them, nationally, or generally and proverbially, “rich” in this world’s goods; or why do we make so muah use of the long-standing proverb, “As rich as a Jew?” Then, where is the present literal fulfilment of the prophetic curse upon the Jews, either nationally or individually? And where is the burden of the argument from their present suf-ferings, that they must yet literally return to Palestine to prepare for the soon coming of the Messiah to reign glari-cusly ?
3.	Many of 11s have doubtless been strengthened in the expectation of the natural Jews’ literal return, at no distant period, by the late frequently alleged and popular argument, that there are of late, among the Jews themselves, greatly increased and increasing anxieties, movements, and prospects of a general and speedy return of the nation to Palestine, together with special expectations among their leading men of the appearance of their long-expected Messiah soon. It is true, that for some time there have been special move-ments among Christians, and Christian societies, especially in England, in favor of christianizing the Jews, and procur-ing their removal to Palestine as soon as practicable. And very much has beeu publicly said and published on the sub-ject, and many meetings held to excite a public interest in the enterprise, which are certainly good things, so far as tending to the Jews’ conversion; But of late, I have been led, by new facts developing, to question the strict correct-
on the
16
ness of some of the popular supposed facts in the case, and to conclude that there are no special and recently commenced anxieties and movements among the Jews themselves for soon going generally to Palestine.
It may be proper here to state facts not long since come to my knowledge, by which I have been persuaded, that many of the public and popular reports and statements, that the Jews are now specially excited, and on the move, soon to inhabit Palestine, to build Jerusalem, the temple, &c., are either groundless altogether, or unjustifiably exaggerated.
I have taken pains to visit and inquire of many of the mercantile Jews of New York, and have seen and learnt considerably of them; there being about 10,000 of them in the city. On seeing so much of them, I was led to inquire in my mind whether they did, as a people, really wish to Teturn to Jerusalem, and to ask the question of one of them when trading with him, to which he very promptly replied, “ What should we want to go there for? We have here all the privileges we can ask,—here is a good place for our business, but not there. If we wished to go, we could have gone before now; we have means sufficient to procure a conveyance, and to purchase the country if we wanted it.״ On learning this, I was naturally excited to continue my inquiries more fully of others of them from store to store in Chatham street, where many of them are located and engaged in clothing stores. They were alike on this question; and exceedingly averse to Christianity; and in some cases, with open and shocking blasphemies against Christ, pretending to no piety themselves, though they affirmed that a few of their number and their priests were pious. Since then, 1 have become familiarly acquainted with their priests, who did appear pious, so far as could be, with'their disbelief in a Messiah already come in the flesh. They told me, that there weTe no special movements among their people for a return to Palestine; and no desires, nor willingness to go, if they could; and that the many reports to the contrary were not true. More than this, they stated, that as a people they never expected, nor desired, to go to inhabit and cultivate the natural soil of that country, and would have me under-stand that their views of Messiah’s final corning were very different from what has been commonly supposed of them. And though different individuals of their learned priests may give different statements on the subject, for aught I know; these in particular would have it understood, that the in-formed Jews were looking for a Messiah to come; but not to move them to Jerusalem, nor to Palestine, as a worldly country, literally to eat, and enjoy its natural productions;
17
RESTORATION OF ISRAEL.
but suddenly, at his coming, to destroy all his and their ene-mies, and to remove them, and all his saints, to dwell in a “ heavenly Jeriisalem” forever. They also admitted their conviction that many Christians would enjoy the same at Messiah’s coming; though they fix no time. But living so long among Christians, and feeling so much dependence on them, in their own weakness, it is doubtless a fact, that they act and speak differently on these points from others of their numbers in different countries.
And why should the mercantile and secular-minded Jews desire to return to Palestine? For if they go there as a nation, they must, as a nation, and as individuals, change their occupation mostly; and become farmers, generally, instead of merchants. There they must cultivate the soil, and live by the sweat of their face, rather than on the profits of trade. And do they not love their present mode of money-making too well to exchange it away for the slow profits and toils of agriculture? And would it not require some-thing like a miraculous influence, so to change their second nature-habits and feelings, as to procure their general con-sent to remove, as a nation, soon to the occupation of the soil of Palestine; and that, too, before being converted to Christianity? And should they first be converted, they would be no longer Jews, to inherit the Jewish promise; but Christians, to have no earthly portion, nor here any contin-uing city. Then, of course, they would not naturally wish to go to partake with unbelieving Jews in an earthly inher-itance; but would, rather, like Abraham, the father of believ-ers, seek a city having “foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”
In further showing that there is a misapprehension in the popular arguments for the natural Jews’ literal return, which represents them as already on the move themselves, with prospects of having the business soon accomplished; I am prepared to prove that the reports are not to be accredited, which tell us that the astonishing wealth of the Rothschilds, and some others of that people who possess their multiplied millions of Jewish gold, are being moved to appropriate it all for the return ;—that Jerusalem and Judea are now fast filling up with Jew's returned ;—that many thousands more are just about to go;—that they are now looking so confi-dent I y for their Messiah very soon, that they threaten be-coming believers in Christ, unless their long-expected Messiah shall come within a year. This point, I am aware, is an important one, on this whole question ; and that I have now assumed a position which, to very many, was not expected;
DISSERTATION ON THE
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and that much very authentic testimony on the subject will be demanded.
This point, most truly, is momentous in its bearing on the whole subject; and one of extreme delicacy to be touch-ed, because of the entire discrepancy of opinion upon it, of thousands of the dear saints who are also now looking for their Lord at hand. In assuming this probably surprising position before the public, against so many generally admit-ted and long standing Jewish reports, I would do it ־mly with the greatest deference, and with the kindest feelings towards our dear transatlantic brethren especially, to whim, doubtless, we are much indebted for their more early a;1d indefatigable labors, as the means of awaking us, this sic e the waters, to look for the Lord nigh at hand. Under thes} circumstances, it is reasonable that they should demand some palpable and authentic testimony, and that other advocates of the natural Jews’ return should do the same. According-ly, as a specimen of the spirit and bearing of these popular reports, I will first give an extract of an address by “ the Rev. J. H. Stewart,” “ at a meeting of the Liverpool Aux-iliary Society for promoting Christianity among the Jews״ held on Monday, 16th September,” 1S39.
Mr. Stewart said :—
“ The Jewish Rabbis [ministers] were now ready to enter upon the discussion of the prophecies relating to the return of the Jews to their native land, not in a spirit of bitter op-position, but in a spirit of kindness and affection. The Rev.: gentleman then read an interesting letter from Mr. Herschell, the Chief Rabbi [high priest] of London, expressive of the satisfaction which he felt in witnessing the interest shown by the Jewish Society in the restoration of the children of Israel to the land of Judah. The letter strongly asserted that the Jews were now looking with earnest expectation for the appearance of the Messiah to rule over his chosen and ancient people. A day had been recently appointed, as a day of especial intercession for the return of the Messiah. That day of prayer would be on Wednesday next, when a service would be read in the Jewish synagogues on this interesting subject. The Rev. gentleman then suggested the propriety of setting aside the same day among the Christians of Liverpool as a day of fasting and prayer. He apologized for occupying so much time, but as he felt that there was a very great crisis in the present condition of the Jews, he felt that he could not avoid offering the observations in which he had indulged.”
Here follows a letter from Mr. Herschell, the said Chief Rabbi, designed as an immediate contradiction to the above
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RESTORATION OF ISRAEL.
statements concerning himself, and the present movements, &c. of “ the Jewish Rabbis.”
“ Sir,—When, last year, you requested my permission to publish a letter I had addressed to you—as an individual declaring yourself unconnected with, and disapproving of, any society, or body of men, whose avowed object is to seduce Israelites from their faith—it was with reluctance I yielded to your urgent and repeated request; not because that letter contains anything I ought not to have written, or any one sentence I would disown, but because the serpent is most cunning, and that those who seek to ensnare Israel are by no means scrupulous in the method they employ. In the Liverpool Standard of the 17th ultimo, I find an account of a meeting held by the Liverpool Auxiliary Society for promoting Christianity among the Jews; which account states, that the Rev. J. H. Stewart ‘read an interesting letter from Mr. Herschell, the Chief Rabbi of London, expressive of the satisfaction which he felt in witnessing the interest shown by The Jewish Society in the restoration of the chil-dren of Israel to the land of Judah. The letter strongly as-serted that the Jews were now looking with earnest expec-tation for the appearance of the Messiah to rule over his ancient people. A day had recently been appointed as a day of special intercession for the RETURN of the Messiah; that day would be on Wednesday next,’ &c.
“ To the best of my recollection, I have not for many years written to any Christian on the subject of the hopes of Israel, except to yourself; and as it cannot be a matter of indiffer-ence to me, that my name should be publicly used as the authority for a series of mis-statements calculated to do great mischief, I call upon you publicly to contradict this fabri-cated abregt of the letter I wrote to you.
“ I never expressed satisfaction at anything done by the 4 Jewish Society,’ (i. e. the London Society for promoting Christianity among the Jews.) Many years ago, on the 10th January, 5567, I publicly declared in the synagogue, ‘ that the whole purpose of this seeming kindness on the part of the society, is an inviting snare, a decoying experi-ment to undermine the props of our religion.’ In the thirty years and more which have since then elapsed, nothing has occurred to induce me to alter that opinion, but much to confirm it; nor could I express satisfaction at anything con-nected with that society, except, indeed, at its dissolution. Accordingly, my letter to you does not contain the slightest allusion to the ‘ Jewish Society.’
“ The assertion ‘ that the Jews are now looking with ear-nest expectation for the appearance of the Messiah,’ only
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states what ever since their dispersion has been a well-known fact; nor does my letter to you state that their confidence in the promises of their heavenly Father is novj in particular greater or less than it always has been. But to quote me as authority for the invention, ‘ that a day of special interces-sion for the return of the Messiah has been recently ap-pointed/ is really too bad. I will not offer any remark on the degree of biblical knowledge which could proclaim the day of atonement as one ‘ recently appointed/ nor will I notice the expression £ RETURN of the Messiah/ further than by saying, had I used it, I should be unworthy the name of a Jew. But as the whole paragraph is absolutely the reverse of what Γwrote to you, I have a right to expect that you, as an honest and candid man, will, in the same journal in which it was published, contradict this unfair and untrue use of my name and authority.
“I am, sir, your sincere well-wisher,
“S. HERSCHELL, Chief Rabbi.
“5, Bury-court, 2d Oct., 5600 A. M. [last Oct.]
“Henry Innes, Esq.״ [layman of the Church of England.]
The above documents are now copied, with precision, from “The Plymouth Herald/7 (Eng.) of Nov. 23, 1839, having previously appeared in the “ Liverpool Standard’7 of Sept. 17 and Oct. 22. The paper out of which the above docu-ments are taken, was generously loaned me, by Mr. Isaacs, one of the Jewish priests of New York city ; and was sent over by the High Priest himself, as appears by the following mark upon the top of it, viz., “ With compliments from the Rev. S. Herschell, London, to Mr. M. Micholl, 291 Broad-way, New York.77
Upon this document of high authority, or from “the highly talented and much esteemed Dr. Herschell/7 (as he is called in the same Liverpool paper,) “Chief Rabbi of the English Jews/7 I offer no further remark, than that it proves to us, that the testimony of the most learned, reputable, and high standing of the Jews, when obtained, is very much at war with many statements concerning that people, which state-ments have heretofore passed currently among us, as argu-ments in favor of increased efforts for their entire removal, at no distant period, to the land of Palestine.
An extract may now be given from a Christian missionary at Jerusalem, who, of course, favors the present Christian efforts for the return of the natural Jews, &c.
“Amissionary, writing from Jerusalem, says,—‘The Jews here have neither trade nor profession, and live on the free contributions of their benevolent brethren abroad; and these
21
RESTORATION OF ISRAEL.
contributions are tendered entirely on the supposition that the Jews here are peculiarly devout, and most assiduous in studying the talmud. * * * One thing more; the number of the Jews here is nothing like what you think in England. Mr. Nicolayson thinks it is in all 5000; and this is the highest number I have heard yet; but some of the Jews told me that the number of souls does not exceed half this num-ber. Nor is the number of those who annually come here so great, and they are barely or scarcely sufficient to make up for the ravages that the periodical visitations of the earth-quake, plague, &c., make among them. A Jew told me that he had now been here four years, and that the number of Jews he then found are now no more, while a majority of the present are new comers.,
“This is an affecting statement respecting the Jewish population; entire generations of which seem to be cut down by pestilence, earthquake, or the sword, in the space of a few years. A considerable accession of new comers must be required to keep up the number; and continual changes must spread among the Jews, throughout the world, the knowledge of what is doing at Jerusalem. It is well known that the Jews are in the habit of studiously concealing their numbers.”—[From the New York Evangelist of Nov. 23, 1839.]
The learned Jewish priests of New York city, professing to understand the state of the Jews at Jerusalem, deny a part of the above statements, affirming that no such disasters have there occurred to diminish the Jewish population; leaving us to conclude, that this acknowledged want of increase there, results from their want of business and money, rather than from such disasters as here stated.
Such being the condition of the whole Jewish population at Jerusalem, what motive could thousands and millions more of the same people have, for going there also, to be supported as paupers, or immediately to return to their present Gentile habitations, still to enrich themselves by merchandising׳?
The following items of testimony were kindly given me, at my request, in July last, by Messrs. J. J. Lyons and S. M. Isaacs, the only two regularly officiating Jewish Rabbis, or priests, of New York city, with permission to publish them, concerning the present condition and prospects among the Jews generally, in relation to their soon going to Pales-tine. The testimony has since been published in papers of New York and Boston, and I now copy it from the N. Y. Olive Leaf, in the very form in which Ί first took it from their united verbal statements; which document was exa-
DISSERTATION ON THE
22
mined by themselves, approved as correct, and allowed for publication.
“In all Christian countries, they say that their people enjoy equal social, civil, and religious privileges with Chris-tians in almost all respects; that they take part in the government, hold offices, &c.; and that so far as some may have suffered more or less persecution as Jews in pagan countries, where they have sometimes staid a little too long, they only went there from choice, in hopes to do better than elsewhere, while they might all abide safely, if they chose, in Christian nations. Although, now, their situation is so favorable throughout the world, they have, in former times of their dispersion, experienced more occasional perse-cution. Of late, some ten or dozen of the Jews have been massacred at Damascus by some avaricious and unprinci-pled Romanists and others, under the false charge of their having murdered a monk, and used his blood in some of their Jewish rites; which is supposed to be only as a pre-tence to obtain their property, then considered as lawful spoil; while it was very well known that the Jews never use blood of any kind on any occasion, considering it most strictly forbidden of God in his word.
“The Jews of Jerusalem they admit to be poor, and gene-rally without business to support themselves, while they live on the benevolence of their more wealthy brethren abroad, whose business is lucrative.
“Nearly all the Jews elsewhere, throughout the world, are engaged in mercantile business or trade, and but very few, anywhere, in farming.
“With regard to their return to Jerusalem, or ‘Judah,’ they understand all the prophecies to fore tel it, though they profess not to see any more signs of the event now near, than there have heretofore been, since their dispersion.
“They have no anticipations nor desires of going to inhabit that country at present, or under existing circum-stances, and would by no means consent to go as a people, even if the whole country were given them, with the city and temple at Jerusalem already built, unless the eastern powers would become pledged to protect them as citizens and as Jews, not being able to protect themselves.
“When their Messiah shall come, and they as a people shall return, they expect him to come not as a mortal man, but with great power and glory, as Daniel and the prophets have described it—to destroy all his and their enemies, in the end of all worldly things—to dwell with them, and they with him, in a glorious state forever and ever; when their land, being created anew, will 1flow with the milk and honey ’
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RESTORATION OF ISRAEL.
of spiritual and everlasting enjoyments—-then with angels in a heavenly state.
“They utterly disclaim all fellowship and sympathy with Christian efforts and societies for bettering their condi-tion, or for gathering them again into the land of Israel; believing all these movements to be evil designs against them, to denationalize, or mingle them with the Gentile world.
“They affirm that the Christian institutions of the East for the maintenance and education of the indigent children of Jews, have not been successful in obtaining such children; and that although those institutions have obtained such reputed children, inquiry has been made into the matter, when it was ascertained that such children were not really of Jewish parents, though in some instances one of the parents might have called themselves Jews, but were not truly of the Jew-ish faith. As proof of this assertion, they say, that the Jews themselves stand ready, with their own institutions, to main-tain and educate all such indigent Jewish children, instead of their being driven by want to take refuge with a people not their own.”
The preceding testimony of the New York Jewish priests 1 have been led to consider credible, from the considerations, that it perfectly harmonizes with that of “the highly talented and much esteemed Dr. Herschell, Chief Rabbi of the Eng-lish Jews,” and also with that of the Christian “missionary at Jerusalem,” on the prospects of the Jews, and with a mass more of authentic testimony which might be given, if time permitted. I have also felt bound to give heed to the same, from the fact, that on becoming personally ac-quainted with these gentlemen, Jewish priests, being several times at their houses, and having made particular inquiry of others concerning them, I felt constrained to regard them, aside from their professed and consistent Judaism, as said of the High Priest of London, “highly talented,” dec.
It will be seen readily, that this testimony, from the most authentic sources, is all directly to the point; and that it presents itself in formidable array against the foundation of the popular argument in favor of the speedy literal return of the natural Jews, which argument stands on the alleged position of the present unprecedented and successful move-merits among the Jews themselves for their speedy removal. And thus we leave the testimony, and the whole subject; without further remark, except most seriously and affection-ately to urge all, of an opposite opinion on this subject, to whom these and other facts may come, faithfully to exam-ine and weigh them; and to give the whole subject a fair
THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL.
24
and thorough investigation, being by no means prevented by a contrary preconceived opinion, nor by the many popu־׳ laf and heretofore uncorltradicted public reports to the con-trary. And though good men may have sometimes origt-nated, or propagated, those unfounded or exaggerated reports* it is certainly no more strange than the story, of the “five black crows,״ before itt being traced back to the mere “some-thing as black as a crow.״ And why should it be strange, if these flattering Jewish reports have become extremely exaggerated in so long passing the rounds, without being traced back, or publicly called in question ?
And to conclude, let it not be said, that the positions and
5roofs generally, now offered, are opposed to the many lau-able efforts ίοτ the spiritual and everlasting good of the long-neglected and unbelieving Jews. Far from it. But let it rather be understood, that as we are united with our Eng* lish and other brethren on the subject of Christ’s second coming and kingdom at hand, though they advocate a speedy removal of the Jews to Palestine; so are we most heartily united with them also, and with others of the same faith, in our desires and labors for the conversion of the unbelieving Jews, as a preparation for their glorious return to a “ heavenly Jerusalem,״ with all others of the redeemed* at the anticipated now speedy coming of our Lord in glory, to receive to himself all that are his, both Jews and Gentiles, without distinction, at the making up of his jewels. Let us not then be divided in our professed joint labors for a speedy literal return of the whole scattered nation of God’s be-lieving or true Israel, both Jew and Gentile, to their “own land” which is a “better country” and even a “heavenly Jerusalem,” for their literal “ everlasting possession,” and their own literal “inheritance forever.” And let us do with our might, or with our strength united, what our hands find to do in the great work; “For this Isay unto you, brethren; the time is short;” for “ in a little while, he that shall come will come, and will not tarry” “Amen* Even so, come, Lord Jesus” “ Come quickly”
A DISSERTATION ON
PROPHETIC CHRONOLOGY.
BY WILLIAM MILLER.
When we read in divine inspiration a class of texts like the following, Acts iii. 21, “ And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you; whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began;” 24th verse, “Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel, and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days;” again, Acts xvii. 26, “And hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth; and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;” and 31st verse, “ Because 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;” Amos iii. 7, “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets;”—I say no man can read these texts, and the like, of which the Scriptures abound, with-out being convicted that God has set bounds, determined times, and revealed unto his prophets the events long before they were accomplished; and having thus revealed himself, has never failed in time and manner to fulfil aH things which, by his prophets, have been spoken or written. He has in his word revealed the times in different ways; sometimes in plain language, by telling the exact number of, years; at other times, by types, as the year of release, the jubilee, and the Sabbaths; in other places by figurative lan-guage, by calling a year a day, or a thousand years a day; —again^ by analogy, as iu Hebrews iv. 10, showing, that, as God created the heavens and earth, and all that are in them, in six days, and rested on the seventh, so Christ would be six thousand years creating the new heavens and earth, and would rest on the seventh millennium. I will now present
DISSERTATION ON
a
a few cases where time has been revealed in the above manner, and fulfilled so far as present time will allow.
I. In plain language, by years, months, or days, as the
CASE MAY BE.
1.	Seven days before the flood began, and the forty days the rain continued, were prophesied of, and literally fui-filled. See Gen. vii. 4. “ For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights.’’ These days were literal days, and so fulfilled. 10th and 12th verses: “And it came to pass after the seventh day that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.” “And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.”
2.	Abraham was informed by God that his seed should be afflicted in a strange land four hundred years, which, including his sojourn, would make 430 years. Gen. xv. 13. This was literally accomplished. See Exodus xii. 40, 41.
3.	The butler’s and baker’s dreams were interpreted to mean three days, by Joseph, and were exactly fulfilled. See Gen. xl. 12—20.
4.	The dream of Pharaoh, as explained by Joseph, mean-ing seven years’ plenty and seven years’ famine, Was lite-rally completed. See Gen. xli. 28—54.
5.	The forty years in the wilderness were prophesied and fulfilled literally. See Numbers xiv. 34. Joshua v. 6.
6.	Three years and a half Elijah prophesied that there would be no rain, and there was none until the time was finished. 1 Kings xvii. 1. James v. 17.
7.	Isaiah prophesied that within sixty-five years Ephraim should be broken, so that they should not be a people, Is. vii. 8; and in the sixty-five years they were broken and carried away by Esarhaddon, king of Babylon, B. C. 742— 677.
8.	The seventy years’ captivity prophesied of by Jeremiah, Jer. xxv. 11, were fulfilled between B. C. 596 and 526.
9.	Nebuchadnezzar’s seven times were foretold by Daniel, and fulfilled in seven years. See Dan. iv. 25, and Jose-phus.
10.	The seventy weeks which Gabriel informed Daniel would “ finish transgression, to make an end of sin, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteous-r.ess, to seal up the vision and prophecy,” which Daniel had beicip of the four kingdoms of the earth, that should finally be rvv,:1־^'/ed by the kingdom of the “ stone cut out without hat. is,” and “ to anoint the Most Holy.” Who can read this prophecy of the seventy weeks, and the history of Ezra, Neheuindi, the Jews, Romans, John and Jesus Christ, and
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PROPHETIC CHRONOLOGY.
not be convicted of its exact fulfilment in 490 years? And I would ask, How can it be possible that men who believe the Bible, and who have seen the exact fulfilment of all pro-phetic chronology thus far, can say, with any degree of pro-priety, these seventy weeks are indefinite ? Where are their proofs? Not on the records of divine inspiration. For, here we find no sample. Here is no time given, that has not been literally fulfilled according to the true intent and meaning of the prophecy. Why not, then, settle this one point forever, among believers in the divine authority of the Scriptures : that the chronology of prophecy is to be received with an equal faith with the chronology of history ? Why not believe the declarations of God concerning the future, as We do concerning the past? Who denies that God created the heavens and the earth, and all that are in them, in six days? None but the Infidel, say you. What better then is he who denies that God will accomplish what he has said he would perform in a given period? Well may the Infidel charge home upon us hypocrisy, when we refuse to believe the latter as well as the former.
All these cases which I have brought forward as proof of prophetic chronology, were once prophecies; and would it have been right in Noah, the patriarchs, and prophets, to have rejected the time given, any more than the manner? I answer, it could not have been faith to have rejected either. Then let 11s have faith to believe the chronology of the future, as well as of the past.
The seventy weeks were evidently fulfilled in the year A. D. 33, beginning 457 years B. C., at the going forth of the commandment to Ezra to restore the law and the people to Jerusalem. See Ezra vii. It)—13. I need not stop to argue this point, as very few can be found who have the hardi-hood to deny the seventy weeks as being a definite time. One reason, out of the many, may be here presented. Why should the man Gabriel be so particular in defining the beginning and the end of the seventy weeks, if indefinite time only is meant? And why did he name the events so particularly*as to divide the seventy into three very unequal parts, and yet in all three parts include the whole? Surely, no mortal can account for this agreement of numbers, and yet call it indefinite. There was much more ambiguity in the prophecy to Abraham, concerning his seed sojourning in a strange land four hundred years, (see Gen. xv. 13, 14,) than in this of the seventy weeks. Yet that was exactly accom-plished on the self-same day predicted. Exodus xii. 41. And, in me, it would be ·the very height of folly־, to believe otherwise concerning these seventy weeks of years, than as
DISSERTATION ON
4
an exact fulfilment, an the self-same day. God has no! changed, that he will not be as particular now as in the days of Abraham. He surely will, and when men, through cow-ardice or unbelief, charge God with thus tampering with his word, they must, sooner or later, find it to their cost to make such a solemn charge.
II. I WILL NOW BRING FORWARD SOME PROPHECIES WHICH REMAIN TO BE FULFILLED, OR WHICH HAVE RECENTLY BEEN ACCOMPLISHED.
1st. Moses’ prophecy of the scattering of the people of God among all nations “ seven times.” See Levit. xxvi. 14—46. It is evident, that these “seven times” were a succession of years, for their land was to lie desolate as long as they were in their enemies’ land. And the people of God have been scattered, and are now a scattered and a peeled people. These “seven times” are not yet accomplished, for Daniel says, “ When he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people all these things shall be finished.” The resurrection and judgment will take place. Dan. xii. 6, 7: “ And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders ! And 1 heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto liea-ven, and swore by him that liveth forever that it shall be for a time, times, and a half: and when he shall have accom-plished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.”
What did the angel mean by time, times, and a half? I answer, he meant three years and a half prophetic, or forty-two months, as in Rev. xi. 2 and xiii. 5: or 1260 prophetic days, as in Rev. xi. 3 and xii. 6 and 14. He meant the one half of “ seven times.” Daniel saw the same thing as Moses; only to Daniel the time was divided. He was informed that the little horn would “speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws; and they shall be given into his hand until a time, times, and the dividing of time.” This makes Moses’ seven times, for twice three and a half are seven, and twice 1260 are 2520 common years. But you may inquire, are not these two things the same in Daniel? I answer, no. For their work is different, and their time of existence is at different periods. The one scatters the holy people; the other wears out the saints. The one means the kingdoms which Daniel and John saw; the other means Papacy, which is called the little horn, which had not come up when the people of God were scattered by Babylon and
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PROPHETIC CHRONOLOGY.
the Romans. The first means literal Babylon, or the kings of the earth ; the other means mystical Babylon, or Papacy. And both together would scatter the holy people and wear out the saints “seven times,״ or 2520 years.
Moses tells us the cause of their being scattered, Levit. xxvi. 21: “ And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me.״ Jeremiah tells us when this time com-menced, Jer. xv. 4—7: “And I will cause them to be removed (scattered) into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem. For thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord, thou are gone backward; therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee and destroy thee. I am weary with repenting. And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land: I will bereave them of children; I will destroy my people, since they return not from their ways.״ We have the same cause assigned by Jeremiah as was given by Moses, and the same judgments denounced against his peo-pie, and the time is here clearly specified when these judg-ments began, “ in the days of Manasseh.״ And we find in 2 Chron. xxxiii. 9—11, that for the very same crime they were scattered : “ Wherefore the Lord spake to Manasseh and to his people, but they would not hearken. Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the kings of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters and carried him to Babylon.״ Here then began the “power (their king) of the holy people to be scattered.״ This year, also, the ten tribes were carried away by Esarhaddon, king of Babylon, and Isaiah’s sixty-five years were fulfilled when Ephraim was broken. This was in the year B. C. 677. The seven times are 2520; take 677 from which, and it leaves 1843 after Christ, when “ all these things will be finished.״ You may wish to know how the “time, times, and a half,״ are divided. I answer, the Babylonians bear rule over Israel and Judah 140 years, Medes and Persians 205 years, the Grecians 174 years, and the Romans before the rise of Papacy 696 years ; making in all of the four kingdoms 1215 years that the people of God were in bondage to the kings or rulers of these kingdoms. Then Papacy began her time, times, and a half, which lasted until 1798, being a period of 1260 years; which added to the 1215 years of the kings before mentioned, make 2475 years, wanting forty-five years to complete the “seven times.” And then the kings of the earth must consume the papal power and reign forty-five years to complete the “seven times;״ which added to 1798, when the last of the ten kings broke loose from the power of Papacy, and again
DISSERTATION ON
6
exercised their kingly power, (see the holy alliance, Rev. xvii. 15—18. Dan. vii. 12,) ends 1843. Dan. xii. 7—13. Thus this forty-five years accomplishes the “ time, times, and a half,’7 which the kingdoms of the earth were to exer-cise their authority in, “ scattering the power of the holy people,” being 1260 years. And Papacy, or mystical Baby-Ion, accomplished her “ time, times, and the dividing of time,” being 1260 years, between A. D. 538 and 1798, in “ wearing out the saints of the Most High and thinking to change times and laws.” And both together make 2520 years, beginning B. C. 677, which taken out of 2520, leaves 1843 after Christ, when captive Zion will go free from all bondage, even from death, and the last enemy con״ quered, the remnant out of all nations saved, the New Jeru-salem completed, the saints glorified.
The next prophetic number to which we shall attend, will be Daniel viii. 14: “ Unto 2300 days; then shall the sane-tuary be cleansed, or justified.” After Daniel had seen three visions, two of them including the whole “ seven times,77 he sees under his last vision but the three last king-doms, Persia, Grecia and Rome. He then hears a saint speaking, and another saint inquiring, for how long time this last vision should be. Daniel was then informed that it should be unto 2300 days. He afterwards heard a voice commanding Gabriel to make him (Daniel) understand the vision. He came and told him, that the vision would carry him to the end of all indignation, and at the time appointed (2300 days) the end would be. Gabriel then named two of the three kingdoms, i. e. Persia and Grecia, and described the Roman by its acts. Then he left Daniel to consider of the vision. Fifteen years afterwards, while Daniel was praying, Gabriel came to him again, and told Daniel he had come to make him understand the vision. Then he gives him the seventy weeks, and tells him plainly, that the seventy weeks would seal (or make sure) the vision and prophecy. Here he gave him a clue to know when his vision of the ram and he-goat began. He tells Daniel plainly, and shows how those who should live after the seventy weeks were fulfilled might know his prophecy ·to be true, and what they might understand by days in this vision. If, then, the seventy weeks were a part of the vision of the Tam and he-goat, and given, as it is evident, for the express purpose of showing the beginning of the vision, it remains a simple problem. If 490 days were fulfilled in the year A. D. 33, by being so many years, when will 1810 days be fulfilled in the same manner 7 Answer, 1843.
Then in the 12th chapter of Daniel; at the 7th verse, we
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PROPHETIC CHRONOLOGY.
have the three and a half times, which have been already explained in part, meaning 1260 days. See Rev. xii. 6 and 14. The woman in the wilderness, 1260 days, which is the same thing as three and a half times. Daniel, in the 7th chapter, 25th verse, mentions the little horn wearing out the saints three and a half times; but in the 12th chapter, 7th verse, it is “ scattering the power of the holy people” three and a half times. This was to be accomplished by the kings of the earth. Jer. 1.17 : “ Israel is a scattered sheep, the lions have driven him away; first the king of Assyria hath devoured him, and last this Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, hath broken his bones.” Also, Zech. i. 18—21.
Then in the 12th chapter of Daniel, 11th verse, “And from the time that the daily sacrifice (meaning abomination) shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh des-olate set up, there shall be 1290 days.” There is some dif-ficulty in knowing what is here intended by “ daily sacri-fice” in this text. It cannot mean the Jewish sacrifices, for two good reasons : 1st. It has some immediate connex-ion with “ the abomination that maketh desolate,” i. e., Papacy, or papal power of Rome, that is “ taken away to set up,” &c. Now all must admit, that Jewish sacrifices were taken away about 500 years before Papacy was set up, or exalted. 2. If Jewish sacrifices are here meant, then in A. D. 1360 this papal power would have ended her setting up, or exaltation. But Papacy was then at the height of its power. I have come to this conclusion: that this power, called “ daily sacrifice,” is Rome pagan abomination ; the same as Christ has reference to in Matt. xxiv. 15. Luke xxi. 21. Certainly Christ could not have reference to papal abomina-tion that maketh desolate until Christ’s second coming, for that was not set up until nearly 500 years afterwards. Of course, it must have been the pagan abomination which would be taken away. This agrees with Paul, 2 Thes. ii. 3—10: “ Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Re-member ye not, that when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withhold-eth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mys-tery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the
DISSERTATION ON
8
brightness of his coming: even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” Here Paul shows plainly, that there was one abomination then at work which would hinder the rise of the last abomination, until the first was “ taken out of the way then the second would be revealed, whom the Lord would destroy with the brightness of his coming. The question then would be, When was Paganism taken out of the way 7 I answer, it must have been after the ten horns arose, out of what is called the Western empire of Rome, which were to arise up and rule one hour* (a little time) with the beast, pagan : for this little horn was to arise or be “ set up” among the ten horns. It could not be until after the year 476 after Christ, when the Western em-pire fell and was divided into ten kingdoms. It could not come until “they,” the ten kings, had “polluted the sane-tuary of strength,” (meaning Rome.) Dan. xi. 31: “And they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall ‘ take away’ the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomina-tion that maketh desolate.” Who shall do this 7 1 answer, the ten horns, or kings. Rev. xvii. 12, 13 : “ And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet, (when John saw his vision,) but receive power as kings one hour (a short time) with the beast.” The beast here must mean Rome pagan, for we have been told that beast means a kingdom. Dan. vii. 23 : “ Thus he said, the fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth.” And as papal Rome had not yet been “ set up,” we must of necessity call this beast Rome pagan. Then he tells us. Rev. xvii. 13, “ These (ten kings) have one mind,” that is, one faith, all being converted to the orthodox religion of the Catholic Roman Church, “ and .shall give their power and strength to the beast,” meaning Rome papal ; for now this beast is “ set up,” and the ten kings have given their power and strength to the pope of Rome, and the woman or Papacy sits upon the scarlet-colored beast having seven heads and ten horns.
Then the abomination that maketh desolate began his rule in the fourth kingdom, when “the dragon (emperor of the Eastern empire) gave him his power, his seat (Rome) and great authority,” Rev. xiii. 2; and when the ten kings give their power and strength to him, and he (the pope) uses his authority over the kings of the earth. See Rev. xvii. 18.
* Rev. xvii. 10.
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PROPHETIC CHRONOLOGY.
״ And the woman thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.״ These several marks, and combinations of events, and circumstances, in my opin-ion, can nowhere be fulfilled in any manner agreeing with the prophecy, except in the conversion of the pagan kings to Christianity, which happened as soon as A. D. 508; then they “must continue a short space,״ Rev. xvii. 10; which is shown in Daniel to be thirty years, the difference between Dan. vii. 25 and xii. 11, the last number, 1290 years, begim־ ning at the “ taking away״ of Paganism, A. D. 508; the first number, 1260 years, beginning at the setting up of Papacy, A. D. 538, when the dragon gave his power, his seat and great authority, and when the ten kings gave their power and strength to Rome papal, and he exerciseth the power of the pagan beast before him. Papacy now killed heretics, as Paganism had Christians before. Then these numbers would end in the year A. D. 1798, allowing a day for a year.
The events which took place in 1798, are strong evidence that my calculations of these numbers are correct. Papacy then lost the power to punish heretics with death, and to reign over the kings of the earth. All must agree that Papacy has no temporal power over any kingdom, except the little kingdom of Italy, one of the horns of which the ten are composed. It is very evident, too, that the church is not now in the wilderness, and the time, times and a half of the church in the wilderness were fulfilled when free toleration was given to all religions in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, &c.; where Bonaparte obtained power and granted free tole-ration. Also the two witnesses are not clothed in sack-cloth, and the 1260 years are fulfilled. No one can doubt for a moment that the Bible was forbidden to the common people, and forbidden to be translated in any common lan-guage, after the orthodox put down the Arian heresy in Italy and the West, by Bellisarius, the general of Justinian’s troops, sent into Africa and Italy for the express purpose of suppressing the Arian power, and giving the church of Rome the pre-eminence over all schismatics. Then was the Bible taken from the common people, and remained in a sackcloth state from A. D. 538 until A. D. 1798, during 1260 years. Here we find the prophetic time of days fulfilled in years, by two ways more. And now it remains to show the end, by Dan. xii. 11, 12 : “ And from the time that the daily sacri-fice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be 1290 days.״ Paganism taken away A. D. 508; add 1290, make 1798. “Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the 1335 days : but go thou thy 2
DISSERTATION ON
10
way until the end be, for thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.״
When will the end of these days be ? you may inquire. I answer, 1335 years from taking away the first abomina-tion of the Roman kingdom, A. D. 508, to which add 1335, and it makes A. D. 1843, when Daniel will stand in his lot, and all who have waited for the Lord will be blessed.
III. I will now show some proof that days in prophetic chronology are used for years. All must agree, that God has in many places, and at divers times, revealed future things in figures, emblems, types and allegories ; and, as I believe, for wise and benevolent purposes. The most prominent is, that, in order to get anything clear, the Bible student must study the whole. And as it respects the matter under con־ sideration, days being put for years: if God had revealed himself plainly by using plain language instead of figures; if he had said, “ Unto 2300 years from the time that Ezra would be sent up from Babylon, to restore the law and cap-tives, &c., to the time when the end of the world should come,״ many men of the world would reject the whole Bible because of these words. Again, others, during past ages, if they had known that the judgment day was yet many years to come, would have abused the mercies of God, because vengeance was not executed speedily. Yet God had deter-mined times, and set bounds, and must reveal it to his pro-phets, or he would deny himself, (Amos iii. 7 : “ Surely the Lord God will do nothing,״ &c.,) that that day may not overtake the true believer as a thief, 1 Thess. v. 4. It is in the manner of Christ’s parables, Matt. xiii. 14—16 : “ By hear-ing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive.” “ But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear.״
That God has used days as a figure of years, none will or can deny. With Moses, Num. xiv. 34 : “ After the num-ber of days in which ye searched the land, even forty days (each day for a year) shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years; and ye shall know my breach of promise.״ With Ezek. iv. 4—6: “ Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity. For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hun-dred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.״ Also the seventy weeks in Dan. ix.
11
PROPHETIC CHRONOLOGY.
24—27. These are samples. But you will inquire, How shall we know when days are used for years? 1 answer, you will know by the subject matter to be performed in the given time. For instance, the seven of the seventy weeks, “ the streets and walls of the city should be built again, in troub-lous times;” every man must know this could not be per-formed in 49 days, or even in 70 weeks, 490 common days. So we are to look for another meaning to days; and we find it, as above, to mean years.
Again, the 2300 days. This is an answer given to the question, “ For how long a time the vision” of the ram, the he־goat and the little horn “ shall be ?” Answer, unto 2300 days. Who cannot see at a glance, that these three kingdoms Could not conquer each other, rule over the whole world each one separately for a time, and do this in six years arid four months? Thus the Infidel rejects his Bible, and the worldly scribe and priest try to explain away, by their own wisdom, what God has made plain by his word. “ By hear-ing ye shall hear, and not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive.”
But apply our rule, “ years for days,” and all is simple, plain, and intelligible.
I might here show how God has revealed time by types in his word, by Jewish Sabbaths, by the jubilee, and by the day of rest ;* but I am warned that I have already trespassed on your patience. May we all apply our hearts unto that wis-aom which compares scripture with scripture, and under-stand “ times and seasons,” which God has put within our power, by his revelation unto us.
For the time is at hand “ when the wise shall understand; but the wicked shall not understand.” Amen.
* See Sermuii on the Great Sabbath, in “ Miller's Views."
NOTE.
The Chronological Table on the next page is appended to this dissertation by׳ request. After a thorough and critical examination of the whole subject, Mr. Miller remarks, “ that if this Chronology is not correct, I despair of getting from the Bible and History a true account of the age of the world. As it respects the text in 1 Kings vi. 1, it cannot be reconciled with the history of the Judges, and the statement of Paul, Acts xiii. 20. I have therefore followed two witnesses instead of one. As it respects Samuel, I have no doubt of as long a period as 21 years.״
A BIBLE CHRONOLOGY FROM ADAM TO CHRIST.
BY WILLIAM MILLER.
No Names of Patriarchs, Kings, &c.. a.m. b. c. Book, chap , verse. Remarks Creation...................... I 4157 Gen. i., ii.
1.	Adam......................... 130	130 4027	“	v.	3
2.	Seth......................... 105	235 3922	“	“	6
3.	Enos ......................... 90	325 3832	«	·‘	9
4.	Cainan........................ 70	395 3762	“	»	12
6.	Mahalaleel.................... 65	460 3697	“	“	15
6.	Jared........................ 162	622 3535	“	“	18
7.	Enoch......................... 65	687 3470	«	«	21
8.	Methuselah................... 187	874 3283	«	“	25
9.	Lamech....................... 182	1056 3101	“	“	28
10.	Noah........................ 600	1656 2001	“	vii.	6 To the Flood.
The Flood. ..................... 1	1657 2500	“	yiii.	13
11.	Shem.......................... 2	1659 2493	“	xi.	10
12.	Arphaxad..................... 35	1694 2463	“	“	12
13. Salah.....................	30 1724 2433	“	“	14
14.	Heber.......................  34	1758	2399	“	“	16
15.	Peleg.................... 30 1788 2369	“	18 ״
16.	Reu.......................... 32	1820	2337	“	“	20
17.	Serug.........................30	1850	2307	“	“	22
18.	Nahor................. 29 1879 2278	“	24 ״ * The Exode did not
19.	Terah’slife.............. 205*	2084	2073	“	“	32	begin until Terah’s
20.	Exode, kc. .	י........430	f	2514	1643	Ex. X». 40, 41	death; then Abram
21.	Wilderness............ 40	2554	1603	Josh. v. 6	left Haran and the
22.	Joshua............... 25!	2579	157§	xiv. 7; xxiv. 29	Exode began, as is
1.	Elders and Anarchy§ ....	18 2597 1560 See Josephus. clearly proved by
2.	Under Cushan........... 8	2605	1552	Judg. iii. 8	Acts vii. 4.
3.	Othnlel....................... 40	2645	1512	“	“	11	t Exode in Egypt
4.	Eglon........................  18	2663	1494	“	“	14	from Abraham to
5.	Ehud................... 80 2743 1414	30 “ ״ wilderness state.
6.	Jabin......................... 20	2763	1394	“	Iv.	3 I Joshua was a young
7.	Barak ........	40	2803	1354	“	v.	31	man when he came
8.	Midianites..................... 7	2810	1347	״	vi.	1	out of Egypt, Ex.
9.	Gideon........................ 40	2850	1307	“	viii.	28	xxxiii. 11; could
10.	Abimelech..................... 3	2853	1304	“	ix.	22	not have been more
11.	Tola ........	23	2876	1281	“	x.	2	than 45 years old
12.	Jair . :..................... 22	2898	1259	“	“	3	then. 85 when he
13.	Philistines . ........... 18 2916 1241	8 “ ״ entered Canaan, &
14.	Jephthah...................... 6	2922	1235	“	xii.	7	110 when he died,
15.	Ibzan......................... 7	2929	1228	“	“	9	leaves 25 years.
16	Eloh ........	10	2939	1218	"	“	11	§ Judges begin. See
17.	Ahdon......................... 8	2947	1210	“	“	14	Judges ii. 7—15.
18.	Philistines.................. 40	2987	1170	“	xiil.	1
19.	Eli.......................40Π	3027	1130	1 Sam. iv.	18	|| This ends the Judg-
20.	Samuel, prophet . . . .	2411	3051	1106	“	vii.	2—17	es—448 years. Acts
1·	Kings—Saul.................... 40	3091	1066	Acts	xiii. 21	xlii. 20; also chap.
2.	David......................... 40	3131	1026	2 Sam. v.	4	viii.
3.	Solomon ...................... 40	3171	936	1 Kings xl.	42	ΤΓ Samuel could not
4.	Rehoboam...................... 17	3183	969	2 Chron. xii.	13	have	been more
5.	Abijara ....................... 3	3191	966	1 Kings xv.	2	than	33 when Eli
6.	Asa........................... 41	3232	925	“	10 ״	died. Then, Israel
7.	Jehoshaphat. . .....	2ft	3257	900	“	xxii.42	was lamenting the
8.	Jehoram . ..................... 5	3262	895	2 Kings viii.	17	loss	of the Ark
9.	Ahaziah........................ 1	3263	894	“	“	26	more than 20years.
10.	Athaliah, his mother ...	6	3269	888	“	xi. 3, 4	Samuel judged Is·
11.	Joash........................ 40	33Π9	848	“	xii. 1	rael some years af·
12.	Amaziah...................... 29	3338	819	“	xiv. 2	ter,and became old,
Interregnum**................ 11	3349	808	“	xv. 1, 2	and his sons judged
13.	Azariah............... 62 3401 756	“	2 ״ Israel. He must
14.	Jotham....................... 16	3417	740	“	“	33	have been 62 or 63
15.	Ahaz......................... 16	3433	724	“	xvi. 2	when Saul was
16.	Hezekiah..................... 29	3462	695	“	xviii. 2	made king.
17.	Manasseh . .................. 55	3517	640	“	xxi. 1	** See 2 Kings, chap-
18.	Amon ......................... 2	3519	638	«	“	19	ters xiv. and xv.
19.	Josiah . . .................. 31	3550	607	“	χχϋ. 1
20.	Jehoahaz, 3 months ....	3550 607	“ xxiii.31
21.	Jehoiakim................. 11	3561	596	36	“ ״
The 70 years of captivity be-.	« xxiv.2—16
pan here, ended 1st year of >	70	3631	526	2 Chr. xxxvi. 6
Cyrus.................V	—10, 15—23
Cyrus................... 6	3637	520	Rollin, i. p. 354
Cambyses........................ 7	3644	513	“	“ “ 366
Darius Hystaspes ....	36	3680	477	“	ii. 9 ״	ft See Ferguson’s
Xerxes..........................!3	3693	464	“	“ ״ “	Astronomy ; also
Artaxerxes Longimanus . .	7	3700	457	Ezra	vii. 10—13	Pridcaux'sConnec-
Birth of Chrisift....... 457 4157	lion.
Add present year, 1340	. .	1840 '997	·
| To 1343 ..................... 3 6000_________________________________________
A DISSERTATION ON
THE JUDGMENT.
BY WILLIAM MILLER.
Judgment is the sentence or decision of a judge, and im-plies that there is a right and wrong, good and evil. And in judging, it is always supposed that the judge will, in his judgment, bring to light the right and wrong, good and evil. And in judgment, too, it is expected to receive rewards and punishments, according to the law by which we are judged. There are many judgments spoken of in the Scriptures : but my object will not be to take you into all the different ways in which judgment is there used, but I shall endeavor to prove that God hath appointed a day of retribution, in which he will judge the world in equity and truth; those under the law he will judge by the law, and those under the gospel by the gospel.
I. I WILL PROVE THAT THERE IS A DAY APPOINTED FOR THE JUDGMENT OF THE WHOLE WORLD, AFTER THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD.
Acts xvii. 31: “ Because 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.״
It is very evident that those who heard the apostle, under-stood him to assert, plainly, that there was a day of judg-ment appointed, in which all men that were dead would be raised and participate in it, as well as those who were alive. See what follows. Verse 32: “ And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.״ Again, Rom. ii. 16: “ In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.״ We see by this passage, that the day of judgment spoken of in this text is yet in the future; for every man knows that every secret thing is not yet brought to light. Luke viii. 17: “ For nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest; neither anything hid that shall not be known and come abroad.״ Or, as Paul says, 1 Cor. iv. 5 : “ Therefore judge nothing
DISSERTATION ON
S
before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall every man have praise of God.״ What timet In the day appointed. And when 7 When the Lord shall come. Then shall every man who has done well have praise of God. “ Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these, ye have done it unto me.״
Again, we are told, that Jesus Christ is to judge the quick (or the living) and the dead, at his appearing, and his king-dom. See Acts x. 42: “And he commanded us to preach Unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead.2 ״ Tim. iv. 1: “ I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at hia appearing and his kingdom.״ See also 1 Peter iv. 5: “ Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.״ By these passages we are taught that there is a judgment after death, at the resurrection. You will permit me to bring another text, to prove that Christ will judge his people at his coming. Psalm 1. 3—6 : “Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, (that he may judge his people,) Gather my saints together unto me, those that have made a covenant with me by sac-rifice. And the heavens shall declare his righteousness, fot God is judge himself.״ This passage, if it prove anything, proves that wheri Chiist comes to gather his elect, he will judge his people, and that all his saints will be there, both which are in heaven and on earth.
Again. Peter clearly shows, that there is a day of jndg-ment, when the world shall be cleansed by fire. 2 Pet. iii. 7: “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.״ This text agrees with the fiftieth Psalm, and evidently refers to the same time, when Christ shall come; for he in the tenth verse says, “ 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 great heat; the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burnt up.״ We learn by this passage, that it is the same time as Paul tells ns in 1 Thess. iv. 15—18; also v. 1—4: “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For 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 des-
3
THE JUDGMENT,
truction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they־ shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.”; And in 2 Peter iii. 15, 16, we are assured by Peter that Paul “ had written unto us concerning these things.” Paul speaks of the same day of the Lord coming as a thief, &c., and says, “ For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God : and the dead in Christ shall rise first.”
Let these passages be sufficient to prove that God has revealed unto us the following truths:—
L That he has appointed a day of judgment.
2.	That the judgment follows the resurrection.
3.	That his saints are raised and judged at the second advent of the Lord Jesus Christ.
II. I WILL NOW SHOW HOW LONG THAT DAY WILL BE, AND WHEN THE WICKED WILL BE RAISED AND JUDGED.
1. This day of judgment is often called “ the day of the Lord,” as in Isaiah ii. 12: “For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and every one that is lifted up, and he shall be brought low.” Isaiah xiii. 9 : “ Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger; and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.” (Consult Isaiah xxxiv. 8. lxi. 2. lxiii. 4.) These passages all go to show, that, when Christ comes to recompense the controversy of Zion and reward his people, he will destroy the incorrigible, the proud, and wicked out of his kingdom. And we are clearly made to understand by the prophets and apostles, that this is to be done by literal fire. And Christ, in the parable of the tares and wheat, more than intimates the same thing. Mai-achi, in the fourth chapter of his prophecy, shows, as plain as words can make it, “ that the proud and all that do wickedly shall he stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts; it shall leave them neither root nor branch.” This day has not yet Come, cer-tainly, that all the proud and all that do wickedly are burnt up, not one of them left. We have too much evidence that there are such characters yet in the earth; and as the word all is said by our opponents to mean all. they, of course, to be consistent with themselves, will not deny the conclusion. “But unto you that fear my name, shall the sun of righte-ousness arise with healing in his wings, and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.” This, to me, is a plain figure of the coming of Christ, the resurrection of the saints, the meeting of Christ in the air, and the security from the burning wrath of God when the proud and wicked
DISSERTATION ON
4
are consumed. “ And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet, in the day I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts.” It is evident, that the bodies of the wicked are now burnt, and are not raised, for they are ashes: this then must be a day between the des-truction of the wicked and their resurrection. It is after the resurrection of the righteous, for they have gone forth from the dust and the grave to meeMhe sun of righteousness. They have received the last healing beams from Christ, in his second advent. Death is now conquered ; for they now stand in their lot on the earth; they have feet, for they shall tread down the wicked “ in that day.” In what day 7 I answer, in the day of the Lord; in the day between the two resurrections, of the just and of the unjust. John says, Rev. xx. 5, 6: “ But the rest of the dead lived not again until the 1000 years were finished. This is the first resur-rection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.” This is the day of the Lord, 1000 years. Is this day to be understood a literal or figura-tive 1000 years? I answer, literal, for it is an explanation of a figure, rather than a figure. See 2 Peter iii. 8: “ But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day,” that is, one day with the Lord is as a thousand years with us. It is evident that Peter is talking about this same judgment day, in the 7th verse; in the 8th and 9th verses he explains the length of the day, and gives a good reason why it is a thousand years, because God is long-suf-fering. Then, in the 10th verse, he goes on to describe the same day as spoken of in the 7th and 8th verses, there called judgment day; but, in this tenth verse, it is named the “ day of the liord.”
2. When will the wicked be raised and judged? I answer, when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, Gog and Magog will come up on the surface of the earth. Gog and Magog signify the whole host of the wicked which have ever lived on the earth, the opposers of Christ, and the persecutors of the people of God. Ezekiel says Gog is the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, which mean the powers of this world, at the head of all their fol-lowers, an%army like the sand of the sea-shore. Magog signifies dissolved Gog. They have once been dissolved, dust or ashes in the earth; but have now been raised. “ The sea, death and hell have given up their dead.” Then they are gathered around the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and are there judged, “every man according
5
THE JUDGMENT.
10 their worksand then the justice of God drives them from the earth into a lake of fire, where they are tormented day and night forever and ever. This is the second death. In order to get the proof of the things mentioned above, let the inquirer read the 20th chapter of Revelations. In that chapter, 1st verse, John is describing the second advent of Jesus Christ. The 2d and 3d verses give an account of his chaining Satan and casting him into the bottomless pit and shutting him up. The 4th verse gives an account of the resurrection of the saints, their judgment, and reign with Christ 1000 years. The 5th verse shows that the wicked dead will not live again until the 1000 years are finished, and calls the above the first resurrection. The 6th verse speaks of the blessings of those who have part in the first resurrection. The 7th‘ verse shows that when the 1000 years have expired, Satan will be loosed from his prison. The 8th verse describes the acts of Satan, in deceiving the wicked host, that have now lived again on the earth, gather-; ing them to battle, as he tells them, (but there is no battle,) and gives the number as the sand upon the sea-shore, imply-ing the whole class of the wicked. The 9th verse tells us that this army went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; which proves two things: First, that no saint is deceiv-ed; but they are all encamped in the city, and nothing that worketh abomination or maketh a lie can enter into the city. Secondly, that the New Jerusalem is on the earth, and of course must have come down from heaven at the com-mencement of the 1000 years: for we find it on the earth when the wicked compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city, where the wicked are judged by the saints, and by the justice of God are driven from the earth, represented by the figure of fire; and as shown in the 10th verse, the devil, the beast, and false prophet, are cast into the lake of fire, where they shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. This closes John’s first account of the judgment. The 11th and 12th verses show the resurrection and judgment of the saints at the commencement of the 1000 years, and are property a review of the account given in the former part of the chapter.
The 13th, 14th, and 15th verses, are an account of the resurrection of the wicked; for 11 death and hell deliver up the dead which were in them,” and they are judged every man according to their works, and the same persons casi into the lake of fire, which is the second death.
I shall now meet a few objections, raised by the opponents of a future judgment. First: they say this judgment was
DISSERTATION ON
6
fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem. To this I answer, that Christ says, Matt.xxiv. 29, “Immediately after the tribu-lation of those days”—that is, after the destruction of Jeru-salem, by their own showing,—“ 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 heavens shall be shaken.” This evidently shows the gospel, or two wit״ nesses being clothed in sackcloth, the church in.her wilder-ness state, and the fall of ministers from the purity of the gospel into antichristian abominations, and the shaking of the moral heavens by the doctrines of Papacy, called in the word of God “ the doctrines of devils to accomplish which, according to Daniel and John, and the opinions of all com-mentators, will include a time or period of 1260 years. “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 trumpet; and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” All this was to happen after the tribulation of those days ; therefore could not have happened at the destruction of Jerusalem.
Paul, in his second Epistle to the Thessalonians, speaking of the faith and patience of the saints in enduring persecu-tion and tribulation, says, i. 5—10־, “Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God. that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer; seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled, rest with us; when the Lord Jesus shall be reveal-ed 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 pun-ished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe.” It is evident that Paul in this place is speak-ing of the righteous judgment of God, the revelation of Jesus Christ from heaven, the taking vengeance on all who know not God, both Jew and Gentile, and the punishing with ever-lasting destruction those who obey not the gospel, from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power; and this, too, when he comes to be glorified in his saints. This can have no reference particularly to the Jews, as it was written to the Gentile believers at Thessalonica; and must have reference to all that troubled or persecuted them,
ד
the judgment.
whether Jew or Gentile. Then, in the second chapter, he tells us, “ Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.״ And yet the objector says that it was near at hand. “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition: who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped ; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” This description of Paul agrees with Daniel’s little horn, vii. 25 : “ And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and law׳s: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.” Paul says, 8th verse, “ And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that per-ish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
By these quotations, we perceive that the coming of Christ was not at hand, and coiila not take place, as Paul reasons, until the man of sin should be revealed, the son of perdition, who should wear out the saints of the Most High 1260 years; and then should the Son of man be revealed, and destroy him by the brightness of his coming. No man can suppose that this time could have passed between Paul’s epistle to his Thessalonian brethren and the destruction of Jerusalem. Therefore we conclude, from these facts, that the judgment must be in the future; for Daniel says, that at the end of all these things “ the judgment shall sitand Paul says? that these persecutions and tribulations are a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God.
Another set of objectors say, “The judgment will not take place until we have enjoyed 1000 years of peace and prosperity, and the world be converted to God.”
In reply to this objection, I would present the following
DISSERTATION ON THE JUDGMENT.
8
text in Daniel, vii. 21, 22: “Ibeheld, and the same hom made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High.” Luke xvii. 26, Christ says: “ And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. 28: Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot, even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” Paul says, “ And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.”—2 Thess. ii. 8. Again, 2 Tim. iii. 1—5: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boast-ers, proud blasphemers, 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 pleasure more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” 12th and 13th verses: “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” John, in the 7th chapter of Revelations, when he saw the whole fam-ily of the redeemed out of ail nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands, was inquired of by one of the elders, “ What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?” the answer was, “ These are they which came out of great tribu-lation.” This evidently shows us that there can possibly be no period of time in which the children of God will not suffer persecution or tribulation, till the end come. Consult also, 2 Tim. iv. 1—8. Jas. v. 1—9. Jude 14—21.
Now, if this objection is valid, how can it be true that Daniel’s little horn, and Paul’s man of sin, can make war and prevail against the saints until the Ancient of days comes, and be “consumed only with the spirit of his mouth, and destroyed by the brightness of his coming?” How can it be true that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, if the whole world is to be converted, and universal peace pervade the earth for a thousand years? What kind of a millennium will that be, when evil men and seducers wax worse and worse, in the midst of perilous times, and all hell, as it were, disgorged of its contents, and come up to the great battle of God Almighty ? Or must these objectors be classed with those who cry “ peace and safety,” when “ sudden destruction cometh ?י
HISTORY AND DOCTRINE
OF THE
MILLENNIUM.
A DISCOURSE DELIVERED IN THE CONFERENCE ON THE SECOND ADVENT NEAR, AT BOSTON, MASS., OCT. 14,
1840.
BY HENRY DANA WARD.
The word millennium simply means a thousand years. In this sense, the world has seen five millenniums, and above eight tenths of the sixth. Tradition, by an erroneous chro-nology, has long regarded the seventh as near, and has expected it to bear such a relation to the previous six mil-lenniums, as the Sabbath of rest bears to the six days of labor in the week but it is not to be followed by another six of labor: it is to be an eternal rest, in holy bliss, for the chosen people and faithful.! The time is definitely a thou-sand years; but it has ever been, and now is, more generally received, in an indefinite sense, for a longer period; nobody can toll how long, but as probably three hundred and sixty thousand years, as one thousand.
In this common sense I chiefly use the word millennium, to designate a period of heavenly bliss, commencing in the conclusion of this world, and running into eternity with unknown limits ; a period of which all prophets have pro-phesied,! and poets have sung;$ the golden age and resti-tution of all things, for which creation longs with outstretched neck in earnest expectation, || and we ourselves groan within ourselves, constantly praying, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven so in the earth.״H It is the *
* See Barnabas, quoted below, f Heb. iv. 5,9. t Acts iii. 21. Rev. xix. 10.
§ Hesiod, David, Virgil, Milton, Cowper, Heber, Pollok. || Rom. viii. 19.
זך St. Jerome says of these words, they ask ״ for the kingdom of the whole world, that Satan may cease to reign m the world.״ St. Chrysostom interprets them of the groaning. Rom. viii. 21; St. Cyprian of the coming and kingdom of our Lord in the end of the world. So the Assembly’s and Ed. Sixth’s Cate-chisms.
HISTORY AND DOCTRINE
2
resurrection of the dead, in angelic natures, to inherit the promised land in the new earth forever and ever.*
THE FALL.
Creation was made for man, and put in subjection to him.f Adam rebelled against his Maker, and nature rebel-led against her rightful Lord. Sin entered Eden; and not only man, but all creation felt the wound, and received the wages of sin, which is death. The lord of creation dies, and passes through death to the resurrection, an״d to recov-ered immortality. Creation itself travels to incorruption by the same pathway with its lord,—all creation must perish that it may be revived again incorruptible with its lord, in the times of anapsyxis, or resuscitation, from the presence of the Lord.J
* This view of the course of time in sii days of a thousand years appears not to have been confined to Jews. The Chaldeans, according to Plutarch, believed in a struggle between good and evil for the space of six thousand years; “ and then Hades is to cease, and men are to be happy, neither want* ing food, nor making shade.” Zoroaster taught, that after six thousand years of suffering, men would be happy under one government, speaking one lan-guage. Plutarch assigns no reason for these opinions; but Daubuz, from whom I extract them, supposes they are of patriarchal origin. He adds: The Tuscans had an opinion, which the Persians still hold, that “ God has appointed twelve thousand years to his works; the first six thousand were employed in creation ; the other six are appointed for the duration of mankind.”
Mr. Mede, p. 535, informs us that the whole school of Cabbalists call the seventh millennium “ the great day of judgment,” because then they think God will judge the souls of all men; and he quotes many of their Rabbis to show that they defined the day of judgment, “ millennium,” or a thousand years, together with the resurrection and Messiah’s kingdom. For example, David Kimchi, on Is. lv. 5, says, “The observance of the Sabbath is essential to the faith ; for such only as observe the Sabbath confess that the earth will be renewed: because he who created it out of nothing will renew it.” As if he who observes the holy Sabbath testifies his faith in 1he great Sabbath, in which God will renew the world.
The learned Dr. Gill has some valuable citations on this point. On 2 Pet. iii. 8, he says, The Jews interpret days, millenniums; the seventh is the Sab-bath, and the beginning of the world to come. On Rev. xx. 4, The Rabnis say, The days of Messiah will be a thousand years. In these thousand God will renew his world, and then the righteous dead will be raised and die no more.
The following is in the name of St. Barnabas, the companion of St. Paul, and is of his age, whether the hand-writing be that of Barnabas, or another.
“In six thousand years (from creation) the Lord God will bring all things to an end; for with him one day is a thousand years, as himself testifieth, saying, Behold, this day shall be as a thousand years. Therefore, children, in six days, that is, in six thousand years, shall all things be accomplished. And what is that he saith, He rested the seventh day ? He means this, that when his Son shall come, and abolish the season of the wicked one, and judge the ungodly, and shall change the sun and moon and stars; then he shall glo* riously rest in the seventh day.”—Apoc. Test^Bfixn. xiii. 3-
f Gen. i. 28.
j Acts iii. 19. Isa. lxv. 18. Matt. v. 18. xxiv. 35. Heb. i. 11. 2 Pet. iii. 7.
3
OF THE MILLENNIUM.
THE PROMISES.
In Eden dwelt bliss; but sin came, and bliss fled: bliss cannot abide with sin, no, not in Eden. Man felt this; all nature felt: but the blessed God, by whose righteous law they were made subject to vanity and death, mercifully subjected them “in hope”*
This “hope” was begotten by the first promise: “Thy seed shall bruise his head.”{ Adam and Noah died in the faith, and left this hope to be cherished by their posterity; and their race have, in one form or another, ever cherished this hope, and will cherish it, until the time comes for it to be fulfilled. But the race is ever prone to anticipate the time, as Eve did when she named her first-born Cain, I have gotten the man from the Lord.{ So James and John, when they sought the first seats in the kingdom; and all the apostles, when they inquired, “ Wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel ?”$ And every age from that day to this has furnished memorable examples of anticipat-ing the time.
The first promise was of a future triumph over the scr-pent, recovering what he took away:—innocence, Eden, and immortality. The “hope” it inspires belongs to this world; and so, likewise, the triumph of faith: but the triumph in fact belongs to the resurrection of the dead and the world to come, when the second Adam swallows up death in victory, and makes restitution of all things.
Possibly the old world were looking for this promise to be fulfilled in the blood, when the sons of God took wives of the daughters of men ;|| but the flood came, and swept them all away : certainly they were not looking for the flood. So shall the coming of the Son of man be; expected, but wholly of an unexpected character.
The second promise, of the recovery of the holy land, was made and confirmed by a covenant oathll to Abraham and his seed, which the apostle tells us is Christ,** “to give thee this land to inherit it ;״ft and “that he should be the heir of the world.”{.־): It is plain Abraham did not own, or inherit, in the days of his flesh, save only the burial-place in Macphelah before Mamre, which he bought of the sons of Heih. Otherwise, he with his posterity was a stranger and pilgrim in the land of promise,$$ having no inheritance in it,mi looking for a better country, even an heavenly, and a city which hath foundations.Hli	But the oath and promise
* Rom. viii. 20.	f Gen.iii.15. Rom.xvi.20.	$ Gen. iv. 20.
$ Acts i. 6.	|| Gen. vi. 2, 3.	^ Gen. xv. 9,10,17,18.
** Gal. iii. 16.	ft Gen. xv. 7.	ft Rom. iv. 13.
$$ Gen. xxiii. 17.	|||| Acts vii. 5.	ΤΗΓ Heb. xi. 9.
HISTORY AND DOCTRINE
4
of God cannot fail: Abraham, together with the heirs of the same promises, died in the faith and hope of receiving them in the resurrection of the dead; for this the apostle assures us was “the hope of the promise made of God unto the fathers,”* and fulfilled unto us their children, “in that he hath raised up Jesus again.”־(־ And this promise is “sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham.”!
It is important to mark the firmness with which the natu-ral seed have ever clung to this promise, as if this \vorld were to be conferred on them for a carnal possession forever! But Abraham understood that the promise had respect to the heavenly country in Paradise regained, with immortality in the resurrection. His seed should follow in his steps. The meek have also the promise with Abraham, that they shall inherit the earth :§ but it is not Judea, says Jerome, “not this world, not the earth under a curse, producing thorns and briers, which rather the bloodiest warriors pos-sess; but it is the earth which the Psalmist describes: I hope to see the Lord's goodness in the land of eternal life.” For this world is a land whose cities have not foundations, and whose inhabitants have no inheritance in it, but that of Abraham in the cave of the field of Macphelah.jj
* Acts xxiii. 6. f lb. xiii. 32.	$ Rom. iv. 16. φ Matt. v. 5.
|| I confirm this view of the promise made unto the fathers, by reciting from Mr. Mede, Dr. Gill, and others, certain opinions of learned Rabbis, going to show that they also received the promise in the sense it is expounded here. The promise is of the inheritance of the land forever. Rabbi Eieazar, who lived just after the second temple was built, writes thus: “ As I live, saith the Lord, I will awake you hereafter in the resurrection of the dead, and will gather you with all Israel into the land of Israel.״ .
Jonathan the Paraphrast, who lived before the Christian era, says on Hos. xiv. 8, “ They shall be gathered from their captivity; they shall live under the shadow of Messiah; the dead shall rise, and good shall increase in the earth,״ dec.
“ Where does the (Mosaic) law teach the resurrection of the dead ? Truly, where it says, Ex. vi. 4, ‘ And I have also established my covenant with them, that I will give to them the land of Canaanfor it is said not to you but to them. Again, the Sadducees asked Rabbi Gamaliel, (Paul’s teacher,) whence he could prove that God would raise the dead. Nor urould they rest, until he had Drought them this verse. Deut. xi. 21, ‘ Which land the Lord snare to your fathers that he nould give them.’ ״ God covenanted with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to give them the land in which they were strangers, for an inheritance ; and not having received the inheritance, they must needs live again, or in respect to them the promise has failed, which is impossible.
The above are found in Mede, with the following also: “ Rabbi Kimchi, on Obadiah, says, When Rome shall be laid waste, there shall be redemption for Israel.—And on Is. xxvi. 19, The holy blessed God will raise the dead at the time of deliverance.—And on Jer. xxiii. 20, In that he saith ye shall consider it, and not they shall consider it, he intimateth the resurrection.״
Dr. Gill furnishes the following, 1 Cor. xv. 54: “ When the King Messiah comes, the holy blessed God will raise up those that sleep, as it is written, He shall swallow up death in victory.”
OF THE MILLENNIUM.	5
The third and last promise which I notice, is that made with an oath to David, “That of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ, to sit on his throne.״* All believers of this promise have regarded Christ’s kingdom as the era of human bliss; but few, how-ever, regard it as belonging solely to the resurrection of the dead. The natural Israel have always expected it to be a temporal kingdom, of which they are to be royal princes. The very apostles apprehended it so, while the Lord tarried on the earth; and the populace would have crowned Jesus, while they hailed him, Blessed be the King! But when he refused their kingdom, they refused him. Bent on having the millennium in this world, they rejected Jesus, as a deceiver, who would seem to be the Messiah, and yet rejected the crown!—He triumphed, he arose from the dead, and brought to light the immortality which Adam lost, and the eternal life in the Paradise of God, from which Adam felt, and also the everlasting kingdom promised to David for his Son, to whom belong salvation, dominion, and glory, in the restitution of all things, after this world has gone, with that before the flood, to final destruction in the resurrection of the dead.
In the same spirit the ingrafted Israel, also, look on the gospel dispensation, which is committed to the Gentile church, as Messiah's kingdom ;f and they are expecting to see its victorious banner waving over all nations in the close-coming millennium: they.are expecting this gospel dispensa-tion to subdue, and convert, and overturn all opposition, and to govern the whole world; precisely as the natural Israel expected of the Mosaic dispensation. But the Mosaic dis-pensation was not Messiah’s kingdom; it was only a faint shadow of it: neither is the gospel dispensation Messiah’s
On Matt. xxii. 31, u The holy blessed God promised to our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that he Would give them the land of Israel. We learn from hence that they shall be raised, and that God will hereafter give them the land of Israel.”
It will greatly increase our interest in the prophets, if we observe, from Moses to Malachi, that the promises and threatenings are directly to you and to us, who read and hear, and not to them who may come after us. In all the glorious prophecies of Israel’s restoration, scattered up and down the sacred page, the word is to you, and is not to them; the word is spoken to you in the second, and not to them in the third person : and in order to be fulfilled to the persons to whom it has in past ages been spoken, they must revive, and come out of the grave, and live again ; which assuredly they will at the coming and kingdom of Christ in the resurrection of the dead.
* Acts ii. 30. 2 Sam. vii. 12, 13.
f Villipand, a Jesuit of the year 1600, expressly says, “ The church militant, which is called the kingdom of heaven, and is descended from heaven,” &c Vol. i. 217. E. i.
HISTORY AND DOCTRINE
6
kingdom; it is only the good news of it: “ The kingdom of heaven is at hand,״ and is yet to come.
THE PROPHECIES OP THIS HEAVENLY MILLENNIUM.
I classify the prophecies under three heads, without dis-coursing of either.
The first class are those which relate to the great King, who obtains this promised land of bliss in Eden, and in eternal life regained. “ The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” He is the Kino.
The second class are those which relate to the “ restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.” This is the king-
DOM OF HEAVEN.
The third class are those which relate to the Israel of God, the chosen generation, the saints, who are the heirs of this kingdom. Their restoration is by all regarded as belonging to the millennium; and they are his people out of every nation, in the resurrection of the dead; even “ the house of Jacob,” and “ the whole house of Israel.”
The prophecies show that the King should pass through the grave to his throne,* and that his kingdom also must itself rise from the ashes of this world.f and that his citizens also must arise from the dust, to reach the inheritance of the exalted Son of God in his heavenly kingdom.{
Under the ancient dispensation, every sacrifice on holy altars slain pointed to his death, and, under the present dis-pensation, every communion of his holy supper commemo-rates it.$ until he comes in the dispensation of the fulness of times, to receive the inheritance of the purchased posses-sion,|| and to give it to the chosen seed, the saints in light, and to bruise Satan under their feet.H Then is‘the blissful millennium; for the prophecies of a latter-day glory are the inheritance of all the faithful in Christ, whether they be sons of the natural Israel or of the Gentiles; that being now revealed by the Spirit “which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men—that the Gentiles should be feU low-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ.״** Accordingly, the Gentiles are no longer “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenant of promise ;”ff but are by the blood of Christ made “fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the
* Ps. xvi. 10. Isa. liii. 8. Dan. ix. 26.
f Dan. ii. 44. vii. 13, 14, 27. Isa. xxiv. 19, 20, 23. 2 Pet. iii. 12, 13. f Isa. lxvi. 8, 10. Job xix. 25. 1 Cor xv. 22, 23, 50. 1 Thess. iv. 17. Ezek. xxxvii. 12—14.	$ 1 Cor. xi. 26.	|| Eph. i. 14.
ן Rom. xvi. 20.	** Eph. iii. 5, 6.	tf lb. ii. 12.
OP THE MILLENNIUM.	7
household of God;”* not to receive at perishable kingdom in this world, bat to be gathered into the kingdom of heaven in the world to come, never more to be rooted out of their land: it is their everlasting possession, and David is oiit king forever.
It is not a new thing for Israel to exclaim, “ What portion have we in David? Neither have we inheritance in the Son of Jesse.”f And yet the ancient example affords small inducement for moderns to follow. We are resolved to fol-low David, and to worship in Zidn; and not in either Bethel or Dan.
It is not a new thing for the natural seed to exclaim, 4‘Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.”}; And they trouble the church with their dissension; but now “faith is come, we are no longer Under a schoolmaster;” to whom we give “place by subjection, no, not for'an hour.” AVe yield not our claims to the natural seed. “ For ye are all the children of God by faith of Jesus Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are; all one In Christ Jesus:” by faith now, and in fact in the World to come; “and if ye be Christ’s, then ate ye Abra-ham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise :”$ heirs of the holy city in the hCaVenly land under the dominion of the Lord our King:
THE GOSPEL OP THIS FUTURE BLISS.
The gospel is glad tidings of the near approach of this kingdom, . which \vjas by promise made known unto the fathers, and was by prophecy unfolded to their children. Ttie gospel is glad tidings of the kingdom at hand, which kingdom Adam lost, and the Lord Jesus regained.|| The gospel is glad tidings of salvation ; good news of the triumph over the prince of this world, which the Redeemer has wrought in his own person, and will shortly manifest in the persons of all believers, who are found worthy to attain that world, and the resurrection of the dead, at his coming and kingdom.1i The theme of the gospel'is the kingdom of heaven, or the recovery of the joys which Adam forfeited in E<Jenv with warning now of another death, answering the penalty of its broken law with the second death. The gos~, pel- is the joyful sound of the near approach of the happy state, in which the blind shall receive their sight, the ears
'*'Eph!. 1!.'19. f 1 Kings xii. 16.	$ Acts iv.’l.'1	$ Gal. iii.25—29.
|| Phil. ii. 9. Heb. i. 2. ii. 8. Col. i. 20. Eph. i. 21, 22. .
ΤΓ 2 Tim. iV.lt !John iii.2. Hoin. xiv. 9. Johnxvi.il.
HISTORY AND DOCTRINE
8
of the deaf shall be unstopped, the lame man shall leap as a hart, and the tongue of ihe dumb shall sing; glad tidings of the near coming restoration of the innocence and peace of which Satan robbed man in the garden of the blessed, and of the removal of the curse which, for Adam’s sake, was* imposed on creation, and of the renovation of the earth, to make it the promised holy land, “ the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of .Israel.* Then shall the merciful obtain mercy, and the pure in heart shall see God. Then is the millennium, the sabbath, or rest, which remains for the people of God, not in this wilderness of our pilgrimage, but in the heavenly Canaan. t; ן
Neither the four Gospels, nor the Acts, nor the Epistles, speak of any other millennium: all the promises and prophe-cies can be interpreted of this, and of no other. This is the hope of the promise made unto the fathers, both Adam and Abraham,f and also the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, the appointed heir of all things.% These prophecies the Lord came to fulfil, and to redeem these promises, and to preach the gospel of this kingdom at hand, a kingdom first set,forth to sight in his own person on the mount of trans-figuration, and hereafter 10 be manifested in all his faithful at his coming with clouds to the judgment. Such a millen-nium has been looked for since the fall of Adam; a sabbath of holy joy and glorious immortality in the earth, the new earth, redeemed from the power of Satan, and the plague of sin, and the curse of death, for which creation unites her groanings with the prayers of the saints, from the first trans-gressioii to this day: that these heavens and this earth may be restored from the bondage of corruption to the glorious liberty of the sons of God, in the likeness of the Lord our elder Brother, and the first-fruits of the dead.
THE TELESCOPE OF FAITH;
The telescope is an instrument of vision, by which remote objects are brought near, and laid open to the natural ·eye. Various kinds are known by various names; but three radi-cal principles are common to all; viz.
1.	A small eye glass;
2.	A large object glass;
3.	A rectifying medium, through which the image made by the object glass may be presented to the eye of the beholder at the eye glass in an upright position. For with two lenses only, a telescope presents every object to the eye inverted; the world is seen turned upside down, and men
f Acts xxyi. 6,7, 8.	| Heb. i. 2.
* Is. lx. 14.
9
OF THE MILLENNIUM.
running along the way, like flies on the ceiling. Whether, therefore, the telescope be refractive or reflective, it is impor-tant in its construction to combine three things in one, at suitable distances asunder: a small glass for the eye ; recti-fying glasses ; and a large object glass.
To illustrate my conception of divine truth, I present you the gospel plan of salvation, revealed in the Holy Scriptures, as a telescope, and the eye for it, Faith. The Promise made of God unto the fathers is the eye glass, small and appa-rently of little power. The Prophecies are the rectifying lenses, or the proper medium through which the eye of faith obtains a correct vision, in place of one inverted, and all things turned in it upside down. The Gospel is the capa״ cious object glass, formed with skill divine; and the whole is an instrument of miraculous power.
When Adam fell in Eden, faith saw, through the promise of the seed of the woman, the bright vision of Paradise and immortality regained. The subsequent promises to the patriarchs, and to David, added precision to the magnifying power of the eye glass of faith’s telescope, without enlarg-ing or changing the field of vision, except by bringing into correct view things obscure, or inverted, or not discernible before. The Psalms and the prophets give through their rectifying media no other country and landscape to the eye of faith, than that which Adam forfeited and lost, of which Abraham has the promise, and into which the Joshua of heaven will lead the chosen people. However, they bring into view and clearly illustrate a multitude of interesting particulars, which assist to fill up the outline, and to beau-tify the scene.
The gospel lens for the object glass, completes the instru-ment, and brings the vision of glory so near, that one may seem to reach it with the hand.
The divine Telescope is perfect, and able with a steady eye to look out of this world upon the boundless expanse of heaven, and to search its mysterious clouds, its magnificent orbs, its ample revolutions, in one glorious kingdom of God, and to bring that realm very near. The telescope belongs to this world, and faith looks through the glass darkly ; but turn the instrument toward any part of the skies, and it unfolds to the admiring view of the enraptured beholder, the same glory, immortality, innocence and honor, dominion and power, of which Satan beguiled and robbed man, and Jesus is the triumphant restorer. This is the vision; and the gospel brings it very near.
Thus the Lord framed the spy-glass of faith, and put it into his disciples’ hands, charging them at his departure to
HISTORY AND DOCTRINE
10
watch for his return; because he will come suddenly, and those whom he finds watching he will take with him into the beatific vision. So the apostles received it, and deliv-ered it to their successors. The kingdom of heaven was their millennium, on which their eye rested and their hope׳ fastened. They knew not any other. Their writings incon-testably show, that they used to look steadfastly for the com-ing of the Lord in the end of the world, to introduce in the renovated earth that kingdom which he preached in the gospel, and to make restitution of all things in the times of anapsyxis, resuscitation, and resurrection of the dead. The earliest creeds,, and all creeds of all denominations in Chris-tendom from the apostles to this day, recognise no other mil-lennium, whether Greek or Roman, Apostate or Apostate Reformed, Lutheran, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Independent* Congregational, or by whatsoever name any church may be called.*.
* For authority, I refer not only to the writings themselves, the New Tes^, tament, and the remains of St. Clement, St. Ignatius, St. Polycarp, and StJ Barnabas; but to the treatises of Justin Martyr, Irenscus, Tertullian, Cyprian, and others with whose pages I have some personal acquaintance; and like-wise to Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Bush on the Milieu· nium, and other works accessible to every English reader.
But seeing the case is important, let the witnesses take the stand. Saints Peter, James, John, Paul and Jude speak by the Spirit as follows :
2 Pet. iii. 12: “ Looking for and hasting the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat: nevertheless, we. according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, in which dwelleth righteousness.”
Jam. v. 8, 9: The coming of the Lord draweth nigh : grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned; behold, the Judge standeth before the door.”
John, in Rev. i. 3, 7 : “ The time is at hand.—Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him j and all kin-dreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, amen.”
Paul to the Phil. iv. 5 : “ Let your moderation be known unto all men ; the Lord is at hand; be anxious for nothing.”
Jude 14 : “ Behold, the Lord cometh with myriads of his saints.”
The above is the sentiment of the Spirit, and that it was so understood by the successors of the apostles. I prove by the independent testimony of,
1.	St. Barnabas, A. D. 73.
“ For the day is at hand, in which all things shall be destroyed, together with the wicked one j the Lord is near, and his reward is with him.”—Apoc. Test.f Bam, xv. 10.
2.	St. Clement of Ro?ne, A. D. 95.
“ If therefore we shall do what is just in the sight of. God, we shall enter into his kingdom, and shall receive the promises, which neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man. Wherefore, let us every hour expect the kingdom of God, in love and righteousness, because we know not the day of God’s appearing.”—Apoc. Test., St. Clem. 2 Cor. iv. 15.
3.	St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, A. Ό, 107.
“ We ought to endure all things for God’s sake, that he may bear with us Be every day better than other : consider the times; and expect him whp is above all time, eternal, invisible, though for our sakes made visible.”—Apoc, Test., Igna. to Polycarp, i. 15.
11
OP THE MILLENNIUM.
THE MILLENNIUM OF THE APOCALYPSE. (Λ. Comet.)
This is revealed in Rev. xx., and from the first notice of it by Justin Martyr, has been a stumbling-block to the curious, a sort of absurd quantity to the prophetic mathematicians; an enigma of mystery, glorious, like Melchisedec among kings, and divine like Elijah among prophets; but abstruse as the lineage of that king, and unapproachable as the chariot of fire which carried that prophet into heaven. I have no solution of it quite satisfactory to my own mind, but I have learned to regard it as a comet in the heavenly system, forming and performing a true and important part in the economy of revelation; comet-like, of an orbit so eccentric, and a revolution so diverse among the great doc-·trines of the heavenly kingdom, that no man has yet been able to measure its pathway, to determine its specific gravi-ty, or to calculate its period : and seen in one view, its train on a time sweeps with terrific grandeur over a quarter of the skies, filling all hearts with dismay and alarm ; and seen at another time, it dashes in among the moons of a planet, as if it would brush them all away, but absolutely passes off, and leaves them unharmed, unmoved, unshaken, itself pur-suing its inscrutable way among the starry host of heaven, without any deviation or perceptible change.
Before Justin Martyr we have Barnabas, Clement, Igna-tius, Polycarp and Hermas, whose writings record their hope of the coming and kingdom of Christ, as preached in the Evangelists; and I submit to every devout mind, how little we ought to be affected by any new view of divine truth, which first appears in the church after the middle of the second century : it seems to be,safer to expound the milieu-nium by the kingdom of heaven, as the apostles and primi-tive Christians did, than to open a. new doctrine out of Rev* xx., which some in the third and fourth centuries attempted to do.
4.	Justin Martyr, A. D. 150.
“We acknowledge Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, who was crucified, who arose, and ascended into heaven, and is about to come again to judge ail men, even to Adam.”—Jus^to Trypha, sec. 132.
The number of witnesses may be multiplied to any extent, as their number increases in succeeding ages. Several have been already cited'in this volume, and others will be in proof of the same point, but in some different connexion. I subjoin an extract from three most ancient creeds.
The Mastics, Cre§d, having rehearsed the burial, resurrection, and the asceit* sion 0Γΐη¥Έόϊ<! Jesus into heaven, adds, as the next event to be regarded by faith, “ From thence he will come to judge both the.quick and the dead.״— The Nicene adds, “ And he shall come again with glory, to judge both the quick and dead.״—The Athanasmn adds, “Whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead; at whose^ coming all men shall rise again with their bodies, and shall give accou nt for their own works; and they that have done good shall go into everlasting life, and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.״
HISTORY AND DOCTRINE
12
t
A, D. 150. Justin Martyr is the first in whose writings the millenary doctrine is found united with the practical chris-tian church and faith; therefore I quote freely what he says about it.
Arguing with Trypho, a Jew, on the truth of the gospel, Trypho asks, as a Jew,-1-
Trypho. “ But tell me, do you honestly־ allow this Jeru-salem will be rebuilt, and do you expect our nation will be gathered, and with joy be brought back, together with the Messiah, and the patriarchs, and prophets, and proselytes; before the coming of your Messiah, or do you hold this that you may seem to triumph in the argument?*
Justin. “ I am not reduced to the miserable necessity, Trypho, of saying what I do not think. I profess to you again that myself, and many others with me, think this will take place. But I have told you, also, that many again, and they of the sort of Christians who follow sound and holy doctrine, do not acknowledge this.j* For I have told you that some indeed called Christians are in fact atheists, and impious heretics, because in every way they teach blasphe-my, impiety, and folly. And that yoii may know I say this not to you only, I compose a volume of all my conver· sations, according to my ability, in which I record whatever passes between us, showing that I publicly profess the same which I confess to you. For 1 am determined to follow not men, or human authority, but God and the doctrine taught Inr him. For should you happen upon some, who are called Christians, indeed, and yet are far from holding these senti-merits,;);—but even dare to assail the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob with blasphemy, and say, There is no resurrection of the dead; but instantly, when they die, their souls are received up into heaven; do not count these among Christians,$—even as they are hot Jews,
* This was evidently a new mode to the Jew of understanding the gospel· since he suspects some trap in it.
f The learned Mede thinks the “ not״ here is interpolated by the enemies of the millenaries. Bishop Newton and Mr. Vint concur with him. They sup-pose the sense and the construction require its omission; but, with great defe-rence, as to the construction, I differ ; as to the sense, that depends on the reader; whether the il not,} be rejected or retained. But it is there, and as the sense does not forbid it, and as the adversative character of the preceding requires it, no less than the subsequent seems to refase it, the “ not״ will stand; and that the better, because Justin is the first to notice this doctrine, and the Jew distrusts it for its novelty.
φ “ These sentiments״ mean the general sentiments of the dialogue, rather than the particular sentiments of this clause: and the dialogue maintains at large the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, according to the power and wisdom and goodness of God, the righteous Governor and just Judge of the universe.
$ This is a blow at Platonism, which will hit much current doctrine of the
13
OF THE MILLENNIUM.
if accurately considered, who are called Sadducees, and the like sects of Genistse, Merista;, Galileans, Hellenists^: Phari-sees and Baptists, and others, (that I may not tire you to hear me express all I think,), but under the name of Jews and sons of Abraham, they worship God, as he charges them, with their lips only, while their heart is far from him* But I, and all Christians properly instructed in all things, believe there will be a resurrection of the flesh, and a mil-lennium in Jerusalem rebuilt, adorned, and enlarged, which the prophets Ezekiel, Isaiah and others have explained.*
“For thus Isaiah speaks of this time of the millennium: ‘For there shall be a new heaven and anew earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind; but they shall find joy and rejoicing in that which I create; because I will make Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will exult over Jerusalem, and rejoice over my people; and no longer shall the voice of weeping be heard in it, or the voice of crying, f And there shall not beany more one of unripe age, and an old man that has not ful-filled his time;: for the young man shall be a son of a hurt-dred years; but the dying sinner shall be a son of a hundred years, and also accursed.% And they shall build Houses and inhabit them; and plant vineyards; and eat their fruit,, and drink wine. They shall not build, and another inhabit; and they shall not plant, but others eat; for as the days of the tree of life are the days of my people.^ The produce of their toils shall be multiplied; my elect shall not labor in vain, nor beget sons unto a curse, (eiς xujotgap,) for they shall be a righteous and blessed seed of the Lord, and their offspring
day. According to the gospel, all the faithful enter into the promised inheri-tance together. Heb. xi. 40. 2 Tim. iv. 8. This part of his argument is lev-died not against the opposers of the millennium, hut at the heretics who say there is no resurrection.
* Justin Martyr evidently set the highest value on the doctrine of the resur· rection of the body, as all primitive Christians and martyrs did. His reference to the millennium; i$ sufficient to prove him a millenary, but the manner of reference also proves him to have been one of a peculiar sort; for he speaks of it only in the light of the resurrection of the dead, and of the New Jerusa-lem, in the world to come, with the Lord from heaven.
f The millennium, as Justin describes it, is the kingdom of heaven in the new heaven and earth; tihe Jerusalem Bride, coming as one adorned for her husband, over which the Lord exults with joy and greatly rejoices. It is the very thing we pray for, and all creation is in pain to procure ; when the earth is renovated, and the creation itself is delivered from the thraldom of death and corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
$ Though long expiring, he is accursed to the last.
§ They are immortal, or else, being removed by death, others would inhabit tbeir houses, and eat the fruit of their vineyards, which is not to be in the new heaven, earth and Jerusalem. Therefore, in the millennium, according to Jus-tin and Isaiah, the inhabitants of the earth are immortals, enduring as the days of the tree of life.
HISTORY AND DOCTRINE
14
with them. And it shall be before they cry, I will hear; and while they yet speak I will say, What is it? Then the wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and the serpent earth, like bread. They shall not hurt or harm in the holy mountain, saith the Lord.’*
“ What, therefore, is said in these words, ‘ For as the days of a tree shall be the days of my people; the produce of their toils shall be multiplied,י we understand mysteri-ously to signify a millennium: for when it was said to Adam, that in the day he ate of the tree he should die. we know he did not live out that millennium. Moreover, we under-stand in the same way this also: The day of the Lord is a millennium. To this agrees what one among us by the name of John, one of the apostles of Christ, foretold in a Revelation made to him : that the faithful in Christ would spend a millennium in Jerusalem, and after that will be the general, and I may say, in a word, the eternal resurrection and judgment of all together : the same as our Lord said: They shall neither marry, nor be given in marriage, but shall be equal to angels, since they are sons of the God of the resurrection,”t
The scope of Justin’s argument in these remarks seems to be this: The Jew hears him with surprise speak of return-ing with Abraham and his seed under Messiah to Jerusa-lem ; and this fills the Jew with distrust of some imposition. It was evidently a new form of gospel to the Jew.
Justin assures him it is his honest persuasion, recorded as well as spoken; nor is it peculiar to himself, though many pious men do not so receive it: but they all agree in the resurrection of the body. He quotes the prophet Isaiah, showing the Jerusalem of the risen saints to be in the new heaven and new earth, after the present world has gone out of sight and out of mind; and neither sorrow nor crying, nor any evil thing, brute, reptile or imaginary, is to enter therein ; but the dumb creatures are to partake of the holi-ness and innocence of Eden. We cannot fail to see in this quotation from Isaiah the picture of “the restitution of all things ;״ the adoption of the sons of God ; the renovation of nattire into their glorious liberty at the redemption of the body in the resurrection of the dead; the coming of the
* Is. lxv. 17 to end.
| Justin indicates a resurrection of “ the faithful? a millennium before the general, resurrection. Rev. xx. 4, limits the first resurrection to martyrs. The day of the millennium indicates a thousand years, and the whole time at that rate would be three hundred and sixty millions of years. I shrink from specula-tion of this sort with instinctive dread, lest, in attempting the unfathomable word, I speak what is not, or contradict what is spoken.
15
OF THE MILLENNIUM.
Lord with the whole house of Israel, his faithful, into the New Jerusalem, adorned and enlarged, as Ezekiel and St. John describe it. This is, as it should be, in the world to come with the Lord Jesus from heaven.
There is no evidence that Justin Martyr understood the millennium of the Apocalypse much better than one of us. He was a hearty believer in the coming and kingdom of our Lord in the resurrection and day of judgment. In defence of this faith he argued with Trypho the Jew, and before the Roman emperors, and for it he died a martyr; but no scrap of his allows the supposition, that he looked for a millennium in this world, any more than himself to wear the crown of the Caesars. On the contrary, his doctrine requires Rev. xx. to be understood as wholly relating to the world to come beyond the resurrection, and in the restitution of all things.
Iren,eus, A. D. 178, bishop of Lyons, and a strenuous de-fendeFor the resurrection of the body, is the second chris-tian writer ia the records of time who discourses of the millennium. He is led to speak of it incidentally, like Justin, while he treats of the hopes of Christians. He recognises with confidence the term of 6000 years for the time of this world.* He enlarges upon the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel 37th chapter, to prove the resurrection of the faithful, and their inheritance of the promised land,f and he expounds the prophecy of Daniel in the order of times and kingdoms, as that the Messiah’s kingdom succeeds the fourth, or Roman, which ruled over all in Irenaeus’ day.J In the end of Antichrist’s time, “ The Lord will come,” he says, “ from heaven with clouds in the glory of his Father, and hurl him and his followers into the lake of fire, but he will introduce the times of his righteous reign, that is, * the rest,’ the seventh day sanctified; and will restore to Abraham the promised inheritance, in which kingdom the Lord says, Many shall come from the East and the West, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”$ In this way he identifies the millennium with the kingdom of God preached in the evangelists, as Justin had done before him. Bat for one to suppose hence that Irenaeus believed the kingdom of heaven and inheritance of Abraham might be in this world, would be doing him great injustice, and none the less to charge him with allowing them only a thousand years’ duration.
*׳ Iren. Con. Her. B. 5. c. 28.	f Idem c. 15.
t Idett c. 25, 26.	$ Idem c. 20.
HISTORY AND DOGTRINE
16
However, from subsequent pages Irenaeus may be quoted to show, that the millennium of the Apocalypse is a day of training the;risen saints for a higher glory; and that the renovated earth, in . which they are to be trained, will be redeemed from the curse of barrenness and toil * He enlarges on the beauty and fertility of the new earth, in the times of Christ’s kingdom and Abraham’s possession ; he gives a famous tradition, as if from St. John by Papias and Polycarp; and concludes with quoting Is. xi. 6, and onward, which is holy writ for a glory in the earth, th&t this world will neither believe nor see. But Irenaeus becomes dazzled arid confused in his vision, as a steady gaze on a brilliant object is sure to make poor mortals. While in the main he expounds the ancient prophets with great clearness and fair-ness, applying their rich and varied descriptions of the holy land to the renovated earth, and to the resurrection; he comes at last to fainting by the length of the way, and in the 35th and 36th chapters of his work, he rehearses some from Isaiah, and some he says from Jeremiah, which proves to be Baruch, and some other imputed to Isaiah, which does not come up to view in his pages; and from it all Irenaeus concludes: “ Things of this sort cannot be understood of heaven above, but they must be understood of the times of the kingdom, the earth having been renewed by Christ, and Jerusalem rebuilt in the fashion of Jerusalem above.״ Hereby he attempts a distinction between the Neio Jerw-salem of the new earth, and the Jerusalem above; and between the times of the kingdom in the new heavens, and in the heaven above, which I have not discovered in him before, or in any other before him ; though it passes current with many at this day.
, This new strain runs through his last chapter, and through volumes of millenary authors of a more recent age; authors of high respect, of fervent piety, and of varied learning, whose strain I do not well understand; but with whom I prefer myself to err, rather than to err with them who are expecting a spiritual reign of the saints in the flesh, to wield the sceptre of this world in the blood of old Adam, with a millennium on this ground, which is the rightful domain of the king of terrors.
To err, however, on either side seems unnecessary to one who lifts to his eye the telescope of faith in the promise, the prophecies, and the gospel, and by its aid obtains a clear and distinct vision of the promised kingdom of heaven; a place inconceivably more delightful than Eden; and a
* C. 33.
IT
OF THE MILLENNIUM.
vision of the immorta,lity, in Christ secure and imperishable, and infinitely preferable to that which Adam betrayed and lost.' Direct the capacious tube toward arty part of the spiritual horizon, tftid it opens upon the same kingdom of heaven, and brings it very near, and clearly into view. No eye can see beyond that kingdom/ however far-sighted it maybe; and niy own* eye discovers no object this side of that kingdom which is׳ not in the valley of the shadow and under the corse of death. Our millennium is not there, ih that valley. Paul’s was not expected there; nor wavS Abra-ham-s, or Polycarp’s, or Justin’s expected in the world under doom of death. Nor do the ancient millenaries, expect theirs wholly there; but in atvuncertain mixed state, neither in this world exaictly, not’that Which is to cottie; but in transitu between both, arid compounded of this and that, mortals and immortals, natural Jews and risen Gen-' tiles, and a vast increase of the blood and comforts of life.
I subjoin in ׳my notes some remarks on other׳ christi&ti writers of the second century, with an occasioitarextract: not a word being found in their pages to favor1 the doctrine of the millenaries, although1 they discourse much bf the resurrection of the dead.*	!
*■1. Ταχιαν,Α. D. 150. Oration vs. Greeks, bound with Justin Martyr. “Sec. 7. WJiereforfy xye^elie^e there will bo ,a resurrection of the body, after: the end of all things: not as ׳the Stoics teach, according to whom there is a continual round or Vorlds/foiever coming and going without any use ; but to bG one* and f(Hrenr\ Jin the fulfilment of our times, for the sake, of judgment, according to ffoe constitution of man.״—He does not name any church glory for the hope 0( this world.
2.	Hegesip^s/a. Ρ. It8, relates the story of Domitian and the grandsons of Jude, in a way which׳proves that Domitian feared, as well as the historian looked for, the epiphany and kingdom of oar Lord, preached in the gospel, to be. manifested soon in the end of the world.
3.	Theopuilus, A. D, 180, bishop of Antioch, wrote three books to Autoli-cus, a heathen ftiend, which are well written, to contrast the purity and truth of the divine records with the fables of the poets aind darkness of the phi״ losophers; but throwing no light on this history and doctrine.
4.	Athenagoras, A. D. 180, who wrote an Apology for Christians, ad-dressed to the emperots Aurelian and Com modus ; and also a treatise( on the resurrection of the deed. 1 have been interested by'his pages; but he makes no allusion to any. hope of the faithful, to be realized prior to the resurrection.· Of the time, circy instances, place, or condition of the resurrection he gives no intimation ; having in view to satisfy heathen dignities of its propriety, rather than to comfort believers with its hope.
5.	Clement of Alexandria, A. D. 192. This writer seems to me the most vapid of the fathers, having no salt in him; and though quoting the pure word, yet losing it again instantly, as a man does the fashion of his lace the moment he turns from the glass. I have no pleasure in his pages. He says much more of Plato than of Christ, and takes notice neither of the millennium, nor of the coming of Christ, nor of the judgment, nor scarcely of the kingdom of heaven.
This name concludes the list of Christian authors of the second century. In
3
HISTORY AND DOCTRINE
18
DOCTRINE OF THE MILLENNIUM IN THE THIRD CENTtTRV.
The Christian writers of the third century are important for their number and character in this inquiry. At the ho&dl· of the column in time:	·,’
Tertullian stands, D. 220; having a character change-ful, and a,reputation of faith unsound at last ; nevertheless*: esteemed a$ an honest and important witness of the customs׳ and opinions of the church in his day. He explicitly men-tions the millennium, and identifies it with the New Jeru-salem bride in Rev. xxj., and also with the new heavens and earth, Isaiah lxv. IP, and adds : “ After the thousand years, jn which is included the resurrection of the saints, rising earlier or later according to their merits; then we,־ being changed in a moment into angelic matter, shall ber transferred to the celestial kingdom.”* It is enough that ill· his view the millennium is the New Jerusalem coming dowh out of heaven, instead of springing up in this world.
A*־D. 240. Origen says“ The general resurrection of the flesh, which is common to all, is yet future, to’be accom-: plished in the second ,advent of the Lord :”f showing that he paid no regard to that distinction of which Tertullian speaks. It is remarkable that so great a visionary and scholar as Origen should never speak of the millennium, except to con-demn, if it was much knoWn and respected in the churches of the East, before the middle of the third century.
A. D. 250. Novatian, first antipope in the annnls of Rome, wrote a treatise called Regula Fidei) the rule of faith,—which does not mention the millennium any way.
A. D. 250. St. Cvpuian, bishop of Carthage, an extraor-dinary man, and one of the most eminent of the martyrs and1 Christian fathers, has left many valuable works, in all of which he appears to have been waiting for the coming of the! Lord, to overthrow Antichrist, and to give his saints their eternal portion in the promised kingdom of heaven.
’ “ It were a self-contradicting and incompatible thing for us,” he says, “who pray that the kingdom of God may quickly come, to be looking unto long life here below.”J “Let us everin anxiety and cautiousness be atvaiting the sud-den advent of the Lord.” p. 149. For “as those things which
the text and these, notes the name of every Christian is mentioned whose vrit· ings are transmitted to us from the first two centuries of our era; and their indi* vidual sentiments ί have sought carefully to spread in their own words before the reader, if they have spoken.to the point in hand. If they neglected it, yet I have not neglected them ·t |mt have faithfully sought light on this subject from all their surviving wforks.
* Ter. ad. Mar. L. iih c..£4,	f On Rom. vol. iv. 565,
X Oxford Trans. Cyp. 198.
19
OF THE MILLENNIUM.
were foretold are come to pass, so those will follow which are
Yet promised;״ the Lord himself giving assurance and saying, when ye see all these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Dearest brethren, the kingdom of God has begun to be nigh at hand; reward of life, joy, eternal salvation, perpetual happiness and possession of' Paradise lately lost, are already coming high, while the world passes a way p: 217.
Dionysius of Alexandria, A. D. 258, wrote two hooks on the promises, in reply to Nepos, a millenarian. The books are lost; but at portion is־ preserved by Eusebius, from which 1 copy as follows :	
“ But since they (the millennaries) bring forth a. certain book of Nepos on which they much rely, as if it demonstrates to conviction that Christ’s kingdom will be on earth, &c., and since the book is published, and is considered by some to be most convincing; and since some teachers count the law and the prophets nothing, and neglect the gospel, and despise the apostolic epistles, and boast of the doctrine qf this book, as if it were some great and hidden mystery; and permit some of the more simple of our brethren to think nothing elevated and lofty, either of the glory or divinity of our Lord’s epiphany, or of our resurrection from the dead, and. of our gathering, and of our likeness unto him; but persuade them to hope for only small and mortal things in the kingdom of God, .even such as are visible now  it therefore becomes me to dispute the matter with Nepos."
From this it appears how little he regarded the millennjum of time.
Methodius, bishop of Tyre, and a martyr, A. D. 260? nearly said  “ And truly it is expected that creation will be disturbed as if it would perish in that conflagration, that it may be renewed, for it will not be annihilated: since we, ourselves, renewed, and free from pain, shall live in that same renewed, world: So Psalm ciii.: Thou wilt send forth thy Spirit, and they, shall be created, and thou wilt renew the face of the earth: to wit, from that time God will-pake a most delightful atmosphere. And since after this world the earth will be ,preserved yet, it is entirely necessary that its inhabitants should be such as will neither die any more, nor marry, nor be given in marriage; but should be like the angels, unchangeably in immortality, and occupied in the highest. Hence it is foolish to ask what manner of life their bodies will enjoy, seeing that this air, nor world, nor ny of these tilings, will survive.”*
* Epiphanius, Her. 74. Mede, 843.
20	HISTORY . AND DOCTRINE
These are the most eminent fathers of the. third century. Fragments of the writings of others remain  but nothing to give, any new aspect to this inquiry can be expected from them. The millenary doctrine, as, held by Irenaeus does not appear, except as it may be reflected in Dionysius from Nepos. Certainly it does not seem to have acquired strength or favor. On the contrary, its tendency was downward; the Eastern churches reject and the Western fail to, cherish the doctrine, in the third century. '
DOWNFALL OF THE, MILLENARIES IN THE FOURTH CENTURY.:
The doctrine comes forth in a fallen state through the pages of Lactantius, A. D. 310. He was tutor to Constantine’s heir. In the seventh book of his Institutes he discourses freely on this topic. A cursory perusal of that book strikes me like the songs of the Roman Sibyl he loves to quote, rather than the word and counsel of the holy God, to whose word he makes less appeal. I am amazed at the mixture of truth and fable it contains, and I gaze with wonder on the image it reflects of the very spirit of Constantine’s reign; the first Christian autocrat of the world, and Pontifex Maximus of pagan Rome, who regulated the worship of images and demons, while he lived in the name of Christ, and was himself deified and worshipped; as a demon, after his death. Through the imperial gate corruption burst upon the church in a flood, and the millenary doctrine of Lactantius assimilated more to a sensual paradise than the kingdom of heaven. No wonder the Christian fathers of that century took the alarm at length, and wholly discarded and formally rejected the fruitful source of error for not only did the sensual abuse it but the holy were sometimes misled, through subtilty and craftiness, to seize on all the glorious promises and prophecies and gospel of the kingdom of heaven, and to appropriate them to the thousand years reign; and thus the holy word was stealthily plundered; of its eternal import, and the gracious assurances of the Most High' were unwarily limited to the millennium, and all beyond that thousand years was left a blank, or at least an unexplored heaven ; spending many words on the Lord’s giving up his kingdom at the end of that period, and on the many multitudes who would be in a natural way born into that kingdom, without trials of faith, and persecuting pains, or. cares; or any tribulation.
The millenary doctrine passed unnoticed in the great council of Nice; but it was denounced in a council at Rome
21
OF THE MILLENNIUM.
under Pope Damasus, A. D. 373; and so effectual was the condemnation, that “ the heresy, however loquacious before, was silenced then; and since that time has hardly been heard of.”5* Such was the testimony of Baronius in the 16th century. He adds: “ Moreover, the figments of the millenaries being now rejected everywhere, and derided by the learned with hisses and laughter, and being also put under the ban, were entirely extirpated.
St. Jerome was an unmerciful scoffer at the doctrine of the millenaries, not always regarding fairness in his laughter at their Jewish temple, victims, feasts, houses, lands, wives, and children, with much of the same sort, all for a thousand years. On Ezek. xvi. 35, “And thy sister Sodom” &c., St. Jerome observes:
“ The Jews, among other fables, and figments, and endless genealogies which they invent, fancy this also: that in the advent of their Messiah, (whom we know to be Anti-christ, and in the thousand years’ reign, Sodom is to be restored to its ancient state, like the garden of God, and like the land of Egypt, and Samaria is to recover her former felicity, when they shall return from Assyria to the land of Judea; and Jerusalem also is to be rebuilt, &c. But we, leaving the more perfect knowledge of these things to the judgment of God, are perfectly sure, that after the second advent of our Lord nothing will be base, nothing terrestrial; but then will be the celestial kingdom which was first promised in the gospel.”
This is sound doctrine, worthy of profound attention. We agree with Jerome to defer all questions of strife to the final tribunal, believing the coming of our Lord in “the celestial kingdom which was first promised in the gospel,” to be near at hand ; and being fully persuaded that nothing base, or sensual, or temporal, or hurtful, or sorrowful, will be allowed in that kingdom. If it please the Lord, while this world is burnt up, to rescue and save the carnal Jews in the blood of the first Adam, though we cannot understand it now, we shall then, and adore his mercy; if it please him to restore the temple and sacrifices of blood at Jerusalem of the world to come, we shall know it then, and praise him, though it is utterly repugnant to our conception of his pur-pose now ; if it please him then to chasten his saints with the assault of the hosts of our great adversary, we borrow no trouble about it, for our Savior, Joshua, will be with us ; we will not be afraid ; for Him we look in his kingdom, and defer all hard questions to “ that day”
 Bar. A. D. 373. 14.	f Bar. A. D. 411.48.
HISTORY AND DOCTRINE
22
Sts. Cyril, Basil, Chrysostom, Ambrose, Augustine, and a great company, held with the views of Jerome to the primitive faith, and gave no countenance, but often reproof to those sentiments, which gathered all divine promises into the enjoyment of a temporal state, and spent the hope of, them chiefly upon natural Jews in the flesh, degrading the heavenly throne to a terrestrial city, and limiting the reign and kingdom of the Lord to the definite period of a thousand years. Into so palpable errors the later millenaries fell, by separating the hope of that time from the kingdom of heaven, preached in the evangelists, with which Justin, Ter-tullian, and Jerome connected it.
I conclude this division of my subject with a summary of the doctrine of the fathers, taken from the Exposition of the Parables, in five volumes, by Ed. Greswell, D. D., Fellow of Oxford, Eng.:—
DR. GRESWEI.L.
Greswell has a masterly knowledge of the millenary doc-trine, reasons with great clearness and propriety, and Comes in here to sum up the case for the millenaries of the ancient church, before we open the doctrine under the church of the Reformation. In the five points following, he affirms that all the fathers of the ancient church agree, and himself believes.
1.	That Elijah must yet come before the end of the world.
2.	That Elijah is one of the witnesses to be slain;, the other is commonly supposed to be Enoch.
3.	That Antichrist must come, and must be destroyed by the advent of Christ. In this perfectly agree all, whether friends or foes of the doctrine of the millennium. “ The only distinction was, that the advocates of the millennium expected their kingdom to begin and proceed after the destruction of Antichrist; the opponents of the doctrine expected the same of the kingdom of heaven ”
4.	That Antichrist is a person, rather than a character, a bodily agent. Yet they all agree to give the name to the symbolical character of the beast in Revelation, and also to the little horn, and to the king of the North in the prophet Daniel.
5.	Before the appearing of Antichrist, the Roman empire was to be broken up into ten parts, which at his appearing were to be reunited in him, and he should reign over them three and a half years. Many understood uthat which letteth,” 2 Thess. ii. 6, to mean the empire, or imperial power. Tertullian says in his Apology, that Christians pray for the emperor and empire in the faith that while
23
OP THE MILLENNIUM.
these are prolonged Antichrist is kept back. Lactantius attaches the same interpretation to the city of Rome, instead of the emperor and empire. And the end of Antichrist’s power is the beginning of Christ’s reign; the one will begin when the other is over, and not before.—Greswell, p. 393— 395, vol. i.
They expect the literal return of the carnal Jews, in that flesh and blood which is of the first Adam, to rule the earth for a thousand years in the empire of the second Adam, which empire is the palingennesia, the anapsyxis, the apokatastasis pantoon, the resurrection of the just, the first resurrection, and the temporal glory of the millennium : and so he takes the answer to the prayer, “ Thy kingdom come” to be fulfilled in the thousand years’ reign.
\
PART II.
HISTORY AND DOCTRINE OF THE MILLENNIUM FROM THE REFORMATION TO THIS DAY.
After the millenary doctrine was condemned, A. D. 373, it ceased to appear in history until after the Reformation, save the sore alarms of the world’s coming to an end, which agitated Christendom at the end of the first millennium of our era, and again in the fourteenth century, at the end of the first millennium of Christian rule over the Roman empire. The terrors of these and of some other times amounted to panic, and drove many from the regular discharge of high and imperious duty, under a proper notion that, the end being within a certain time known, the obligation to prepare for anything beyond that period ceased. The error was in the calculation of the time: an error so often made, that times have fallen into disrepute, even when their calculation seems to be very clear.	
. Hitherto, however, in no single instance has the doctrine of the millennium, or of the end of the world, been found separate and disconnected from the personal coming and kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ in the earth. Whether father of the ancient; church regarded the thousand years’ reign in the light of a, temporal kingdom, or in the
HISTORY AND DOCTRINE
24
light of the kingdom of heaven, no one among them ventured to sever from the doctrine the hope of the blessed Lord’s personal presence on the throne of that kingdom: they never dreamed that this coming kingdom would fail of the personal presence of its rightful. Sovereign and everlasting King. Divers authors contended about the nature, extent, and time of that kingdom; but I do not recollect the smallest hint of doubt expressed from any side, whether the Lord would rule in his own kingdom himself personally, or by another. Many things were irreverently disputed respecting his name, his humanity, his deityr&c.; but who was bold enough to question whether he. would, be king on his own throne, is unknown to me. It was left for, modern times to make this question, and then: to decide that he will not be personally present, or appear visibly on the throne of that kingdom. The ancient millenaries gave a limited and sensual aspect to his kingdom; therefore the church condemned and repudiated them. Had they gone a step further, and preached the millennium without the Lord Jesus on the throne, it seems to me they would have repudiated them-selves. As matters stood in the ancient church, it would have amounted to open rebellion off the highest treason, and a Christian would necessarily have begun the high treason in his heart, by openly renouncing the faith once delivered to the saints, before he could be ripe to come before the world, and urge that the saints would sit enthroned ever, without their Lord on the head of them.
׳he Latin church has never failed, in doctrine, to look for the Lord’s return. Her bishop wears a triple crown, not to delay the Lord's appearing, but only to occupy for him, until he comes. The pope has sometimes diligently sought to publish his doctrine in all nations; but he has never indulged the hope, I think, of converting all ; oil the contrary, he has ever expected to be dethroned at last, and slain by Antichrist, in the extremity of the world and of time. Therefore, the bishop’s eye has constantly been, and now is, on the survey of all Christendom, to detect that Antichrist, and to catch and to destroy him in every rising form of heresy, before he can attain a dangerous growth of power: In this spirit he gave the Waldenses, the Wickliffites, the Lollards, and others to the sword; he moved against them the iron arm of the temporal power, to; dash them in pieces, and there· was none׳ to deliver them. Against the Lutherans he wielded the sword of the stoutest emperor of the sixteenth century, and Charles V.. prevailed over them ; yet the empire was divided in opinion; and the Reformation survived and strengthened in Christendom.
25
OF THE MILLENNIUM.
THE ANABAPTISTS AND OTHERS.
Not every man, who broke the yoke of Rome, walked in Luther’s gigantic steps; nor was he always equal. Many, trained by long use to spiritual bondage, could not live without a master; and not a few in the enjoyment of the liberty of reading the Scriptures, came to the interesting conclusion, that with the end of the pope’s administration a new ad-ministration commenced, which, by way of dignity and scripture authority, was likely to be the reign and kingdom of the saints; and so they called it. These were the most dangerous foes of the Reformation, being an enemy in its own bosom. They began to separate from Luther, under the impression that his doctrine Was not perfect enough: that he had only opened the way of reform, which others must clear up and confirm by direct inspiration. They taught a new doctrine of baptism, and also the criminality of an oath, and of being a civil magistrate, and of bearing arms. Under the banner of gospel liberty, they combined to shake off the yoke of servitude imposed by the German barons on the Israel of faith. They wished all men to be free and inde-pendent, inspiring them with contempt for the nobility and the civil authority; seeing that civil magistrates and lords are of no use in “ the kingdom of heaven,” which being come, the monarchs of this world have no better right to usurp than the pope himself had; but every Christian should walk in the liberty wherewith the Lord makes him free.*
They shook the peace of nations and the confidence of princes; they caused dissensions between brethren; they rejected authority and despised governments, having in mind the reign of the saints, which saints their leaders would sometimes feign to be. Luther sought to moderate this por-tion of his flock, and to extract their ill humors; but they could not stop for him, in the career of perfection.
Their reply to Luther’s remonstrances, therefore, had force in it: that having been made free by the blood of Christ, they ought not to be accounted the slaves of the nobles. This naturally led them to forget one article of their faith, while they maintained the residue by the force of arms. Multitudes were infected with the leaven of their doctrines, and were uncertain to what precise point reformation should go, and there stop; while many, in the desk and in the field,
* Ena/. Methodique Anabaptist. They had a variety of doctrine, btrt one sign identified them all, to wit, the immersion of their adnlt followers.
Their oppression under the yoke of the barons may be understood by a refer-ence to the fact, that, so late as the time of Washington, they were sold by the tale at so much a head, to be paid to their master, if they fell in the battles of a strange country.
HISTORY AND DOCTRINE
26
proclaimed the freedom of the holy people from the thraldom and oppression, which only the impious were worthy to endure at the hands of the German barons.
At length Luther published a severe book against them, entreating the honest, but deluded, to forsake them; and inviting the princes to subdue the stubborn by force. Count Mansfield defeated them in battle, A. D. 1525, took Muncer and Pfiffer, their leaders, prisoners, who were publicly exe-cuted at Mulhausen. The sect did not perish in this over-throw. It was curbed, however, and made to feel, in the gory wounds of many thousands,* that it had no kingdom over this world, in the abused name of heaven.
Yet many indulged the hope of soon realizing the dominion of the saints, when the righteous shall possess the govern-ment of the world, and the wicked be everywhere subdued or destroyed.
THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION, A. D. 1530.
Therefore, when the reformers appeared at Augsburg, before the emperor Charles Y., the princes of the empire, the pope’s legates, the nobles and prelates of the Latin kingdom; and, after five months’ trial, from June to November, 1530, amidst the din of controversy and the terrors of the empire, and of the papacy, and from the travail of their soul gave birth, by the hand of Philip Melancthon, to the confession of that faith, in which they united stood against the thunders of the Vatican, and the horrors of persecution, and of civil commotion, they introduced in the seventeenth article the following sentiment:
“In like manner they (our churches) condemn those who circulate the judaizing notion, that, prior to the resurrection of the dead, the pious will engross the government of the world, and the wicked be everywhere oppressed.”!
This is a miniature portrait of the doctrine now cur-rent in the church, worthy of the master hand of Melanc-thon ; and if it should make some ears tingle, to hear their loved doctrine of the millennium, “ prior to the resurrec-lion,” piiblicly stigmatized “a judaizing notion,” they may know with whom, in this world, they must reckon for it, and count the cost before they begin the war with the bold
* It is estimated that in the controversies of this sect in that age, a hundred thousand souls perished.
f See Schmucker’s Popular Theology. The confession was presented both in Latin and in German. The form of expression in this seventeenth article varies in the two languages. The above is from the Latin j the following is from the German ; both translated by Professor Schmucker: “In like manner they condemn those who circulate the judaizing notion, that, prior to the resur-rection of the dead, the pious w׳ill establish a separate temporal government, and all the wicked be exterminated.״—Pop. Theol., Aug. Con.} Art. 17.
ז2
OF THE MILLENNIUM.
Martin Luther, the gentle Melancthon, and their brave coadjutors; who; apt only brand this child of modem adoption “a judaizing notion,״ but they solemnly “con-demn all those whp circulate״ the Carnal doctrine.
Vain men, who coolly pronounce upon the hallucination of the Christian fathers, Clement, :Justin, Cyprian, and others, and who count the fathors of the Reformation of less scrip* ture knowledge and biblical learning than our doctors and theological professors; vain men, whose learned acumen dis-corns, and whose eloquence sometimes illustrates, what they call mistakes of the holy apostles, in matters of highest im-port, recorded plainly in the Book of books; such men may be allowed to regard the ancient fathers and the great reformers in a land of darkness, and themselves ill a land pf light, as living dogs know more than dead lions: but the discreet well know, and will readily admit, that any church opinion wholly unknown to the ancient fathers, and publicly reprobated by the reformers, ought not to be hastily adopted without examination at this day.
This doctrine of the fifth monarchy, “prior to the resur-rection,״ was a tumor of the Reformation, first lanced by Count Mansfield, and laid open by the Augsburg confession. Again it formed under John of Leyden, otherwise King John of Munster. This man quit his thimble, and set up a throne, in defence of the right of the saints to reign over this world, independent of the sinners; and for above a twelve״־ month, he possessed the city of Munster, disturbing all Ger-many with his potent sway of the sceptre of perfect liberty and fiend-like impiety. The city was starved by a long siege, and at length betrayed, surprised, and captured; and King John was given alive to the tormentors, whose business it Was to tear him in pieces with hot pincers. During his reign, a book of doctrine was published called the “ Restitu-tion;״ in which it is urged “that the kingdom of Christ shall be such here on earth, before the final day of judgment; that the godly and elect shall reign, the wicked everywhere being quite destroyed ;״ and that ministers ought to assume to themselves the power of the sword, and by force to con*: stitute a new form of commonwealth.*
The difference is not in the doctrine of the moderns; but solely in the mode of inculcating it. The force of truth is substituted for “ the power of the sword ;״ but the end to be attained is the same either way, to wit, the government of the world.
* Harkian Mis., vol. viii. 257.
HISTORY AND DOCTRINE
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THE ENGLISH REFORMERS.
The vitious humor of this party of the reformers never formed malignantly again after A. D. 1532; but was scat-tered over the whole body, threatening every part of Protes-tant Christendom for a time with intestine commotion. It was sufficiently formidable in England to call for a distinct article of condemnation in the creed framed under Edward VI., 1552. The Church of England had in that day a creed of forty-three articles, of which the forty-first reads as fol-lows: “ Qui millenariorum fabulam revocare conantur, sacris literis adversantur, el in judaica deliramenta sese pre-cipitant. They who seek to restore the millenary fable, oppose the holy Scriptures, and plunge into Jewish fanati-cism.”
This language of the English martyrs is even more severe than that of the German reformers. The Episcopal creed of Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, condemns the hope of a church millennium, u prior to the resurrection,” to the grade of a heathen fable, (which in truth it may be considered,) and those who seek to revive it they pronounce to be “ Aos-tile to the holy word, and to be carried headlong into the hair hicinatijons of Judaism.”
I have been often told that the doctrine which now pre-vails is quite different from this, which the British and continental reformers unite to stigmatize and condemn.
And it has been well said, that if they condemned the doctrine, it is conclusive proof of the existence of the doc-trine earlier than the eighteenth century. We will look at these matters.
First. It is objected against the use of the calm, public, official, and unanimous sentence of condemnation, pronounced by the great reformers of Germany and England, against those who propagate the doctrine of a millennium in this world, prior to the resurrection, that it is not the same now which they stigmatized “ a judaizing notion, opposed to the holy Scriptures.”
I reply. The objection is not sound on examination. For the reformers do not condemn the hope of a glory to come with Christ in the end of this world; nay, not the millennium itself, if it be held after the resurrection. They do not for-bid the hope, that in the world to come with the resurrection of the dead, “ the pious will engross the government of the world, and the wicked be everywhere subdued.” They condemn nothing of this sort, which is an anchor to the soul.
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OP THE MILLENNIUM.
a hope׳ within the veil of the eternal world, to which chris-tian faith is in this world fastened. The error by them reprobated is not found in Justin Martyr, and the ancientest millenaries, who never separated from their hope the com-ing of the Lord Jesus with the resurrection of the dead; but their censure is directly levelled and aimed at the mod-ern and now prevalent error, that prior to the resurrection, the pious are to engrosfc the government of the world ; are to obtain, possess, and enjoy the dominion of this world for a long period, prior to the judgment day; and that they are, to convert, or to conquer, or, any how, “ το have and to hold״ the temporal government of the nations, and to sway the sceptre of universal empire, long before the Lord’s appearing.
This is the doctrine which the reformers disallow and repudiate as “a judaizing notion,״ and “they also condemn those who ז circulate it;״—theologues in the Protestant church, high and low, without number. And in this age of light and learning, so much wiser than the fathers, the very sons of learning do neither know the malediction of their fathers, nor believe it is upon them, when recited in their hearing. “ 0 no,״ they reply, “ not us·; but the errorists of that day the reformers condemn, who by the sword would possess themselves of the existing rule and empire of the world.5־
But the reformers do not regard the means of obtaining; they condemn the whole doctrine of obtaining, and include, by the terms they employ for reprobation, the very hope of possessing the government of the world for the pious, prior to the day of judgment, arid they stamp it truly “ a judo* izihg notions Judaizing,—for it is the same fanatical deliision which characterized the capital of Judea, and Which rides on the breast of her scattered sons in all ages and places of their dispersion, like a nightmare, from which they cannot be shaken by any revolution, even to confessing that Jesus' is the Christ, the blessed King. Judaism,—it is scorching, withering Judaism, to entertain the doctrine of the kingdom of־the saints in this mortal world ; and for the most part, those who circulate it own the carnal mark on the forehead, by conceding the administration in chief of that millenial kingdom to the natural Jews and restored children of Israel.
The reformers denominate it, on the Continent, “a no-tion,״ and in England, “a fable,” “a figment,’5 deliramenta, “a doting fancy.5’—How perfectly characteristic this mark also is of the prevailing doctrine of the millennium in this world, a little attention will show; for a more unstable, changeable, chameleon-colored, Protean-shaped doctrine is
H1ST0BY AND DOCTRINE
3D
not current in Christendom. Each man, woman, and child has some \ notion” of the millennium, and he will tell it justas if he had learned of the reformers the proper name fqr the thing, “ a notion;" and every one will Convince most other ones; that) some figment, or doting fancy, enters into the composition of his own individual notion So far, therefore, from being another thing than the reformers condemned, it is the very same thing which is current now in the Protestant churches : a confident expectation that the pious will reign and rule over all the earth, prior to the resurrection.
Second. How, then, can it be said, this doctrine was not until "the eighteenth century?
Thus, my brethren: it was not!received into any work or treatise of known and standard value; it was current in no denomination of the Protestant church, or individual church; of acknowledged: reputation, before the eighteenth century, admit that John of Leyden, king of Munster, and his company and their books, received and cherished it. To that dignity the doctrine rises in its antiquity, but no higher can it go; and certainly no lower can it go in its dignity.
Hence it appears that these matters are both substantially: consistent with each other: first, that the reformers explicitly condemned the doctrine of a millennium in this world; and that the doctrine was never received into the churchy in any of its acknowledged branches, until the eighteenth century
Since then if has come in like a flood, regardless of the hope of the Lord's coming and of the resurrection ; and has cooled the ardor of the church in Apocalyptic Philadelphia: tothe lukewarm state of the church in Laodicea.  Form my own part I am persuaded, that the generally-received opinion, that Christ will not come again, at! least for many hundred years, has had a carnalizing, yea, a demoralizing tendency. This opinion hath dimmed the eye of hope, and diminished the motives to watchfulness, made death a part of! the gospel, and caused the last harmonious words of Jesus, 'Behold I come quickly,' to grate on many an ear.׳״ (John Cox’s Thoughts on the Coming and Kingdom of our Lord, p. 221)
Modern Millenaries Of the ancient school.
After the heat of the controversy with Rome had somewhat cooled, and Protestants were secure of their liberty, and of their possessions also, they looked less and less for׳ the Lord’s appearing in the great day, to overthrow Anti-
31
OF THE MILLENNIUM.
Christ, and to give his saints a reward. While Rome was ready to crush them by the arm of Charles V., and again by the Spanish Armada under Philip II.; and while the Duke of Alva slaughtered the Dutch Protestants, and Queen Mary lighted the fires of Smith field, and the Hugonots were coldly butchered in France, the followers of the purified church continually" wrestled and struggled in the primitive faith: they counted neither life nor fortune dear, for the King in his kingdom was at hand : they saw the Roman empire divided, and its kingdoms usurped and overruled by the image and demon worshiping, the idolatrous bishop of Christendom; and nothing remained for them to expect, but the Lord’s com-ihg to destroy the whole realm of Satan from the face of the earth, and to bring in the promised kingdom of heaven. But when the high peril of that controversy was over, and Protestants were comfortably in possession of the spoils of victory, in their several countries, it was no longer in human nature to look for the end of the world, as before, with strong desire, and ripe expectation : as distressed mortals are chiefly prepared in mind to die; but if lifted from the bed of anguish again, and filled with ease and plenty, they think less of their latter end : so the Protestant church of the seventeenth century said less of the coming of her Lord, in the end of the world; and yet she said nothing against that doctrine, but religiously conformed to it her creeds and cate-chisms, her standards and confessions of faith, her litera-ture, and for the most part the views of her leading men.
In the seventeenth century, A. D. 1627, Joseph Mede pub-iished, in Latin, his Itey of the Apocalypse, which opened the sealed book to thousands in a light never seen before, within our knowledge, lie is the acknowledged father of interpreters of that wohderfuT book, and with him revived the ancient millenary doctrine in its purity, tie, holds i£ demonstrated that the thousand years’ reign follows the time of :flmT?east and iheTaTse ^	Antichrist, and is
yetJ:o^come jn thdnt of the L«ord. He thinks the millen-nuirrΓ1 41 זtlfe^gi'eat day of the Lord,” “ the great day of judg-ment,” and “the day of the great judgment,” celebrated in the Scriptures and the writings of the .lews; that it u is a con-tinned space of many years, wherein Christ will destroy all his enemies, beginning with Antichrist, by his revelation frohi heaven in flaming fire, and ending with death itself in the universal resurrection; during which space of time shall hd the kingdom of the saints in the New Jerusalem.” He affirms “ that Antichrist shall not be finally destroyed until the day of Christ’s appearing,” but dissents from the millenaries who say this reign will be after the judgment:
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32
“ for,״ says he,“1 give a third time, during the great day of judgment,” the millennium ; which being completed in the general resurrection, the wicked are cast into the lake of fire, and the saints are taken with Christ to heaven and eternal life.*
This magnificent conception of holy truth has since been revived by some of the profoundest scholars and brightest ornaments of the English church, among whom might be named a galaxy of devout and learned men, especially of this age. It is impossible to read their pages in u the Lite-ralist,” now appearing among us, except with profit and delight, notwithstanding we dissent from their fashion in some points of importance. They hold to the ancient doctrine of the coming of the Lord ; they regard it near. Their labors are characterized by deep reverence for the whole word of the blessed God, by a close study of its sacred pages, by logical arguments, by diligent and faithful comparison and clear deduction, by an excellent spirit of kindness towards them who differ, and by an ardent desire to call off public attention from the vanities of time, and to fasten the faith and the hope of the church on the unseen world, which comes near with the Lord in his glory, as the angels testified, when he ascended in a cloud. 1 humbly think it probable they are mistaken in supposing those things spoken in the prophets respecting the return and subsequent prosperity of the Jews are to be fulfilled to the natural seed of Abraham. Should it appear so, they will be among the foremost to reconsider that subject, and to rejoice with all saints in that interpretation, which applies all those gracious promises to Abraham’s seed in Christ, in the world to come, not for a temporal, but for an everlasting possession.
I agree with the Rev. and learned author of the last num-ber, which has come to hand,f that the proof advauced in his and in kindred pages, “ requires something more than a mere denial, to set it aside, and that no candid student of Holy Scripture can fairly resist it, unless he can take the 36th and 37th chapters of Ezekiel, and adhering consistent-ly to the whole context, can show us a more excellent way of interpretation.” The irresistible manner in which they advance to demolish the fortified positions of the spiritualists in the flesh, is worthy of all praise, and fills me with confi-deuce in the hope that they will not be the last to discern the genuine fulfilment of the letter of the promises, in the day when the Lord returns, to build the tabernacle of David which is fallen down, and to build again the ruins thereof
f Hugh M’Neileof Liverpool.
* Mede, B. iii. c. xi. p. 602.
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OF THE MILLENNIUM.
and to set it up. For, however difficult to discover the sense of the following words of the apostle, “ that the resi-due of men might seek unto the Lord, and all the Gen-tiles, upon whom my name is called,” the time of their fulfilment is after the second advent: u After this will I return;” and when they are fulfilled, David will be raised from the dead : for his tabernacle, “ which is fallen down,” is his body, the house of his pilgrimage, now in “ ruins” but to be “ set up” anew in the day of the Lord Jesus. Then “ the hope of Israel” will be realized, “ unto which promise our twelve tribes,” watching “ day and night, hope to come.”* The restoration of Israel being interpreted lite-rally of the chosen seed iti Christ, to be raised from the grave at the Lord’s coming, “ a more excellent way” opens to view, consistently to explain the 36th and 37th chapters of Ezekiel, making them describe the gathering of “ the whole house of Israel” out of their graves, and the bringing of them into their heavenly land, under the Beloved their King, never more to be rooted out, but to enjoy it in safety for an everlasting possession.
The point of difference between the English millenaries, and the standard-bearers of the Christian faith, seems to arise solely out of the promises to the Jews, with which the holy word abounds: and if that proves to be the sole difference, one mode of correcting it is already familiar to their read-ers; to wit, to regard the Jew himself as a type, to be for-ever done away with all types, in the day of the Lord Jesus.
This is a short and simple receipt; but if faithfully applied, it will in every case afford the desired relief.
The Jewish type of the holy people must disappear in their resurrection from the dead; and never till then can they inherit the promises. The shadow does not more cer-tainly lose itself in the substance, or time in eternity, than the life of the Jews in this world will be lost in the life of the Jews from the dead.
The promise of the world to Abraham for his inheritance, stands good to the letter this day. It has never been fulfilled to him; nor can it be, until the resurrection : and as with him, so with his seed. The promises to them are literal, and to be literally fulfilled in the same resurrection of the dead.
Having quoted from the Psalms and the prophets twenty-five choice pages to illustrate the doctrine of the millenaries, Dr. Greswell adds: “ These splendid and magnificent prom-ises of temporal happiness, [not temporal at all. but eternal,] of peace, security, prosperity,—have never yet been realized
♦ Acts xxvi. 7.
5
HISTORY AND DOCTRINE
34
in such a manner as answers to the truth and plainness of the promises themselves; and, therefore, if they are still to be verified, on this earth in particular, where alone it is sup-posed that they are all to be fulfilled, it must be in some future state of human society, [exactly the future state,]— different from anything which has yet been witnessed among mankind, as heaven is distinct from earth,״ &c.*
The error seems to lie in supposing the promises and king-dom are temporal, and limited to a thousand years ; whereas they are eternal, as the new heavens and new earth and New Jerusalem in which they are to be fulfilled to the let-ter. They are not fulfilled in this dispensation ; they belong by faith to the church in the wilderness; they belong to “ the whole house of Israel” in fact, on the other side of Jordan, with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. They have no value in the flesh, whether of Abraham and David, or of Poly-carp and Cyprian, save only to sustain the pilgrims of the desert with the hope of rest and joy they inspire in the heavenly Canaan. They are not spoken of this world, although in language of this world; but they are spoken of the world to come with Jesus and the resurrection. The millenaries of the ancient school expect the Jews’ return and reign in the flesh, I believe, universally ; and to some extent the restoration of the temple and its ordinances and sacrifices: when, if they perceived that the Jews’ return is the resurrection of the dead, not in figure, but in fact; nothing else “ but life from the deadf-\ literally, they would be easily rid of the temple and blood and marriages and sacrifices, and so fotth, which St. Jerome freely casts on their family with shame.
The Christian world is of one mind with the English mil-lenaries of this day, that the Jewish nation was a type of the church [and is a type of the elect.] the promises of the land of Canaan to the nation were typical of final salva-tion, [of a land in the new earth, “even an heavenly,”] and the whole history of the nation was typical of theexpe-rience of New-Testament believers.J Their temple and tabernacle, their Mount Zion and Jerusalem, and David, and an infinite round of ceremonies, were all typical, and were shadows of good things to come : skadoxos of the heavenly patterns, the patterns belonging to heaven, and never to be seen and handled in the church, except by faith ; and never to be enjoyed in this world, though its rivers should flow with milk, and its rocks ooze with pure honey; but to be received in “ a better country,” which Abraham sought, and in the New Jerusalem, which God creates, and Jesus brings with him, in the last great day.
* Expos. Para., p. 252. f Rom. xi. 15.	\ M'NeUein the Liter., p. 82.
35
OF THE MILLENNIUM.
The Jews have ever stumbled at this stumbling-stone of the flesh. They have, as a people, never ceased to expect the promises to be fulfilled to their nation in that “ Jeru-salem which is in bondage with her children;” “so that it cannot but be matter of highest.admiration, to see that blinded nation groping for the door, when the house has fallen flat to the ground; and, like a company of dispersed ants, whose hill is digged up, carrying their eggs in their mouth above these sixteen hundred years, not knowing where to lay them; but expecting their old ant-hill should grow up again out of the dust—not considering that by this time, their eggs must have grown addle.”* But even in this they are a type still of the visible church, which judaizes in the hope of the kingdoms of this world for itself one thousand years in the name and spirit of the Lord. But these are baubles for children, rattles for babes in Christ, which men ought to forsake. These are shadows and prints, which untaught infancy may be allowed to mistake for the things themselves; but the experienced man knows their emptiness, and looks for the originals in the kingdom of heaven, and for the substance in eternal life.
THE MILLENISTS, OR THE NEW SCHOOL MILLENARIES .f
Many sorts of error have at one time or other been con-nected with the doctrine of the Lord’s coming; but never was the Lord himself left out of the doctrine, until the pre-sent age of the reformation; never wise men were found of old, or learned men, willing to believe and teach the coming of the Lord without the Lord’s personally com,ing; men will ing to believe and stout to maintain the hope of the Lord’s being personally absent from his own epiphany; (what an absurdity!) men bold to proclaim the Lord’s invisible “ap-pearing” at hand; (which is a plain contradiction;) men who “ love his appearing,” which they are sure never to behold, for it is to be afar off or else invisible: invisible, not for the brightness of its glory, but for its hidden spirituality; but now in this age, Christendom goes headlong after a doc-trine that would have shamed, 1 think, the common 'sense of idolatrous Greece and Rome; to wit: that the Lord’s
* Smith’s Christian Appeal to the Sceptic, L. 2. c. 8. s. 2. p. 87.
f I thankfully adopt this distinction of the spiritual millenaries, made by the Rev. Joshua Spaulding, of the Tabernacle Church, Salem, Mass., in a volume of lectures on the “ Coming and Kingdom of Christ,” published at Salem, 1796. They are sound׳ lectures, and call the teachers of the spiritual reign millenistSj to distinguish them from the millenaria71s} who teach the personal reign of onr Lord in the millennium.
HISTORY AND DOCTRINE
36
parousia, or visible manifestation of himself , is one in which himself does not appear! So preposterous an idea does not admit of a plain statement without exposing it to contempt; and yet, as the blessed God has given understanding to man, this invisible “epiphany,״ “parousia,״ “coming,״ and “ap-pearing,״ is now־ the millenists’ doctrine, and deceitful hope: a hope of device which would astonish the primitive ages and martyrs of the church, and fill them with wonder above the admiration they could exhibit in view of our factories, steamers, and trains of men and merchandise, spinning and weaving, and running against wind and tide, through hill and dale, twenty-five miles an hour, without fatigue.
Truly, an age of inventions this, and one of the most im-portant is least understood; one of eternal moment is every-where coming into use, and few consider it; which is: A scripture way to look for our “Nobleman’s return” without at all expecting to see himself, or any other: a spiritual way of enjoying the riches, pomp, and universal dominion of this world, for a long time, in the blood of the first Adam, by proffering the entire glory to the second Adam, in the unseen world!
The intellectual absurdity and natural impossibility of this new theory would move our laughter, were it only a grave error of the head inoperative upon the heart; but it is connected with the tenderest life‘ of the believer, with-drawing his affections from the Lord of glory. God is man-ifest in the flesh, a visible object of love and adoration; he left a lively assurance, when he ascended, that he will return with judgment to his enemies, and to be admired of all his holy and chosen people. The first love of the young church was manifest in aaily looking for his parousia. and in break-ing of bread in memory of his dying love, and in the hope of his speedy coming. The falling away has succeeded, until the church of the nineteenth century gives up for a thousand years his epiphany, and tires of the hope of his return, and dismisses from her heart “the love of his ap-pearing.״
This fearful apostasy is one into which Protestants have fallen away beyond Rome herself; justifying the prophet’6 rebuke of treacherous Judah, whose wickedness exceeded that of backsliding Israel: “Yea, be thou confounded also, and bear thy shame, in that thou hast justified thy sisters,״* which are called Samaria and Sodom. Let us not triumph, but rather put on sackcloth, and go softly all the residue of our appointed time, seeing that we too have been carried
♦ Ezek. iri. 52.
OF THE MILLENNIUM.	37
away with this dissembling, and that our brethren are blindfold still in the pernicious error.
DR. DANIEL WHITBY.
The first of the millenist school is Daniel Wl^tby* D. D., who died ArD: 172fi, aged 88. Having written a Commen-tary oil the Epistles, he concludes it with a treatise on the millennium, in which he sets forth distinctly as follows :
I differ only in three !Jungs from the ancient millenaries.
1.	In denying Christ’s personal reign upon earth during the thousand years.
2.	I confidently deny that the temple of Jerusalem shall be there built again.
3.	I differ from them in respect to the reign of the mar-tyrs, making it only a reign of the converted Jews and of the Gentiles, then flowing and uniting into one church.
That is^ he rejects from the ancient millenary doctrine its redeeming spirit, the coming of Christ and the resurrection of the Just; and leaves it a mere carcass of flesh, having a flattering show of spirituality, but destitute of the power and coming of the Lord Jesus: not that he, with the many good and eminent men that have followed him, intended to lower the standard of Christian hope, and trail the banner of faith in the dust, by planting it in Je\vry a thousand years, for Mount Zion in the eternal world to come; not that he or they have intended to reject the Lord, saying, with his citizens in the parable, “ We will not have this man to reign over us: we are triumphantly subduing nature to art, and converting the heathen to Christ: we desire not to be interrupted in our good work but the import and bearing of the millenist doctrine rests on such carnal hope for sup-port; and naturally leads the believing mind to be jealous, rather then fond, of the blessed Lord’s appearing; to distrust Tather than to hope for. the coming of the Lord; and to shrink and hide from the love, rather than to watch and wait and reach out in expectation, of catching a sound of his cha-riot-wheels, or the flash of his epiphany.
PRESIDENT EDWARDS, A.D. 1750.
The men who first gave to this Protestant form of doctrine the sanction of their great names, (as a number of the lead-ing divines of the last century did, and among them Presi-dent Edwards and Dr. Hopkins, of our own country,) were particularly and solemnly impressed with the awful calami-ties and unexampled miseries which would be visited on
HISTORY AND DOCTRINE
38
the world just prior to the introduction of the happy mil-lenriium. Both Edwards and Hopkins devote chapters to the exhibition of this fearful expectation, resting on copious extracts from the holy prophets; and all their argument in defence of their views of a spiritual millennium, in this car-nal world, is hedged around and guarded from sensual abuse, by the fear of the terrific judgments which are expected to separate the righteous from the wicked, the tares from the wheat, and expel the unjust from the face of the earth; until only a holy people, who have come out of great tribu-lation, are left to inherit it.
A memorial from certain ministers in Scotland, A. D. 1746, inviting a general concert of prayer for the coming of Christ’s kingdom, “ that he would appear in his glory and favor Zion,” called the attention of President Edwards to this subject. He wrote a treatise on “ the latter-day glory not yet accomplished,” published in his works, vol. iii. 460. He takes up the same subject in the History of the work of Redemption, explicitly teaching the fall of Antichrist to be unot very distant,” and accompanied with overwhelming sorrows, which are to cut off the wicked, purify the holy peo-pie, and prepare the world for the coming glory. He does not reject, neither does he admit openly the doctrine of Christ’s personal appearing in his glory. He rather avoids the point; but the words of the memorial plainly indicate “ that he would appear in his glory;” that he, Christ, will soon u appearperhaps in terror to his enemies, but cer-tainly to the saints he will manifest himself “ in glory.”
The memorial is not inviting to pray that Christ would manifest his glory, that his glory might appear ; but, on the contrary, that he, Christ, in his glory, would himself appear, and favor Zioii. And President Edwards urges nothing to the contrary of this; notwithstanding, his omission to em-brace the hope of the personal glory of the Lord in the earth, and to hold it up distinctly to view, was a step on the wrong side of faith, which leads others to the open rejection of the hope of the Lord’s coming, and to the substitution of another hope, lukewarm, carnal, and temporal, in its place.
DR. SAMUEL HOPKINS, A. D. 1792.
In his system of divinity, Dr. Hopkins treats of the mil-lennium, referring to a sermon of Dr. Bellamy and to Presi-dent Edwards for authorities; and he brings immense quo-tations of eternal promises from the prophets, to prove his
OF THE MILLENNIUM.	39
temporal things, even thirty pages, to illustrate the thousand years of this world.
He considers the millennium to consist of—1. Holiness. 2. Light and knowledge. 3. Peace and love. 4. Unity of faith and practice. 5. Great enjoyment, happiness, and universal joy. “All outward worldly circumstances will then be agreeable and prosperous; and there will be for all a sufficiency and fulness of everything needed for the body, and for the comfort and convenience of every one.” p. 69. “In that day mankind will be increased in number, until the earth shall be filled with them.” p. 73. “All will pro-hably speak one language.” p. 75. Will any form of gov-ernment be necessary for a race so holy, quiet, and happy? He answers, yes; not for the necessity, but for the utility and convenience of the people, p. 79. Among the events to take place before the millennium and to prepare the way for it, are the fall of the prophetic image of the nations, Anti-christ, and Babylon, p. 92. “ Previous to this, the Christian world and mankind in general will become more corrupt in practice of all kinds of wickedness; that God will arise out of his place, to do his work, his strange work, to punish the
world for their wickedness,----to reduce and destroy man-
kind, so that few will be left; an afflicted and poor people, who will repent and humble themselves before God, and trust in the mighty Savior, for whom (the poor people) he will appear in great mercy, and pour down the Holy Spirit on them and their offspring; and they will multiply and fill the world.” p. 144. Then follows the kingdom of a thou-sand years, in which the “ afflicted and poor people” will do, what fallen Adam and righteous Noah failed of, filling the world with a pious offspring.
Half a century has transpired since these doctrines ap-peared; and the time for the antecedent judgments to intro-duce the millennium draws very near, or has already come: but, behold, the doctrine of the millenists’ bliss remains, and promises to fill the whole earth, while the doctrine of the introductory judgments has given place to “ smooth thi?1gs,” until it has wholly disappeared; and the world neither miss it, nor mourn its loss: but all at once Christendom has been furnished with a complete scheme of worldly grandeur, to be attained by a rapid advance in virtue, knowledge, holi-ness, and the arts, wholly independent of the painful toil and sore tribulation which was the guarded door of Edwards and Hopkins to tlie entrance of the millennium. How great a change in the nature and influence of the doctrine this makes, one cannot easily imagine or describe. It .reverses the picture of things preceding the millennium. It does not
HISTORY AND DOCTRINE
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only dispense with the increase ofdepravity, until “God will arise to do his work, his strange work, to punish the world for
their wickedness, ----to reduce and destroy mankind, so
that comparatively few will be left; an afflicted and poor people ;” but it supplies the place with a picture of a directly contrary character, in which the church makes triumphant advances from its present position, to occupy ail nations in the name of the Lord, and to subdue both Jews and Pagans to the obedience of the cross, without beat of drum or loss of a battle ; but by a steady succession of spiritual victories, over the world, the flesh, and the devil. Nothing could be more grateful than this to the natural heart, unless it were to have an abundant entrance into the kingdom of heaven, with its pulse beating and blood thrilling.
It were easy to furnish respectable names, and very high authority, for the connexion of almost every sort of this world’s bliss, in perfection, with the flesh and blood of the spiritual millennium, making it equally a terrestrial paradise with Lactantius and the Sibyls; but it would sound so oddly in the ears of its friends, that I should hazard more to be accounted a calumniator for it, than the false hope would to be reprobated and condemned; therefore, I refrain from attempting any sketch of its chameleon colors in one view from different authors, and I exhibit it wholly in the colors and shape of each distinct author; taking up next a volume of discourses on the subject, published in Dublin, A. D. 1839, 290 pp. oct., by the Rev. Dr. Urwick, who says: To preach the coming of the Lord at hand “is handling the word of God deceitfully;” and the preachers who do it ought to be shunned for many reasons, among which are the events that must occur prior to his advent, and inevitably require time, and the Lord’s delay. These events are,—
1.	The conversion of the world.
2.	The wasting of popery to death.
3.	The slaying of the two witnesses.
4.	Mahommedanism to be broken without hand.
5.	Judgments indicated by the fifth seal, and battle of Armageddon.
6.	The conversion of Israel.
7.	A long period of unexampled prosperity, in which the outward influences of sin are to be restrained, but inward influences will be still left in a diminished form and power. The thousand years being happily past, a period of trial and temptation follows; which the final conflagration concludes with the second advent of the Lord.
I protest against this with all my might,—in that he charges with deceit those who preach, as the Lord and his
41
OF THE MILLENNIUM
apostles did, that his coming is near; in that he teaches to shun the ministers who are faithful to the testimony of Jesus, believing that in due time Jesus, the faithful and true wit-ness, will vindicate his word, though scoffers do mock for a little season; and, finally, in that he puts oif the hope of Israel, the hope of creation, and the answer to the Lord’s prayer, for a great while to come, (miserable comforter,) and instead of a speedy restitution of all things, offers us a mil-lennium in sin; sin crippled, it is true, but still sin, and its wages still sorrow and death.
At this stage of my labor, the following doctrine, from Rev. xxi. 5, salutes my ear, in a New York church, Oct. 4, 1840, A. M.
“The millenial reign is the triumph of men in the flesh, blit possessed of the spirit of Paul and Peter and John. From Eden to the end of the millennium, revolutions follow each other; but then this revolutionary world will be burned up, and unchangeably renewed in the glory of the Lord.* During the millennium all things will favor the cause of Christ; and in that time more souls will be saved than ever lived before. No unhallowed calling will be tolerated; no child will hear or learn to sweater to break the Sabbath. Every one will be converted at some time of life, earlier or later. All who .do not obey ‘that prophet’ shall be cut off. A union of church and state may be expected, of which Constantine’s Was only a type; neither a political union, nor the reign of Christ in person. The time is at hand. After all this comes Gog and Magog, the second resurrec-tion, the judgment, the deliverance from sin, for which we pant,” &c.־&c.
This is one of the most chaste sketches of the millennium I have heard given : and it is yet liable to the following objec-tions.
1.	Sin and death reign to the end of this millennium, and that can never be a state of peace and repose in which they triumph.
2.	It promises the dominion of the world to the saints, the wicked being all cut off or suppressed: and that is a hope which the great reformers pronounced to be contrary to the Holy Scriptures, and which they repudiated and stigmatized as a judaizing notion, and they also condemned those who circulate it; because the prophets accord with the gospel in offering to the race of Adam neither permanent cities, nor houses, nor possessions in this transitory world; but they enjoin it upon the race to seek for such in the world to come.
* 2 Pet. iii. 7.
6
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The gospel urges to sell this world for the hope of the next ן to forsake houses and lands and friends, with the assurance of a hundred-fold return in the kingdom of heaven. It were easy to multiply words, but the prince of this world can .pervert men still, and verily persuade, that in this land of the valley and shadow־ of death, here will be the millen* nium; and men need not fear, for he is himself indisposed to disturb or molest the peace of the world; and were it otherwise, he could do no harm; for he is about to leave this for the great abyss a thousand years, and during that time he must be otherwise engaged; meanwhile the race in the flesh have rhe promise of all that heart can wish, in the best style of modern improvement, together with so great an increase of dear relatives, that the six thousand years of the world have not furnished a harvest of mortals so bountiful as that one thousand will supply; and they shall long enjoy the fruit of their rest: when
“ The rich shall not oppress, nor shall the poor repine.״
3.	The divine economy from Adam to this day has been displayed in disciplining men, through hardship, toil, and suffering in this life, to reap, by patient continuance in well-doing, eternal life. Even the Lord Jesus Christ, holy and just, was made conformable to this economy, himself not being an exception to the law of nature, as well as grace, which is a proverb among men : no cross, no crown. And to suppose a millenial state in this world, is to suppose an entire change in the divine economy, in which the disciples will not be as their Master, and the servants as their Lord, but the disciples above their Master, and the servants above their Lord ; being raised to a crown without a cross, made perfect also without suffering, and marching to heaven and everlasting happiness by a royal highway, untrodden of the Lord.
My heart is sick of this new gospel, which is not the gospel our Lord preached, or that his ministers preached, until within about a century and a half past; and already it has so fastened upon the public mind, that it is exceed-ingly dangerous to attempt to remove it, lest we pluck up the wheat with the tares. Even the vain glory of this fleet-ing world is not purchased without the display of courage, the exercise of patience, the exposure of life, and the risk of all that man holds dear. The honor of a veteran cannot be cropped without toil, nor can the reputation, of a hero be inherited in this world, nor can it be transmitted from father to son; it must be earned, ere it is attained. In accordance with this law of our nature, the holy apostles were called
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OF THE MILLENNIUM.
to endure hardship for Christ’s sake, mockery׳, scourging, chains and death; which they suffered joyfully, having their faith firm, that for all this they should receive a crown of life in the celestial world to come: but this new gospel, on the contrary, promises the unreasonable, unphilosophical, and false hope, that Pauls and Peters and Johns, tried apos-ties and fearless martyrs, will naturally be born in this world during the millennium, and reared up for eternal glory, with-out discipline, in the lap of wealth and ease; as if men could be heroes who have never seen an enemy, and might be accounted brave veterans, who have never heard the clang of arms nor confronted the shout of battle. To such juda-iaers it is spoken, “ God is able of these stones to raise up [such] children unto Abraham.”*
THE AMER. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE.
The most authentic form and official shape in which I have met with the doctrine of the millenists, or spiritualists, is in theEncycloped.of Religious Knowledge, article Millen-nium, of which the following is an extract.
“ 1. The church will arrive at a slate of prosperity, which it never has yet enjoyed.
“ 2. That this will continue at least a thousand years. In this time, in which the world will soon be filled with real Christians, and continue full by early regeneration, to sup-ply the place of those who leave the world, there will be many thousands born and live on the earth to each one that has been horn and lived in the preceding six thousand years; so that if they who shall be born in that one thousand years shall be oil, or most of them, saved, (as they will be,) there will, on the whole, be many thousands of mankind saved to one that shall be lost.
“ 3. This will be a state of great happiness and glory. The Jews shall be converted, genuine Christianity diffused through all nations, and Christ shall reign by his spiritual presence in a glorious manner.
“ 4. The time when the millennium will commence can-not be fully ascertained, but the common idea is, that it will be in the seven thousandth year of the world. It will, most probably, come on by degrees, and be in a manner intro-duced years before that time.
“ How delightful then the prospect! Christianity prevails universally. Our race assumes the appearance of one vast, virtuous, peaceful family. Our world becomes the seat of
* Matt. iii. 9.
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44
one grandj triumphant) adoring assembly. At length, after a brief space of severe trial, the scene mingles with the heavens, and, rising in brightness, is blended with the glories on high;״ &c. &c. Reference is made to Hopkins, Whitby, Scott, and twenty more, all younger than Whitby, viz., How’s Register, A. D. 1816, Bishop Newton, Bellamy, Lard-ner, Mosheim, Taylor, Bogue, Emerson, Potter, Wardlaw, Fuller, Jones, Jones’ Bib. Cyclop., Cunninghame, Hall,Keith, Watson, Hend. Buck, and Jones, in this order.
This is the living, breathing form of the millenist doctrine, as it now exists in Christendom, and with it I close this his-tory, after a brief summary of the facts.
From Adam down, a hope has been cherished among his offspring, that recovery shall be hereafter made of the immortality and paradise which he betrayed and lost: and the promise was from the first, that the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the robber, and should triumph over death by the resurrection, loosing his captives from the prison-house of the grave, and setting them forever free, in the liberty of the sons of God.
Abraham and his seed were a type of the true seed; to them the promise was renewed ; to them the prophecies and the gospel were given; which promise, prophecies, and gos-pel, one and all, have respect to the same triumph over death, victory over the grave, and recovery of the holy land and blessed immortality, which the holy God gave to our father Adam, and of which Satan despoiled him. Judea, Jerusa-lem, and the Jews, with all their ceremonial law and tern-pie worship, are but types of “ the heavenly country,״ “ the New Jerusalem,״ and “the chosen seed,״ in the resurrection of the dead, and in the kingdom of heaven. So Abraham and Moses, David and Daniel, understood them. So the Holy Spirit by Peter and Paul freely explains them. So the primitive and martyr ages of the church have plainly under-Stood and proclaimed them. The promises, the prophecies, and the gospel, all centre, and are to be fulfilled, in “Jesus
AND THE RESURRECTION.״
The carnal seed of Abraham have ever received the promise and the prophecies in a carnal sense; and flattered themselves that the Holy One has respect of persons, and truly intends to make them heirs of this world, and lords of the nations. In like manner, some of the ancient church, in the latter part of the second ceutury, began to judaize, and to allow a certain pre-eminence of place in the promises to the carnal seed of Abraham, for a thousand years; but they covered the error still, by a constant view to the coming and kingdom of Christ himself and of the resurrection in
45
OF THE MILLENNIUM.
that millennium : and no conceivable form of error can be supposed to exist under his personal administration. There-fore, the first error of the millenaries in regard to the carnal seed of Abraham was important chiefly ill that it led after a century to the expectation, that a carnal seed will survive the coming of the Lord in the end of this world, and with him will enter into the world to come, and have a full store of carnal joys. This at once degrades the hope of our faith to the level of a heathen fable, and of a Mohammedan par-adise, according with the prophecies of the Sibyls, but “ con-trary to the Holy Scriptures.” Accordingly, the ancient church condemned the millenary doctrine, as a Jewish notion, suited to the carnal heart, and calculated to withdraw believers from the faith of Jesus and the resurrection: A. D. 373. Henceforward it came no more into view, until the days of the Reformation; when certain of the baser sort of Lutherans, who took counsel of the flesh, while they affected to be perfect in the Holy Spirit, began to despise civil gov-eminent, and to claim the administration of this worlds affairs, in the right of the Lord Jesus, precisely in the spirit of the idolatrous bishop of Christendom; and in the same spirit which some professing Christians now do. They seem to think this world belongs to our Lord, and they must take possession of it, for him; always for him: but if once they come into possession, they use it for u whom it may con-cern,” which is commonly our humble selves.
This homely picture will not be admired, unless we can find one to sit for it, not of our family; and with suitable deference, we may invite the gracious pope. He is enthron-ed in Christendom, not for himself, neither for his family, nor for his country; but for the unity of the church, for the peace of the world, for the promotion of holy manners, and, in a word, for the glory of the Lord our God. I am free and happy to say, that both himself and his followers con-scientiously believe this; and it gives me pain to add, that, in the administration of 111s high trust, the pope often mis-takes his own will and pleasure for the divine will and the heavenly, as humbler recipients of power and riches are wont to do, even in republican and protestant Christendom. But to return.
The wise and extraordinary men, whom the Lord raised up for the great work of the Reformation, saw and rebuked the carnal doctrine of a kingdom of the church in the flesh and blood. They publicly trampled it under foot; they branded it, and unqualifiedly condemned those who circu-late it, both on the continent and in England. They rested not in any hope of this world, now or hereafter; but pointed
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by faith to the coming of the Lord in his kingdom of the resurrection. Joseph Mede, of illustrious memory, revived the distinction of a thousand years’ reign, and has distin-guished followers to this day. But Daniel Whitby, among men of renown, first denied the coming of Christ and the resurrection of the dead to that reign, and limited it wholly to the flesh and blood. The eminent Christians who pro-mulgated it after him, were careful to hedge the carnal doc-trine around with such thorns to the flesh as no man would desire to encounter. But the more perfect lights of this age, seeing clearer than Hopkins, Edwards, and others of their school, and turning their back to Luther and Cranmer, and setting at naught the faith of the church in the primitive ages, have removed the hedge, and opened a highway on every side, for all nations to enter, and have a feast of fat things of wines on the lees a thousand years or more, with none to molest, or to make them afraid. A doctrine verily absurd, and for Christendom no less ridiculous, than the cats and dogs and ox, for gods of polite and learned Egypt, as I shall now proceed to show.
PART III.
HISTORY AND DOCTRINE OF THE MILLENNIUM.
THE ANALOGY OF FAITH.
“ Having then,” says the apostle, “ gifts differing according to the geace that is given to us; whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion (or analogy) of faith·, or ministry, let us wait on our ministering.”—Rom. xii. 6.
Part First of this discourse opens the doctrine of a future state of eternal bliss in tke earth, as it is announced in the Holy kc7:iptures, and as it was received and understood in the church, until the Reformation.
Part Second opens the doctrine of a future state of tern-poral bliss in this world, as it began to be understood by Muncer, Pfiffer, and King John of Munster, and as it was received and is held by the learned Whitby, the profound
OF THE MILLENNIUM.	47
Edwards, and the canonical Encychped. of Religious Knotty ledge.
Part Third promises to try the prevalent doctrine of this age by the analogy of the faith, and by the word of the blessed God, and also to discuss in brief the whole subject of a millennium.
In trying any doctrine of the church, we should have an eye to the analogy of the faith; for faith has a due propor-tion between its component parts, which, if observed by the teacher, offers a picture of hope beautiful to the most criti-cal, and also to the least practised eye; and a picture of fear, appalling to every sinful heart. But if the proper analogy be disregarded, the several parts become distorted, and their hideous disproportions instantly offend multitudes, who would joyfully embrace the true faith, were it presented to their view in its own elegant symmetry and proper analogy. An image of the human face may represent every feature in its true place, but out of all due proportion, as in a painted mask; and, if assumed and presented earnestly to the life, it will involuntarily fill the beholder with unaffected horror, or with convulsive laughter; and a similar disproportion in the true faith may either stultify or offend the most devout hearers, notwithstanding the due parts are all there in their relative position, but only out of all Christian proportion.
Where is the analogy of faith? Who can find and tell its dwelling-place?
“ Lo here!״ cries the Roman; “ Lo there!״ says the Lutheran. “Seehere !״ exclaims the Episcopalian, or “See, you have it there!״ adds the Baptist.—“Go not after them, nor follow them.״ The Christ, the Son of the living God, he is the Author and Finisher of Faith. Whoever abides in him prophesies according to the proportion of faith, and hears according to the analogy of faith, and lives and walks according to the analogy of faith, directly following in the Master’s pathway, through tribulation to the grave) and from the grave to glory. Sunlight is on that pathway; while gloomy darkness broods over every other. This is the way the Master trod, through many sorroios to the tomb, and from the tomb to the heavenly glory. Did He travel this way? Yes; even to mockery of his person as a king, and to abuse as of a slave; even to bear scourging and spitting and his own cross, until exhaustion produced fainting; until he was submissively nailed to the tree and crucified, like a lamb led to the slaughter, and laid with the rich in his death. He arose, he revived, he ascended into glory. And
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do the preachers of the cross well to conceive, that a period is approaching, in which mortals may hope to reign with him, with whom they have not suffered׳? Can a mortal folloio the Lord Jesus to the heavenly glory, and not go the way he led? Should one attempt to follow after him to the same glory, by another way, that moment he ceases to be a follower of the Lord; and if, perchance, he should strike out a new path to this same glory, he is sure to be received as a robber at last, for coming to the heavenly fold by his own way, to the neglect of the royal highway and proper gate opened by his suffering Lord.
. This view of the faith strikes you, whatever name you may bear, to be simple, p'ellucid, scriptural, and orthodox; those who would follow Jesus to the heavenly glory must go the way he went. Christian faith follows Christ, a pil-grim and sojourner, not having where to lay his head; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, even to death and the cold grave; thence by the resurrection to eternal life and joy. This is the analogy of faith, the standard of the Mas-ter’s life, by which being measured, the millennium of this world is found wanting and proved to be false; for it offers no counterpart to the temptation of the Master, or to the sorrows of the Master, or to the rejection of the Master, or to the agony and painful death of the Master.
The German reformers, in the Augsburg Confession, Art. 17, publicly stigmatize the hope of a church empire, “ prior to the resurrection,’7 as a “judaizing notionand the Church of England, A. D. 1052, Art. 41, brand it a fable, and condemn those who revive and circulate the doctrine, as “opposed to the Holy Scriptures.” Let the great men and martyrs who framed those articles answer for it; wis-dom is justified of her children; for the “judaizing notion” and “fable” bears no sort of analogy to the Christian faith: it offers no proportions corresponding to the life of Christ.
Faith follows the Lord Jesus through tribulation, to the cross, and to the grave; but the “notion” and “fable” which the reformers condemn, offers to the credulous to walk at ease through this world, on flowery beds, for a whole mil-lennium* without a thorn to pierce, or bramble to rend, or serpent to bite the well-fed flesh, and at last, tp pass away ,in ecstasy to the higher glory, no one knows how.*
, Nothing can be more unlike the pathway our Master trod, and all his faithful have followed, from the apostles to our time, than this fabled mode of life in the carnal millennium.
* 1‘They ψϋΐ die, or rather fall asleep, and pass into the invisible world.”— Hopk. Mill. State, p. 75.
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OF THE MILLENNIUM.
He was tempted by Satan ; but the millenists cannot be, for in their day Satan will be close bound and shut up. He was afflicted with bodily hunger and want; but they cannot be, for all needful things are to be spontaneously produced. He was despised and forsaken of men; these cannot be, for all are to be of one heart of love in the millennium. He mourned over Jerusalem; but they cannot, for it will be both their joy, and the joy of the whole earth. He. was rejected, by the rulers; but they cannot be, for they are to be themselves the rulers in that day. He despised the shame of the cross; but they cannot, for they are to live joyfully all their days amid the triumphs of the cross. He died a painful death; but they are to “fall asleep, and pass into the invisible world.״
Faith has a beautiful analogy, and an unimpeachable standard, in the life and example of its Author and Finisher. He was born of a woman. He endured toil in mechanical labor; he encountered hunger and the tempter in the city and in the wilderness; he suffered reproach as a lover of wine and of good living, and yet \vas a pilgrim, without any certain dwelling-place. He was rejected and despised of men; was betrayed by a chosen and trusted followerwas mocked by his foes, was deserted by his disciples, was buf-feted by the soldiers, was condemned by the rulers, and cru-cified with criminals, a slave’s death, as if for a base offence against the laws of God and of man. All faith must fall far below this standard, but it is not Christian unless it bears some analogy to.it; and if any are without chastisement, of whieh all are partakers, then are they bastards, and not sons.* “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” The millennial notion offers no analogy to this trial of the sons, and admits of proportion to the faith only of bastards; it presents no counterpart to the sufferings of Christ, and, therefore, can secure no part in the glory which is to follow.
THE MILLENISTS ARE OPPOSED TO FAITH.
The doctrine of the millenists is not only cbntrary to the analogy of faith; but it is, moreover, directly and totally opposed to faith.
Faith waits the Lord’s coming. Faith endures, as seeing the invisible. Faith runs with patience, all the while look-ing unto Jesus. Faith walks with God. Faith climbs the mountain with Abiaham, trusting in Him, who is able also
* Heb. xii. 8.
7
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to raise the dead. Faith suffers affliction with the people of God, counting the treasures of Egypt worthless, in com-parison of the land of Canaan. Had Moses respect to a recompense in the Canaan of this world, he failed of his reward; but by faith he saw the better country, long before his eye beheld from Pisgah the whole valley of Jordan and the hill of Zion. Faith subdues kingdoms; faith obtains promises; faith works wonders, stops the mouth of lions, and triumphantly bears torture unto death, not accepting deliverance, which a retracting word might secure, being sustained by the hope of a better resurrection. Faith is the eye of the gospel, which looks above this world, and beyond its millenniums. Faith quenches the fiery darts of the Adversary.
But of what possible use can faith be to a man in the mil-lennium 1 He will have no enemies there. Lions, serpents, fiends, evil men, nor mischievous boys, are to be there. As well might one come in armor of mail to a social tea-party, as to think of carrying about with him the shield of faith in the millennium; for no fiery darts come there; nor war, nor strife, nor any harmful thing can by the law of the king-dom find entrance there; and to go armed in such a state would be the most ridiculous folly. We have seen some notable examples of the anticipated millennium in the blood: men having both a foretaste, they suppose, of its peace, love, and joy; and also of its perfect liberty, and reign of righte-ousness in the flesh. The holy law being inscribed on their heart, they need not tax their eyes to study it. Having their conversation in heaven, from whence they do not look for the Lord Jesus this thousand years yet, they are quite independent of the ordinary means of grace. Preaching and praying and songs of praise are unprofitable to them; and with faith they have necessarily done, seeing they are absolutely translated into the kingdom of the Son of God. Ah! how deceived are these wretched men, who suppose they anticipate in their own persons and blood that degree of perfection, which the whole race of Adam is soon to re-cover in the millennium; a perfection of which they are the first fruits, the first ripe handfuls of the great harvest of a thousand years!
This comes of spiritualizing the word, which word is both spirit and truth, and the farther from the letter the worse the explanation. The word promises salvation, de-liverance from evil, and a rescue from sin ; but this promise is addressed to our faith; and by faith we stand. The moment man thinks to have the substance in the flesh, faith fails, and man falls. The word requires perfection in love
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OF THE MILLENNIUM.
and obedience; and man should strive for it with faith that he will attain it; but the moment he thinks in his heart, “I have attained,” faith fails, and its fruit perishes. The fan-cied perfection, swells and rises with a natural leaven, that if not checked inevitably sours the lump, and the mass returns to corruption.
Many sound and holy minds are at this day tossed on the billow of doubt between faith and,perfection, seeing the lat-ter is promised, and to reach it, the former must be let go of. The word of promise is sure: they are perfectly right in that; but the time of redemption is not in this world, notwith-standing the doctrine of the millenists teaches so. The time of redemption is the resurrection of the body, and perfection then safely takes the place of faith. Be holy, be perfect; and that you may he, trust in him who will raise the dead in triumph over death, as well as sin.
A CONTRAST.
The gospel warns men by faith to flee from the wrath to come; but he would trifle, who, in the milienial day, should preach the terrors of the holy law, seeing every soul will have the comfortable assiirance, that it is born in the rnillen-nium! Who is so blind that he will not see Ί
The gospel cheers men in sore troubles with the words of the apostle: through much tribulation we must enter into the
u׳y A׳*n»t/c׳tv· Dwt tin a muoi to obooloto in th c mil
lennium, when the whole race seems to enter the kingdom by natural generation.
Our Lord in his gospel says, “ In the world ye shall have tribulation : but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” Whence then comes this new saying, “In this world ye shall not see tribulation for a thousand years?” Eve learned that she might eat and not die ; but the serpent deceived her, and beguiles the church now, under cover of plausible pretences.
The gospel requires believers to come out from the world and be separate : but this will be nullified in the rnillen-nium, for then all mankind are to run in the heavenly race together, neck and neck.
The gospel requires men to turn to the service of the liv-ing God, and to wait for his Son from heaven: but the doc-trine of the millennium abates the latter part of that; for it is naturally impossible for mortals to wait, or expect, or look for an event, certain not to transpire until after their day a thousand years.
Christian faith from the blessed Master down the track of
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ages has been known solemnly to renounce the pride of this world, its riches, pomp, and glory, as a poor inheritance, fleeting, vain, and perishable : on the contrary, the millenial notion offers this world, its riches, power, and glory, as an object of worthy and certain attainment, and of lasting pos-session ; “ even all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them’י—for a thousand years. This very offer was made to our Lord 1800 years ago, on certain terms ; but he reject-ed both the tempter and the offer. Now, the church has a mind to accept the offer, it is worth while to search and see whether in heart also she be not consenting to the terms accompanying the offer : “ If thou wilt fall down and wor-ship me” Should it prove so, the good Lord help his beloved, heartily to respond his own indignant words, “ Get thee behind me, Satan.”
Faith looks for the Lord from heaven in his parousia, or personal coming: on the contrary, the “fable” looks for Christ in this world spiritually to engross the government of this world.
Faith sojourns with Abraham in pursuit of the heavenly Canaan, and the Jerusalem above: on the contrary, the tc judaizing notion” looks for the Jerusalem that is in bondage \vith her children, to become the seat of universal empire, and her natural children its royal princes.
Faith puts off the carnal man with his lusts, to walk in
conformity with the sufferings of Christ: on the contrarv, the “judaizmg notion” promises deliverance trom all suffer-
ing, and seems also to offer a full satisfaction of the natural appetites.
Faith is the good fight of a Christian against well-known enemies: but of the millenial heresy it is no fight at all; having neither danger nor adversary to encounter; having Satan bound, the world converted, and all “peace and safe-ty” a thousand years, or more.
Faith overcomes the world by severe conflicts: but in the millennium, having overcome the world, faith seems to rest from its labors, and to leave sight and sense in full pos-session of the spoils of victory, without any competitor.
Now, by faith we stand, and are exhorted to take heed lest we fall: but in the fabled millennium men may be high-minded with the most perfect security all around.
Now, men become the children of God by faith of Jesus Christ: but then they are to become his children, being in , fact born an untold multitude in the millennium.
Now, are they heirs of righteousness which is by faith: but then heirs of righteousness by natural descent, as of Abraham.
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OF THE MILLENNIUM.
, Now, must they examine, whether indeed we be in the faith: bat then in as a matter of course, and full of ease in Zion.
Through faith the saints have subdued kingdoms, wrought miracles, and obtained a good report: but through the mil-lennium, they are to have a good report beyond all con-troversy.
In this way is fully manifested the entire contrast between the “ jacidizing notion,” and the faith once delivered to the saints; a palpable, essential, indisputable, perfect contrast, Mount Gerizim aiid Mount Ebal not being more opposed to each other. The “ fable” claims to itself this world ; and this world fondly embraces the fable, and returns the loving claim : while faith totally disclaims this world, and its millennium ; faith turns her back on them, and journeys onward, looking steadfastly to Jesus, whose tribulation was in the flesh, and 10hose triumph urns in the resurrection from the dead, and whose glory is in the world to come.
Many abominations have obtained footing in the holy place; but never one with basilisk eyes, like this Jewish fable, to charm the holy people out of the life of faith, and turn them into stone; to entice them with a syren’s voice, from the hope of the Lord’s appearing, to hope for a time of extraordinary felicity, when men will be naturally delivered from the wrath to come, and filled with blessings in this present evil world. Well did the ancient chnrch reject and reprobate it; well did the great reformers of Germany and England stigmatize and crop it, and also condemn those who circulate it, and brand it on the forehead “ a fable,” “ a juda* izing notion,” to forewarn the faithful against its seducing Spirits, its sorceries, its sweet singing serpents, and doctrines of devils.
THE MILLENIST DOCTRINE EXPRESSLY CONTRADICTS THE HOLY WORD.
A rest remains for the people of God: the word is faith-ful which promises it; but it is manifest that the place of the promised rest is not in time, is not under the gospel dis-pensation, and is not a season for the exercise of faith ; but, on the contrary, it is a time of crowning joy, and of holy recompense, after the gospel dispensation is endec[, in the kingdom of which it is the forerunning good news.
The entire volume of testimony in support of the faith of th is world’s millennium, with one important exception, is taken not only in a literal, but also in a carnal sense, from the Old Testament; where it should be understood in a
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spiritual seme instead of carnal. It is not my province to argue this point, and yet its importance to the right under-standing of my subject has forced it Into some notice already, and demands a moment’s consideration here. The many promises of a return, a restitution, a gathering from all nations into the Holy Land and to Jerusalem, made in the Old Testament to the Jews, are the main support of the doc-trine of the millennium in the flesh. Therefore, it is neces-sary to inquire1 for the Jews—
Who are they׳?
Answer, they are the holy people, the chosen of God, the elect, the saints, the seed of Abraham, not that only which is under the law, but that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.*
It is the nature of a last will and testament to revoke or explain any former will and testament which is in being. So does the New Testament, not revoke, hut explain the Old Testament. They both stand together, are bound up and delivered together, and are in full force; but the New Tes-tameut is the interpreter of the Old Testament, both by the laws of men, and by the word of God.f And the New Tes-tament expressly tells us, “ he is not a Jew that is one oitt-Wardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew which is one inwardly.”{ And again : “ If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”^ These and similar lessons of the New Testament are enough to open our eyes to the right view of those Jeics to whom the promises are made in'the Old Testament.
And whence do the Jews return into their own land 7
From their graves in every land, wheresoever the Lord has sown and scattered his chosen people. For “ thus saith the Lord God : Behold, 0 my people, 1 will open yonr graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I am the Lord, when 1 have ,opened your graves, 0 my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my Spirit in yon, and ye shall live; and I shall place you in your owii larid.’’Ti This language is addressed to the whole house of Israel"** and truly includes the believing Gentiles.
And whither do the Jews return 7
To Mount Zion,' in their own land; to the city namedj “the Lord is there;” to the New Jerusalem in the new heavens and earth. “ For behold, I create Jerusalenii a rejoibing, and her people a joy.”ff
* Rom. iv. 16. f See ■the Epistles to the Gal. and Heb. X Rom. ii. 28.
6 Gal. iii. 29. ך[ Ezek. xxxvii. 12.	*# Ezek. xxxvii. 11.
ft Is. lxv. 18.
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tP ׳ME MILLENNIUM.
And token do the Jews return ?
In the times of the anapsyxis, the refreshing, or recrea-tion, from the presence of the Lord, when he shall send Jesns Christ, with power and great glory, to make restitution! of all things, (and not of the Jews only,) which God hath* spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets.*
And toko is the king of the Jews; and what is the nature of his kingdom ?
Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Son of the living God, he is the King of Israel, and he shall sit on the throne of his father David, in the resurrection of the dead, and reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his dominion there shall be no end.f His kingdom is not of this world, but is “ a celestial and angelic kingdom in the end of this world,״ to succeed the ruin of time, itself to abide “forever, even forever and ever.״
In conformity with this scheme of interpretation, which is not learned of man, but which is drawn from the word of the blessed God, the Old-Testament promises and proph-ecies are concentrated into one gospel focus, the king-dom of heaven and of God, to be accomplished in Jesus and the resurrection : and the testimony of the witnesses agrees; the Old and the New Testaments respond to each other.
And now, while reading the sorrows proclaimed i,n the gospel to believers in Jesus, understand by them the same things threatened against the Jews in the Old Testament; and while reading the joys of heaven’s kingdom preached to believers in the gospel, understand in the prophets the glorious redemption of the Jews from worse than Egyptian bondage, and their return to possess the holy land, for an everlasting inheritance: and do mark, that all the promises to the seed of Abraham, though made in different ages, aie made to the hearers personally, and can never be fulfilled by coming on their offspring after seventy generations. “ To thee will I give,״ was spoken of old; and it is not possible to discharge the obligation by handing over the amount to the promisee’s children. “ Hear ! 1 will cast thee outit is not spoken to them, but to you. “I will forget you> and I will forsake you :יי it is not spoken to the children. “ I will gather you; I will bring you again :״ it is not spoken to the offspring, but to you, and to you it will be fulfilled in the resurrection of the dead.
The gospel must expire when the millennium comes.
I have been drawn by force, against my purpose, into
t Luke i. 33.
* Acts iii. 19.
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these remarks. They are fraught with the deepest interest, and so much seemed important, to protect me from the appearance of opposing the New Testament to the Old Tes-tament in what follows, while contrasting the millcnist doc-trine with the express testimony of the Lord, whose two witnesses perfectly agree.
“ This present evil world״* is no place for a blissful mil-lennium. “ The whole world lieth in wickedness ;f and when it becomes changed, which we are assured it will be, then it will be this world no longer. For it is absurd to say, the old and the new are the same; that this world and the world to come are the same; and one who will insist upon it, may call to-morrow “ yesterday,״ and be contented with his ingenuity. Be the material the same, its constitution and fashion, its complexion and character, both moral and physical, will be wholly changed : so that it will be this world no longer. Evil will go out, and the curse be remov-ed, which will make a radical change of this lower creation. Not before the coming of the Lord have we an assurauce of this; but in his second advent, we believe it will take place; “for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously ana godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ;״{ not surely to give this world a millennium, in the blood of Adam; but to change these vile bodies, to fold up these aerial heavens, and to change them, with the earth itself, into the promised kingdom of heaven and holy land, which are a suitable “ rest for the people of God.״ “ No lion shall be there, nor ravenous beast; but the redeem-ed shall walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion \vith songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.״§ Some things in the Holy Scriptures are hard to be understood* but this, which the grace of God teaches, is very simple and plain ; and it does not become us to obscure the plain gospel with darker prophecies. Doing so is abusing our light, and covering what the grace of God teaches plainly, and has fully reveal-ed, with the mystery of another portion of scripture, which may be dark and unfathomable.
“ Heaven and earth shall pass away” but the word of the Lord Jesus shall not pass away. “Suppose ye that 1 am come to give peace 011 earth V' [Yes, Lord, says the millen-
* Gal. i. 4. t 1 John v. 19.	| Tit. ii. 11.	$ Is. xxiv. 9—19.
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OF THE MILLENNIUM.
1st:] ,“I tell you nay, but rather division. [That be far from thee, cries the millenist; be it far from thee, Lord\ “For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three: the father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”* ** “ Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter in, and shall not be abie.”f “ The friendship of the world is enmity with God.”J “ If any mail love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”$ “ For if the world hate you, ye know it hated me, before it hated
you.”||	“ Woe unto you that are rich--------woe unto you
that are full-----woe unto you when all men shall speak
well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets.”^
These are hard sayings for the hope of this world’s con-version: they will never do in the millennium; they are scarcely supportable now: for so deeply have we drunk of the cup of sorcery which mingles the sweet promises of the righteous world to come with the conversion and return of the natural Jews in this carnal world, that we have, as a whole people, become insensibly intoxicated with the notion of a far different fate for this world than to be fuel for the devouring fire; though we are warned by the Lord, and by his messengers ; and though we well know and confess what is sounding in the last trumpets of wo, wo, wo; and what is designated by the vials of wrath containing the seven last plagues, which usher in the consummation of the world, of time, and of all sublunary things.
Should ever this world become an elysium, men may love it and set their affections on it; and having the things pro-mised, they will need the gospel of them no longer. Our ·impression, however, is deep, that this world will not sur-vive “the everlasting gospel;” but when the present dis-pensation ends, the Lord will appear in his glory. It will be no question to ask then, What is a man profited if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? neither will that be a question to ask in the blissful millennium. So long as the gospel continues, it testifies of the world “ that the works thereof are evil and, therefore, the world will ever hate the gospel, and reject its testimony, as it rejected the Lord Jesus, and his testimony; and knew him not.j־f
* Luke xii. 51.	f lb. xiii. 24.	$ James iv. 4.
6 l John ii. 15.	|| John xv. 18.	ן[ Luke vi.24—26.
** John vii. 7.	ff John i. 10.
8
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But it is thought that the Lord will pour out his Spirit, and convert the world, and then it will be changed, to adore apd to receive him spiritually, whom wee it rejected and refused personally.
The gospel does not teach this doctrine; but the contrary; that the world cannot receive the Spirit of truth, ‘‘because it seeth him not; neither knoweth him.”# a And because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”\ “I have mani-Tested thy name to the men thou gavest me out of the world
-----1 pray not for the world, hut for them which thou hast
.given me.”J “They are not of the world, even as 1 am not of the world.” J
With testimony so explicit to the contrary, it seems to be madness to look for a blissful millennium in this world, ory until after the gospel dispensation expires. Heaven and earth shall pass away ן by the word of the Lord Jesus, whose word shall not pass away; and when any follower of hi® supposes Jesus came to introduce a millennium into this world, let that follower devoutly consider these words: “I
tell you nay; but rather division.”------“ I came not to send
peace, but a sword.” [| And let that follower further com-sider, that the Apocalypse does not unveil the millennium, until after the seven epistles to the churches are sent, in their seven ages; until after all the seals are opened, until after the seventh and last trumpet has sounded, until after the vials of the seven last plagues are poured out, and a voice from the throne in thunder proclaims Gegoni—It is done: not until Babylon is fallen, and the harvest of the world is reaped, and the battle of Armageddon is fought, and the beast and the false prophet are taken and cast into their own place; not until after all these things have been unveiled, is any notice of the millennium in the earth. And let that follower consider further, that neither St. Peter, nor St. Paul, nor St. Clement, nor St. Justin, nor St. Cyprian, nor St. Cyril, nor St. Jerome, nor any other saint, or father, or eminent man in the primitive church, received or admitted the doctrine of the millennium for one moment, except it was in the coming of the Lord Jesus with the resurrection of the dead; that neither the Creek nor Latin nor Lutheran, nor any one of the Reformed churches, does now, or ever at any time has acknowledged the doctrine of a millennium in this world by creeds, confessions, or approved standards of faith ; and fur׳־ ther, that never a man, (whose writings have been enough
t John ivii. 6—9.
f John xv. 19. || Matt. x. 34.
* John xiv. 17. $ John xvii. 14.
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OF THE MILLENNIUM.
esteemed to be preserved in the world,) came forth to preach the doctrine of “peace and safety” to the world, and a spir-itual millennium to the race of the first Adam, without any resurrection, until Daniel Whitby, D. D., who died A. D. 1726: and then, if he do not pause with wonder, and with astonishment, and with fear, at the strong delusion that has gone over the protestant churches; and if he do not with-draw instinctively from this “ Newlight” doctrine, and in-quire for the good old paths to the heavenly bliss our fathers trod, and to the true millennium through Jesus and the resurrection, no word of exhortation from this humble source could move or persuade him. However, this 1 boldly say, and challenge contradiction, that Dr. Whitby’s honorable name is the first and earliest that I have seen quoted in sup-port of the doctrine, among the writers and orators of a spiritual millennium in this world's flesh, before the Lord's appearing; and Dr. Whitby gives credit to no other man for the discovery, but puts it roundly forth as his own opin-ion singly. And now one hundred years have barely gone by, since he was gathered to his fathers; and so firmly planted has this new faith become in all the churches of America, that never a religious newspaper of high standing with its own sect can easily be found, in New York or Boston, to admit an article into their columns, boldly ques-tioning this proud Philistine, which has seized the ark of our faith, and now defies the hope of Israel.
This state of things calls for mourning, as well as indig-nation, that in a single century, an innovation so bold in departure from the primitive faith and confessions of all the churches, should have silently intrenched itself in the heart of all denominations following the reformers; which inno-vation those very reformers expressly condemn and brand, as opposed to the Holy Scriptures; and now in this liberal age, and free country, we may not come into the religious newspapers, in the name of the gospel, and of Luther and Melancthon and Cranmer, there to interrogate its excellency, to question its apostolic birth, and to scruple its holy dignity. No; the religious community must not be agitated, by rais-ing the voice, to ask this angel in glorious light either whence he comes, or whither he tends; whose minister he is, or how he escaped the observation of past ages, and came only into heavenly view within a century. The religious newspapers are right to avoid the agitation of settled ques-tions; and their conductors were right in counting this of a spiritual millennium in the flesh fully settled in the public mind and adopted. Nevertheless, it must be turned out;— for it sounds most queer, and is really absurd: a spiritual
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millennium in the u sinful flesh” with death reigning to the end of the dispensation! Truly, if the Dragon could leave things so, he might not grudge to be chained for a little season.
You have now been presented with the promises, the prophecies, and the gospel of the recovery of Eden and Immortality by our Lord Jesus Christ, constructed and fashioned into one instrument, through which faith discerns the glory and beauty and joy and eternal life, belonging to the heirs of the kingdom of heaven. If we use this instru-raent, it must be directed heavenward to the invisible world. This visible world requires no telescopic vision, to scan its prorhises, to detect its illusions, or to display its sorrows, wants, and mortal agonies. These are all visible to the naked eye. The gracious God permits us, through his word by faith, as in a glass darkly, to see another world beyond, outside of, and after this; a new world to come, in which dwelleth righteousness; and to which he directs our hearts, our hopes, our aims. And when He speaks of a millennium, we have only to ascertain its blessed and holy, its resurrec-tion character, and its freedom from pain and sin and the father of lies, to determine, that it belongs not to this land of the valley and shadow of death, but to the holy land of eternal life in the kingdom of God.
WHAT THEN IS THE MILLENNIUM?
Various opinions prevail, of which three have been noticed.
1.	That it is the endless Sabbath of the world to come, the recreation of this heaven and of this earth, which heaven and earth by the w01d of the Lord Jesus “ shall pass away;״ that it is “ the restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets, since the world began,״ in promises, in prophecies, and in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; and, finally, that it is the redemp-tion of creation from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God, for which not only groans the body of the faithful in Christ, but creation itself groans and travails in pain, expecting earnestly the triumph over death, and the recovery of immortality, which Jesus has wrought and purchased, and t( in the dispensation of the fulness of times ״ will make manifest, by gathering “ together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth.״* “ Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace; good will toward men.״f
* Eph. i. 10.	f Duke ii. 14.
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OF THE MILLENNIUM.
2.	That it is a period of a thousand annual revolutions of the earth about the sun, after the coming of the Lord Jesus in the clouds of heaven, during which the eminently just rise, and reign in the earth with the Lord, over the nations which are spared in the world, especially with the natural seed of Abraham; and in which is enjoyed an unde-finable mixed state of society between the living mortals and the risen, the immortal just; not unlike that of Peter, James, and John in the holy mount of transfiguration with the Lord and Moses and Elias. In which thousand years, the earth and heaven are to be renewed with salubrity, fertility, glory, and beauty; the Jerusalem below is to be in the com-munion of the Jerusalem above; the temple and city are to be rebuilt, enriched, and enlarged; and all nations are to go worship there, until the loosed enemy deceives them to their ruin, in the final dissolution of all things.
3.	That it is a blessed state of spiritual enjoyment in the flesh of the first Adam, for a period of indefinite bounds, not less than a thousand years, and probably exceeding that time, before the Lord’s appearing in the clouds of heaven, to raise and judge the quick and dead; in which time all nations will be converted, to walk in the obedience of the gospel, and the love one of another, without an enemy to vex the flesh, or to tempt the spirit, or to disturb the beau-tiful harmony of nature, and the lovely quiet of the heavenly life; until after the thousand years have given birth to an immense multitude of redeemed mortals, and have peopled heaven with a great majority of Adam’s race. Then the enemy, being let loose for a little season, comes into this earthly paradise, misleads the nations by his wiles, and brings them with malice against the holy city in time to meet the vengeance of heaven which is to be poured on the wicked at the coming of the Lord in the clouds to judgment.
A fourth view of this subject remains to be stated, as follows:
The millennium is past. The language in which it is described is highly figurative and symbolical; and the lead-ing symbol is the binding of the Dragon, that old serpent which is called the Devil. In the twelfth chapter of Reve-lation, this dragon is, by common consent, taken to represent the pagan administration of this world’s affairs, which was overthrown in the fourth century, and cast down from the supremacy to the footstool of power; therefore, it ought to be taken in the same sense in Revelation xx.; and to mean, not the prince of the power of the air, but the pagan domi-nion over the earth, which was seized and bound, and has been confined outside of the pale of Christendom, and of
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civilization, for a thousand or more years, while Christian kings sit on the throne of this world’s empire.
This fourth view of the subject has more able advocates than it has popular favor; among whom Professor Bush is distinguished in our country, and Lightfoot, and Turretine, and others, in Europe. But, notwithstanding the cogency of the argument from the character of one symbol of the millennium, other symbols compel me to withhold my assent to this conclusion, and to regard the whole scene as lying beyond the confines of this world, as a vision of bliss out-side of time, in which the blood of Adam can have no part. Only the spiritual man seems to be there. “ I saw the souls of them.” The risen dead cast no shadow, though they live and reign, as kings and priests on the earth, with Christ a millennium.* Against their intrenchment, or camp, which is also called “the beloved city,”f in his time, the enemy comes up with an innumerable host, “ as the sand of the sea,” in the fearful name of Gog and Magog. But how, thirik you, this world’s arms, its artillery, and bayonets, would rattle against the defences of a spiritual city, and endanger the saints’ possessions ? It is plainly necessary, to carry on a war with souls of the first resurrection, that the assailants must be a spiritual host. That they come from the four quarters of the earth, will not hinder their coming in a spiritual shape; and to come in the flesh and blood would be no better than for the Syrians to contend with the angelic host of chariots and horsemen which Elisha showed to Gehazi in the mountain, when he took Benhadad’s army blindfold into the midst of Samaria. Silly mortals may imagine such a posse comitatus of this world, to be led on to the attack of the holy city of the saints; but the captain of the innumerable throng is one of more cunning and tact, than to attempt the siege of a spiritual city with a fleshly army; the camp of the first resurrection with sabres, and shells, and rockets. I do not pretend to understand the war; but knowing the one party to be souls, or spiritual bodies of risen saints, and the general of the other party to be an angel fallen, it seems no unreasonable presumption, but quite within the scope of common sense, to conclude, that his men must be like their leader, and his army a spir-itual host.
This does not clear up the difficulty of comprehending the twentieth chapter of Revelation. It only removes the scene of the events recorded therein beyond this life. The comet is a comet still, whether on this side or that side of the sun;
t Rev. xx. 9.
* Rev. v. 10, and xx. 4.
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but because we cannot tell its period or delineate accurately its eccentric course, we do not, therefore, refuse to see and acknowledge the order and beauty and perfect harmony of the solar system. We are admonished, and have occasion in the examination of this portion of prophecy particularly to remember, “ that no prophecy of scripture is of any pri-vote interpretationThe words “ any private" are in the original Greek simply idias, (ίδιας,) one's own, or self: and the admonition is plainer by translating it, No prophecy of scripture is of self ·interpretation.	The eminent Bishop
Horsley takes this view of the text in several elaborate dis-courses; and its propriety is ««(/,־evident; and its application to this chapter twenty of Revelation is alike needful and welcome to the students of prophecy. Many times in the
course of the chapter the prophet says, “ I saw”----; and
while his whole attention was absorbed in one great event, it is plain that another, and still others, at the same instant, were transpiring. He describes them consecutively, while yet they were concurrent; for it is impossible to carry on two trains of narrative in the same sentence. Satan is at large, until the beast and false prophet are slain, and their city is destroyed. Then he is bound and confined, while “the beloved city” is manifested in the earth; for it is in the earth the saints reign ;f and here Satan returns to assault their city with Gog and Magog in his company: yet the prophet delays the particular description of its coming with glory from heaven, until after Satan’s reunion with the beast and the false prophet; when the apostle describes its coming in glorious state, and its abiding forever.
To assist in the contemplation of this prophecy, which is often made not its own self-interpreter merely, but an index of all prophecy, the following parallels are exhibited.
1.	Synchronism of the Millennium with Daniel's fifth Monarchy.
Daniel’s prophecy is a calendar of the prophecies, as Mede well says: a holy almanac, into which we may look for the day and month and season of this world’s year in the whole course of time. And the time of this world is therein set forth under the image of four metals for its four consecu-tive seasons; and is further represented by four beasts, which constitute its spring-time and summer, its autumn and winter. All commentators agree, that we live in the last of these four seasons of Daniel’s holy almanac. The New Testament often warns us that ours is the last of the sea- *
* 2 Pet. 1. 20. f Rev. v. 10. Dan. vii. 27, “ under the whole heaven.״
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sons: “ this is the last time,’׳* “ these last days,”{ &ς. And, for our more particular warning, the last season of the holy almanac is divided into subdivisions, as it were months. The first is of 450 years, during the unity of the fourth empire; the second is of 300 years, after the division of the Roman empire into ten kingdoms; the third is of 1260 years, during the usurpation of the power of the ten in the hands of one, diverse from the ten. The times of these subdivis-ions are not proportioned to each other, like so many months of thirty days each; but they are subdivisions of the sea-son, made by the prophetic almanac: and every student of the Bible knows, while he reads, that we are living in the last month of the last season, and in the latter part of the month. It is all in the holy almanac, as plain as noon-day, that we live in the last time, toward the very close of the last season, and of the four seasons. And when the new year opens, it is not the old year renewed and repeated; but it is one eternal spring day. The season, which is to succeed this fourth season, is one of endless duration in glo-ry, immortality, and eternal life. If the holy astronomer does not make this matter plain in the calendar, to every careful reader of his heavenly almanac, no words of mine can.
Now the beast of the Apocalypse answers to the fourth sea-son of the holy almanac, and its last month, or wicked horn, to the false prophet of the Apocalypse, which beast and proph-et, season and month, terminate together, just as autumn and November terminate together, whether we read in Dan. vii. or in Rev. xix.; and when these two are passed away together, then comes the millennium of the Apocalypse, and also the fifth and endless monarchy of the prophet Daniel; and these two in their commencempnt perfectly synchronize, and that in Daniel never terminates. The millennium, then, belongs to the eternal state.
2.	Synchronism of the Millennium with St. PauF s proph-ecy of the Lords coming in the overthrow of the man of sin.
St. Paul foretells the course of events{ from his day to the coming of the Lord in the end of time, by delineating the apostasy, the obstacle in the way of the revelation of the man of sin; the removal of that obstacle, and the dis-play and reign of “ that Wicked, whom the Lord will con-sutne with the spirit of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his coming.” By “that Wicked” we under-stand the false prophet, or wicked horn, and his destruction is in the lake with the beast, at the final coming of the Lord: as seen in Rev. xix. 20, and in Dan. vii. 7—11 and
X 2 Thess. ii.
f Heb. i. 2.
* 1 John ii. 18.
OF THE MILLENNIUM.	65
23—27.	“ Daniel’s wicked horn is St. Paul’s man of sin, as
the church from her infancy interpreted it.”*
3.	Synchronism, of the Millennium with the seventh trum* pet.—Mede.
At the sound of the seventh trumpet, the days of the slain witnesses, and of the beast which arose and slew them, and of the nations of this world, all run out together; and the kingdom of our God and of his Christ, the time of the dead that they should be judged, and of the saints that they should receive their reward, small and great, comes glorious-ly in.j־ The reign of Christ is often mentioned in the Apoca-lypse, of whose advent the choir of angels and presbyters around the throne are wont to sing in triumph over the fall of the beast and of Babylon.! This is the eternal state.
4.	Synchronism of the New Jerusalem with the seventh trumpet—Mede.
The Lamb’s marriage and kingdom follow close on the destruction of Babylon, with which the seventh trumpet begins to sound.$ The New Jerusalem is the bride, and therefore herself comes contemporary with the seventh trum-pet, when God will “ reward his servants the prophets, and the saints, and them that fear his name, small and great, and will destroy them that destroy the earth.”|| This is the king-dom in which Christ will judge the quick and dead at his appearing.H The new creation of Isaiah must be taken for the new creation of John ; and these may well he supposed to synchronize with that “ world to -come” of Paul, and again with that of Peter, wherein dwelleth righteous-ness.** What forbids ׳? Common sense requires us to under-stand, that when this heaven and earth are folded up and changed, and the world to come is manifested by the word of God, the new heavens and earth and Jerusalem at once appear together: for to suppose heavens without an earth, or earth withotit heavens, or a city without an earth, is monstrous; and likewise to suppose a city without inhab-itants, a city rich, compact, perfectly built and full of glory, beauty and joy, but empty of inhabitants, is monstrous. And hence the resurrection of the dead synchronizes to per-fection with the coming of the Lord in the end of this world to make all things new, from heaven to earth and to Jerusa-lem, “ the city of the great King.” Therefore, all these events synchronize one with another, and with the sounding of the seventh trumpet, when “ there should be time no longer,-----but the mystery of God should be finished,”ff
* Mede, p. 762.	f See Rev. xi. 7—19.	\ Rev. xix. 1-7.
6 Rev. xix. 6, 7. xxi. 2, 9. || Rev. xi. 18.	H 2 Tim. iv. 1.
** Isa. lxv. 17. Rev. xxi. Heb. i. 12. ii. 5. 2 Pet. iii. 13. ff Rev. x. 6, 7.
9
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“ and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should he judged.”* That which follows is the millennium, and it belongs to the eternal world.
5.	Synchronism of the times of the Gentiles with the roya& image.
“ Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. -«־*— And then shall they see the Son of man coming with power and great glory. ——When ye see these things come to pass, know* ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand,”t “ Behold*, your house is left unto you desolate: for I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth, until ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.,5i Jerusa-lem has been under the yoke of the Gentiles from the days of Hamel, and deliverance is promised in that kingdom of “life from the dead״ which Christ will bring with him, and the God of heaven will set up and forever establish in the Utter destruction of the king’s image, and the kingdoms of time, by the stone taken from the mountain without hands,φ in Christ’s second coming.
A discorsion.
The millennium is the hope of this world, and the vision of the world to come; the sabbath, not of time and sense, but the sabbath which remains for the holy people beyond the waters of Jordan. It is a period in which the resurrec-tion children reign with Christ on heavenly thrones; and it is not the reign of the natural seed of Abraham in this׳ world. Its period must embrace the descent of the New Jerusalem, “ the beloved city,” for that is the name of the saints’ camp,|| which the enemy surround ; and it must embrace the perdition of the beast and false prophet, (which is not their mortal remains, but their true followers and sup-porters;) for when, in the end of the thousand years, Satan is cast into the lake of fire, he finds them already there, and so folloAvs them to perdition.il And these are not cut off until the Lord comes in the end of the world, as we have seen in our first and second synchronisms.
Again, the strong man armed keeps his house, until & stronger than he comes, and seizes, binds, and confines him;; then he spoils not only his goods, but his old Tookery of sin and of death, at one blow, and slays his ministers^ and in. the new city, wkvich he will bring with him, he will give all׳ his saints a place, whose glory it is that they have not wor-
* Rev. xi. 18. f Luke xxi. 24, 27, 31.	$ Matt, xxiii. 38.
§ Dan. ii.	|| Rev. xx. 9.	II Rev. xx. 10.
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OP THE MILLENNIUM.
shipped the beast nor his image. Of course their reign is not contemporary with the beast, but subsequent to his destruc-tion : following the last trumpet, and all trumpets; the last vial, and all vials; the fall of Babylon and the battle of Armageddon, in which all flesh appears to be slain, and the wicked to be sent to his own place. In this connection, the millennium succeeds, when the kingdom which Smote the royal image, and dashed its plastic metals to primitive dust, itself becomes a great mountain, and fills the whole earth : and in that mountain nothing shall be found to hurt or to destroy, saith the Lord.*
It is in the destruction of Babylon, under the blast of the seventh trumpet, that the kingdom of this world is taken and overthrown by onr Lord; and while the angelic host rejoice and sing, u Hallelujah; for the Lord God omnipotent reign-eth;” they add also, Let us rejoice and be glad, and give glory to him; for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride hath made herself ready.*!־ The New Jerusalem is that bride. She is prepared before the binding of Satan, even when Babylon falls : unless Satan is bound before that event occurs. The beloved city is the Lamb’s ׳wife; the same which in Isaiah the I!ord says he will rejoice in and exult over.{ “ Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall he thine everlasting^ light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. Thy people also shall be all righteous : they shall inherit the land fofever.”$ “ For the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married : for as a young manmarrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee; and as the bride*·
Soom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy god rejoice over
ee. ------ Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not
silence, and give him no rest, till he establish, and till hi make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”If
Delightful as this theme is, and full of rich interest, regard for your patience commands me to draw to a close; and I confess my obedience is the more cheerful, for that if what Ϊ have said does not carry conviction to your mind and joy־ to your heart, nothing I can say will. The particular mil-lennium seen by John, Rev. xx., is neither of this world, nor in this world ; but is in the resurrection of the dead ; and so, likewise, is the general millennium, the seventh day of eternal rest, which remains for the holy people in the land of promise, which land God svvare unto Abraham to give it foxever to Aim, and to his seed, which is Christ. All peo-
$ Is. lxv. 19.
f Rev. xix. 6.
|| Is. lxii. 4—7.
* Ts. lxv. 25.
$ Is. lx. 20, 21.
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?le and ages and nations*, from Adam in Eden to this efa of labyloo the great, have cherished the gospel, and the hope of this future bliss, not for their posterity, but for themselves Pivine revelation has unfolded it to every successive age of mankind, as their owp, if they would take hold of it by faith, to be enjoyed hereafter, in the restitution of all things, which are spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world began. Upon no other theme have they all with united voice spoken in harmonious accents of joyful hope and praise; but upon this they have descanted with untiring repetitions, describing its peace and holiness, its perfect beauty and fertility and thrilling joys, and chief over all its everlasting King of glory, majesty, power, and author-ity. Of no other than this have all the prophets testified ; and of this they have testified by promises, by visions, by dreams, by types, by allegories, by metaphors, by parables, by many symbols dark and obscure, and by the open gospel, proclaim-ing, with angel’s voice, “Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come;”* and repeating in plain terms, “ that the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Now it sutfereth violence, and those who are resolved to have it, take it by force: but not 80 in the millennium; no force is able to take it, after the Son of man has once risen up and shut to the! door. To knoek then will be wholly in vain. 0יר call and cry aloud will be of no avail: Depart, (from within, will be heard;) I never knew you. To assault with ah Gog’s host and Satan’s rage will not move one of the pearly ggtes on its golden hinges, to open for admission to the impenitent,, faithless, aspiring soul. Faith alone has ibe knowledge of the way, and the key of the gate; and faith is a grace peculiar to time; it belongs not to the mil-temiunv
Parallel of Ezekiel a Prophecy with the events of the Mil* tpnnium,
I should have done, but something is here not to be over-looked, iq a subject unfathomable as the mystery of the yniliennium. No view yet taken of it explicates the doctrine from palpable objections to my limited understanding; how־♦־ ever, 1 cheerfully submit to the holy w0Td in this matter, a* in the matter of the divine decrees, and of man’s free agency. Great truths are often incapable of being embraced together in the same human view, being (inly seen in opposite posi· tion.s; but not therefore annihilating* or counteracting one another. Both stand in their infinite proportions suited together perfectly, notwithstanding their contradiction appa-
* Rev. xiv. 7.
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OF THE MILLENNIUM.
rent to our limited powers of vision, which apparent con-tradiction is owing to our infirmity׳, and by no means to the want of consistency in divine revelation.
The twentieth chapter of Revelation of all others is least capable of self-interpretation; it requires to be illustrated by corresponding prophecies. The previous pages have been directed to this object, especially in the five preceding syn-chronisms; and with one more effort of this sort 1 will close; an effort deserving a discourse to itself, instead of a place at the heel of this.
Ezekiel begins his prophecy with an account of the de-parture of the glory of God from Jerusalem, and he con-eludes with a promise of the return of that glory in the new dispensation.
The sixteenth chapter descants on Jerusalem's wicked-ness, punishment, and merciful restoration, together with her elder sister, Samaria and her daughters, and her younger sister, Sodom and her daughters, which may only be in the new earth. Chapters thirty and thirty-one foretell the utter overthrow of Egypt and Assyria, “ Pharaoh and all his multitude.” The thirty-second repeats the calamity of Pharaoh, and adds to it, of Ashur, Elam, Meshech, and Tubal, Edom, and the Zidonians by name, and of the princes of the north without name. These are all “ slain by the sword, and bear their shame with them that go down to the pit. Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his multitude, even Pharaoh and all his army, slain by the sword, saith the Lord God.”*
Observe here, that Gog is of the land of Magog, and is chief prince of “ Meshech and Tubal” f and that “ Pharaoh” is understood by the wise to be a name of the Dragon, the old serpent, familiar, to the prophets.
The thirty-third chapter is addressed to the watchmen of Israel, with denunciations against the land. The thirty-fourth reproves the shepherds of Israel, and promises that the Lord himself will search out of all nations, and gather upon the mountains of Israel his scattered flock. “There shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel; and 1 will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the ,Lord God. I will seek that which was lost, and will bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick; hut I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judg-ment.”J
* Ezek. xxxii. 30. 31. f Ezek. xxxviii. 2, 3. f Ezek. xxxiv. 14, 15, 16
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As these mountains and flocks and mercies belong to the millennium, so do the judgments detailed in chapters xxx., xxxi., xxxii., belong to the introduction of the millennium, and correspond to the overthrow of the beast and false pro-phet in the harvest of the earth, when all the nations by name are counted to the slaughter and consigned to the pit: “ even Pharaoh and all his army, slain by the sword”*
Ezekiel thirty-five begins the subject anew with the de-struction of Edom,f which is made a perpetual desolation, never to return.J This is the present evil world. Chapter thirty-six is a counter prophecy to the mountains of Israel, promising to them, and to the hills and rivers and valleys, “ Ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come,” (verse 8,) in the resurrection. “They shall possess thee, and thou shalt be their inheritance, and thou shalt no more hence-forth bereave them :” verse 12. 0 house of Israel, “ I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land:” verse 24.	“ Then shall ye remember your mm evil ways,
and your doings that were not good:” verse 31. To this end their recovery must be “ life from the dead.”
Chapter xxxvii. explains the millennial resurrection lite-rally of “the whole house of Israel,” v. 11, which, if it do not include us, “ Our hope is lost; we are cut for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them : Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, 0 my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live; and I shall place you in your own land : then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord.”—v. 11—15.
The ancient commentators, Sts. Irenaeus, Chrysostom, and Jerome understood this of a literal resurrection of the faithful; and if it fails to teach that, no language can teach it: even the resurrection of Jesus might be turned into a figure as easy; for it is written that his grave was opened, and he came forth out of his grave, and lived and returned into his own land. If this proof of the resurrection be taken
* See Rev. xix. 20.
f Edom is taken by the wise to mean the beast of the Apocalypse, as also Pharaoh means the Dragon. Jew and Greek and Roman understand it so, and I take their conclusion without examining the grounds of it, only to show you how remarkably it fits with the details of the millennium.
X Ezek. xxxv. 9.
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OF THE MILLENNIUM.
from the Old Testament, every other may, by a similar rale; and the Sadducees may be justified by the law and the prophets, and the Pharisees condemned.
The prophet proceeds to declare the purpose of God, to unite Judah and Ephraim into one nation : “and David, my ser-vant, shall be king over them,” v. 24; u their prince forever,” v. 25. “And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore” v. 28.
This is the eternal state subsequent to the resurrection: for it is both impossible for David to reign on earth again without rising from the dead, and also for any condition of things in this world to continue forever; seeing that the true Witness testifies of this heaven and earth that they shall pass away, and all things belonging to them are transitory.
After this description of the resurrection of “the whofo house of Israel,” and of their union under David in one everlasting kingdom, which seems to accord and synchronize with the first resurrection,* the prophet proceeds, in chap-ters xxxviii. and xxxix., to speak of the coming of Gog and all his bands, from Persia, Ethiopia, Libya, or Phut, Gomer, and Togarmah, against the mountains of Israel, “as a cloud to cover the land.” The Lord will then appear in his anger, so that all men and things shall shake at his presence, and he will rain upon Gog, “and upon his bandstand upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hail-stones, fire and brimstone.”! The thirty-ninth chapter only carries out the doctrine and particulars of the preceding ; leaving the reader in no doubt that this Gog and his destruction are the same which are so similarly described in Rev. xx., and no elsewhere expressly named in the Bible.
Chapter xl. to the end of the prophecy of Ezekiel enters into a particular description of the New Jerusalem, in lan-guage suited to the Mosaic dispensation, but manifestly intending that same which the Apocalypse describes coming down out of heaven, in the new creation which God will-make, whose waters are waters of life, whose trees are the tree of life, whose inhabitants are the chosen people, whose temple is built of living stones, whose sacrifices are a pure offering of praise on the altar of the heart, whose form is four square, and whose walls are salvation, and her gates praise. “The Lamb is the light thereofand “ the name of the city from that day shall be, The Lord is there;” Immanuel; “the tabernacle of God is with men.” “This is the city the patriarchs eyed from afar, while as pilgrims they traced the thorny road; this is the Jerusalem which
* Rev. xx. 4.	f Ezek. xixviii. 22.
HISTORY AND DOCTRINE
72
Paul declares is free, which is above, and is the mother of us all.״*
The coincidence of these two prophets, Ezekiel and St. John, is remarkable in the description of a dreadful over-throw of the nations, followed by a resurrection of the holy people, against whose mountains Gog, an enemy of a fearful name, comes like a cloud; and deliverance is wrought by fire from heaven, to the destruction of the innumerable host. Then follows the particular description of the holy, heavenly land, and the royal metropolis, named after her King forever, as the bride takes the name of the Bridegroom.
This parallelism of Ezekiel’s prophecies and the Apoca-lypse, and these synchronisms of Daniel, Paul, and John, constitute the materials of Jacob’s ladder, “ set upon the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven : and behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it.״f The portion which rests on the solid earth, we can feel and handle; but the top is a dizzy height, which angels, not mortals, may climb and comprehend. “Behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of
Isaac.------1 will not leave thee until I have done that which
I have spoken to thee of.״J Heaven is represented with a wall around; and that implies an enemy without. The battlements and gates are of impregnable mould; they look toward the enemies’ land. What though he come like a cloud? He comes never again; but he forever perishes, outside of the beloved city. “Awake, awake, stand up, 0 Jerusalem!” “ Fear not, for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thy Maker is thy husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: the God of the whole earth shall he be called.”^ “For the Lord will comfort Zion, he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein; thanksgiving and the voice of melody.” ||
Of the present discourse, this is the sum:—
From the fa!l of man and of the whole creation under the curse of sin and the dominion of death, until the times of the anapsyxis, or resuscitation from the presence of the Lord, when he shall send Jesus Christ, who is now preached to us, and shall make all things new in the resurrection of the dead, the Holy Spirit has unceasingly testified of the coming of the great day of the Lord, and of his kingdom, with great
* Gal. iv. 26. Cox’s u Second Coming,” p. 134.
f Gen. xxviii. 12. John i. 51.	t Gen. xxviii. 13, 15.
$ Is. li. 17 and liv. 4, 5.	11 Is. li. 3.
73
OF THE MILLENNIUM.
power and glory; when Jesus will not only change these vile bodies like unto his own glorious body; but also these heavens and earth, bestowing on them an atmosphere of blessedness, and a soil of fatness, with a salubrity that knows of no sickness, and a joy which knows of no pang, separation, sighing, or sorrow anymore. For this value the fathers, Adam, Abraham, and David, received the promises. They did not dream of having them fulfilled in this land of death, in which they dwelt as sojourners and travellers; but they expected the redemption of the Lord’s pledges in the insurrection of the dead, and in the heavenly land of immortal life.
In this light they, together with the prophets, foresaw Christ’s day and were glad. In this light the prophets de-scribed the New Jerusalem, and the righteous nation, and their everlasting King on the throne of his father David, in his endless kingdom over all God blessed forever. In this explicit manner the holy gospel describes the kingdom of heaven, and the angelic nature of those who are found worthy to attain that world, and the resurrection of the dead, through Jesus our Nobleman that is gone to receive a king-dom and to return. In this manner, and coming in this kingdom, the apostles preached “Jesus and the resurrection,” through all the world. In this faith the primitive church for three centuries steadfastly looked for his coming. In this faith Luther and Melancthon and the great reformers of the sixteenth century expected the coming of the Lord, while they grappled in mortal agonies with the gigantic power of the Latin hierarchy. In this manner, and in this kingdom, all our creeds and standards of faith confess the hope of the com-ing of the Lord Jesus; and all believers daily pray that he will come, and will not tarry: “Thy kingdom come; thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” And when the hopes and prayers of all ages of the holy people, from Adam to this day, are answered and fulfilled, then will be the anticipated millennium: “The dispensation of the fulness of times,” heaven in earth, when creation will no longer sigh and groan and travail in pain together, as it does now, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God; but creation itself will attain with us, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, redemp-tion of the body from the bondage of corruption into the glori-ous liberty of that eternal world, where “they neither marry nor are given in marriage, neither can they die anymore, for they are equal unto the angels, and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.”*
* Luke xx. 35.
10
74 HISTORY AND DOCTRINE OF THE MILLENNIUM.
So long as the clover-seed brings clover, and the barley· com barley; so long as the acorn brings the oak, and coffee raises coffee ; so long as wool grows on the sheep, and cotton springs from seed planted in the ground; so long as the robin’s egg hatches a robin, and the hen’s egg a chicken; so long as grass grows, bees swarm, waters run, and the breath of man is in his nostrils, the children of Adam will bring, in his likeness, an erring, suffering, dying race, whose brow is doomed to sweat with toil, or to wrinkle with care, and to mingle with dust at last. Religion, common sense, experi-ence, and philosophy, unite to tell us so. “ Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.”* This transitory world cannot inherit the promises: a long rest to its troubled waters is contrary to the laws of nature, and to the word of the blessed God Promises, apparently to the contrary, are to be rightly under-stood of “the world to come,” in the new heavens and earth. In this world, wars, fightings and commotions are to continue, “the sea and the waves roaring, men’s hearts failing them for fear,” to the very last, so long as summer and winter, seed-time and harvest, succeed each other, and man is born of woman: but when man is born of the earth; when the earth brings forth at once, and a nation is born in a day ;f when “the earth shall cast out the dead,”J and man is born a new creature, in the new creation and restitution of all things, at the coming of the Lord from heaven, who shall change this vile body, and fashion it like unto his glorious body ;§ then will Immanuel and heaven, immortality, glory, and joy be in the earth, with Jerusalem new and holy; and the saints will reign on the earth, in “Jesus and the resur-
RECTION.”
This is our millennium. Our faith sees no other, our hope anchors in no other, our heart embraces no other, for ourselves, for faithful Abraham, or for any of his seed, or for any of the seed of Adam.
# 1 Cor. xv. 50.	| Is. lxvi. 8. J Is. xxvi. 19. φ Phil. iii. 21.
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