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Full text of "Christ's second coming : will it be pre-millennial?"

MURRAY AND GIBB, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH. 



CHRIST S SECOND COMING: 



WILL IT BE PREMILLENNIAL? 



REV. DAVID BROWN, D.D., 

ST JAMES FREE CHURCH, GLASGOW. 



" Qua propter, qui dicit Dominum citius esse venturum optabilius loquitur, sed peri- 
culosius fallitur. TJtinam ergo sit verum ; quia erit molestum si non verum. Qui 
autem dicit Dominum tardius esse venturum, et tamen credit, sperat, amat ejus ad- 
ventum, profecto de tarditate ejus etiamsi fallitur, feliciter fallitur. Habebit enim 
majorem patientiam, si hoc ita erit; majorem lastitiam si non erit. Ac per b-oc, ah 
eis qui diligunt manifestationem Domini ille auditur suavius, isti creditur tutius." 
ACGUSTIN, Epist. cxcix. 



SIXTH EDITION. 



EDINBURGH: 

T. & T. CLARK, 38, GEORGE STREET. 
LONDON: HAMILTON & CO. DUBLIN: J. ROBERTSON & CO. 




MDCCCLXVII. 



PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION, 

As stated in a former Preface, I have endeavoured to re 
ciprocate the courtesy and candour with which Mr Elliott 
has adverted to my arguments, in the Fourth Edition of 
his "Horae Apocalypticae ; " regretting, however, that he 
has only touched in the most cursory manner upon some 
points which seem to me to be the hinges of this whole 
controversy.* 

To the arguments of Mr Wood s volume on " The Last 
Things" I have tried to do justice, passing by only such 
as seemed to call for no special notice, or to be sufficiently 
answered by the simple repetition of the statements which 
called them forth. 

The references to Mr Birks s Outlines of Unfulfilled Pro 
phecy " begin at p. 80. I hope (as stated in the Preface 
to the last Edition) that I have overlooked nothing of any 
consequence in that acute and excellent author s treatise, 
though it was impossible to take up his arguments at length 
in the text without re-writing some portions of the work 
altogether, and certainly not with advantage. This remark 
is still more applicable to " Plain Papers on Prophetic and 
other Subjects" (1854), to which I have made but an 
occasional reference. The school of prophetic interpreta 
tion to which its gentle and respected anonymous author 
belongs, is one whose principles would require separate 

* In illustration of this remark, I beg to refer to the following pas 
sages of the present work: p. 198, note f, P- 208, note; and p. 237, 
note. 



VI PREFACE. 

investigation. I have had occasion to touch upon them 
more than once in the course of this volume, but could not 
do more than indicate my views of such a mode of interpre 
tation. I have made some use, both in the text and in the 
notes, of Mr Molyneux s two volumes, entitled, " Israel s 
Future" (fourth thousand, 1853), and "The World to 
Come" (1853). The extreme opinions of this advocate of 
premillennialism throw an instructive light on that mode 
of Old Testament interpretation which seems to make it 
the key to the New Testament. 

The revision for the Fourth Edition was too far advanced 
ere Mr Waldegrave issued his Bampton Lecture (1855), 
for me to make any use of it, which I greatly regret. 
Differing from him as I do in his view of the events sym 
bolized by the millennial resurrection, I could still have 
wished to give some passages of his work in full (and 
should now have done so but for typographical reasons), as 
they put certain points in the argument very happily, and 
some of its criticisms on Mr Birks s work, in particular, 
are, in my judgment, conclusive and forcible. The work 
displays a thorough knowledge of the subject and its lite 
rature, and breathes a fine evangelical tone throughout. 

It is now some years since both Mr Bickersteth and the 
Duke of Manchester, to whose views so many references 
are made in this volume, were taken up from this land of 
shadows, to know even as they are known. Let this 
quicken us who remain behind to be followers of them who 
through faith and patience inherit the promises. 

I have only, in conclusion, once more devoutly to ac 
knowledge the- blessing vouchsafed to this book, in the 
establishment of so many minds unsettled on the subject of 
which it treats. 

ABERDEEN, November 1858. 



CONTENTS, 

PART I. 
THE SECOND ADVENT. 

INTRODUCTION. 

PA<J 

Opening Remarks, ....... 3 

Premillennial Theory stated, ..... 6 

Diversities not taken into account, ..... 7 

Prejudices in favour of the Premillennial Advent, ... 8 

against it, ...... 10 

Irrelevant Matter, . ..... ib. 

CHAPTER I. 

CHRIST S SECOND APPEARING THE CHURCH S BLESSED HOPE, 14 

Scriptural Proofs of this, . . . . . .15 

Not his Coming to Individuals at Death, . . . .20 

CHAPTER II. 

THE HOPE OP THE ADVENT IN RELATION TO THE QUESTION OF TIME, 26 

Objection : Looking for Christ s Coming is impossible, on supposi 
tion of any certain intervening Period of a Thousand Years, ib. 
Plausibility of this Objection, and necessity of examining it, . 27 

Preliminary Explanations : No importance is attached, in this ar 
gument, to the precise period of a thousand years; and there is 
every reason to believe that the commencement and the dose ol 
the Latter Day will be shrouded in such obscurity as to leave 
the same uncertainty overhanging this as all the great periods 
of the Divine Economy, ib. 



viii CONTENTS. 

PAOI 

The Objection tested by Facts ROLLOCK RUTHERFORD. . . 29 

ROBERT WODROW, . ..... 32 

Bearing of these Facts, ...... 33 

The Objection founded on a narrow induction of Scripture Pas 
sages, and opposed to the spirit of a large and important class 

of Divine Testimonies, ...... ib. 

Examples of Passages announcing the work to be done, and the ex 
tensive changes to come over the face of the Church and of 

Society, between the two advents, all implying length of time, . ib. 

Christ s Commission to his Disciples, . . . ib. 
Parables of the Tares and Wheat, the Net, the Mustard Seed, 

the Leaven, ...... 34 

Transfer of Kingdom of God from Jews to Gentiles, . 35 
Degeneracy to characterise the Maturer Periods of the 

Church, or Christianised society, . . .36 

Christ in Heaven till Restitution of all Things, . . 37 
Parables which intimate that He will be away a long time 

that He will tarry, ..... 39 

That He will wear out the patience of all but " God s 

Elect," and try even them to the uttermost, . 41 

The Thessalonian Excitement on the subject of Christ s Coming, . 42 

How treated by the Apostle, . . . ib. 

Import of the Apostolic Warning, . . . . ib. 

Distinction between Events and Periods unavailing, . . 4,5 

Early Chiliasts Lactantius, . . .46 

Excitement in regard to Christ s Coming its Evils, . . 48 

Difference between Feverish Expectation and the Patience of Hope, 50 



CHAPTER III. 

THE CHURCH, OR MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST, COMPLETE AT HIS 
COMING. 

The three preceding Chapters preliminary to the proper question of 

this volume, namely, Whether the Second Advent will be Pre- 

millennial, or will introduce a Kingdom of Men in the Flesh 

ruled over by Christ and glorified Saints for a thousand years ? 52 

The Scripture Evidence against this Theory to be arranged under a 

series of Propositions, . . . . ib. 

PROPOSITION FIRST: THE CHURCH WILL BE ABSOLUTELY COM 
PLETE AT CHRIST S COMING, . . . ib. 
Scripture Proof of this, ..... 53 
The Opposite View destitute of support, . . .58 
What do the Premillennialists say to this? It divides them 
into two classes: ..... 63 



CONTENTS. ix 

PAGI 
First Class admit that the Church is complete when 

Christ comes. Examples HOMES, . . 64 

BURNET, ..... 65 

PERRY, ..... 66 

BURCHELL, . . . . .68 

Remarks on this Class, ..... 70 

Second Class, embracing nearly all modern Premillen- 
i nialists deny that the Church is complete when 

Christ comes. Remarks on this Class, . . 71 

Their inconsistency, . . . .72 

Summary, ........ 78 

Supplementary Remarks In reply to Mr Bickersteth, the Duke of 

Manchester, and Mr A. Bonar, ..... 79 

CHAPTER IV. 

ALL THE MEANS OF GRACE, AND AGENCIES OF SALVATION, TERMINATE 

AT THE SECOND ADVENT, . . 95 

PROPOSITION SECOND: CHRIST S SECOND COMING WILL EX 
HAUST THE OBJECT OF THE SCRIPTURES, . . 96 
Object of the Scriptures as regards Saints, . . ib. 
as regards Sinners, . . 98 
Objection answered, ...... 99 

PROPOSITION THIRD: THE SEALING ORDINANCES WILL DISAP 
PEAR AT CHRIST S SECOND COMING, . . . 100 
BAPTISM, ....... ib. 

THE LORD S SUPPER, ...... 102 

The foregoing Conclusions admitted by Mr Brooks, . . 104 
By Mr Bickersteth, . . . . . .106 

By Dr M tfeile, 107 

Summary, ........ 108 

CHAPTER V. 
THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. 
PROPOSITION FOURTH: THE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST, AND 

THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT, FOR SAVING PURPOSES, WILL 

CEASE AT THK SECOND ADVENT, . . . HO 

Christ s INTERCESSION, ..... ib. 

WORK OF THE SPIRIT, . . . . .114 

Both terminate at Second Advent, . . .115 

Extracts from Premillennialists in confirmation of 

this, 

Summary, . . . . . . .117 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VI. 

FAGB 

TIIE KINGDOM OF CHRIST ALREADY IN BEING ITS MILLENNIAL 
ESSENTIALLY THE SAME WITH ITS PRESENT CHARACTER. 

Premillennial Theory of Christ s Kingdom, . . .119 

PROPOSITION FIFTH : CHRIST S PROPER KINGDOM is ALREADY 
IN BEING; COMMENCING FORMALLY ON HIS ASCENSION 
TO THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, AND CONTINUING UN 
CHANGED, BOTH IN CHARACTER AND FORM, TILL THE 
FINAL JUDGMENT, ..... 124 

Explanations, . . . . . ib. 

Apostolic Views of Christ s Kingdom, . . .125 

Same Ground taken by Premillennialists and Unbelieving 

Jews, ....... 127 

Lord and Christ, ..... . . . . 129 

Throne of David, .... .130 

The Priest upon his Throne, . . . . .132 

The Lamb in the Midst of the Throne, . . .133 

The Key, and Throne, and House of David, . . . ib. 

The Prince of Life, . . , , >,. . . 136 

The Times of Restitution, . . . . .137 

The Disciples View of the Second Psalm, . . . 140 

The Prince and Saviour, . . . . .141 

Apostolic Commentaries on the Hundred and Tenth Psalm, 1-12 

The Kingdom to be delivered up What it is, . . 144 

The Last Enemy destroyed, . . . . .147 

Delivering up of the Kingdom What it is, . . 149 

What it is not, . . 151 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE ENTIRE CHURCH "MADE ALIVE" EITHER BY RESURRECTION OR 

TRANSFORMATION AT CHRIST S COMING, . . . 155 

Alleged everlasting continuance of the Fleshly State, . .156 

Mr Bickersteth, ...... ib. 

Mr Birks, .... , . . . .158 

Mr Brock Mr Lord, . . . . .159 

Remarks on this view, .... . 160 

PROPOSITION SIXTH: WHEN CHRIST COMES, THE WHOLE 
CHURCH OF GOD WILL BE MADE ALIVE AT ONCE THE 
DEAD BY RESURRECTION, AND THE LIVING, IMMEDI 
ATELY THEREAFTER, BY TRANSFORMATION ; THEIR 

" MORTALITY BEING SWALLOWED UP OF LIFE," . 164 

Proof of this, ...... ib. 



CONTENTS. Xi 

PAGR 
Objection, . . . . . . .167 

Reply, ....... ib. 

Supplementary Remarks in reply tt> I>r II. Bonar, . . 170 



CHAPTER VIII. 

RESURRKCTION OF ALL THE WICKED AT THE COMING OF CHRIST. 

PROPOSITION SEVENTH : ALL THE WICKED WILL RISE FROM 
THE DEAD, OR BE " MADE ALIVE," AT THE COMING OF 
CHRIST, . . . . .178 

A prior Resurrection of the Righteous but one direct passage al 

leged for it, . . , . . ib. 

Presumptive Arguments in favour of it examined, .179 

Resurrection of Believers peculiar to themselves, . .180 

Dutch Remonstrants, . . . . .181 

Attaining to the Resurrection from the Dead, . . 182 

Resurrection of, and from, the Dead, . . . 185 

Righteous and Wicked "awake" together, . . . 187 

The Sleepersin the Dustawaking, sometoLife, and some to Contempt, 188 

All in the Graves come forth together, . . . .189 

The view which Premillennialists take of this not tenable, . 190 

The Righteous, while the Tares are burning, shine forth as the sun 
in their Father s Kingdom, . . . . . 194 

The Great White Throne, ...... ib. 

The Book of Life Mr Dallas, ... .195 

Mr Lord Mr Birks, . ..... 196 

Mr Hill, ... ... 197 

The Dead, small and great, : . . . -198 

The "other Book," ...... 201 

Summary, ........ 203 



CHAPTER IX. 

SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED: THE MILLENNIAL RESURRECTION LITE 
RAL OR FIGURATIVE ? 205 

Presumptions against the Literal Sense, .... 206 

Untenable Arguments for the Figurative Sense, . . . 215 

Nine Internal Evidences that the Millennial Resurrection is not 
Literal but Figurative : 
First Argument, . . . . . .217 

Second Argument, . . . . . .218 

Third Argument, ...... 220 

Fourth Argument, . . . . . .221 



XII CONTENTS. 



Fifth Argument, ...... 222 

Sixth Argument, ...... 226 

Seventh Argument, ...... 227 

Eighth Argument, ...... 228 

Ninth Argument, ...... 238 

Summary, ........ 241 



CHAPTER X. 

JUDGMENT OF RIGHTEOUS AND WICKED TOGETHER AT CHRIST S 

COMING. 

Premillennialists spread the Judgment over the whole Thousand 

Years, " . . . . . . . 243 

Mr Brooks View, and Remarks on it, ... 244 

Messrs Elliott, Bonars^ and Wood, .... 246 

Olshausen and Mr Dallas, ..... 249 

Mede, Bickersteth, Birlcs, . . . .250 

Remarks on this last View, . . . . .251 

PROPOSITION EIGHTH: THE RIGHTEOUS AND THE WICKED 
WILL BE JUDGED TOGETHER, AND BOTH AT THE COMING OF 
CHRIST, ........ 254 

Scriptural Proof of this, ...... ib. 

Summary, ........ 269 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE CONFLAGRATION, AND THE NEW HEAVENS AND NEW EARTH, AT 
THE COMING OF CHRIST. 

Final Conflagration as described in Scripture, . . . 273 

Mr Burgh s, Mr Tyso s, and Mr Ogilvy s View of it, . 275 

Mr Elliott s and Mr A. Sonar s View of it, . .277 

Universality of it, . . . . . . . 279 

All-involving, all-reducing, ..... 282 

New Heavens and New Earth Peopled by whom? . . 285 

No Sinners in the New Heavens and New Earth, . . 286 
PROPOSITION NINTH : AT CHRIST S SECOND APPEARING " THE 
HEAVENS AND THE EARTH THAT ARE NOW," BEING DIS 
SOLVED BY FIRE, SHALL GIVE PLACE TO "NEW HEAVENS 

AND A NEW EARTH, WHEREIN DWELLETH RIGHTEOUSNESS" 
WITHOUT ANY MIXTURE OF SlN GOOD UNALLOYED BY THE 
LEAST EVIL, ... ... 288 

Summary of whole preceding Argument, .... 289 



CONTENTS. Xl ii 
PAET II. 

THE MILLENNIUM. 
CHAPTER I. 

THE MILLENNIUM HOW BROUGHT ABOUT. 

PiOB 

T)rM l Neile, 293 

Mr Broots, ........ 294 

Mr T>jso< Mr Ogilvy Remarks on their Views, . . . 295 

Messrs Bonar, ....... 296 

Their Views tried by the Redeemer s Words, . . . 297 

All Nations brought in before Christ comes, . . . 298 

Dr H. Bonar and Dr Bogue, ..... 299 

Missionary Effort paralysed, ..... 299 

Judgments Effusion of the Spirit, .... 301 

Christ s Personal Appearing Miracles, .... 302 

Church s present Resources all-sufficient, .... 303 

CHAPTER II. 

NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM NOT A STATE OP UNMIXED 
RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

A Millennium without Sin pictured by Premillennialists, . . 305 

But not Believed in, ...... 308 

Tares in the Field during the Millennium, . . . 310 
Not gathered out till end of Millennium, . . . .311 

Parables illustrating Christ s Kingdom, .... 312 

Why the Millennium is not in them, . . . .313 

Millennium belongs to the mixed state of the Church, . . ib. 

CHAPTER III. 

NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM JUST THE FULL DEVELOPMENT OF THE 
KINGDOM OF GRACE IN ITS EARTHLY STATE. 

Nebuchadnezzar s Vision, ...... 315 

Mede on this Vision, ...... 316 

The Stone becoming a Mountain, .... 317 

Same View given in our Lord s Parables regarding the King 
dom, ....... 318 

The Kingdom wins the victory, . . . 319 

The Victory its Nature 320 



XIV CONTEXTS. 



Daniel s Vision, ....... 321 

The two Visions compared, ..... 323 

Judgment of Antichrist What, .... 325 

Wherein different from Last Judgment, . . . 326 

Universal Dominion given to Christ, . . . 328 

Kingdom given to the Saints, .... 30 

Substance of the Visions, ..... 331 

Destruction of Antichrist gradual, ..... 332 

The Warfare not Carnal, ...... 333 

The Victory slow but sure, ...... 334 

The eventual Triumph, ...... 336 

Note in reply to Dr H. Bonar, .... 337 

CHAPTER IV. 

NO MILLENNIAL REVIVAL OF JEWISH PECULIARITIES. 

Jewish Literalism its Christian Advocates, .... 338 

Mr Fry, ....... 339 

Mr Freemantle, . . . . . 340 

Mr Brock, . . . . . . .341 

Mr Pym Remarks, . . ... 342 

Literalism at a stand, . . . . . 343 

Handle given to the Jew, _ . , . . . . 344 

Literalism self-contradictory, ..... 345 

Literalism contradicts the New Testament, . . . 347 

Jewish Peculiarities for ever gone, . . . 348 

Jewish Ceremonies still expected, ..... 349 

Increase Mather on the Ceremonies, . . 349 

Ezekiel s Temple, . 351 

The Beggarly Elements, . .. . - 352 

Antiquated Shadows, . . . . .-.--. 353 

Admirable views of the Duke of Manchester, . . . ib. 

Summary, ... .... 357 

CHAPTER V. 

NO MILLENNIAL MIXTURE OF FAITH AND SIGHT. 

This as set forth by Mr Brooks, ..... 359 

Mr Elliott, Mr Lord, Mr Birks, . . . . 360 

Dr M Neile, Mr M ait land, Air Wood, . . .361 

Faith and Sight Grace and Glory thus coincident, . . 362 

1 ncongruity of this, as expressed by Perry, . .. . 363 

/)/ n. Bonar The Pavilion -Cloud, . . . . .364 

Either way whether Christ visible or invisible to mortal men 

alike objectionable, ...... 365 



CONTENTS. XV 



CHAPTER VI. 

TTAY OF SALVATION NO LESS NARROW DURING THE MILLENNIUM 
THAN NOW. 

DrM Neile, ........ 366 

Mr Maitland, Mr Wood, Mr Brooks, .... 367 

Remarks on their Views Millennial Rest, .... 368 

Strait Gate Narrow Way, ...... 369 

Millennial Warfare Lust of Flesh and Eye, and Pride of Life, will 

need resistance then even as now, . . . .371 

Summary, ........ 373 

CHAPTER VII. 

MILLENNIAL BINDING OF SATAN WHAT IT IS NOT, AND WHAT IT IS. 

He that committeth Sin is of the Devil, .... 37;> 

Satan stripped of the power of Death over, and bruised under, none 

but Believers, ....... 376 

Bearing of these Truths, ...... 377 

Binding of Satan What it is, . . . . .378 

Apocalyptic Language illustrative of this " Satan s Seat " 
or "Throne," . . . . . .379 

Satan "cast out His place not found" Fall of Paganism 
denoted, ....... ib. 

This Victory How obtained, . . . .381 

Symbolic Language of the Apocalypse, . . . 383 

Satan s Defeat in Antichrist s Destruction, . . . 384 

Meaning is, No party for Satan during the Millennium, . . b85 

How effected, ........ 386 

Supplementary Remarks in reply to Dr 11. onar, Mr Wood, &c., 

1. Extent of Satanic Restraint Durham, . . . 387 

Vitringa, ....... 388 

Hengstenberff, . . . . . . . 389 

2. How Satan will be Restrained, ..... 390 

Apocalyptic Phraseology on this point, . . .391 

Human Instrumentality, ..... 392 

This View sustained by Christ himself, . . . 393 

Confirmatory Extracts Andreas, Parceus, Marckius, . 394 

Edwards, Faber, . . . , . .395 

Yet not urged confidently, ... . 396 

CHAPTER VIII. 

LEADING FEATURES OF LATTER DAY ITS CLOSE, AND THE " LITTLE SEASON" 
TO SUCCEED IT, UP TO THE LORD S PERSONAL APPEARING. 

In what sense the Latter Day is to be viewed as in the Prophecies, 397 



XVI CONTENTS. 

PAG* 
Leading Features of the Latter Day : 

Universal Diffusion of Revealed Truth, . . . 398 

Universal Reception of true Religion, and, unlimited subjection 
to the Sceptre of Christ, . . . . .399 

Universal Peace, ...... 401 

Much spiritual Power and Glory, .... 403 

Infringing of all Israel, ..... 406 

Ascendency of Truth and Righteousness in human affairs, . 409 
Great Temporal Prosperity, . . . . .411 

Setting of the Millenuium Sun The Decline gradual, . .413 

Satan at length let Loose, ...... 415 

The " Little Season," . . . . . . .416 

Nature and Extent of the " Deception," .... 417 

The Assault its Object, 418 

Vastness and Confidence of the Enemy, .... 419 

The Last Crisis, ....... 420 

Christ at length comes to Judgment, .... 421 



PART III. 

OBJECTIONS. 

Objection First, ....... 425 

Second, 433 

Third, 442 

Fourth, ....... 446 

Fifth, .448 

Sixth, 450 

Seventh, ....... 450 

Other Objections General Reply, ..... 452 

Principle of these Objections Exaggerated Views of Difference le- 

tween the Present and the Millennial Era, . . . 453 
Grand Distinctions held forth in New Testament NATURE and 
GRACE GRACE and GLORY ; and corresponding to these, the 

FIRST and SECOND Comings of THE CHURCH S LORD, . . ib. 

Why the Millennium is in the A pocalypse only, . . . ib. 
Uncertainty of Commencement and Close of Latter Day [also of 
" Little Season " to follow it], and, consequently, of the Period 

of Christ s Coming, ...... ib. 

The " Soons " and " Quicklies " of Scripture, . . . 454 

CONCLUSION, ........ ib. 



PART I. 
THE SECOND ADVENT. 



"Sed forte sic in longum nimis protenditur spes magna de illustri adventu 
Domini ad plenissimam suorum u.^d\(iT^ta<ni et universale judicium, Ipsi a 
Patre commissum I Fateor certe longius difl erri quam sibi vulgus hominum in 
Ec:lesia Christiana futurum esse persuadet. Et ipse quoque ego hac de re non 
nisi trepide scribo; etiamsi in clara veritatis luce minus esse videatur quod 
metuam. A mo apparitionem Domini Jesu, nee pf.to moram finis, sperans me mise- 
ricordiam inventururn in die illo : Fidei tamen et prudentias esse existimo, spatiura 
dare Deo opus suum in his terris consummandi antequam claudat sfficula; et 
nobis imperiose non vindicare arbitrium const ituendorum temporum Mundi et 
Ecdesise; quod solius Dei esse nos docuit Dominus. Opus enim quod Deus in his 
Verris exhibere decrevit, et cujus exhibendi caussa Sa;cula condidit, est magnum, 
mirabilf, paradoxum (Hab. i. 5); quod nostri ofiicii est non ex animi nostri par- 
vitate, sed Divina majestate, magnitudine et consiliorum ejus vastitate ac pro- 
funditate metiri. Parvitatis enim animi nostri argumentum est, tempora ilia 
propria, qua; Deus exequendis consiliis suis destinavit, intra angustos constrin- 
gere terminos; impatientiae autem et incredulitatis, nostris eadem cogitationibus 
anticipare, et dicere cum Judaiis carnalibus : Accderet, propere producat opus 
suum ut vide,amus (Jes. v. 19). Fidei contra et <ru$oiruvr.s est, non festinare (Jes. 
xxviii. 16). Novit enim Deum, licet cunctari videatur, non cunctari vere (Hab. 
ii. 3. 4); sed suotempore omnia agere pulchre. An putamus vere, Deum Regnum 
Filii sui, per quatuor nimirum annorum millia ) romissum, tandem in lioc Orbe 
voluisse exhibere et per continuam luctam ad perfectionem aliquam perducere, ut 
illud Mundo ostensum mox rursus dispareat? Sed ipse ego nolo tempori hujua 
Mundi plus spatii dare, quam Prophetise suadent, extra quas nihil sapio." 
VITEINGA, Analc. Apoc. (ad cap. xx. 1-15, sect, xvii,} 



CHRIST S SECOND COMING, &c. 



INTRODUCTION. 

THE subject handled in this volume seems periodically to agi 
tate the Church. It has its law of recurrence. In times of 
general excitement, of extensive change, of pervading uneasi 
ness and trial, of mingled hope and fear it invariably rises to 
the surface. The struggles of the primitive Church forced it 
up, and kept it alive ; with the battles of the Reformation it 
revived; in the exciting times of the English commonwealth it 
took a pretty prominent place among the multitudinous ques 
tions which distracted the Church ; and the first French Revo 
lution startling Europe, intellectually as well as politically, 
from the sepulchral repose of the last century, shaking the 
old continent to its centre, and impregnating the entire 
social system with new elements both of good and of evil 
woke it up, and set inquiring minds to work upon it, to an 
extent unknown before. While some, carried away by the 
unparalleled success of modern missions, hastily anticipated 
the peaceful subjugation of the world to Christ, others were 
hurried into the opposite extreme, of pronouncing all mission 
ary exertions next to hopeless, without the personal appear 
ing, and the immediate agency of Christ. Since then, the 
changes in public affairs, both political and ecclesiastical. 



4 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

have been too organic and exciting to allow of this question 
going to rest for any length of time ; and if the prophet s 
inquiry, "0 my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?" 
is likely to rise from many an anxious heart, in the progress 
of events, and to give birth to speculation, as heretofore, on 
the prospects of the Church, assuredly " we do well to take 
heed to the sure word of prophecy, as to a light that shineth 
in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day-star arise in 
our hearts." 

But all the more does it behove us to see that the light 
that is in us be not darkness. Great mistakes have unde 
niably been committed by the students of prophecy from age 
to age, mistakes which time, that infallible expounder of 
the Divine counsels, has in every case ultimately detected, 
but not till in many instances they had wrought confusion 
and every evil work. Certainly, the Thessalonians, " shaken 
and troubled in mind," by parties who persuaded them that 
" the day of Christ was at hand, even at the doors." were under 
a delusion; nor was it dealt with, in the exercise of apostolic 
fidelity, as a perfectly harmless delusion. It is notorious, 
too, that a large number of the primitive Christians, for three 
centuries, fell into the same mistake, expecting the struggles 
in which they were engaged to issue in the Personal appear 
ing of their Lord, and " the first resurrection" of his martyred 
witnesses. The militant did, indeed, become a triumphant 
Church, but in a very different sense from what was expected. 
The martyred testimony of Jesus " lived and reigned," but 
the martyrs themselves lived not. The Gospel slew the 
great red dragon Paganism was defeated in the high places 
of the field Christianity ascended the throne of the Csesars: 
that was the predicted reality which the enthusiasm of so 
many had led them to misinterpret. The same mistake^ 
nevertheless, has been again and again committed never 
with perfect impunity, and sometimes with consequences 
truly deplorable. 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 5 

One day, however, the Eedeemer will assuredly come in 
Person. Is that day, then, now " at hand, even at tho doors?" 
or, " shall that day not come until " certain events, yet far 
in the future, have prepared the way for it ? A momentous 
question truly; yet not precisely the question which I am to 
discuss. What I have to investigate is not when, but for what 
purposes, the Redeemer will come. 

Some appear to think that all the difference of opinion on 
the second advent is about its nearness or distance. The 
sooner they undeceive themselves on this, the better. For 
my own part, if that were all, I should let the subject alone. 
To me, the coming of the Lord should be as dear as to any 
whose view s about his coming I am to examine. To " love 
his appearing " is not the monopoly of a section of his friends. 
To enter the lists, therefore, with those who think he is at 
the doors, with the mere view of showing that he is not, 
though it may at times become a necessary duty, to prevent 
disappointment,* is not the most agreeable of tasks. But 
mine is very different. So far, indeed, the question of time 
is involved ; but quite indirectly and subordinately. What 
we have mainly to do with is the events. According as 
these are expected before or after the coming of Christ, will 
be the character and complexion they assume in our eyes. 
Is Christ coming, not to terminate, but to reconstitute the 
mortal state to establish a terrestrial kingdom, illuminated 
by the beams of his glory, and pervaded by the sense of his 

* "Sed et illi quibus dicebat apostolus, Non cito moveamini mente, 
quasi instet dies Domini, diligebant utique adventum Domini ; nee cos 
hoc dicens doctor gentium ab ilia dilectione frangebat, qua ut inflam- 
marentur volebat ; et ideo nolebat ut crederent eis, a quibis audiebant 
instare diem Domini, ne forte cum transisset tempus quo eum credide- 
rant esse venturum, et venisse non cernerent, etiam cetera fallaciter 
sibi promitti arbitrantes, et de mercede fidei desperarent. Non ergo 
ille diligit adventum Domini qui eum asserit propinquare, aut ille qui 
asserit non propinquare ; sed ille potius, qui eum sive prope sive longe 
sit sinceritate fidei, firmitate spei, ardore caritatis exspectat." AUGUST. 
Fpist. cxnix. 15. 



G PREMILLENNIAL THEORY STATED. 

visible presence ? The system, in short, which I am to bring 
to the test of Scripture is briefly this : 

TlIAT THE FLESHLY AND SUBLUNARY STATE IS NOT TO TER 
MINATE WITH THE SECOND COMING OF ClIRIST, BUT TO BE 
THEN SET UP IN A NEW FORM; WHEN, WITH HIS GLORIFIED 
SAINTS, THE REDEEMER WILL REIGN IN PERSON ON THE 
THRONE OF DAVID AT JERUSALEM FOR A THOUSAND YEARS, 
OVER A WORLD OF MEN YET IN THE FLESH, EATING AND 
DRINKING, PLANTING AND BUILDING, MARRYING AND GIVING 
IN MARRIAGE, UNDER THIS MYSTERIOUS SWAY. * 

This is Premillennialism, or as the early fathers, and 
after them the Reformers and our elder divines, termed it 
Chiliasm ; that is, the expectation of a thousand years reign 
upon earth after the second coming of Christ. In the above 
statement I have expressed only the fundamental principle 
of the system, to which nearly all the expectants of the pre- 
millennial advent would subscribe, keeping clear of the points 
on which they are divided. I have said, for example, that 
they expect the saints, in glorified bodies, to be associated 
with Christ in his millennial reign; but what saints, is not 
agreed. The early chiliasts so far as I have been able to 
gather their views thought that those whom Christ will 
find alive at his cominar would be left below during: the 

O o 

thousand years, and only such as had died before his coming 
would appear with him in glory. A few in modern times 
are of the same opinion, postponing the change of the living 
saints till the end of the millennium. But the great majority 

* My sole reason for placing these features of the system rather more 
in the foreground than in the first edition, of which Mr Wood complains, 
("Last Things," p. 7), is to bring out more emphatically what it is which 
I wish to investigate. 

f " Hi autem qui spiiitales sunt, istos ita credentes w\ia.<r-r.s appel 
lant GIECCO vocabulo ; quos, verbum e verbo experimentes, nos possum us 
Milliarios nuncupare. 1 AUGUST. De Ciiit. Dei, lib. xx. cap. vii. 1. 

" XiX;*<r, quos nos dicere possumus Milliarios." HIEKON. in Esa. Ixv, 

2fl O-J 
_ --J. 



DIVERSITIES. 7 

of modern premillennialists hold that the saints of both classes 
the dead by resurrection, and the living by instantaneous 
transformation will appear with Christ in glory at the be 
ginning of the millennium. * Again, I have said they look 
for a reign over a world of men in flesh and blood; but what 
men, is not agreed. The moderns, for the most part, expect 
the restoration of the Jews to Palestine, and their supremacy 
over the nations of the earth ;f while the early chiliasts ap 
pear to have agreed with their opponents, that Christianity 
had for ever abolished Jewish peculiarities ; and though they 
were termed Judaizers, this was not, so far as I can observe, 
because they contended for any millennial supremacy of Jews 
over Gentiles, but because their system Judaized Christianity 
itself. In a word, I have said they expect a reign upon earth 
of Christ and his glorified saints; but whether actually upon 
the earth, or only over and hovering above it, in the air, 
and whether visibly or invisibly whether the ruled will see 
their rulers, and, if so, to what extent, whether fully or but 
partially, whether alicays or only at times is by no means 
agreed. 

These and other points of difference I have purposely 
avoided in my statement of their doctrine. Even in the 
sequel, they will be noticed only in so far as they affect the 
common element the essence of the system; I mean, the 
expectation of a mortal and sublunary state after the second 
advent of a, GLORIFIED and FLESHLY state of humanity, as 
constituting the UPPER and LOWER departments of one and the 
.ame millennial kingdom. 

This is the doctrine which, by the light of God s Word, I 

* Mr Burgh limits the saints of the first resurrection to sufferers for 
Christ, in contradistinction from believers at large. Lectures on the 
Second Advent, and Exposition of the Book of Revelation. 

t Certain American writers have lately revived the old opinion, that 
the millennial earth will be wholly in possession of the glorified saints. 
Mr Burchell, in his " Midnight Cry," takes the same view. 



8 PREJUDICES 

have undertaken to examine. Some may think it of small 
consequence whether this system be true or false; but no 
one who intelligently surveys its nature and bearings can 
be of that opinion. Premillennialism is no barren specula 
tion useless though true, and innocuous though false. It 
is a school of Scripture interpretation ; it impinges upon and 
affects some of the most commanding points of the Christian 
faith ; and, when suffered to work its unimpeded way, it 
stops not till it has pervaded with its own genius the 
entire system of one s theology, and the whole tone of his 
spiritual character, constructing, I had almost said, a world 
of its own; so that, holding the same faith, and cherishing 
the same fundamental hopes as other Christians, he yet 
sees things through a medium of his own, and finds every 
thing instinct with the life which this doctrine has generated 
within him. 

Let us not, however, prejudge the question. There is dan 
ger of this on both sides. On the one hand, there are cer 
tain minds which, either from constitutional temperament, 
or the particular school of theology to which they are at 
tached, have tendencies in the direction of premillennialism 
so strong, that they are ready to embrace it almost imme 
diately con amove. Souls that burn with love to Christ 
who, with the mother of Sisera, cry through the lattice, " Why 
is his chariot so long in coming ? why tarry the wheels of his 
chariots?" and with the spouse, "Make haste, my Beloved, 
and be thou like to a roe or a young hart upon the mountains 
of spices " such souls are ready to catch at a doctrine which 
seems to promise a much earlier appearing of their beloved 
Lord than the ordinary view. " I have heard," relates an 
honest and warm-hearted premillennialist of the Common 
wealth time, " I have heard of a poor man who, it seems, so 
loved and longed for Christ s appearance, that when there was 
a great earthquake, and when many cried out the day of 
judgment was come, and one cried, Alas! alas! what shall I 



IX FAVOUR OF THE PREMILLEXXIAL ADVEXT. 9 

do? and a third, How shall I hide myself? &c., that poor 
man only said, Ah ! is it so ? Is the day come ? "\Vhero 
shall I go ? Upon what mountain shall I stand to see my 
Saviour? "* How deeply we sympathize with this feeling 
will by and by appear. It is for such as feel thus, more than 
for any others, that I have undertaken this investigation. 
There are next, your curious and restless spirits who feed 
upon the future. These are charmed with the multifarious 
details of the millennial kingdom. They are in their very 
element when settling the order in which the events shall 
occur, separating the felicities of the kingdom into its terres 
trial and celestial departments respectively, sorting the mul 
titudinous particulars relating to the Ezekiel and Apocalyptic 
cities and such like studies. For such minds, whose appe 
tite for the marvellous is the predominant feature of their men 
tal character, and who live in a sort of unreal world for these, 
the confused and shadowy grandeur of a kingdom of glory 
upon earth, with all that relates to its introduction, its esta 
blishment, its administration, and its connection with the final 
and unchanging state, opens up a subject of surpassing inter 
est and riveting delight- the very food which their peculiar 
temperament craves and feeds on. And, to mention no 
more, there are those who seem to have a constitutional ten 
dency to materialize the objects of faith, and can hardly con 
ceive of them save as more or less implicated with this terres 
trial platform. Such minds, it is superfluous to observe, will 
have a natural affinity with a system which brings the glory 
of the resurrection-state into immediate and active commu 
nion with sublunary affairs, and represents the reign of those 
who neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the 
angels of God in heaven, as consisting in a mysterious rule 
over men in the flesh, who eat arid drink, buy and sell, plant 
and build, marry wives, and are given in marriage. To set 

* Christ s Appearance the Second Time for the Salvation of Believers. [By 
John Durant] 1653. HatckarcTs Reprint, p. 119. Lond. 1S29. 



10 PREJUDICES AGAINST THE PUEMILLENNIAL ADVENT. 

about proving to persons of this cast of mind that premillen 
nialism will not stand the test of Scripture, is like attempting 
to rob them of a jewel, or to pluck the sun out of the heavens. 
To such minds, any other view of the subject is perfectly 
bald and repulsive, while theirs is encircled with a glory that 
excelleth. To them it carries the force of intuitive perception; 
tliejfeel they know it to be true. 

But are there no anfa -premillennial tendencies, which re 
quire to be guarded against? I think there are. Under the 
influence of such tendencies, the inspired text, as such, pre 
sents no rich and exhaustless field of prayerful and delighted 
investigation; exegetical inquiries and discoveries are an un 
congenial element; and whatever Scripture intimations re 
garding the future destinies of the Church and of the world 
involve events out of the usual range of human occurrences, 
or exceeding the anticipations of enlightened Christian saga 
city, are almost instinctively overlooked or softened down. 
Such minds turn away from premillennialism just as instinc 
tively as the others are attracted to it. The bare statement 
of its principles carries to their mind its own refutation not 
so much from its perceived unscripturalness, as from the ab 
surdity which it seems to carry on the face of it. They 
have hardly patience to listen to it. It requires an effort to 
sit without a smile under a grave exposition and defence of 
it. If they undertake to refute it, it is a task the irksome- 
ness of which they are unable to conceal, and their unfitness 
for which can scarcely fail to appear. Let us try to avoid 
both extremes, investigating reverently the mind of the 
Spirit. 

Much irrelevant discussion has been mixed up with the 
question of the premillennial advent, and arguments have 
been advanced on both sides which originate in confused 
apprehensions of the whole subject. 

Some premillennialists, for example, seem to think that the 



IRRELEVANT MATTER. 11 

belief in a personal advent is confined to themselves, and that 
those who repudiate a premillennial advent are not expecting 
their adorable Lord in person at all. Surely so gross a mis 
representation does not require to be protested against. It 
is the objects and, in connection with this, the time of the 
Redeemer s coming that are in question not its reality. 

Another misconception relates to the final destiny of the 
present physical system " the heavens and earth which are 
now." That these are not to be annihilated, but to furnish the 
elements out of which " the new heavens and the new earth" 
are to emerge, after the general conflagration, is zealously 
maintained by most modern premillennialists, as part of their 
system, and as what their opponents may be expected to re 
pudiate. But this is a mistake. In point of fact, the primi 
tive and the earlier English advocates of that doctrine seem 
to have taken other views of the final abode of the redeemed; 
while in our own day, neither do all of them affirm it, nor is 
it denied by all their opponents. Mr Tyso, for example, in 
sists that after the thousand years reign of Christ upon earth, 
he and his people will take their leave of it for ever ; while 
Dr Urwick of Dublin, writing against the premillennial doc 
trine, maintains, at some length, that the eternal abode of the 
glorified Church is to rise out of the ashes of this present 
earth. So does Dr Fairbairn, in his able work on the Typo- 
logy of Scripture, and several others.* Some minds shrink 
from this latter opinion, as tending to carnalize, or at least to 
lower, our views of the celestial state. But may not such 
sensitiveness spring from an unconscious confounding of the 
: present wretched state with that which is expected to take 
its place ? May there not be in it some tincture of that mor 
bid spiritualism, which shrinks from the very touch of mate 
rialism, as if separation from it in every form would be the 
consummation of happiness ! May not the Gnostic element 

* The literature of this question, in the Augustan age of theology, 
may be seen in DE MOOR (Comm. in Marck. Comp.) xxxiv. 30. 



12 IRRELEVANT MATTER. 

of the essential sinfulness and vanity of matter be found 
lurking beneath it ? Certainly, if the earth was implicated 
in the curse, it is natural to expect that it should share in its 
removal. Certainly, the glorified bodies both of the Re 
deemer and the redeemed derive their elements from the 
dust of this ground, which will thus in their persons, at least 
for ever endure. And if it be no degradation to the Son 
of God to take it into his own person, " as the First-born 
from the dead " if the dust of this ground is capable of be 
coming a " spiritual " and a " glorious body," meet vehicle 
for the perfected and beatified spirit, the sharer of its bliss 
in the immediate presence, and the instrument of all its acti 
vities in the service, of God and the Lamb it does seem 
hard to conceive how the very system which has furnished 
all these elements of incorruption, and spirituality, and 
beauty, and glory when its present constitution shall be dis 
solved, and when new and higher laws shall be stamped upon 
it should be incapable of furnishing a congenial abode for 
the glorified Church. Nor is it easy to make any thing else 
out of Paul s singularly interesting and noble announcements 
regarding the deliverance of a groaning creation from the 
bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children 
of God (Rom. viii. ] 9-23), or fairly to interpret the cele 
brated prediction of Peter (2 Pet. iii. 10-13), otherwise than 
as intimating that " the new heavens and the new earth," 
physically considered will be the same which God originally 
created for the abode of men when it shall have under 
gone an igneous, as it has already undergone an aqueous, 
transformation. Nor let any one ask, Of what conse 
quence is it whether the one opinion or the other be the 
correct one? For if this be what the Spirit has seen fit so 
specifically to reveal, it must be worthy of being held fast 
by us ; and whatever view we take of it will necessarily give 
its hue to all other statements of Scripture regarding the 
earth. 



IRRELEVANT MATTER. 13 

But be all this as it may, the reader will now see that it 
does not divide the advocates from the opponents of the pre- 
millennial advent. The ultimate destiny of our present 
physical system, is a question on which neither party are 
unanimous amongst themselves, and which may safely be re 
garded as an open question. 



CHAPTER L 

CHRISES SECOND APPEARING THE CHURCIl s BLESSED HOPE. 

PREMILLENNIALISTS have done the Church a real service, by 
calling attention to the place which the second advent holds 
in the Word of God and the scheme of divine truth. If the 
controversy which they have raised should issue in a fresh and 
impartial inquiry into this branch of it, I, for one, instead of 
regretting, shall rejoice in the agitation of it. When they 
dilate upon the prominence given to this doctrine in Scrip 
ture, and the practical uses which are made of it, they touch 
a chord in the heart of every simple lover of his Lord, and 
carry conviction to all who tremble at his word ; so much so, 
that I am persuaded nine-tenths of all who have embraced 
the premillennial view of the second advent, have done so on 
the supposition that no other view of it will admit of an un 
fettered and unmodified use of the Scripture language on the 
subject that it has its proper interpretation and full force 
only on this theory. Assertions to this effect abound in the 
writings of all modern premillennialists. But the fact of the 
scriptural prominence of this doctrine, and their inference 
from this as to the time and the objects of it, must not be 
confounded. On the former, we are cordially at one with 
them ; on the latter, we are directly at issue with them. 
And believing, as we do, that the clearing of these prelim 
inary points will go far with many to settle the whole ques 
tion, we think that a chapter on each of them will not be 
mii spent. 



TUB CHURCH S BLESSED HOPE. 15 

With them we affirm, that the REDEEMER S SECOND APPEAR 
ING IS THE VERY POLE-STAR OF THE CHURCH. That it is SO 

held forth in the New Testament, is beyond dispute. Let 
any one do himself the justice to collect and arrange the evi 
dence on the subject, and he will be surprised if the study 
be new to him at once at the copiousness, the variety, and 
the conclusiveness of it. It is but a specimen of that evi 
dence that we can give here. 

Is it careless SINNERS, then, or lax professors, that 
are to be warned ? 

"What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, 
and lose his own soul ? or what shall a man give in 
exchange for his soul ? For the Son of man shall 
come in the glory of his Father, with his angels ; and 
then he shall reward every man according to his 
works." (Matt. xvi. 26, 27.) 

" The Lord is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that 
any should perish. But the day of the Lord will 
come as a thief in the night." (2 Pet. iii. 9, 10.) 
" Every man s work shall be made manifest : for the day 
shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire." 
(1 Cor. iii. 13.) 

** Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, 
to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all 
that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly 
deeds which they^ave ungodly committed, and of all 
their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken 
against him." (Jude 14, 15.) 

" Behold, he cometh with clouds ; and every eye shall see 
him, and they also which pierced him : and all kin 
dreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even 
so, Amen." (Rev. i. 7.) 

Is it SAINTS that are to be stimulated to a fearless 
testimony for Christ, to patient suffering for his sake, to hope, 
to constancy, to heavenly-mindcdness to universal duty ? 



16 CHRIST S SECOND APPEARING 

" Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the 
Son of man also confess before the angels of God." 
(Luke xii. 8.) 

" Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial 
which is to try you, as though some strange thing 
happened unto you : but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are 
partakers of Christ s sufferings : that, when his glory 
shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding 
joy." (1 Pet. iv. 12, 13.) 

" Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the 
Lord." (James v. 7.) 

" Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to 
the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto you 
at the revelation of Jesus Christ." (1 Pet. i. 13.) 

" Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning ; 
and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their 
lord, when he will return from the wedding ; that, 
when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him 
immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the 
Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching." (Luke xii. 
35-37.) 

** And now, little children, abide in him ; that, when He 
shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be 
ashamed before him at his coming." (1 John ii. 28.) 

" When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall 
ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore 
your members which are upon the earth." (Col. iii. 
4,5.) 

" It doth not yet appear what we shall be : but we know 
that, when He shall appear, we shall be like him ; for we 
shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this 
hope in Him (Icr avrw, in the coming Redeemer) pm-i- 
fieth himself, even as he is pure." (1 John iii. 2, 3.) 

" The crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous 
Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me 



THE CHURCH S BLESSED HOPE. 17 

only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." 
(2 Tim. iv. 8.) 

" Our conversation is in heaven ; from whence also ice look 
for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ." (Phil. iii. 
20.) 

" That -which ye have (already) hold fast till I come." 
(Rev. ii. 25.) 

When the Thessalonian converts turned to God from idols, 
it was, on the " one hand, "to serve the living and true 
God ;" and on the other, " to wait for his /Son from heaven." 
(1 Thess. i. 9, 10.) 

This " waiting for Christ" was the distinguishing excellence 
of the Corinthians : " Ye come behind in no gift ; waiting for 
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ : who shall also confirm 
you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our 
Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. i. 7, 8.) 

The last passage suggests a class of texts, in which the 
second advent is placed in a light peculiarly interesting. As 
the Church never dies, and all that are in Christ between the 
two advents are viewed as one continuous living body, so in 
the case of them all whether dying before or found alive at 
his coming grace is represented as terminating in glory, 
without an allusion to aught as coming between. The close 
of the believer s career is regarded as merging in the solem 
nities of the second advent; the beams of his Lord s glory 
are seen brightening the horizon of his present abode. 
Eiveted to the day when the Lord is to rend the heavens and 
be seen on his great white throne, all intervening events are 
absorbed, the whole intermediate space vaulted over, and that 
august and decisive scene fills the view, communicating its 
high tone to the character, and supplying a motive of its own 
to every duty.* 

* "Homines omnium retatum conjunctim unum quiddam reprocsent- 
ant : fidelesque jam olim expectantes, habentesque se loco illorum, qui 

victuri sunt in adventu Domini, pro eorum persona locuti sunt 

D 



] 8 CHRIST S SECOND APPEARING 

" Occupy till I come." (Luke xix. 13.) 

"The very God of peace sanctify you wholly: and I pray 
God your whole spirit, and soul, and body, be preserved 
blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 
(1 Thess. v, 23.) 

" Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath 
begun a good work in you will perform it until the day 
of Jesus Christ." (Phil. i. 6.) 
" And this I pray that ye may be without offence, till the day 

of Christ." (Phil. i. 9, 10.) 

" God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salva 
tion by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, 
whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with 
him." .(1 Thess. v. 9, 10.) 
" As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do 

show the Lord s death till he come." (1 Cor. xi. 26.) 
There is still another class of texts the most delightful, 
perhaps, of all, and certainly the most telling upon the 
heart in which the widowed condition and feeling of the 
Church, while her Lord is absent from her in the heavens, 
are brought to view. And from whom do we get this idea 
in its perfection? Is it from the apostles, expressing the 
feeling which his absence created in the hearts of his loving 
people ? No ; it is from Christ himself, intimating what he 
expected at their hands taking it for granted that they would 
not be able to do without him. " And they said unto him, 
Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, 
and the disciples of the Pharisees, and thy disciples fast not ? 
And he said unto them, Can ye make the children of the 
bridcchamber fast while the Bridegroom is with them ? But 
the days will come, when the Bridegroom shall be taken away 
from them, and then shall they fast in those days. No man 

Unaquajque generatio, quac hoc vol illo tempore vivit, occupat illo vitro 
suae tempore locum corum, qui tempore adventus Domini victuri sunt." 
BENGEL, ad I Thess. iv. 15. 



THE CHURCH S BLESSED HOPE. 19 

putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old," &c. (Luke 
v. 33-39.) Would it be incongruous in the Church to 
mourn and feel desolate in the presence of her Lord ? Not 
less incongruous, it seems, is it not to cherish the feeling of 
desolation in his absence. And both are such incongruities 
as confounding the seasons of fasting and feasting, as putting 
a piece of a new garment upon an old, as putting new wine 
into old bottles, and preferring new wine to old. Still more 
touchingly does this thought find vent in his last discourse 
with his disciples, as he sat with them at the communion 
table in the upper room of Jerusalem, the night before he 
suffered. As he broke to them, by little and little, the sad 
news that he was about to leave them, he poured forth the 
richest consolations in the view of it " staying them with 
flagons, and comforting them with apples." But he had no 
wish to carry this too far ; and Jesus will think it an abuse 
of his consolations, if we have learned from them to do with 
out him. Christ s Word, and the seals of his love conveyed 
to our hearts by the blessed Spirit, are inexpressibly dear to 
his loving people but only in the absence of himself. And 
never do we please Christ so much as when we " refuse to be 
comforted," even with his own consolations, save in the pro 
spect of his Personal Eeturn. " Do ye inquire among your 
selves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me ; 
and again, a little while, and ye shall see me? Verily, 
verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but 
the world shall rejoice ; and ye shall be sorrowful, but your 
sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in 
travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come : but as soon 
as she is delivered, she remembereth no more the anguish, 
for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now 
therefore have sorroiv; but I will see you again, and your Jieart 
shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you." (John 
xvi. 19-22.)* 

* "Felix, inquam, ilia anima quce quotidie gemit et luget, quia auc- 



20 CHRIST S SECOND APPEARING 

But some will say, What though we admit all this ? The 
second coming of Christ is still an event which will not take 
place till the end of the world. Holding it, therefore, as an 
undoubted truth, we must, in the mean time, look to events 
nearer home. The death of any individual is, to all practical 
purposes, the coming of Christ to that individual. It is his 
summons to appear before the judgment-seat of Christ. It 
is to him the close of time, and the opening of an unchang 
ing eternity, as truly as the second advent will be to mankind 
at large. On this I submit the following remarks : 

First, It is at once conceded that there is a perfect analogy 
between the two classes of events Christ s second coming, 
with its concurrent circumstances and final issues, on the one 
hand ; and the death of individuals, and all its consequences 
to those individuals, on the other. Nor can the application 
to the latter, in their proper place and subordinate sense, of 
the warnings suggested by the former, be reasonably objected 
to. It is, in fact, hardly possible to resist it. It comes spon 
taneously.* Still, however, it is in the way of analogy alone 

torem omnium mundi Salvatorem Christum non videt. Ipsa profecto 
ridebit in die novissimo, et gaudens gaudebit in ooternum cum Christo. 
Ilia vero quse non gemit de Christ! abscessu, videat ne irrefragabiliter 
ploret in ejusdcm Christi adventu. Ilia sponsum sponsa suum non amat, 

quse pro desiderio ilium videndi aliquo tempore non suspirat 

Scio et certus sum, quod absterget Dcus omnem lachrymam ab oculis 
ejus, cum venerit dies nuptiarum Christi et ecclesise, tempore illo quo 
fuerint virgines introductas in thalamum regis ooterni. Sed quomodo ab 
oculis tuis absterget lachryrnas, si pro ejus amore non gemis et ploras ?" 
BERNARD, in Ccena Domini, Serm. ix. 

* " Quod (that the day of the Lord will come as a thief) unusquifque 
debet etiam de die hujus vitse suoe novissimo formidare. In quo enini 
quemque invenit suus novissimus dies, in hoc eum comprehendet mundi 
novissimus dies: quoniam qualis in die isto quisque moiltur talis in die 

illo judicabitur Imparatum autem inveniet ilia dies, quern 

imparatum inveniet sure vitae hujus ultimus dies." AUGUST. Ep. cxix. 
2,3. 

" Par est ratio judiciorum incertaaque obitus horae, quavis setate, ac 
diei novissimi." BEJJGEL, ad Matt. xxiv. 42. 



NOT HIS COMING TO INDIVIDUALS AT DEATH. 21 

that texts expressive of the one can or ought to be applied 
to the other. It can never be warrantable, and is often 
dangerous, to make that the primary and proper interpreta 
tion of a passage which is but a secondary, though it may be 
a very legitimate and even irresistible, application of it.* 

Second, It is not enough that we believe the doctrines of 
Scripture numerically, so to speak. We must believe them 
as they are revealed in their revealed collocations and bear 
ings. Implicit submission to the authority of God s Word 
obviously includes this. If, then, Christ s second appearing, 
instead of being full in the view of the Church, as we find 
it in the New Testament, is shifted into the background, 
while other anticipations are advanced into its room, which, 
though themselves scriptural, do not occupy in Scripture the 
place which we assign to them, are we "trembling" at the 

1 O O 

authority and the wisdom of God in his Word, or are we not 
rather "leaning to our own understanding?" ."Let not 
your heart be troubled," said Jesus to his sorrowing disci 
ples : " In my Father s house are many mansions : I go to 
prepare a place for you. And if I go away " What then ? 
"Ye shall soon follow me? Death shall shortly bring us to 
gether ?" Nay; but "If I go away, I will come again and 
receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be 
also." (John xiv. 1-3.) "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 

* The author of " Premillennialism a Delusion " argues that, as the 
disembodied state knows neither space nor time, there can be to it no real 
interval between death and the resurrection, and so the coming of Christ 
to individuals at death is to them identical, in the strictest sense, with 
liis second personal advent. (Pp. 104-134.) This may be very good 
psychology, for aught that I know ; but the exegetical question Whether 
the coming of Christ, held up by the Lord himself and his apostles so 
emphatically as a motive to action, means his personal appearing ? can 
never, I apprehend, be determined 011 such grounds. 



22 CHRIST S SECOND APPEARING 

taken up from you into heaven, shall " What ? Take you 
home soon to himself, at death ? Nay, but shall " so come 
in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." (Acts i. 
10, 11.) * And how know we that, by jostling this event 
out of its scriptural place in the expectations of the Church, 
we are not, in a great degree, destroying its character and 
power as a practical principle ? Can we not believe, though 
unable to trace it, that God s methods are ever best ; and 
that as in nature, so perhaps in revelation, a modification by 
us of the Divine arrangements, apparently slight, and attended 
even with some seeming advantages, may be followed by a 
total and unexpected change of results, the opposite of what 
is anticipated and desired ? So we fear it to be here. 

Third, The coming of Christ to individuals at death 
however warrantably we may speak so, and whatever profit 
able considerations it may suggest is not fitted for taking 
that place in the view of the believer which Scripture assigns 
to the second advent. This is a proposition of equal interest 
and importance. It would bear to be established and illus 
trated in detail. A hint or two, however, may suffice. 

1. The death of believers, however changed in its charac 
ter, in virtue of their union to Christ, is, intrinsically consi 
dered, not joyous, but grievous not attractive, but repulsive. 
It is the disruption of a tie which the Creator formed for 
perpetuity the unnatural and abhorrent divorce of parties 
made for sweet and uninterrupted fellowship. True, there 
is no curse in it to the believer ; but it is the memorial of 
the curse, telling of sin, and breach of the first covenant, 
and legal wrath. All the ideas therefore which death, as 



* Beautiful here are the words of BENGEL : " Inter ascensionem et 
inter adventum gloriosura nullus interponitur eventus, eorum utrique 
par : ideo hi duo conjunguntur. Merito igitur apostoli, ante datam Apo- 
calypsin, diem Christi, ut valde propinquum, proposuerunt. Et congruit 
majestati Christi, ut toto inter ascensionem et inter ad adventum tern- 
pore sine intermissione expectetur." AD ACT. i. 11. 



NOT HIS COMING TO INDIVIDUALS AT DEATH. 23 

such, is fitted to suggest, even in connection with the better 
covenant, are of a humiliating kind. Whatever is associated 
with it of a joyous nature is derived from other considerations, 
by which its intrinsic gloominess is, in the case of believers, 
relieved. But the Redeemer s second appearing is, to the 
believer, an event of unmingled joyousness, whether as re 
spects the honour of his Lord, which will then be majestic 
ally vindicated before the world which had set it at nought, 
or as respects his own salvation, which will then have its glo 
rious completion. How, then, should the former event be 
fitted to awaken feelings, I say not equally intense, but even 
of the same order, as the latter ? In connection with his second 
appearing, the believer is privileged to regard his own death 
as bound up with the Redeemer s triumph, and a step to his 
final victory with him. But as a substitute for it as being 
to all practical purposes (as they say) one and the same thing 
with the expectation of the Redeemer s appearing, this look 
ing forward to one s own death will be found very deficient in 
practical effect. 

2. The bliss of the disembodied spirits of the just is not 
only incomplete, but, in some sense, private and fragmentary, 
if I may so express myself. Each believer enters on it for 
himself at his own death. His spirit is with Christ, resting 
consciously under his wing from the warfare of the flesh, and 
tranquilly anticipating future glory. " He shall enter into 
peace ; they shall rest in their beds each one walking in his 
uprightness." (Isa. Ivii. 2.)* 

But at the Redeemer s appearing, all his redeemed will be 
collected together, and PEKFECTLY, PUBLICLY, and SIMULTA 
NEOUSLY glorified. Is it necessary to point out the inferi- 

* in:3 Tp tt, "that walketh in his uprightness," or "that waiketh 
straight before him." In whichever of these ways this last clause is 
taken, nearly all interpreters, ancient and modern, understand it to de 
scribe the character of the blessed dead in the present world not their 
condition after death. 



24: CHRIST S SECOND APPEARING 

ority, in practical power, of the one prospect to the other, or 
to indicate the superior class of ideas and feelings which the 
latter is fitted to generate ? 

3. To put the expectation of one s own death in place of 
the prospect of Christ s appearing, is to dislocate a beautiful 
jointing in divine truth to destroy one of its finest colloca 
tions. Here it is, as expressed by the apostle : " The grace 
of Grod which bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, 
teaching us, that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we 
should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present 
world ; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious ap 
pearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ ; who 
gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, 
and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good 
works." (Tit. ii. 11-14.) Here both comings of Christ are 
brought together; the first in "grace" the second in "glory," 
the first "bringing salvation" the second, to complete the 
salvation brought. To the first we look back by faith to 
the second we look forward by hope. In the enjoyment of 
the fruit of the first, we anticipate the fulness of the second. 
Between these two the apostle here beautifully places the 
Christian s present holy walk. These are the two pivots on 
which turns the Christian life the two wings on which 
believers mount up as eagles. If either is clipped, the soul s 
flight heavenward is low, feeble, and fitful. This is no casual 
collocation of truths. It is a studied, and, with the apostle, 
a favourite juxtaposition of the two greatest events in the 
Christian redemption, the fast and the last, bearing an intrin 
sic relation in their respective objects. "As it is appointed 
unto men once to die, but after this the judgment ; so Christ 
was once offered to bear the sins of many ; and unto them 
that look for him shall he appear the second time, without 
sin, unto salvation." (Heb. ix. 27, 28.)* " If so be that we 

* The point of this beautiful passage is missed, I suspect, by most 
readers, as it certainly is by many commentators. In the one verse 



NOT HIS COMING TO INDIVIDUALS AT DEATH. 2J 

suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." 
(Rom. viii. 17.) And who does not see that the comfort and 
the profit of this collocation in our own minds is as great as 
is the beauty of it in the text of Scripture ? All is thus 
made to centre in the PERSON OP CHRIST the contemplations 
and the affections of the believer travelling between his 
Abasement and his Exaltation, and finding in Jesus, under 
both aspects together, a completed salvation.* 

"death" and "judgment " are held up as the two great stages of the cursi 
of the laiu. In the other verse, we have the corresponding stages of re 
demption from Hie, curse, which Christ accomplishes by his two advents ; 
at his first, "bearing the sins of many," and when he conies the second 
time, " appearing without sin unto salvation." " As man," says Dr OWEN 
on this passage, " was to die once legally and penally for sin, by the sen 
tence of the law, and no more; so Christ died, suffered, and offered once, 
and no more, to bear sin, to expiate it, and therefore to take away death, 
so far as it was penal. And as after death, men must appear asain the 
second time to judgment, to undergo condemnation thereon; so after his 
once offering to take away sin and death, Christ shall appear the second 
time, to free us from judgment, and to bestow on us eternal salvation." 

BEXGEL, with characteristic terseness and felicity, gives the same view 
in two lines: " Ou-m, sic, i. e., Christus liberavit nos a morte et judicio; 
tamctsi ut mors, sicjudicium, nominetenus remanet." 

* See a similar view of the coming of Christ in Dr Urwick s interest 
ing work on the Second Advent. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE HOPE OF THE ADVENT IN RELATION TO THE QUESTION OP 
TIME. 

WE have seen that Christ s second coming is the Church s 
" blessed hope." Its place in the Christian system, and in 
the Church s view, is over against his first coming, as its pro 
per counterpart. As " ONCE in the end of the world he hath 
appeared to put away sin, by the sacrifice of himself," so, 
" to them that look for him, shall he appear THE SECOND 
TIME, without sin, unto salvation." As the grace of the one 
coming is received by faith, so the glory of the other is appre 
hended by hope ; and thus, between the Cross and the Crown, 
the believer finds all his salvation and all his desire. With 
reference to the former, his attitude is that of broken-hearted 
sweet recumbency ; with reference to the latter, that of glad 
yet humble expectancy. On the one hand, he determines to 
" know nothing save Jesus Christ and him crucified ;" on the 
other, he is found in the ranks of " all them that love his 
appearing." 

Very good, says the premillennialist ; but the question is, 
With which theory of the second advent does all this accord ? 
When a man believes that Christ s second coming may take 
place at any time that he may come just now, for aught 
that we know, quite as readily as a hundred or a thousand 
years hence one can understand how he should set himself 
to " look" and " wait" and " watch" for him, " not knowing 
when the Master of the house may come, at even, or at mid- 



OBJECTION CAUTIONARY REMARKS. 27 

night, or at cock-crowing, or in the morning." But will the 
Church be brought up to this expectant attitude by telling 
her that a whole millennium, not yet begun, must run its 
course ere Christ appear ? And does not this blunt the edge 
of such texts as the following : " The day of the Lord so 
cometh as a thief in the night" " The Judge standeth at 
the door" " Behold, I come quickly ?" 

" Our ignorance," says Mr Bickersteth, " of the day and 
hour when Christ comes, seems inconsistent Avith any certain 
intervening period of a thousand years."* To the same 
purpose, Mr Dalton, f the Duke of Manchester, J Mr Wood, 
and most other writers on the same side. Dr H. Bonar 
admits the possibility of longing, of waiting, and even of 
looking for Christ s coming, on the common view of it, but 
strenuously denies the possibility of watching for it, on that 
view. || 

That this is plausible, I freely admit. In fact, if there 
be plausibility in the system at all, it lies here. I have felt 
it necessary, therefore, to weigh it again and again; but at 
every fresh examination, I have found it more specious than 
solid. That it is entirely fallacious, may be shown by a 
variety of considerations. 

Two remarks, however, I must request the reader to bear 
in mind throughout the whole of this discussion. First, I 
attach no importance, in this argument, to the precise period 
of a thousand years. It occurs nowhere in Scripture but 
in one solitary passage. There are reasons for taking it 
definitely and literally; but, to some these reasons appear 
slender. They think it means just a long indefinite period; 
agreeing with us, however, as to its being yet to come. Be 

* Guide to the Prophecies, p. 66, seventh edition, 
t Lent Lectures, for 1843, by English Clergymen, pp. 95, 96, second 
edition. 

t Finished Mystery, pp. 277-281. 

\ Last Things, p. 382, &c. 

11 Prophetical Landmarks, p. 88, c. 



23 BEGINNING AND END OP LATTER-DAY UNCERTAIN. 

it so. Wherever I speak of the millennium, or " thousand 
years," let them understand their own " indefinite period," 
or bright " latter day," to precede the coming of Christ ; and 
my argument will remain the same. Again, let no one 
suppose I expect that the beginning and end of this period 
will be so clearly discernible as to leave no room for doubt or 
uncertainty upon any mind. On the contrary, I think there 
can hardly be a doubt that it will follow the law of all 
Scripture dates in this respect of Daniel s " seventy weeks," 
and of the " twelve hundred and sixty days " of Antichristian 
rule. The beginning and end of the former of these periods, 
though a long past one, is even yet a matter of some con 
troversy, while the beginning and end of the latter period 
is confessedly unsettled. Why, then, should we suppose 
that it must be otherwise with the millennial period ? If 
the Jirst stages of it should be marked only by the rising 
beams of the Sun of Righteousness over the darkness and 
disease, the disorder and confusion, the wretchedness and 
ruin, which they are destined to chase away; and, if its last 
stages should be characterised by nothing but the waning 
brightness and decaying spirituality of its religious character 
all being outwardly unchanged, and nothing wanting but 
the animating spirit like "the glory of the Lord," which 
took its gradual departure from the first temple, hovering 
over the threshold of the house, then going up from the 
midst of the city and resting for a moment on tho Mount of 
Olives, as if to take a last lingering look of its wonted 
abode, and finally disappearing from the scene, to make way 
for the judgments of an incensed God: if, I say, the com 
mencement and the close of the latter day should be thus 
intentionally shrouded in obscurity, and the same uncertainty 
overhang this as all the great periods of the divine economy, 
would it not be worthy of Him who, in his ways as in Him 
self, is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever ? 

With this explanation, I proceed to examine this new 



OBJECTION- TESTED BY FACTS ROLLOCK, RUTHERFORD. 29 

theory of " watching " for Christ s coming, as incompatible 
with the ordinary view of the second advent. And, 

1. Can any thing be more arbitrary than the distinction 
attempted to be drawn between longing, waiting, and looking 
for Christ, on the one hand, and watching for him, on the 
other ? Doubtless, these terms express distinct shades of 
thought and feeling ; but the state of the soul in them all is 
so nearly the same, that it is scarcely conceivable how any 
doctrine that destroys one of them should admit of the 
exercise of the other three. Beyond question, all scriptural 
exercises of heart towards a coming Redeemer must stand 
or fall together. 

2. This alleged impossibility of watching for Christ s 
coming, on the ordinary view of it, involves a serious charge 
against the major part of the Christian Church, almost from 
the age of the apostles downwards. An extract or two 
from the fathers of the Scottish Church, for which I am 
indebted to Mr A. Bonar, * will sufficiently illustrate this 
remark. " Few in Scotland," Mr Bonar truly observes, 
" held the premillennial view, but they loved the Lord s 
appearing." 

" Why," says Principal Rollock, " should not the hope of 
Christ s returning comfort our souls, and make them rejoice ? 
How happy is that man who earnestly looks and waits for 
the blessed and glorious coming again of the Lord to judg 
ment ; for that hope shall comfort and uphold him in all his 
troubles and distresses." 

" O when," writes the seraphic Rutherford, " will we 
meet ? how long is it to the dawning of the marriage- 
day ! O sweet Jesus, take wide steps ! my Lord, come 
over mountains at one stride ! O my Blessed, flee as a roe 
or young hart upon the mountains of separation. O if he 
would fold the heavens together like an old cloak, and 
shovel time and days out of the way, and make ready in 
* Redemption Drawing Nigh, pp. 21, &c. 



30 CHRIST S COMING VIEWED AS 

haste the Lamb s wife for her husband ! heavens, 

more fast ! time, run, run, and hasten the marriage-day ; 

for love is tormented with delays ! Look to the 

east: the day-sky is breaking. Think not that Christ loseth 

time, or lingereth unsuitably The Lord s bride will 

be up or down, above the water, swimming, or under the 
water, sinking, until her lordly and mighty Redeemer and 
Husband set his head through these skies, and come with his 
fair court to rid all these pleas, and give them the longed-for 
inheritance." 

And shall it be said of these men, that, though " they 
loved their Lord s appearing," they could not possibly " watch 
for it ? " 

But it may be replied These worthies, though they were 
not premillennialists, interposed no definite millennium be 
tween their own day and the day of Christ s appearing. 
Whether they did or not, I know not. There is, probably, 
little means of knowing what their views were of the latter- 
day period. But there is not a particle of evidence that 
they had any such views of the nearness of Christ s coming 
as premillennialists assert to be indispensable to watching 
for it. The contrary, indeed, seems evident enough from 
Rutherford s language in the very extract which I have 
given. What else can be gathered from his passionate wish 
that the Lord would " take wide steps, come over mountains 
at one stride, fold the heavens together like an old cloak, 
and shovel time and days out of the way," but that he looked 
upon the actual period of Christ s coming as identical with 
the end of time itself? And yet we find him longing, wait 
ing, looking, and watching too, for his Lord s appearing, as 
if it had been the very next event which was to happen. 
And truly, to him, it ivas the next event ; for as " love is 
tormented with delays " to use his own expressive language 
insomuch that " one day seems as a thousand years," so 
hope, which brings near the Beloved Object, makes "a 



BOTH NEAR AND FAR AWAY. 31 

thousand years as one day What, to them that love his 
appearing, are falls of Antichrist, and bright latter days, and 
whole millenniums of refreshing in his absence ? " Holy 
Lord," says Bernard somewhere, " dost thou call that a 
little while in which I shall not see thee? this little is a 
long little while ! " 

Thus the heart alternates betiveen two very different and 
seemingly opposite* views of the interval between its own day and 
the day of Christ s appearing. Now it seems long, and anon 
it seems short. " The bridegroom tarried," says the Lord 
himself, in the parable of the virgins. (Matt. xxv. 5.) " Yet 
a little while," says his apostle, " and the Coming One will 
come, and will not tarry." (Heb. x. 37.) (jgov/owoj oy 
;/gov/.) To faith and hope it seems near, even at the doors ; 
to love and longing desire it seems far, far away : to the one 
it is but " a day," and then he will be here ; to the other it 
is " a thousand years" dreary period! In the one case, 
" we do with patience wait for it;" in the other, " tormented 
with delays," we cry out, with the psalmist, " But thou, O 
Lord, how long?" Wilt thou not shovel Antichrist, ay, and 
the millennium too yea, time and days together out of the 
way, and " set thy head through these skies," that " so we 
may be ever with the Lord ! " * 

To the above examples of this double way of viewing the 
Redeemer s coming, I make no apology for adding that of 
one but lately removed from the Church below, whose mind 
seemed to be singularly imbued with the Spirit of Christ, 
while his pen, on devotional subjects, flowed almost as the 
oracles of God. I allude to Robert Wodroiv.^ On the 

* This is not to " interpolate Rutherford s language," as Mr Wood 
alleges, (Last Things, p. 387,) but to appropriate it. 

f Whose Address to the Children of Israel, prepared at the request of 
the Jews 1 Committee of the Church of Scotland, adopted by the General 
Assembly of that Church, and translated into nearly all the Continental, 
and some of the Oriental languages, has probably never been surpassed, 
in point of scriptural character and unction, by any human composition. 



32 OBJECTION TESTED BY FACTS ROBERT WODROW. 

subject of united prayer among Christians, he drew up two 
Memorials (1841 and 1842), very precious, addressed " To 
the children of God scattered abroad throughout the world, 
with earnest desires that grace and mercy may be multiplied 
to them all through the knowledge of God our Saviour." On 
the topics for united prayer, having noticed among other 
things, in the first Memorial, " The conversion of God s 
ancient people as the most remarkable event which is to take 
place until the coming of Christ, the outpouring of the Spirit 
on all flesh, the destruction of Antichrist, the utter abolition 
of idolatry, the universal overthrow of Satan s kingdom, the 
universal diffusion of the gospel and its blessings," he then 
says 

" Stretching beyond all these great events connected with 
the glory of the latter day, believers should look forward to 
the kingdom of glory itself, and pray for the coming of that 
day when Christ shall be revealed in flaming fire, taking 
vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not 
the gospel, and when he shall be glorified in his saints, and 
admired in all them that believe, as it will be then, and not 
till then, that the Divine character and government will be 
vindicated, the Redeemer s enemies subdued, the number of 
the elect completed, and their bodies as well as souls redeemed 
and glorified with himself. Hence we are commanded to be 
looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God ; 
hence it is the closing prayer of the Church, Even so, come, 
Lord Jesus; and hence it should be often the prayer of be 
lievers, individually and collectively, Make haste, my Be 
loved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the 
mountains of spices. " 

In the second Memorial he says 

" Habitually desiring the coming of the Lord, we shall be 
naturally led to abound in prayer for the accomplishment of 
those objects which we have every reason, from the Word of 
God, to believe must be fulfilled before that great final event takes 



BEARING OF THE FOREGOING FACTS. S3 

place. Glorious things are spoken of the state of the Church 
in the latter day," &c. 

Now, let the reader bear in mind for what purpose we 
have extracted these passages. Not, certainly, to determine 
by human authority whether Christ s coming is to precede 
or to follow this latter day, but to meet the bold assertion, 
that on this last view of the Redeemer s coming it is not pos 
sible to watch for ifc Such assertions seem better met by facts 
than by arguments. And unless it is to be alleged that the 
gifted and holy men whose language we have quoted did not 
understand their own exercises, the assertion, I think, must 
be given up as untenable. 

But the heart of the fallacy has yet to be reached. This 
novel theory of watching is founded, as I proceed to show, 
on a very narrow induction of Scripture passages, and stands 
opposed to the spirit of a large and very important class of 
divine testimonies. 

4. It seems to be taken for granted that the New Testa 
ment has but one future event to hold up to the Church and 
to the world, namely, the coming of Christ, and even but 
one aspect of that event, namely, its nearness, and the corre 
sponding duty of icatcliing for it. But nothing can be a 
greater mistake. We have seen already for what purposes 
the New Testament holds forth the coming of Christ, both 
to saints and to sinners. But other purposes had to be 
served besides these, which have drawn forth truths of quite 
anotlier order ; and if the one set of passages, taken by them 
selves, might seem to imply that Christ might come to-morrow, 
or any day (as the phrase is), even in apostolic times, there 
are whole classes of passages which clearly show that the 
reverse of this was the mind of the Spirit. 

I refer to those Scriptures which announce the work to be 
done, and the extensive changes to come over the face of the 
Church, and of Society, between the two advents. 

". All power," said the Redeemer, as he was leaving the world, 

E 



34 THE EVENTS TO PRECEDE THE SECOND ADVENT. 

" is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and 
teach," or make disciples of, " all nations, baptizing them in the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teach 
ing them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you : 
and, lo ! I am with you alway, even undo the end of the world" * 
(Matt, xxviii. 18-20.) 

Now, I ask not what impression this passage would pro 
duce upon those who misunderstood it. But supposing its 
true scope to be even but dimly apprehended, is it conceiv 
able that any primitive Christian should persuade himself 
that all nations might be thus discipled, baptized, and brought 
under the discipline of Christ s laws, in his own lifetime, or 
within the largest space of time that would admit of his 
watching (according to this new theory) for the coming of 
Christ to wind all up ? f 

Again, the parables regarding the gospel kingdom mani 
festly bear in the same direction. " The field," which was 
to be sown both with tares and with wheat, is "THE WORLD" 
(6 x6tff&o() : that is to say, a world-wide kingdom is to be 
formed, embracing the genuine and the false-hearted subjects 

* It makes no difference to our present argument, whether << here 
be rendered " world, or " age ; " as it is agreed on all hands that the 
period or state of things denoted by this word terminates with the second 
coming of Christ. 

f The reply made to this seems to me somewhat desperate. We have 
here, it is said, not a word about the actual evangelization of the world. 
We have merely a commission to do certain things, with a promise of the 
Master s gracious presence in the doing of it : of success in the work, the pas 
sage says nothing; while another passage tells us positively that "the gospel 
is to be preached to all nations" only " for a witness, and then shall the 
end come " showing that no general Christianization of the world before 
the coming of Christ was contemplated. (Wood s Last Things, pp. xxii. 
269-271.) Whether this is a natural or a forced construction of the 
Redeemer s last commission I may safely leave it to the reader to decide. 
I shall merely say that the saving conversion of "every member of every 
nation," (to use the words of Olshausen, quoted by Mr Wood), is ex 
pected by none before the coming of Christ ; and to the unconverted of 
every nation the preaching of the gospel can only be as "a witness" 
against them when Christ comes. 



EVANGELIZATION OF THE WORLD. 35 

of Christ under one visible name ; both are to " grow toge 
ther until the harvest;" and " the harvest is the end of tha 
world," * when " the righteous shall shine forth as the sun 
in the kingdom of their Father." The same truth is taught 
in the parable of the net cast into the sea, that gathered of 
every kind ; and the same period is fixed for the severance of 
the good from the bad " the end of the world." Similar 
is the import of, the parable of the mustard seed, and of the 
leaven holding forth the truth as it is in Jesus, in its pro 
gressive advancement, till, like a tree, springing from the 
least of seeds, it ultimately overshadows " the world;" and, 
like leaven, working its way through the mass of human 
society, it at length leavens it all. 

And could any intelligent Christian in apostolic times 
while the gospel had scarce a footing in the world, and its 
little inch of ground had to be contested even unto blood 
rise from any right apprehension of these parables with the 
persuasion that the whole icorld might be tlms overshadowed, 
thus leavened, thus externally subjugated to Christ, and the se 
cond advent arrive all in his own lifetime, or even in many 
lifetimes ? The answer given to this is, that the early Chris 
tians did not and could not take such comprehensive views 
of our Lord s words. It is enough, however, for me that the 
words meant this, and that they were fitted and intended to 
convey this. And is it to be said that just in proportion 
as the real sense of these parables might rise upon the 
view of the prayerful student of them, his power of watch 
ing for Christ s coming was enervated and destroyed ? Ab 
surd. 

I might advert here to those passages which announce the 
judicial transfer of the kingdom of God from the Jews to the 
Gentiles, the whole tenor of which was fitted to teach even 
a primitive Christian, that its duration in Gentile hands, ere 
the Jews should again be brought in, would bear some pro- 
* See note on preceding page. 



36 CALLING OF GEXTILES IXBRIXGING OF JEWS. 

portion to its duration in Jewish hands, before the admission 
of the Gentiles. 

" The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a 
nation bringing forth the fruits thereof." (Matt. xxi. 43.) 

" Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times 
of the Gentiles be fulfilled. (Luke xxi. 24.) 

" Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the 
Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved." (Rom. 
xi. 25, 26.) 

" They asked of him," after his resurrection, "saying, Lord, wilt 
thou at this time (lv TU x,^V rob*"?) restore again the king 
dom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to 
know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put 
in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that 
the Holy Ghost is come upon you : and ye shall be witnesses 
unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and 
unto the uttermost part of the earth." (Acts i. 6-8.) 

The spirit of this last passage is worthy of notice. While 
not discouraging the hope of an eventual restoration of the 
kingdom to Israel, in some sense at least, he represses all ex 
pectation of it in their own day, teaching them that, on his 
departure, they would have other work on hand, with which 
it would rather become them to take up their attention. 

I might refer also to the frequently-predicted degeneracy to 
characterize the maturer periods of the Church,, or Christian 
ized society. 

" In the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving 
heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils ; speaking 
lies in hypocrisy ; having their conscience seared with a 
hot iron ; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain 
from meats, which God hath created to be received with 
thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth." 
(1 Tim. iv. 1-3.) 

" In the last days perilous times shall come : For men shall be 
lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blas 
phemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, with 
out natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, inconti- 



PREDICTED DEGENERACY. 87 

nent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, 
high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God ; 
having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: 
from such turn away." (2 Tim. iii. 1-5.) 

" There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their 
own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming ? 
for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as the;/ 
v-ere from the beginning of the creation." (2 Pet. iii. 3, 4.) 
I do not pre,ss this class of passages, because, taken by 
themselves, I think a primitive Christian, seeing the germs 
of this degeneracy even then in existence, and " the mystery 
of iniquity already working," might not unreasonably imagine 
that the predicted evils might be developed and burst forth 
in no long time. But, taken in connection with other pas 
sages, such as Christ s commission to Christianize the world, 
and his parabolic intimations, that, in point of fact, it would 
be visibly Christianized before his second coming, I think 
these announcements of apostasy from the faith, and social 
degeneracy, and contemptuous disbelief of coming retribu 
tion, within the pale of Christianity, were fitted to repress the 
expectation of such a speedy end of it all as the new theory 
demands, in order to a possible watching for it. 

There is still a class of passages, greatly clearer to the same 
effect, of which one example may suffice for all: 

" And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached 

unto you : whom the heaven must receive until the times of 

restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all 

his holy prophets since the world began. (Acts iii. 20, 21.) 

Would any Christian in apostolic times, though unable to 

tell what might be meant by this " restitution of all things," 

be encouraged by it to expect the immediate or very speed;/ 

return of Christ to the earth ? Would it lead him to think 

that his Lord, though but just gone, might be back again 

forthwith; that, though scarcely away though the Spirit 

who was to supply his place while absent had scarcely made 

his power to be felt though his gospel had hardly had time 



38 CHRIST IN HEAVEN TILL RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS. 

to get a footing in the world though the heathenism of the 
empire had scarcely felt the blows of the " stone cut out of 
the mountain without hands," and the darkness that covered 
the earth had in no sensible degree fled before the beams of 
the Sun of Righteousness that, in this state of things, alto 
gether so infantile and immature, the Redeemer might never 
theless cut the matter short, and surprise both the Church and 
the world by his second coming ? To me this seems incred 
ible. And who will say that, in proportion as one got light 
on this point, he would be incapacitated for watching for the 
coming of Christ that, just as he discerned the true bearing 
of such announcements, his power to preserve the watchful 
attitude would necessarily diminish ? What sort of theory of 
" watching " must that be which can stand only with confused 
apprehensions of the mind of the Spirit which required men 
to mistake the true scope and intent of the Divine intimations 
regarding Christ s absence in the heavens, and which, just in 
proportion as they got their eyes opened to the vast work 
which it was emphatically declared had to be done ere Christ 
could return, left them under a helpless inability to look out 
and watch for their Lord? 

But it may be said, This is expecting too much from the 
Christians of early times as if they could have foreseen that, 
eighteen centuries after his departure, the Redeemer would 
be found still in the heavens. I answer, No. I suppose 
them to know nothing of the future but what they were 
bound to learn even from the Lord s own words. I know well 
enough how slow they were to receive the truth on this point. 
Some may think this was at most an amiable weakness, if not 
something better. I am not so sure of that ; nor will I con 
cede that those who, trembling at the word of the Lord, 
gathered from it that he would be long away, loved him and 
his appearing less than those who, in opposition to it, clung 
to their own dream of an immediate appearing. 

That the Lord himself gave no countenance to this notion 



CHRIST TO BE AWAY A LONG TIME TO TARRY. 39 

of a speedy return, is evident from the parable of The Pounds, 
which the evangelist tells us was spoken expressly for the 
purpose of putting it down. " He added and spake a parable, 
because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought 
that the kingdom of God should immediately appear. He said, 
therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country, to re 
ceive for himself a kingdom, and to return." Then follows 
an account of the trust committed to his professed " servants," 
the refusal of his " citizens " to submit to him, and after full 
time allowed to the one party to submit to him, and to the 
other to repent of their rebellion of his return to try and 
pass sentence upon both. (Luke xix. 11-27.) Now, when 
I say that all this implies length of time, I only say what the 
evangelist expressly tells us, that Christ meant by this parable 
to teach, namely, that the kingdom of God was NOT (as they 
dreamt) immediately to appear.* 

I suppose it will be said that all the Lord meant to correct 
was the impression that the kingdom was to be set up " forth 
with" (xa^uygr^QL) on his reaching Jerusalem, at that very 



* "The preface to this parable," says Dr Homes, himself an ardent 
premillennialist, " is a golden key to open its meaning, that we may not 
rely upon a mere allegory. Christ spake this parable because he was 
nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God 
should immediately appear. 1 It doth not deny the appearing of the king 
domChrist is for it; only, he is against the immediate appearance of it. 
He must before that go away into a far country, viz., to heaven, and 
leave talents in trust with his servants, giving them time to employ them, 
and be so long absent that his enemies grow bold enough to send after 
him with this high affront, that they would not have him to reign over 
them; that is, some seeming professors should, by his long absence, grow 
quite careless of improving the talents, or gifts of endowment, to his 
honour ; and others, by his delay (as they account it), should become pro 
fessed enemies against him." Resurrection Revealed, c., by Nathaniel 
Homes, D.D. 1654. Reprinted 1S33. Pp. 265, 266. 

"Two false hopes," says Lisco on the Parables, "in particular are 
pointed at in v. 11; the first, that this kingdom should be immediately, 
without any farther delay, set up, against which the intimation in the 
parable is directed, that it should necessarily be a long time before the 
return of the nobleman," &c. Fairbairn s Translation. 1840. P. 398. 



40 CHRIST TO BE AWAY A LONG TIME TO TARRY. 

Passover. Unfortunately for this view, the corresponding 
parable of The Talents sets it completely aside, showing that 
he meant to go much farther than this. There the period 
between the departure and the return of Christ is expressly 
called "a long time," (ftsra, ds fo kvv %%6vov, Matt. xxv. 19.)* 
Nay, the same truth the very mention of which is regarded 
by premillennialists with such jealousy, because it breaks 
down their theory is expressly taught in the immediately 
preceding parable of the Virgins : " While the bridegroom 
TARRIED (%gow^oi/rof) they all (wise as well as foolish) slum 
bered and slept." (Matt. xxv. 5.) Thus the Lord, in para 
bles intended to teach incessant icatchfulness, scruples not to 
warn his disciples against expecting his immediate return 
openly tells them that he would be found tarrying intimates 
that he would be away a long time. And as the express ob 
ject of these parables was to teach watchfulness, it is perfectly 
plain, that, fo his view, there was no inconsistency between 
watching for his return and believing that it was not to occur 
very soon ; and that, though the actual time of it would always 
be matter of uncertainty before it arrived, it was not to be 
expected that the interval would be a brief one.f But, 

* " nAu, multum. Non est absolut aceleritas adventus Domini." 
BKNGEL, ad Matt. xxv. 19. 

+ In CHRTSOSTOM S Homilies on this subject, we find the same union of 
these seemingly contradictory things : XJOV/JOVTO? SI ma Nu^/w <W<TT.I.I aZa-cu 

xxt xoi8tv?iov : EvTocyda, diixnvtrtv O jx c/Xi yoy TOV %06vov Itro^vov jrdf.iv rov u.iTU.gj rut 



" While the Bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. Here 
again he shows that the interval [between his departure and return] 
would not be a brief period; drawing off the disciples from the expectation 
that his kingdom would very immediately appear. For this was what 
they looked for. From this expectation therefore he perpetually beats them 
off. " He repeats the same sentiment a little farther on. (Horn. Ixxviii.) 
But how far the golden-mouthed preacher was from supposing that by 
such statements about the length of Christ s absence, he was lulling his 
hearers into carnal security, may be seen from such passages as the 
following, in the immediately preceding homily : Evs06 SV ,<tav0iK>.us <; 



THE IMPORTUNATE WIDOW. 41 

according to our new theory of watching, these things are 
perfectly incompatible ; insomuch that, unless you can per 
suade yourself that, for aught you know, the kingdom of 
glory may " immediately appear," after no " long time," and 
without any " tarrying" at all, you are incapacitated for watch 
ing for it.* 

But I have no done with this point. As if to put the 
matter beyond all doubt, the parable of The Importunate 
Widow (Luke xviii. 1-8) proceeds expressly on the supposition, 
and carries on its face the warning, that Christ s return would 
be so long delayed as not only to embolden the scoffers to 



TOVTO -riBfiffi, TO T- Kyfolo.; Su xrut x$Y,iriu,oy, XKI Tuvr/i xmut itutyutiovs ; 

" Hence then we learn that he doth not tarry. For this [ My Lord de- 
laycthhis coming ] is not the voice of the Master, but the sentiment of the 
wicked servant, for which accordingly he is censured. What then says 
the sequel ? He will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in 
an hour when he is not aware, and will utterly destroy him. You sea 
how every where he inculcates this, showing how beneficial it is to be 
ignorant [of the time when the Lord will come], and thus keeping them 
always on the stretch." (Horn. Ixxvii.) 

* " It is worthy of remark," says Dr Urwick, " that tlie only errors 
mentioned in the New Testament respecting the time of our Lord s coming, all 
consist in dating it too early. I shall give several examples : 1st, The case 
of the servant represented as saying, My Lord delayeth his coming. 
..... The servant had taken up a wrong impression of the date when 
his Master was to be looked for; and as his Master did not show himself 
according to that false date, the servant, instead of distrusting his own 
understanding, memory, or calculation, as the case might be, acted on 
the assumption that his Master would not come as had been promised, 
and so acted to his ruin." (Has not this case been repeatedly realized 
among the expectants of the premillennial advent ?) The next case ad 
duced by Dr Urwick is that of the nobleman, on which we have commented 
above. " Besides correcting their mistake," says he, about an immediate 
appearing, " he intimates that both his second advent and the appearing 
of the kingdom of God were events then at a considerable distance; and 
the circumstance of his giving the parable to correct the mistake, shows 
it not to have been his will that they should look upon those events as at 
hand." Second Advent, pp. 46-48. 



42 THE THESSALONIAN EXCITEMENT. 

ask, " Where is the promise of his coming?" but to wear out 
the patience of all but " God s elect," and to try even them 
to the uttermost. I am at one with the premillennialists in 
applying this parable, in its primary historical reference, to 
the cry of the widowed Church for vengeance against her 
adversaries.* For this she is encouraged to "pray always, 
and not faint ;" for this she is forewarned she will have to 
" cry" to her Judge " day and night ;" and she is expressly 
taught that he will " bear long with her" ere he come to re 
dress her wrongs. At last he will come and " avenge her 

O O 

speedily : Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall 
he find faith in the earth ?" that is, as the connection shows, 
faith that he will come at all.f 

Need I ask now, whether the most moderate apprehension 
of the spirit of such explicit and reiterated announcements 
would inspire a primitive Christian with the belief that, for 
aught he knew, Christ might come any day, or within any 
such very limited period as that to which our theory restricts 
the possibility of watching for it ? 

But they did believe this (you say), and the apostle had 
enough to do to keep the Thessalonians calm in consequence ; 
so lifted were they with the expectation of their Lord s im 
mediate return. (2 Thess. ii. 1, &c.) 

True, alas ! but is not this just to admit, that that corrupt 
Jewish element that the kingdom of God should immediately 
appear which the Lord himself had sought to purge out 
from amongst his half-taught disciples, had nevertheless found 
its way into the infant Church, and troubled, unhinged, and 
imperiled it ? It took a stirring form in the Thessalonian 
Church. Their inexperienced minds and warm hearts were 

* " Xijj*, vidua, qusc facile Iseditur, nee facile dcfenditur inter homines. 
Talis eccksia mundo vidctur." BENGEL. 

f " Estque Sermo de Adventu ad vindictam, 2 Thess. i. 8, id est de ad- 
ventu ad novissimum judicium conspicuo; ut appellatio Filii hominia 
infert: Conf. c. xvii. 24, 20." Ibid. 



HOW TREATED BY THE APOSTLE. 43 

plied with the thrilling proclamation, "that THE DAY OF 
CHRIST WAS AT HAND," or " IMMINENT" (tvzerrixtv}. And how 
does the apostle meet their expectation ? He fearlessly 
crushes it ; gently insinuating that it had its origin rather in 
impositions practised upon them by false brethren, than in any 
spontaneous leanings to it among themselves. He " beseeches 
them, "by" (or rather, concerning*) " the coming of our Lord Jesus 
CJirist," which was dear to all alike, " and" the transporting 
prospect of " our gathering together unto him," to give no heed 
to the insinuation, from whatever quarter it might come, " that 
the day of Christ was at hand." 

No such entreaty, we may safely affirm, would ever come 
from a premillennialist at least of the modern school. He 
would be afraid of " destroying the possibility of watching." 
So much, indeed, is this warning in their way, that they take 
pains to show that our version conveys an erroneous impres 
sion of the apostle s meaning, and that the Thessaloniari 
notion was, that the coming of Christ was momentarily to 
be looked for. I quite agree with them. But what is gained 
by supposing that the Thessalonians thought themselves 
already in the thick of the events which were to usher in the 
second advent? For the question is not what the Thessalonians 
thought about the day of Christ, but what the apostle says in 
opposition to their thought. The writers I allude to affirm 
that the apostle meant only to deny that the day of Christ 
had begun, or Avas actually present, while he wrote that 
" the streaks of dawn " were to be then discerned that 

* "Tulf TT,{ ffK%ovo-i.{. " So Rom. ix. 27, val^ -rev l<r$->;A, concerning Israel. 
And though the other sense of vvlg be an unquestionable one, yet on a con 
sideration of the whole passage, taken in connection with chap. iv. of the 
former epistle, I think it less suitable here. He is going to speak to them 
on a subject concerning which they had been troubled, and the con 
nection of the verses immediately preceding, chap. i. 7-10, is marked by 
the particle S, but." (Hints for an Improved Translation of the New 
Testament, by the Rev. JAMES SCIIOLEFIELD, Regius Professor of Greek 
in the University of Cambridge, &c., 3d edition, pp. 115, 116.) 



44 IMPORT OF THE APOSTOLIC WARNING. 

the moment for his appearing had yet arrived. But what 
unbiased reader would so understand the passage ? Does 
not the apostle, in the following verses, expressly intimate 
that a long and complicated series of events had to be de 
veloped, the very commencement of which was retarded by 
an obstacle then in being while he wrote ? And is it con 
ceivable that, at the very time when he was announcing 
this, and announcing it for the very purpose of crushing the 
expectation of an immediate appearing, he should nevertheless 
have meant them to expect it any day, or very speedily ? * 
So manifestly does this famous passage in Thessalonians 

"It was not possible," says MEDE. the prince of premillennialists, 
and the most sagacious of the students of chronological prophecy, " the 
apostles should expect the end of the world to be in their own time, 
when they knew so many things were to come to pass before it as could 
not be fulfilled in a short time. As, 1. The desolation of Jerusalem, and 
that not till the seventy weeks were expired ; 2. The Jews to be carried 
captives over all nations, and Jerusalem to be trodden down of the 
Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled ; 3. That in 
the mean time the Roman empire must be ruined, and that which 
hindered be taken out of the way ; 4. That, after this was done, the Man 
of Sin should be revealed, and domineer his time in the temple and 

Church of God 7. That the time should be so long, that in the 

last days should come scoffers, saying, Where is the promise of his 
coming ? How is it possible they should imagine the day of doom to 
be so near, when all these things must first come to pass, and not one of 

them was yet fulfilled ? Notwithstanding all this, I make no 

question but, even in the apostles times, many of the believing Gentiles, 
mistaking the apostles admonitions to the Jews of the end of their state 
approaching, thought the end of the whole world, and the day of the 
Lord, had been also near; whom, therefore, St Paul (2 Thess ii.) be 
seeches to be better informed, because that day should not come until 
the apostasy came first, and the Man of Sin were revealed." (Apostasy 
of the Loiter Times, chap. xv. Works, book iii.) 

" The apostle s expression," says Bishop HORSLEY also a premillen- 
nialist speaking of the fourth chapter of 1st Thessalonians, " was so 
strong, that his meaning was mistaken, or as I rather think, misrepre 
sented. There seems to have been a sect in the apostolic age, in which 
sect, however, the apostles themselves were not, as some have absurdly 
maintained, included ; but there seems to have been a sect which looked 
for the resurrection in their own time. Some of these persons seem to 



DISTINCTION BETWEEN EVENTS AND PERIODS. 45 

destroy the modern theory of watching for the coming of 
Christ, that it has been found necessary to qualify the theory 
to some extent. Events, it is admitted, may be announced 
as preceding the second advent ; but " the interposition of 
an event is very different from the interposition of a period: 
the latter seems to be incompatible with watchfulness, but 
not the former; especially when the event is said to be 
already in progress, as is done by the apostle when he 
says, The mystery of iniquity doth already work. For this 
no time is given, and it is the absence of time that is the 
foundation of watchfulness : It is the presence of time as an 
element that destroys the possibility of watching ; and it is the 
absence of that element that produces the watchful spirit." * 

This distinction, however, between events and periods does 
nothing to save the new theory ; for, as we have seen, the 
events interposed by the Lord himself and by his apostles 
before the second advent, are such as no one in the apostolic 
age, rightly apprehending them, could imagine to be possibly 
over in his own day. To such, therefore, " the possibility of 
watching for Christ s coming" was as effectully "destroyed" 
by interposed events as by interposed periods. 

Besides, are not periods interposed as well as events ? So 
soon as the Apocalypse came into general circulation, the 
Church knew that Antichrist s career would extend over a 

have taken advantage of St Paul s expressions in this passage, to repre 
sent him as favouring their opinion. This occasioned the second epistle 
to the Thessalonians, in which the apostle peremptorily decides against 
that doctrine, maintaining that the Man of Sin is to be revealed, and a 
long consequence of events to run out, before the day of judgment can 
come ; and he desires that no expression of his may be understood of its 
speedy arrival ; which proves that whatever he had said of the day of 
his coming as at hand, was to be understood only of the certainty of that 
coming." (Senn. i.) In a previous part of the same sermon, the Bishop 
more fully develops the sense in which he understands the day of Christ 
to have been "at hand" in the apostles days. 

* Dr H. Bonar (Prophetical Landmarks, p. 91), quoted with approba 
tion by the Duke of Manchester, p. 281. 



46 DISTINCTION BETWEEN EVENTS AND PERIODS 

certain definite period expressed in the three forms of 
" days" " months," and " times." An attempt is made to 
blunt the force of this fact, by alleging that symbolical lan 
guage, and the shortest periods, were purposely selected, to 
prevent the Church being lulled into security by a plain dis 
closure of the time. It has not, however, deterred the writer 
whose argument I am now examining from lifting the veil, 
and intimating that a definite period of twelve hundred and 
sixty years was intended by these mystic numbers as the time 
of Antichrist s reign. He will, probably, console himself 
with the thought, that, living in a day when the expiry of 
this period may be speedily expected, he is in no danger of 
being lulled by his knowledge of the time, or hindered by it 
from watching for his Lord s coming. But did not others 
arrive at the same conclusion long ago, as to these 1260 years 
of Antichrist s reign ? As early, at least, as the Reformation, 
this was becoming the decided judgment of divines ; and as 
the views of the students of prophecy, after that, grew more 
definite, calculations were ventured on as to " the time of 
the end," most of which threw it considerably beyond their own 
day. This remark applies to some of the most eminent pre- 
millennialists, quite as much as to the other students of the 
prophetic word. Now, my question is, Did these good men 
and able divines destroy by their calculations the possibility of 
their watching for Christ ? Absurd surely it were to affirm 
this; and yet if not, how worthless is this whole theory of 
watching? * 

It might strengthen these remarks to advert to the view 
which the early chiliasts took of the dates. They appear, 
for example, to have adopted universally the Jewish tradition, 

* These remarks on the 12GO years do not apply to those (such as the 
Duke of Manchester) who take the " days 1 1 literally, as denoting just 
three years and a half. I cannot go into that question here; and am con 
tent to leave the matter, as far as they are concerned, to rest upon the 
events interposed before the second advent, which I think quite sufficient 
to settle it, independently of the periods. 



UNAVAILING EARLY CHILIASTS LACTANTIUS. 47 

that, after a six thousand years duration of the world, there 
would be a sabbatical millenary ; and, as they identified this 
with the millennial reign of Christ and his saints, it is not 
very easy to see how, with all their ignorance of the true 
chronology of the world, they could look for the second 
advent quite so soon as the new theory requires. * One thing 
is certain, that LACTANTIUS a chiliast of the fourth century 
did not look for the second advent sooner than about two 
hundred years ; and this, be it observed, he gives as the result 
of inquiries into the subject by all those most skilled in such 
matters, f 

* " This statement," says Mr Wood, (p. 398), "exposes unpardonable 
ignorance on Mr Brown s part. Cyprian, who died, A. D. 258, speaks of 
the six thousand years as nearly run out in his time ; and he, I believe, 
is the first of the fathers who makes use of that tradition to fix the date 
of the advent." Those who accuse others of ignorance should take especial 
care to be well informed themselves. Mr Wood gives Mr Elliott as his 
authority for his historical statements ; but his authority is against him. 
"Among the Christian fathers," says Mr Elliott, " that succeeded on the 
apostolical age, this view of the matter (the tradition of a sabbatical 
millennium of the world) was universally received and promulgated." 
(Elliott s Ilorce, iv. 229, fourth edition.) So far from Cyprian being the 
first of the fathers to make use of this tradition, I had read it from Bar 
nabas downwards, long before I saw Mr Elliott s extracts. It is with 
regret that I repeat this note, and only in case this offensive charge 
should meet the eye of my readers. 

t " Fortasse nunc quispiam requirat, quando ista quse diximus sint 
futura : jam superius ostendi. Completis annorum sex millibus, muta- 
tionem ipsam fieri oportere : et jam propinquare ilium summum conclu- 
sionis extremae diem, de signis, quaa a prophetis dicta sunt, licet noscere. 
Prsedixerunt enim signa, quibus consummatio temporum expectanda sit 
nobis in singulos dies, atque timenda. Quando tamen compleatur hcec 
summa, decent ii qui de temporibus scripserunt, colligentes ex literis 
sanctis, et ex variis historiis, quantus sit numerus annorum ab exordio 
mundi: qui licet varient, et aliquantulum numeri eorum summa dissen- 
tiat, omnis tamen expectatio non amplius quam ducentorum videtur 
annomm. " (Div. INSTIT. lib. vii. c. xxv.) 

Mr Wood charges me with misrepresenting Lactantius in the text. 
If so, I have at least provided the antidote, by printing his own 
words. Lactantius s object and mine being different, there is naturally 



48 EXCITEMENT ON THE SUBJECT OF CHRIST S COMING. 

In concluding our investigation of the question of time, as 
it affects the duty of watching for Christ s coming, I would 
fain leave on the reader s mind the spirit of that apostolic 
warning to the Thessalonians on which I have been animad 
verting. The apostle does more than correct the error about 
the imminency of the day of Christ: he alludes also to the 
way in which they were solicited on the subject, and the 
effects which the delusion would produce upon their minds. 
He Avarns them against being practised upon, either, first, 
" by spirit" a pretended spirit of prophecy, foretelling the 
nearness of the advent ; or, secondly, " by word " any sup 
posed testimony uttered in favour of this view of the advent 
by him or other inspired men ; or, thirdly, " by letter as from 
us" forged letters from the apostle himself, announcing 
" that the day of Christ was" chronologically " at hand." 
Now, if the premillennialists be right, if both their doctrine 
and their way of urging it be scriptural, is it not strange 
that designing men, instead of teaching the DISTANCE, should 
have set themselves systematically to urge the NEARNESS of 
Christ s coming that they should have found their interest 
to lie so much in possessing the Church with the belief of 
Christ s nearness, as to lay false prophecy, pretended aposto 
lic discourses, and forged letters all under contribution, to 
give currency and weight to this view of the advent ? It 
would be an interesting inquiry, what such parties could 
gain by the reception of that opinion? Perhaps the history 
of religious delusions would throw some light on this ques 
tion. I think it would not be difficult to show that some of 
the prime delusions to which powerful but enthusiastic and 

a difference in the mode of expression. His object was to show how 
near the end probably was not extending beyond two hundred years ; 
and it was the specification of this period which alone I wished to mark. 
Mr Wood quotes a passage from Dods on the Incarnation, in disparage 
ment of Lactantius. It is no interest of mine to defend him, though I 
tind his aid accepted freely enough bypremillennialists when it suits them. 



ITS EVILS. 49 

feverish minds have given birth, have been associated with 
the very expectation to which the apostle refers, and have 
derived from that expectation a pabulum which has rallied 
them when otherwise languishing, and without which they 
would neither have had the attractions which invested them 
while they lived, nor have been kept so long from sinking 
into the merited oblivion which at length they have found. 
Whether it was some perception of this that filled the apos 
tle with such alarm at the notion in question, and such 
anxiety to dislodge it, we shall not affirm. But his beseech 
ing tone, the particularity with which he notices it, the sys 
tematic way in which he sets himself to meet it, and the 
singularly ample detail with which he lays out the scheme of 
events that would throw the advent into the distant future all 
show that he saw some peculiar evils in the womb of that 
notion, and contemplated with concern and grief its possible 
progress in the church. Of what sort these evils would be, 
we have a hint given us in the two pregnant words by which 
he describes the effects of the notion upon those who give 
heed to it. He beseeches them not to be " soon," or quickly, 
as by sudden impulse, " shaken in mind" (tfaXsi^Jjva;) agi 
tated disturbed ; or to be " troubled" (Sgos?<rt)a; as one is 
on " hearing of wars and rumours of wars," Matt. xxiv. 6, 
Gr.) by the assertion, " that the day of Christ was at hand." 
The thing pointed at is such an arrestment of the mind as 
tends to unnerve it; a feverish excitement, which tends to 
throw the mind off its balance, and so far unfit it for the 
duties of life as in the rumours of wars of which the parallel 
passage makes mention the very opposite of that tranquil 
and bright expectancy which realizes the certainty rather 
than the chronology of the Lord s coming. And I would 
appeal to the whole history of premillennialism, whether 
this feverish excitability has not been found a prevailing ele 
ment, and the .parent of not a little that is erratic both in 
doctrine and in practice. 



50 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FEVERISH EXPECTATION 

Thus have I weighed all that has been advanced to provo 
the impossibility of watching for Christ s coming on the 
common view of it, or rather on any view of it which does 
not admit of our expecting it almost any moment. I have 
done so with a minuteness and at a length which, if the intrin 
sic force of the objection scarcely demanded, the stress laid 
upon it by the most recent premillennialists and its apparent 
plausibility may well excuse. I think I have shown it to be 
entirely fallacious ; and not only so, but that it is the very 
notion which the apostle characterises as feverish, and sets 
himself to crush, as usurping the place of the tranquil and 
truly quickening expectation of " our" simultaneous " gather 
ing together unto Him," at his glorious appearing. It is high 
time that the immense difference between these two expecta 
tions should be brought out and realized. Till that be done, 
one can scarcely obtain a hearing with some ardent minds. 
They are so afraid of being thrown off their watch for the 
coming of Christ, that unless they think every thing ripe and 
ready for his coming to-morrow, they do not see how they 
can be kept in the scriptural attitude of " looking for him." 
Having exposed the fallacy on which this is founded, we 
shall no more be borne down by the question, How the com 
mon view can possibly stand with the scriptural prominence 
of the Lord s coming, and the required watchfulness of the 
church in the view of it ? Holding that to be a settled point, 
we shall refuse to be again crossed in the open field of scrip 
tural inquiry. In point of chronology, " the day of Christ 
was" not " at hand" in Paul s tune, and he was positively 
fearful lest it should be thought that it was. Some day, of 
course, it will be chronologically at hand ; but, as this in 
volves a question of dates and times as to which men are 
liable to mistake, and some in the primitive church did mis 
take, and had to be told explicitly that they were under a 
delusion the apostle would have us not mix up with the 
great and stirring certainties of the Lord s impending advent 



AND THE PATIENCE OF HOPE. 51 

any speculations, however lawful or even laudable in their 
own place, about the chronological nearness of it. If it was 
" at hand" eighteen centuries ago if, when the beloved 
disciple was in rapt communication with him at Patmos, 
Jesus could greet him with the glad announcement, " Behold, 
I come quickly " and no deception faith can now, precisely 
as then, echo that disciple s sweet response, " Amen : Even 
so, come, Lord Jesus." For faith lays hold, not on chronolo 
gical dates or arithmetical calculations useful though these 
are in their own place but on " the Strength of Israel, 
who will not lie," as he speaks in the promises of his blessed 
Word. What faith believes, hope brings near. To the hope 
of the believer, even as to the Lord himself, " a thousand 
years are as one day" Though chronologically far off, if so 
it should be found no matter. Faith sees him coming 
" leaping upon the mountains and skipping upon the hills." 
And neither, on the one hand, in the spirit of sloth and 
carnality, which says, " My Lord delayeth his coming," nor, 
on the other hand, in the spirit of fanatical and excited ex 
pectation as to a present appearance ; but in that sublime 
state of mind which the apostle calls " the PATIENCE OF HOPE," 
it is the privilege of faith to say alike when chronologically 
far off and chronologically near, and as it were in holy defi 
ance of mere dates, because ready for them all alike " Make 
haste, my Beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young 
hart upon the mountains of spices !" (Cant. viii. 14.) 



CHAPTER III. 

THE CHURCH, OR MYSTICAL. BODY OF CHRIST, COMPLETE AT 
HIS COMING. 

OUR preliminary inquiries being now concluded, the way is 
open for bringing out the mind of the Spirit on the great 
question at issue, namely, Whether the fleshly state at the 
second advent, instead of coming to an end, will only be then 
reconstituted and inaugurated as one of the departments of 
a millennial kingdom ; whether, after one portion of Christ s 
people have appeared with him in glory, for ever beyond the 
experience of imperfection and the reach of evil, another por 
tion of them will be left below for a thousand years in their 
mortal bodies, subject to all the imperfections of the life of 
faith and the state of grace, as contradistinguished from the 
glory of the risen and changed saints. The Scripture evi 
dence against this theory I propose to arrange under a series 
of propositions, the first of which will occupy the present 
chapter. 

PROPOSITION FIRST: 

THE CHURCH WILL BE ABSOLUTELY COMPLETE AT CHRIST S 
COMING. 

If this can be established, the whole system falls to the 
ground. If all that are to be saved will be brought in before 
Christ comes, of course there can be none to come in after 



" THEY THAT ARK CHRIST S AT HIS COMIXG." 53 

his advent, and in that case the lower department of the ex 
pected kingdom disappears. 

The difficulty here is not to find proof of the point, but 
any thing like evidence to the contrary. N"o plain reader of 
the Bible ever doubts that the Church will be completed ere 
Christ comes; not a few even of the premillennialists them 
selves have been constrained to admit it with what effect 
upon the sobriety of their own views we shall by and by see; 
and even those who deny it, give evidence of the extreme 
weakness of their ground, and virtually concede the point, 
by admitting that " the Bride " of Christ will be complete, 
though they contend that the whole number of the saved 
whom they distinguish from " the Bride " will not. 

The following passages are quite decisive : 

1 Cor. xv. 23. " But each ( Ixcc/rms $1) in his own order : Christ 
the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ s AT HIS COMING." 

Any one who even glances at this sublime chapter will 
see, that the burden of it is the resurrection of believers in 
general of " them that are Christ s," considered as the se 
cond Adam. As their death is deduced from their federal 
relation to the first Adam, so their resurrection is argued 
from their federal connection with the second. " As in 
Adam (they) all die, even so in Christ shall (they) all be 
made alive."* And it is immediately after this that the 
apostle says, " But each (party) in his own order " that is, 
the federal Head and those federally related to him " Christ 
tlie first-fruits ; afterward they that are Christ s (the full har 
vest) at his coming." 

Can any thing be more decisive than this ? What commen- 

* So I incline to understand the words, the resurrection of believers 
being the one only case to which the apostle speaks throughout the chap 
ter. But however this be, my argument from the passage will remain 
the same, provided it be admitted that the party or parties federally re 
lated to the first and second Adams are discoursed of as a whole, and not 
ia fragmentary portions or classes. 



54 " THEY THAT ARE CHRIST S AT HIS COMING." 

tator explains it otherwise?* What unbiased reader ever 
understood it otherwise ? Is it not, then, a very bold liberty 
with the Word of God to say, that only a fractional part of 
" them that are Christ s" are here spoken of? that it means 
only such of them as shall have lived before the millennium? 
that there will be millions of " them that are Christ s," that 
will not be " made alive at his coming," but remain in their 
mortal and unglorified state upon earth for at least a thou 
sand years thereafter ? Here, on the contrary, we find the 
whole federal offspring of the second Adam made alive together 
at his coming. As surely as " Christ, the first-fruits " of 

* " Nihil," says LUTHER on this verse, " de privata resurrectione agitur, 
quomodo unus atque alter a rn.ortu.is surrexerit, sed de communi resurrec 
tione, deque illius caussa et capite, quod est Christus Ipse enim 

sua hora surrexit, ita nos quoque, ubi hora nostra venerit, quoque resur- 
gemus et ipsum sequemur. Neque enim ante nos excitare statuit, quam 

omnes simul quotquot ipsius sumus congregari fuerimus Hoc enim 

series et ordo postulant, ut ipse primus sit, qui strata via fores (quod dici- 
tur) aperiret et immortalitatem apportaret : Deinde omnia sua membra 
ordine congregaret, quibus resurrectio ab ceterno destinata est, ut uno die 
omnes Christiani simul (that is, as the connection shows, all Christ s 
members, eternally ordained to life and resurrection) in lucem prodirent 
quem ipse ordinavit, atque ita cum eo pcrpetuo viverent. . . . Ita Christus 

in suo, et nos in nostro ordine manemus Neque enim clanculum 

aut in angulo ista agcntur, ut hie unus alibi alius resurgat, sed propa- 
lam, universe mundo inspectante, mortc, peccato, et omnibus acerbitati- 
busjuxta obolitis, et prater vitam et gaudium perenne nihil erit reliqui. " 
Enarr, in xv. cap. i. Cor. 

" Quemadmodum," says CALVIN, " in primitiis, totius anni proventus 

consecrabatur, ita vis resurrectionis Christi ad nos omnes diffunditur. 

. . . Christus, cujus officium est nobis restituere quee in Adam per- 

didimus, nobis vitas causa est ; ejusque resurrectio hypostasis et pignus 

est nostrse Satis sit nobis, quod nunc in Christo habemus primi- 

tias: nobis autem adventus ejus tempus erit ad resurgendum." 

" Paulus," says BENGEL, -who held in some things with the premillen- 
nialists, " loquitur hie de piis, quorum ia-a^, primitice, Christus est ; 
atque hi, ut in Adamo omnes moriuntur, sic etiam in Christo omnes vivifi- 
cabuntur. O; D Xjio-ToS, qui sunt Christi: Suave polyptoton, Xj/o-,-, 
X^iTTtiu. Christian! sunt quasi appendix ivs a.^a.^s, primitiarum. E 
if Tcu<rfa KVft,u in adventu ejus: Turn erit ordo Christianorum, 1 Thesa 
iv. 1C. Non alii post alias resurgent illo tempore.* 



" THEY THAT ARE CHRIST S AT HIS COMING." 55 

Ills covenanted people, " was made alive in Ms order," so surely 
shall " they that are Christ s be made alive in their order at 
(g v) his coming." * 

The next passage I have to adduce in proof of the com 
pleteness of the Church at Christ s coming, is 

Eph. v. 25-27. " Christ also loved the Church, and gave him 
self for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the 
washing of water by the word ; that he might present it to 
himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or 
any such thing; but that it should be holy, and without 
blemish." 

It is impossible to doubt what " Church" is here meant, 
for it is defined by three bright unmistakeable marks within 
the bosom of the passage itself. It is " the Church which 
Christ loved" from everlasting, " the Church for which he 
gave himself in the fulness of time, " the Church which he 
is now sanctifying and cleansing by the word," as " with the 
washing of water:" It is THIS CHURCH, even the WHOLE 

LOVED, RANSOMED, AND PURIFIED COMPANY, which Christ 
will " PRESENT (flttgatfrjjfljj) TO HIMSELF a GLORIOUS ClIURCH." 

Calvin takes the allusion to be to the bridal beauty in which 
the Church will be presented to her Lord.f Bengel does the 
same.J And as this apostle tells the Corinthians that he had 

* All that is said in reply to this is, that the apostle is treating only of 
Christians living before the coming of Christ, which does not hinder us 
from believing that there will be others to come after that event. But 
my argument is, that the subject of discourse in this chapter is the whole 
federal offspring of the second Adam the whole saving fruit of Christ s 
work, in contrast with the ruins of the broken covenant. I believe it 
impossible to overthrow this, which subverts the whole premillennial 
system. 

t " Hanc quidcm primum sub figura dcscribit, quoc argumento conve- 
niebat. Ut sit speciosa, inquit. Namsicuti formos elegantia in uxore causa 
est amoris, ita Christus ecclesiam, Sponsam suam, ornat sanctitate, ut 
sit hoc benevolentise pignus." 

J ""! xa.^a.fffv.fr, IxurS, ut sisteret sibi ipsi : tanquam Sponso "E3efe, 
gloriosam : Ex amore Christi debemus haurirc sestirnationem sanctifica- 
tionis. Quoe Sponsa contemnit ornatum a Sponso oblatum ? " 



56 PRESENTATION OP THE CHURCH TO CHRIST 

espoused them " to one Husband, that he might present them 
(KagaffTqffai} as a chaste virgin to Christ" (2 Cor. xi. 2), there 
can be no doubt, I think, that they are right. Well, when 
is this to be ? Clearly " at his coming." But should any 
hesitate about this, I will put it beyond doubt by comparing 
it with two or three passages, in which the same delightful 
truth is expressed, and nearly in the same terms. 

2 Thess. i. 10. "He shall come to be glorified in his saints, 
and to be admired in all them that have believed* in that 
day." 

The party in this passage is the same as in the former : 
there called " the Church" loved, purchased, and purified from 
every stain ; here, " his saints" " all them that have believed." 
The purpose in view, too, is in both passages the same. In 
the former, to present it to himself " a glorious Church;" in 
the latter, " to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all 
them that believe" to be greeted with the "admiration" 
and get the "glory" which is his due, when beheld by the 
side of his spotless and resplendent Church, as its Life, Head, 
and Husband IN THAT DAY of his second coming. This is 
decisive. As it determines the time of presentation, so equally 
the party presented, by definitions not to be misunderstood. 
To the same effect, 

Jude 24. " Now unto Him that is able to keep you from fall 
ing, and to present you faultless before the presence of his 
glory with exceeding joy, &c. (<rrij<ran xanv/u^mv). 

Here the thing to be done, and, beyond all doubt, the 
time of doing it, are the same as in the two former passages. 
So precisely in two other passages : 

Col. i. 21,22. "And you, that were sometime alienated, and 
enemies in your mind by wicked Avorks, yet now hath he 

* To7e aiff nCffa.ffit is probably the preferable reading. On this reading 
Mr Bickersteth founds a very slender argument for there being some 
to believe ajter " that day." 



AT HIS COMING. 57 

reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present 
you holy, and uublameable, and unreproveable in his sight" 
(j!ta.^a.a<rrtira.t xaTtiuitmi). 

1 Thess. iii. 13. " To the end he may stablish your hearts un- 
blameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the 
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints." 

Here we have the additional idea of the presentation of 
the Church, not only to Christ, as a Bride to her Husband, 
but of both to the Father at the second advent. 

And now, I think it impossible to resist the combined 
force of these passages. One broad magnificent conception 
pervades them all 

The absolute completeness of the Church at Christ s com 
ing* 

The spotless purity in which it will then be presented, " as 
a chaste virgin," to Christ, 

The resplendent glory in which, as " the Bride, the Lamb s 
wife," she shall then be " adorned for her Husband," 

The praise which will redound from such a spectacle to 
the Redeemer himself, 

The rapturous admiration of Him which it will kindle, and, 

The ineffable complacency with which the whole will be 
regarded by " God, even our Father." 

Thus have I established the completeness of the Church at 
Christ s coming. I have limited myself to a few passages, on 
the import of which all commentators, ancient and modern, 
are agreed* (one or two others will occur by and by) ; but it 
is written as with a sunbeam on the pages of the New Testa 
ment, and those who call it in question, are driven to seek 
support from highly figurative portions of Old Testament 
prophecy, and from the corresponding book of the New Tes- 

* Perhaps 1 should not exactly say all, for of what interpretation could 
this be said ? But certainly the unanimity is overwhelming. 



58 TILE OPPOSITE VIEW DESTITUTE OF SUPPORT. 

tament, the Apocalypse. Now, it is an old maxim in divinity, 
that doctrines are not to be built upon prophetic or symbolical 
scripture.* The principle is one of undoubted soundness, 
and of indispensable necessity as a bulwark against the abuse 
of figurative language. Premillennialism, however, is one en 
tire product of the reverse of this principle ; and, in the case 
before us, it can produce nothing in proof of the incomplete 
ness of the Church at Christ s coming, but what is studded 
all over with figures. How slender is the support derived 
even from this source, I shall now show. 

The following are the passages chiefly relied on : 

Zech. xiv. 5. "The Lord my God shall come, and all the saints 
with thee." (^SJ? LXX. fiir avrov, reading i?3^ with 
him.}-\- 

Here, it is said, is Christ s second coming with all his 
saints before the millennium, when their number is confessedly 
incomplete. " All the saints," therefore, must mean here 
only all living before that time ; and if here, why not every 
where ? 

My answer to this is twofold. First, The best interpre 
ters, including some premillennialists, take " the saints" here 
to mean the holy angels (as in Deut. xxxiii. 2 ; Dan. viii. 13, 
&c.), as ministers of divine vengeance. I was inclined to 

* Thcologia prophefica non est argumentativa. Mr Wood thinks this 
maxim inapplicable to subjects themselves prophetical. But the great 
fault of premillennialists is, that they mix up those great catholic doc 
trines of the second coming of Christ, the resurrection, the judgment, and 
its final issues which are written as with the point of a diamond in 
the New Testament with a profusion of particular prophetic events, of 
a local and changeable character, which are for the most part couched in 
figures and symbols. This is what I refer to. 

J- Mr Wood justly complains of this passage being discussed in a mere 
note in the first two editions. It was an oversight ; but when asked, be 
fore the work appeared in the United States, if I had any thing to alter, 
this was the one correction which I requested might be made. The 
correction came too late for the American edition, but it is now made. 



THE OPPOSITE VIEW DESTITUTE OF SUPPORT. 59 

think otherwise, but Old Testament usage seems decidedly 
in favour of it. In this case, I think, the passage proves 
nothing. But, waiving this, my principal answer is, that it 
has never been proved, nor I believe can be, that the " com 
ing" spoken of in this chapter is the second personal advent 
of Christ. The minute details of this prediction all to be 
taken literally in that case are totally irreconcilable with 
" the burning up of the earth and the works that are therein," 
which is to signalise the second coming of Christ (2 Pet. iii. 
10). The majority of commentators apply the prophecy to 
the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, when the Lord 
" came" to establish on the ruins of a carnalized and faithless 
Judaism the kingdom of his grace.* In this case, of course, 
it has nothing to do with our subject. But even if we apply 
the prophecy to the conflicts -which are to usher in the millen 
nial kingdom which good interpreters think the sequel of 
the chapter obliges us to do the sense will be very much the 
same.f 

But however this passage is to be expounded, since the 
whole context is highly figurative and involved in difficulty, 
as is evident from the diversities among commentators, it 
shows great poverty of solid proof to appeal to it so frequently 
and confidently on a question confessedly of vast moment, 
and on which the New Testament abounds in the plainest 
statements. 

* "The language," says LUTHER " suits well with the last day, but the 
preceding context does not harmonize with that sense." (Enarr. in cap. 
xiv., Proph. Zach.) 

f Rev. xvii. 14. " These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb 
shall overcome them, for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings ; and they 
that are WITH HIM (pi? OCUTOU) are called, and chosen, and faithful." Ch. 
xiv. 1. " And I looked, and lo, the Lamb (so Tisch. and Treg.) stood on 
the Mount Zion, and WITH HIM (pir a.liw] an hundred and forty and four 
thousand." Efv< piti tiiot (Time.) ab alicujus parlilus stare, JELF, $ 636. 
1. Also Rev. xii. 7: "Michael and his angels (Christ and his friends in. 
plain flesh and blood) fought with the dragon and his angels" (Satan, 
wielding the forces of Paganism against the early Christians.) 



60 THE OPPOSITE VIEW DESTITUTE OP SUPPORT. 

Rev. xix. 6-9. " And I heard as it were the voice of a great 
multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the 
voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia : for the 
Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and re 
joice, and give honour to him : for the marriage of the 
Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 
And to her was granted that she should be arrayed iu 
fine linen, clean and white : for the fine linen is the right 
eousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are 
they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. 
And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God." 

The argument here is, that the marriage of the Lamb with 
his Bride, or the Church, is said to take place immediately 
after the fall of Antichrist, or before the millennium, when 
the number of the elect will certainly not be complete. 

In reply to this, it may be enough to say that this cannot 
be the actual consummation of the marriage between Christ 
and his Church in glory, because in the two last chapters of 
this book (which most of my opponents agree with me in 
referring to the everlasting state) the Church is described as 
" descending," after the millennium is all over, " as a bride 
adorned for her husband ; " and it is rather awkward to sup 
pose a bridal preparation and a presentation of the parties 
to each other a thousand years after the union has been con 
summated. * " Christ s marriage with his Church," says 
DURHAM, " is three ways spoken of in Scripture : 1. As it 
cometh by the offer of the gospel, wherein many are es 
poused, and by faith engaged to him (2 Cor. xi. 2.) 
Thus it hath been since Christ s days; his marriage was 
then, and many were and are invited (Matt. xxii. &c.) 

* BENGEL. HTot/uaa-iv laur>,v, paravit se, i.e. coepit parare so, ul tntritrnuxet, 
tfyaa /ixa., yXxixa, nactus sum fidem, c. DE NUPTIIS ISTIS, vide c. xxi. 2, 9. ss. 

Mr Wood derives another argument in favour of his views from the 
distinction made in this passage between those " called to the marriage 
supper of the Lamb," and the Bride. This, however, with the singular 
distinctions drawn from Ps. xlv. (Last Things, pp. 24, 25) will be con 
sidered by and by. 



THE OPPOSITE VIEW DESTITUTE OF SUPPORT. 61 

2. As it is consummated and perfected at the end, when the 
Queen is brought to the King, and abideth with him for 
ever (Ps. xlv.) 3. There is an intervening step, when the 
fulness of the Gentiles and the Jews shall be brought in 
together: that is marrying eminently, because it is the 
grafting again of the old branches, and the bringing back 

of a divorced wife, for a time forsaken And as in 

Scripture there is a threefold resurrection (namely, 1. By 
the gospel, which was and is alway, John v. 14 ; 2. At the 
end, which is general, as the first is partial ; 3. When Jews 
and Gentiles shall come in together, which is, Eom. xi., as 
life from the dead, which is between the two former) so 
may we consider the Church s marriage, which is the same 
with the resurrection, in a threefold consideration also. It 
is not the first nor the second marriage that is mentioned 
here; for it is, in a singular way, such a marriage as was 
not before, and the last end is not intended here; for the 
last marriage doth not comprehend an accession to the mili 
tant Church, as this doth here, going along Avith the Pope s 
overthrow before the end." (Commentary upon the Book of 
the Revelation, 1658, ad loc.) 

Rev. xxi. 24. " And the nations [of them which are saved *] 
shall walk in the light of it (the New Jerusalem), and 
the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour 
into it." 

It is surprising that any thing should be made of such a 
passage as this. For, as " the kings of the earth bring their 
glory and honour (g/ g) UNTO or INTO the New Jerusalem," the 
state of both must be the same the receptacle and the things 
received into it must be homogeneous. If " the kings of the 
earth" mean potentates living in the flcsli, and if their 
" glory and honour " mean their regal wealth and influence, 
then " the New Jerusalem " into which they enter, bringing 

* The words enclosed in brackets (rSv rego/tltm) arc excluded from the 
text by all critical editors as wanting in MS. authority. 



C2 THE OPPOSITE VIEW DESTITUTE OF SUPPORT. 

this with them, must mean an earthly state of the Church. 
If, on the other hand, the " New Jerusalem " mean the glori 
fied state of the Church, then " the kings " who bring their 
glory and honour unto or into it, cannot mean the sovereigns 
of the earth living in the flesh, nor can their " glory and 
honour " mean any thing earthly, because " flesh and blood 
can not inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption 
inherit incorruption." Accordingly, though commentators are 
divided as to whether the two last chapters of Revelation 
denote the heavenly state, or a bright state of the Church 
upon earth, they agree in applying the whole verse before us 
to the one or the other of these states, but not to both. Thus 
Vitringa and others apply it to the Church on earth, * despite 
the " impudence " which Augustine thought it would require 
to venture on such a view : f while, on the other hand, 
Durham, March, and the majority of commentators, apply 
it to the Church in glory under the idea of a confluence of 
all that can be conceived of regal magnificence and grandeur 
to adorn that blessed state. J 

Such, then, are the passages relied on to prove that the 

* " Post longa tempora persecutionum, afflictionum, et calamitatum 

magno numero implcrent novam hanc Civitatem Populi Dei, et 

ad earn constitucndam et exornandam undique conflucrcnt ; turn quoque 
Principes, Reges, Imperatores, Christo et Ecclesise ejus scrvaturi, suam 
gloriam, majcstatem, vires, in earn inferrent; hoc est, in ejus converte- 
rent usum utilitatemque," &c. Anakris. Apocalyps. ad loc. 

t " Nam hoc de isto tempore accipere quo regnat [ecclesia] cum Rege 
suo mille annis impudentise nimise milii videtur." De. Civ. Dei, lib. xx. 
cap. xvii. 

J " Magis placet, quod est apud Durliamum, tantam fore civitatis hujus 
gloriam, ut pra3 ilia reges omnes regnorum gloriam deserant ; vel quasi 
omnes reges omnem suam conferrent, ut locum suum gloriosum red- 
derent, sic ut phrasis hsec ad extern! emblematis decus spectet." 
MAECKII in Apoc. Comm. ad loc. 

I observe Mr Wood s remarks on this passage (p. 27), but they amount 
to nothing more than a denial of any incongruity between kings in flesh 
with their material wealth, and the celestial glory of the risen saints. 
Let the reader judge. 



WHAT DO PREMILLENNIALISTS SAY TO THIS ? G3 

Church, or the whole mystical body of Christ, will not be 
complete at his second coming. I think I have proved that 
it will; and I appeal to the reader if any thing, I say not 
of equal weight, but even of weight at all, is adduced in 
opposition to it. Other arguments, however, abundantly 
confirming the position I have laid down, will occur in the 
sequel. 

If Christ, then, when he comes the second time, is to 
reign on the earth for a thousand years, it will not be over 
believing men still left in their mortal bodies upon earth. 
Living Christianity will have disappeared from the earth : 
The number of the elect accomplished, the whole body of 
Christ transfigured, and thus prepared, as a Bride adorned for 
her Husband, " will with gladness and rejoicing have been 
brought will have entered into the King s palace." This 

is " OUR GATHERING TOGETHER UNTO HIM," * this IS " THE 
UNIVERSAL CONCOURSE AND ASSEMBLY OF THE FIRST-BORN 

REGISTERED IN HEAVEN," f for which preparation is now 
making, and to which every believer is in spirit already 
joined. 

What do the premillennialists say to this ? It divides them 
into two classes : one class boldly avowing the completeness 
of the Church before the millennium, and doing their best, 
by various adjustments of their system, to avoid the harsh 
consequences which flow from it ; while the other class, re 
coiling from the conclusions, take refuge in a denial of the 
premises from which they flow affirming that the Church, 
so far from being complete at Christ s coming, will have 
an accession of myriads of believers after his coming, 
from among the Jews and Gentiles over whom he is to 

* Hpuv \xi<rvi&.yuyri in* a,lnot. 2 ThcSS. ii. 1. 

"f" T\.a.rf,yvis %.,} \.%z\ r,tr ia, XZOTOTOXIOV It e ; ju.voif caro^fy^K/^/^it/ini. Heb. xiL 

23. 



G4 TWO GREAT DIVISIONS ON THIS POINT. 

reign. Let us try it both ways, and see where we are on 
either supposition. 

FIRST : Let us hear one or two of the former class who 
place the Reign upon earth after the completion of all the 
elect. 

Homes, a contemporary of Mede, two centuries ago, placed 
the conflagration, the creation of the new heavens and new 
earth, the resurrection of all the deceased, and the change 
of all the living saints embracing the whole number of the 
elect before the millennium. 

" In that new creation," says he, " Christ restores all things to 
their perfection, and every believer to his ; to the end that all 
believers may jointly and co-ordinately rule over the whole world, 
and all things therein, next under Christ their Head. I say all, 
and not a part only, as some unwarily publish. And I say jointly, 
and not one part of saints to usurp authority over the rest, as 
many dream. And co-ordinately, all upon equal terms, not some 
saints to rule by deputies made of the rest of saints, as men seem 
to interpret." * 

But will there be no other men on the new earth besides 
these risen and changed saints to perpetrate the rebellion 
and suffer the perdition perdicted, at the end of the thousand 
years ? Yes, myriads ; but all unconverted and inconvertible. 
None but " open and obstinate ungodly men " being des 
troyed by the conflagration, the rest will be " reserved 
out of the fire to be an appendix of the new creation, as 
Lactantius, Sixtus, Senensis, and Dr Twisse understand." 
These, " by virtue of the Adamic covenant, shall be restored 
in soul and body to the natural perfection which Adam 
had in the state of innocency; but being mutable, they 
shall fall, when in like manner they are assaulted by Satan. 
Out of these shall spring the brood of Gog and Magog." 

"The Church, being now as heaven on earth, the false-hearted 
spawn of future Gog and Magog shall be remote on earth, near 

their future hell But if these hypocrites were nearer the 

* Resurrection Revealed, ut supra, p. 279. 



FIRST CLASS HOMES BURNET. 65 

Church, they might perhaps be converted ? "We answer, No : 
for it is (if we may use that word) the fate of the millenary period, 
I mean, God s righteous peremptory sentence, that as all that time 
tliere shall be no Degenerating of believers, so no more Regenerating of any 
titibelicvers" * 

Burnet, a little later, in his celebrated " Theory of the 
Earth" agrees with Homes as to the time of the conflagra 
tion, the new heavens and new earth, and the completion 
of the elect to reign, in a resurrection state, on the new 
earth. 

" Neither," says he, " is there any distinction made, that I find 
by St John, of two sorts of saints in the millennium, the one in heaven 
(in resurrection bodies), the other upon earth (in a mortal state). 
This is such an idea of the millennium as to my eye hath neither 
beauty nor foundation in Scripture." ( 

But whereas, according to him, all the wicked are to 
perish in the conflagration, he has to reproduce them, one 
way or other, to " compass the camp of the saints and the 
beloved city " at the end of the millennium (Rev. xx. 7-9), 
and to be consumed in their mad assault upon immortal 
men. " This," says he, " is a common difficulty to all " (that 
is, all premillennialists, for it is their system alone which 
creates the difficulty) ; " and every one must contribute their 
best thoughts and conjectures towards the solution of it." 

* Page 282. Also Appendix, No. II. 

The editor of this reprint of Homes Mr Brooks says, in a note to 
one part of the chapter from which we quote, that " in the Appendix 
it will be seen that Homes is aware of the distinction between the saints 
of the resurrection and those who remain in the flesh." (P. 286.) If, 
by " those who remain in the flesh," Mr B. means " those saints " or 
Christians which is the plain sense of his words it is not correct. 

f Theory of the Earth, book iv. ch. 7. Second edition, 1691. 

Though Burnet refers here to the view of Piscator and others, who 
took the millennial reign of the risen saints to be in heaven, the reader 
will observe that what he characterizes as void of beauty and Scripture 
foundation, is simply the distinction of two sorts of saints in tlu: millen 
nium. 

Q 



(36 FIRST CLASS PERRY. 

The reader will smile at Burnet s own solution of it, if new 
to him. 

" It seems probable," says he, " that there will be a double race 
of mankind in the future earth, very different from one another. 
The one born from heaven, sons of God and of the resur 
rection, who are the true saints and heirs of the millennium: the 
others born of the earth, sons of the earth, generated from tlie slime 
of the ground and heat of the sun, as brute creatures were at the first. 
This second progeny, or generation of men, in the future earth, I 
understand to be signified by the prophet under these borrowed or 
feigned names of Gog and Magog." * 

Perry, early in the last century, thus emphatically ex 
presses himself on the completion of the elect before the 
personal advent and reign on earth: 

" It is certain that when Christ personally comes from heaven 
will be the time of the open solemnization of the marriage glory 
between Him and the Spouse ; and, if so, then the Bride must 
be ready against that time, as it is expressed in this text, * And 
his Wife hath made herself ready; which cannot be if they are 
not all converted before Christ comes. For this I think is un 
deniable, that by the Wife, Bride/ or Spouse of Christ, the 

whole Elect must be understood How can it be thought 

that Christ, when he comes from heaven to celebrate the mar 
riage-feast between himself and his people, that he should have 
a lame and imperfect Bride ; as she must be, if some should be 
with Christ iu a perfect glorified state, and some of his mystical 
body at the same time in an imperfect and unglorified condi 
tion ? " f 

Perry, however, went farther than this; not only denying 
the existence of saints in the flesh during the millennium, but 
even of men at all in the flesh during that period the earth 
being, according to him, in exclusive possession of men in 
the resurrection-state during the millennium. A pleasant 
theory, truly ; but how, according to it, did he get the last 

* Ch. 10. 

f The Glory of Christ s Visible Kingdom in this World. By JOSEPH 
PEBKY, pp. 225, 226. Northampton, 1721. 



FIRST CLASS PERRY. 67 

conflict after the millennium brought about (Rev. xx. 8, 9) ? 
" This," says he, " seems to me to be the knottiest text 
throughout the whole Bible in relation to this glorious time." 
In his attempts to solve it, he first rejects the ordinary view 
of the spiritual glory of the latter day terminal ing in an 
extensive outbreak of human corruption (that is not a glori 
ous enough view of the millennium for those who hold the 
Personal Reign) : Next, he rejects the now prevalent view 
among premillcnriialists, of two classes of saints the one 
perfect, immortal, glorified, and reigning ; the other un- 
glorified, mortal, imperfect, and ruled over, having also 
mixed up with them a multitude of unconverted professors, 
who are at last to attack the rest and perish in the attempt. 
Homes view he then rejects of " some, not in the covenant 
of grace, preserved for the " premillcnnial " burning of the 
world, and restored unto an Adamitical state of innocence " 
as a thing to him unintelligible. * He admits, indeed, 
that a remnant of the wicked may be preserved from the 
conflagration, who may " be left to multiply in some of the 
outside parts or borders of the earth," far enough from 
seeing or beholding the glory of Christ and the saints 
during the time of " that glorious reign," and renewed to 
no Adamitical state. But he gives a number of reasons 
against even this view, and ventures finally on one of his 
own, " which he knows is out of the common road of almost 
all expositors; and that is, that the Gog and Magog who 
will arise at the end of the thousand years, to compass the 
camp of the saints, will consist of the number of all the wicked 
when raised out of their graves ! " (P. 409.) He is aware 
that " this, by reason of its being altogether new, may seem 
strange, sound harsh, and appear altogether incredible unto 
many." But he " earnestly entreats the reader " to weigh 

* " By -what means these will be cleansed, if not in the covenant of 
grace, from that original pollution which the whole posterity of Adam is 
polluted with, I am at a loss to know." (P. 406.) 



G8 FIRST CLASS IN PKESENT DAY. 

his reasons for it, especially as he only humbly propounds it 
for the clearing of the darkest point in the preniillennial 
scheme. His reasons are sensible and convincing, as against 
the other theories of his premillennial brethren; but in favour 
of his own view, I shall not trouble the reader with them. 

In a word, and coming down to our own day, Dr M Xeile 
thus refers to those premillennialists whom he had found 
maintaining the completeness of the Church at Christ s 
coming : 

"It is objected again, that the mystical body of Christ shall be 
completed at his second advent, and consequently admit of no in 
crease, and that therefore the nations of the earth subsequent to 
that event cannot be brought into a Christian state ;" for " since 
they fall after the millennium, it is necessary to limit the nature 
of their blessedness during the millennium to an Adamic state 
an Adamic state of innocent creatureship," language uncouth 
enough certainly, but not more so than the thing it is intended to 
describe " from which it is alleged they may fall, as our first 
parents fell."* 

Lastly, in a beautiful little work lately published,! a 
theory is propounded identical with Perry s, except in one 
particular. The conflagration, the creation of the new heavens 

* Lectures on the Prophecies relative to the Jewish Nation, pp. 185- 
189. First edition, 1830. 

The Adamic theory put forth a few years ago by Mr Scott, cannot be 
classed with those which admit the completeness of the Church at 
Christ s coming. According to him, there will be two classes of righteous 
men in the flesh under the millennial reign of Christ and his glorified 
saints : a race of Christians, " upheld from falling by union to Christ 
and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit;" and a race of " Adamitical 
men "as Perry would call them" freed from all the effects of the 
fall," particularly " the corrupt nature and original sin," and " restored 
to the state of holiness and righteousness in which Adam was before the 
fall " (how, we are left in the dark) but who, "having merely Adam s 
state, and nothing more, will fall as Adam fell." ("Outlines of Pro 
phecy," and " The Millennium of the Bible Vindicated." By James 
Scott, Preacher of the Gospel, 1844, 1845.) 

f The Midnight Cry ; or, the Coming of the Son of Man Considered. 
By the Rev. Joseph Burchell. 1849. 



FIRST CLASS MR BURCIIELL. CO 

find new earth, and the completion of the elect are all to be 
premillennial : The new earth is to be in exclusive possession 
of the glorified saints, with their Head in the midst of them, 
and their millennial bliss undisturbed by the presence of any 
other men whatever. 

" When the Lord God Omnipotent," says Mr Burchell, " the Son 
of man, is come in his glory, then all flesh comes to its end ; the earth, 
with all that is therein, must be dissolved in fire. The work of the 
ministry has ceased ; there are none to seek and save when the Lord 
has made up his jewels, and is making a full end of his enemies. The 
Lord Jesus Christ is coming to reign over the renewed earth, with 
his Church perfected and complete with all who love his appear 
ing, whether they have died in faith, or then remain alive. The 
thousand years is the Lord s great Sabbath-day, the glorious rest ; 
when, having finished his gospel work, he will initiate his redeemed 
in the possession of bliss, and in the unclouded knowledge of an 
eternity to follow. As to saints living in the flesh after the Lord s 
coming, " I agree," says he, "in rejecting (I would say abhorring, 
if it were not that I fear to oiFend many good men) the mixed 
millennium, the half-carnal, half spiritual glory drawn out by 
many." And as to sinners, " the idea," he says, " of a sinner sur 
viving that day (of Christ s coming) would be absurd, if it were 
not worse than an absurdity." (Pp. 3, 4, 50.) 

But if neither saints nor sinners survive the coming of the 
Lord before the millennium, whence does he bring the apos 
tate nations, who, at the close of that period, come up against 
the camp of the saints and the beloved city ? Not from the 
dead, as Perry does. Yet here he feels the tenderness of 1m 
ground. " I well know," he says, " where the chief difficulty 
lies." His solution of it is certainly new. " The nations" 
(TO, tovri) " who, deceived by Satan, gather themselves to 
gether, as the sand of the sea, from the four quarters" or 
corners (yuviais) " of the earth," are evil spirits, " an invi 
sible kingdom, headed by the Serpent, who, at the millen 
nium, are bound at the angles or corners of the earth, at the 
tour winds of heaven, the mysterious starting-point of spi- 



70 REMARKS ON THIS CLASS. 

rits." (P. 20.) This is to make Satan the deceiver of him 
self which, I suppose, I may leave without comment. 

The weight of these testimonies to the absolute complete 
ness of the Church at Christ s coming, lies merely in the 
quarter from which they come. With any other than premil- 
lennialists, such statements as we have quoted would be a 
matter of course; for none but they have any doubt that 
Christ will stay in the heavens till all his redeemed be 
brought in. But when any of them admit this, we see at 
what a sacrifice it is done. It destroys at once the sobriety 
and credibility of their scheme. What it seems to gain at 
the beginning, and during the currency of the thousand years, 
it more than loses at the end of that period. Bright would 
be the hope they hold out, of " our gathering together unto 
him" at his coming, and reign with him on the earth none 
that are " his" left behind, but all " ever with the Lord" 
were the prospect not overcast, and the vessel marred in the 
hands of the potter, by the introduction of a very different 
and discordant element at the end of one brief millennium 
of celestial bliss even the rush of myriad hosts from all the 

ends of the earth against what? against the very glory 

of the Lord, and the pavilion of his immortal and transfi 
gured people! It matters little which of the ways of explain 
ing this be adopted whether, with Homes and Burnet, the 
rebel multitude be thought to be mortal men; or, with Perry, 
the wicked raised from the dead; or, with Mr Burchell, evil 
spirits. The absurdity of all ways of it is alike manifest. 
But those who concede to us that there will be no earthly 
Church after Christ comes, and yet insist on bringing him 
from heaven before the millennium, cannot help themselves. 
As their concession to us deprives them of all materials for 
bringing about the final conflict, they are driven into such 
extravagant ways of realizing it as only serve to show the 
hopeless impracticability of their scheme. They could avoid 



SECOND CLASS THEIR THEORY. 71 

their difficulty by denying the completeness of the Church 
when Christ comes. But to this notion they have as much 
repugnance as we have ; and rather than fall in with what 
they regard as abhorrent and in the face of Scripture, they 
resort to solutions of their difficulty which all but themselves 
perceive to be extravagant and incredible. It is this, then, 
which gives weight to their testimony to the completeness of 
the Church at the Lord s coming. It is the testimony of 
those who have every inducement (so to speak) to deny it 
who feel themselves shut up to the admission, cost what it 
may, that when Christ comes whether before the millen 
nium or not he will want none of his redeemed. 

The SECOND class of premillennialists consists of those 
who deny this embracing nearly all who hold the Personal 
Eeign in our day, and against whose system I chiefly write. 
According to them, when the apostle says, " They that are 
Christ s (shall be quickened) at his coming," he means not 
his whole mystical body the universal family of the redeemed 
but only such of them as shall have lived up to the millen 
nium. On this extraordinary liberty I submit the following 
remarks : 

1. It is a violent, offensive, and perilous departure from 
the plain meaning of the words, not only here, but in all 
similar passages of Scripture, in which it is impossible to 
point out any thing, I say not which demands, but which 
even admits, of a limitation in the sense. 

2. This departure from the plain meaning of words comes 
strangely from the advocates of literal interpretation who 
ascribe to this same vicious habit of departing from the literal 
and obvious sense of Scripture, nearly all the opposition 
which their doctrine meets with. Those who will allow no 
latitude in the interpretation of prophetic language who 
insist on our taking predictions imbedded in symbol and 
figure with a literality reckless of consequences are the very 



72 SECOND CLASS 

persons who take to themselves this prodigious latitude in 
the interpretation of the most unadorned statements that 
can be imagined. The intelligent reader, while he marks 
this inconsistency, will trace it to its true source, the difficul 
ties of the system. Once insert the premillennial icedge 
into the text of Scripture, and a loosening process will com 
mence, the extent of which will depend upon the energy 
and determination with which it is driven in. 

3. Strange to say, the very party who contend for the 
glorification of only a fractional part of Christ s people at his 
coming, seem at times to forget themselves, and fall in with 
our views. They cannot part, it seems, with the bright ex 
pectation of a perfect, public, and simultaneous glorification 
of the whole Church at the Saviour s second appearing ; and 
they kindle into just ardour at the glorious prospect as if 
their system did not cut it up by the roots. " how 
glorious," exclaims sweet old Durant, already quoted, " will 
that salvation be, when all the heirs of salvation shall meet to 
gether! Now, all are not saved; the whole body now is in 
trouble for a part. Then, all the children of the Father shall 
meet together in their Father s presence; they shall come from 
the east and west, from north and south, and sit down in that 
kingdom ; yea, and then all saints shall be sweetly conjoined. 
Jewels scattered are not so resplendent; but joined in some 
rich pendent, O how glorious are they ! In that day Christ 
will gather up all his jewels he will bring in every saint into 
one gather them into one great jewel, one precious pendent, 
which shall jointly lie in his own bosom. Now, a saved soul 
sighs and cries, Where is Israel? where is Judah ? When 
will the Lord save them i Why, poor hearts, you shall all 
meet at that day be saved with an universal salvation ; and 
so be all of you with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the 
patriarchs, prophets all the apostles and martyrs ; yea, all 
that fear God, small as well as great. All, always, altogether 
in the presence of your Saviour! surely, then, you will say, 



TIIEIR INCONSISTENCY. 73 

that salvation is very sweet. Not one saint shall be missing in 
that day; but all shall altogether meet, and enjoy the salvation 
of Christ then, so universal shall it be." * Now, these State 
ments are very pleasant upon our principles. We can cor 
dially respond to them, and take the full comfort of them. 
But what are we to make of them upon the premillennial 
doctrine "All the heirs of salvation meeting tog-ether in 
their Father s presence," at the beginning of the thousand 
years " not one saint missing in that day ? " 

But perhaps this is more the language of ardour than of 
accuracy, and of an age when the doctrine of the premillennial 
advent was not so well understood in its manifold bearings as 
it is now ? Hear, then, the late much-esteemed Mr Bickersteth, 
hear him, not giving vent to his feelings in loose language, 
but calmly and didactically delivering what he takes to be the 
testimony of Scripture on this point. In his chapter on the 
"Period of the Second Coming," the following is the fifth of 
what he calls " The New Testament Statements bearing on this 
subject:" "ONE GLORIOUS HOPE is SET BEFORE THE CHURCH, 
in the New Testament.f This hope is set before us collec 
tively and in common. It is not to be given separately and 
at different periods ; but it is a glory belonging to the Church, 
to be given to it as a corporate body, and at a particular period 
the coming of our Lord ; and while it is to be the one ob 
ject of hope of all the Church in every age, it is to be enjoyed 
together as one body. For this all are to be looking." | 
Then follow a number of excellent proof-texts. Now, in this 
statement we perfectly and zealously concur ; but the marvel 
is, how any man who holds the views which he does, can put 
it down as a statement of his own belief. If the author will 

* Christ s Appearance the Second Time, ut supra, pp. 51-53. One 
would think from this extract, that Durant belonged to our first class; 
but as this is not clear, and some passages seem to look the other way, I 
give it in the above connection. 

t The capitals and italics are the author s own. 

1 Practical Guide to the Prophecies. Fifth edition, p. SO. 



74 SECOND CLASS 

unchurch the myriads that are to people the earth during the 
thousand years if he will tell us plainly, that the " men 
who shall then be blessed in Christ " the " all nations who 
shall call him blessed " will not be " blessed " with vital 
\mion to him and participation in the blessings of his salva 
tion, we can understand him ; for then he will just rank with 
our first class, whose views of the " Adamic state of innocent 
creatureship," in which the millennial nations are to rejoice, 
have at least the merit of consistency. In such case, he is at 
full liberty to speak of the glorification of the Church as being 
" given to it as a corporate body, and at a particular period 
the coming of our Lord ;" for the " corporate body " is then 
completed " the Church," by his own hypothesis, " is then 
entire." But it will not do to take the benefit and the com 
fort of a simultaneous glorification of the whole Church at the 
commencement of the millennium, and then to expatiate on 
the glories of a millennial Church, after that, sojourning on 
earth for a thousand years. Your expectation of the Church s 
corporate glory at the coming of our Lord is beautiful and 
soul-stirring ; but that expectation is ours, not yours. You 
have no right to it, but on one condition that you unchris- 
tianize that you sever from Christ and all his saving bene 
fits every one of the holy and happy myriads with whom, 
you people and bless the earth during the thousand years. 
When you have done this, you will then be entitled to kindle 
at a prospect infinitely superior to even this happy state of 
things the prospect of appearing in glory " as a corporate 
body, and at a particular period, even the coming of our 
Lord." But while you believe in the Church-state of the 
millennial nations in the Christian character of the latter- 
day glory you do but dazzle your readers with descriptions 
of a glory never to be realized on your principles ; for it is 
a manifest abuse of language to say, that you expect the 
Church in its entireness to appear with Christ in glory at his 
coming. 



THEIR INCONSISTENCY. 75 

Still, one may say, perhaps even Mr Bickersteth does not 
here speak the sentiments of his friends. Does so glaring an 
inconsistency pervade the writings of premillennialists gene 
rally? Let the reader judge from the following passages, 
which I quote from the second volume of Church of England 
Lectures on the Advent.* The first lecture is on "The 
manifestation of the Church at the coming of the Lord," 
from Eph. v. 25-27, " Christ loved the Church," c., which 
the author f interprets quite as absolutely as we ourselves do. 
" What," says he, " is meant by the Church ? It is composed 
of all those icho have been given to Christ by the Father from 
eternity. It comprises all those for whom, in an especial man 
ner, Clirist gave himself" On " the nature of the manifesta 
tion," he remarks, " 1. The Church will be glorious in its 
completeness. Never before shall the whole Church have been 
seen together then he will have ACCOMPLISHED THE NUMBER 
OF ins ELECT. That prayer will be answered which our Lord 
offered up just before ho was crucified, Neither pray I for 
these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me 
through their word, that they all may be one, &c. NOT ONE 
OP THE LORD S PEOPLE WILL BE WANTING " and more to the 
same effect. He then comes to " the time when this shall 
take place ;" on which, after adducing some very good texts, 
he says, " These statements positively and distinctly mark the 
time of the manifestation of the Church to be at the coming of the 
Lord." (Pp. 5, 7, 8, 12.) 

The fifth lecture is on " the Lord s Supper as a pledge of 
the Lord s return " a subject on which we shall have some 
thing to say by and by. The following sentences from this 
lecture are as destructive of the scheme they are brought to 
support as any thing we could say on the subject. " The 
Lord s Supper," says Mr Brock, " is a feast. And what a 
festival will that be when all the sons of God are united at 

* The Second Coining of Christ Practically Considered. Nisbet. 1814. 
| Rev. E. Auiiol, Rector of St Dunstan s. 



< U SECOND CLASS 

their Father s table! Catholicity is another manner 

in which the Supper of the Lord becomes a pledge to be 
lievers of the second advent. All the Church is made par 
takers of this ordinance. It is open to believers to them 
only, and to each and all of them. Thus it is catholic to the 
Church, exclusive to the world. So will it be as to the 
future. There shall be an exclusion of all the wicked ; an 
admission of all the righteous. They, they only, and each and 
all of them, shall be admitted to the Saviour s presence. Not 
one of them shall be wanting. Their names have been writ 
ten in the Lamb s book of life, from the foundation of the 
world. Their place is prepared, and it cannot be vacant. 
They are members of his body, WITHOUT WHOM (the least of 

them) THAT BODY WOULD BE MAIMED AND INCOMPLETE. All 

shall appear at the appointed time, and each assist to make up 
the perfect symmetry and exact proportion of that catholic 
assembly." (Pp. 122, 126, 127.) 

In the same strain, and with equal precision, speaks Mr 
Grimshawe, in the sixth lecture, on " the joy of the faithful 
minister at Christ s coming." The third particular in which 
this joy will consist is (he says), " the gathering together in 
glory of all the ransomed Church of Christ the perfect man 
the completeness of Christ in all the members of his mys 
tical body, elect, sanctified, and finally perfected in glory 
the redeemed of every age, tongue, kindred, and people." 
(Pp. 153, 154.) 

One other quotation from the eighth lecture, on "the 
hope of the advent, a remedy against superstition," will 
show the uniformity of strain, and the identity, almost, of 
expression, in which all these premillennialists speak of the 
simultaneous glorification of the entire Church at Christ s 
appearing. " This hope (of the advent, says Mr Dibdin) is 
the hope constantly set before the Church in the Word of God. 

But what Church ? It is all those ivlio have 

been chosen in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world. 



THEIR INCONSISTENCY. 77 

The Church ? it is every one of those who have been, are, or 
shall be born of the Spirit, and made new creatures in Christ 

Jesus Till all wliom the Father hath chosen in Christ 

out of mankind are born again, and justified, the Church will 
not be complete." (Pp. 194, 195.) 

I make no apology for the number of these quotations ; 
each from a different witness all from one volume, not a 
very old one expressing, with a clearness and a copiousness 
not to be misunderstood, the fixed belief, and the ardent ex 
pectation of those who are now looking for the coming of 
Christ before the millennium. And what is it ? It is, that 
the entire Church shall appear with Christ at his coming ; 
or, to take their own excellent definitions of the Church, that 
" all those who have been given to Christ by the Father from 
eternity all those for whom, in an especial manner, Christ 
gave himself all who have washed their robes, and made them 
white in the blood of the Lamb every one of those who have 
been, are, and shall be born of the Spirit, and made new crea 
tures in Christ Jesus" in a word, " the completeness of 
Christ in all the members of his mystical body, elect, sancti 
fied, and finally perfected in glory" all, all shall appear with 
Christ at his coming. " Scripture positively and distinctly 
marks the time of the manifestation of the Church," thus de 
fined, " to be," they tell us, " at the coming of the Lord." 

Well, agreeing with you cordially in all this, my simple 
question is, What will the Jews and Gentiles be, with whom 
you people the world during the millennium, and over whom 
you make the glorified Church to reign with Christ ? They 
cannot belong to the elected, the blood-bought, the regene 
rated, and justified members of Christ s mystical body ; for 
you have taken all these away from the earth, and out of 
their fleshly condition, to appear with Christ in glory before 
the millennium. If your statements are not hopelessly unin 
telligible, there will not be found, from beginning to end of 
the thousand years, one of the elect, the redeemed, the regene- 



73 SUMMARY. 

rate, one believer, one saint upon earth. Whatever may con 
stitute the felicity of that period, it will not be Christianity 
it will not be saintship. Christ s coming has put an end, 
by your own showing, to the existence of this upon earth and 
in the flesh. 

Will you fall back, then, upon the Adamic theory ? You 
ought to do it. But you will not. On opening your books 
again, we find you making the millennium the same Chris 
tian state that we expect it to be. The Jews, you say, look 
ing on their pierced Saviour, will repent and believe, and be 
the missionary instruments of the Gentiles conversion ; and 
you speak of the spiritual blessedness of that period when 
" the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the 
waters cover the sea" when " the kingdom and dominion 
under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the 
saints of the Most High" when "men shall be blessed in Christ 
(with salvation, of course), and all nations shall call him 
blessed."* 

Here, then, is the inextricable difficulty into which your 
system shuts you up ; and yet you are either unaware of it, 
or will not face it. You expatiate with equal confidence 
upon two things, the one of which is destructive of the other. 
You rejoice that Christ will bring all his people with him, 
before the millennium. You no less rejoice in the prospect 
of a world peopled with believing men for a thousand years 
after his coming! Let the reader now judge with what 
clearness premillennialists perceive the bearings of their own 
doctrine, and whether the parts of that doctrine are capable 
of hanging together as one consistent whole, 

We have thus seen that Christ, at his second appearing, 

will come absolutely and numerically " with all his saints" 

" them that are his ;" and have seen how remarkably this is 

confirmed by the enthusiastic, though suicidal testimony of 

* See, among others, Bickersteth s Guide, passim. 



REPLIES TO THE FOREGOING ARGUMENT. 79 

both classes of prcmillennialists. The first class, building 
their scheme upon the admission of this great truth, are 
thereby driven, as we have seen, into extravagances which it 
was unnecessary to refute, because they vanish at the touch. 
The second class, basing their scheme upon the denial of this 
truth, seem unable to want its inspiration ; for thus only can 
I account for the strain in which they anticipate a prospect 
which their system repudiates. Does not this show where 
the weakness of the premillennial theory lies obliging us 
either to deny the great scriptural doctrine of the complete 
ness of the Church at Christ s coming, or to believe in a mil 
lennium without Christians ? And I venture to affirm, that 
from this dilemma there is no possible escape, but in the be 
lief which clears all up that Christ s second coming tcill not 
be premillennial ; that all the glory of the latter day whether 
it be a definite or an indefinite period together with the 
final efforts of the wicked, at the close of it, will PRECEDE and 
not SUCCEED the coming of Christ. 

SUPPLEMENTARY REMARKS. 

The preceding argument, as it appeared in the first edition 
of this work, has drawn forth a number of replies, particularly 
from Mr Bickersteth, the Duke of Manchester, and Mr A. 
Bonar,* answers which, in my judgment, expose the weak 
ness of the premillennial system, and the looseness of Scrip 
ture interpretation which it necessitates, more effectually than 
most of the arguments employed to refute it. They all dis 
tinguish between " tJie Bride of the Lamb," and the whole 
number of the saved; affirming that the one will be complete 
at his coming, but the other not. Each, however, has his 
own way of reconciling his readers to this conclusion. 

Mr Bickersteth explains, that by " the Church," which is 
to appear as a complete and corporate body with Christ at 
his coming, he meant, not all the saved, but only a peculiar 

* With whom Mr Wood agrees. 



80 MR BICKERSTETH. 

portion of them, called " the bride, the assembly of the first 
born, the kings and priests unto God, the city ;" " whose 
privilege is distinct and peculiar not holiness and blessed 
ness merely, but these in a peculiar form." And who are 
to constitute this peculiar portion of the saved ? All who 
have believed up to the commencement of the millennium. These 
alone are the mystical body of Christ. But after they are 
completed, at the second advent the earth will be peopled by 
" nations of the saved" in flesh and blood friends, com 
panions, servants of the Bridegroom a totally different 
party from the then glorified Bride. But in what respect 
different ? The answer is, that though they have " holiness 
and blessedness, they have " merely" that they have it not 
in " the peculiar form" of union to Christ as his mystical 
body or bride. If one should ask again, what other union 
there is of sinners to Christ, but as " members of his body, of 
his flesh, and of his bones" (Eph. v. 30), the answer we get 
is a little startling : 

" There may be," says Mr Bickersteth, " and doubtless are, 

A THOUSAND STAGES AND VARIETIES OF UNION WITH ClIRIST, 
DISTINGUISHABLE FROM THE GLORY OF THE CHURCH OF THE 
FIRST-BORN." 

After this, we need not of course wonder to find the 
Adamic variety among the multitudinous types of millennial 
humanity the curious Mosaic which is to adorn the new 
earth. Accordingly, Mr Bickersteth thus proceeds: 

" In the first place, an Adamic state of innocence is not, 
as is unguardedly said (by Dr M Ncile), infinitely inferior to 
Christian union with God ; for it is a real union, and like that 
of unfallen angels in kind, though a little lower in form." " In 
every human household," he afterwards says, "there are usually 
four parties the bridegroom and bride, friends and servants."* 

* The Divine Warning to the Church at this Time. Fourth Edition, 
1846: "Answers to some objections," pp. 310, &c. So Mr Birks, pp. 
153-155. 



DUKE OF MANCHESTER MR BONAR. 81 

The Duke of Manchester limits the mystical body of Christ 
still farther excluding from it not only all the saints who 
are to live after the second advent, but also all who lived 
before the first, or rather prior to the ascension of Christ. 

" The gifts," he says, " necessary for forming the Christ 
mystical were not conferred until after the ascension of Jesus. 

We could not, therefore, say with propriety that the 

Church under former dispensation was Christ. The Bride 

is the New Jerusalem Now the great glory of the 

New Jerusalem is, that it is the abode of Deity. But for 
the believer to be a habitation of God, is the peculiar 
glory of the dispensation founded by the apostles, accord 
ing to the promise, He dwelleth with you, and shall be in 
you. " 

In what state his Grace expects the Old Testament saints 
to be, when they rise from the dead to inherit Canaan during 
the millennium, as he expects them to do I scarcely know. 
Probably he distinguishes between mere resurrection and 
glorification, and that inhabitation of Deity which he makes 
the distinguishing privilege of believers under this dispensa 
tion. * 

Mr Bona/r differs materially from both these authors. 
According to him, the millennial saints will be saints in 
the same sense as all other saints, whether under this dis 
pensation or before it. The only difference will be in their 
external circumstances. Having none of the trials of pre 
ceding saints, they will not attain to the dignity, reserved ex 
clusively for tried Christians, of being the Bride of Christ. 

"All saints," says he, " redeemed amid toil and temptation, 
and sorrow and warfare, shall form the Bride at the Lord s 
* The Finished Mystery. Appendix: "Examination of Mr Brown s 
Work on the Second Advent," pp. 284-288. The modest and excellent 
author of "Plain Papers on Prophetical and other Subjects" (1854), No. 
5 and 6, takes a view in substance the same with this, and in some re 
spects preferable. 



82 REPLIES TO T11E FOKEGOING ARGUMENT. 

coming; and this Bride shall reign with him a thousand 
years. Then, as to the saints \vlio shall people earth during 
these thousand years, they are as really saints, and as simply 
dependent on this Head, as any of those already in glory. 
As to state, character, and modes of spiritual life, they are 
not saints of another stamp from those of the Patriarchal, 
Jewish, and Gentile days ; but, on the contrary, they are 
converted as they were, live by faith as they did, war with 
their own corruptions as they, and hang on Christ alone to 
the last. It is only their circumstances that are different 
from former saints. They live during these millennial days 
with scarcely any, or rather with no opposition at all; with 
out persecution, and without Satan s temptations, for he is 
bound. It seems good, therefore, to the sovereign God to 
make a difference between them and those that lived not in 

millennial days The children of the millennium 

shall be our children." But " children are not different 

in nature from the parents. We wholly reject all theories about 
an Adamic race, or any thing similar ; we maintain that the 
children of that age shall be found in the miry clay by the 
sovereign God ; converted by his Holy Spirit ; led to see sin 
and the Saviour, as we do ; sanctified, probably far more 
rapidly and thoroughly, yet still by the same Spirit, through 
the Word, and so prepared for a future eternity." * 

What fantastic and bewildering speculations are these ! 
How opposed to the general strain of Scripture ; how desti 
tute even of the semblance of support ; how alien from any 
thing that would occur to an ordinary reader of the Bible ; 
how contrary to the belief of all churches, and the judgment 
of all commentators, from the beginning ; and, as now put 
forward by the advocates of the premillennial theory, how 
manifestly are they suggested by the necessities of a system ! 
A few paragraphs on each of the three forms in which this 
alleged distinction between " the Bride" and the whole 
* Redemption, &c., pp. 124, & 



THE DUKE OF MANCHESTER. 83 

dumber of the saved is exhibited, in the extracts which I have 
given, will suffice to justify these reflections. 

1. As the Duke of Manchester is aware that he stands 
almost alone among his brethren,* in excluding all who lived 
before the ascension of Christ from the privileges of " the 
Bride," " the New Jerusalem," " Christ " mystical, " the 
body of Christ," I shall merely say of his scheme, that it is 
founded on most untenable and dangerous views of the differ 
ence between the Old and the New Testament dispensations. 
Where the real difference lies, is one of the oldest questions 
in the Christian Church ; but while orthodox men have 
slightly differed in their mode of conceiving the character 
istics of the two economies, they have ever entertained a 
common jealousy against those low views of the Old Testa 
ment dispensation which would go to strip it of all spiritual 
vitality, or make salvation possible by merely external opera 
tions of the Spirit. In these low views, when fully carried 
out, a Manichean tincture was early detected; they were 
opposed as heretical ; their defenders all along have been, 
for the most part, men otherwise unsound ; and although 
there have been, from time to time, divines, sound in the 
main, who either not perceiving the full effect of their own 
statements, or not taking sufficiently inward and ethical con 
ceptions of certain truths, or from kindred causes have 
approached too closely to the views of those with whom, in 
other things, they have no sympathy, we cannot consent, in 
deference to them, to give up the essential oneness of the 
Church and people of God under both dispensations, or admit 
any such difference between them as to require, or even to 
tolerate, the exclusion of all the Old Testament saints from 
the glory which is prepared for saints under the gospel. 

* Since this was written, many have adopted the same view. 

f His Grace refers to Archdeacon Hare, who quotes a long passage 
from Olshausen, concluding with this statement, that as "the special 
\vorkofthe Holy Ghost is regeneration," therefore "regeneration be 
longs essentially to the New Testament, because: under this dispensation 



84 REMARKS ON 

Why, instead of a question whether they are to share with 
us, the whole strain of the New Testament language goes 
merely to show that we shall not be excluded from sharing 
with them that we shall come from the east and from the 
west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (not 
they with us) in the kingdom of Grod. (Matt. viii. 11.) True, 
" They without us could not be made perfect" (Heb. xi. 40) 
that is, without Christ and the Spirit, whose proper economy 
our s certainly is ; but as this manifestly implies that with us 
they have all the perfection which wo have that with Christ 
to save and the Spirit to sanctify them, which they got anti- 
cipatively from our dispensation, they are in all respects on 
a par with us there is not a shadow of ground for exclud 
ing the Old Testament saints from the glory prepared for 
those of our dispensation.* 

2. Mr Bickersteth s " thousand stages and varieties of 

the Holy Ghost first manifested his specific power." (Mission of t/ie 
Comforter, ii. 492.) Whether the Archdeacon meant to extend his ap 
proval of the extract thus far (in the face of John iii. 6, 7, 10, &c.), is 
doubtful, from what follows. But, be this as it may, I am not disposed, 
in a point of this nature, to consider either Hare or his author unexcep 
tionable expositors of the general mind of the Church. 

* " Istud" says CALVIN, who, on the Christology of the Old Testament, 
occupied what many would term low ground " quoque scitissime eodcra 
locosubjungit (Augustinus), pertinere ab initiomundi ad Novum Testa- 
mentum filios promissionis, regenerates a Deo, qui fide per dilectioncm 
operante obedierunt mandatis. Idque in spe non carnaliuin, terrenorum, 
temporalium, sed spiritualium, ccelestium, asternorum bonorum, pras- 
cipue credentes in Mediatorem : per quern non dubitarunt et Spiritum 
sibi administrari, ut benefacercnt, et jgnosci, quoties peccarent. Id 
enim ipsum est quod asserere in animo fuit, ejusdem nobiscum benedic- 
tionis in ffiternam salutem consortes fuisse omnes sanctos, quos ab exordio 

mundi peculiariter al)eoselectos Script uracommemorat Atque 

hie quoque de sanctis Patribus annotandum est, ita sub Veteri Testa- 
mento vixisse, ut non illic restiterint, sed aspirarint semper ad Novum, 
adeoque ccrtam ejus communionem amplexi sint." Instit. Christ. Rclig., 
lib. ji. cap. xi. 10. 

" Nos omnes de flf.nitud.inc ejua acce.pimus. Quid " exclaims AUGUSTIN 
*est,2Vbs omnes? Ergo Patriarchs, etProphetae, et Apostoli sancti,velante 
jncarnationem prtcmissi vel ab Incarnate missi, omnes nos de plenitudine 
gus acccpimw. Nos vasa sumus, Ille fons est." Serm. cclxxxix. 5. "Ipsum 



MR BICKERSTETH S THEORY. 85 

union with Christ " for poor sinners of mankind defy 
comment. Happily, however, they do not need it. The 
only wonder is, that speculations so out of the line of all that 
is sober, on such a subject as union to Christ, and language 
which even the author himself would find it hard to explain, 
should have been hazarded by one so distinguished for 
the meekness and gentleness of Christ.* The reader, how 
ever, when he comes to our chapter on the " Eesurrection," 
will find this esteemed minister laying down positions quite 
as startling and repulsive as this. And when he finds that 
even these novel and unsavoury speculations are advocated, 
as clearly revealed truths of Scripture, by one of the acutest 
writers on that side Mr Birks and by a writer of consider 
able ability on the other side of the Atlantic Mr Lord; 
when moreover, he considers how difficult it is for those who 
would work out the premillennial scheme to avoid being driven 
into conclusions of this nature, he will see afresh what a 
iccdge this system is, upheaving, when introduced into the 
text of Scripture, almost every thing which has hitherto been 
regarded as most fixed and sacred all that has been " most 
surely believed among us." 

Before passing from Mr Bickersteth here, I will give one 
brief illustration of the extreme slenderness of the ground 
on which he rests the weightiest conclusions. " In every 
human household," he says, " or marriage, there are usually 
four parties the bridegroom, the bride, friends, and ser 
vants;" and if we do not admit as many "varieties" at 
least of " union with Christ," we are charged with " not 

(Christum) martyrcs in manifesto confessi sunt, quern tune Machabcei 
confess! sunt,* mortui sunt isti pro Christo in evangelio revelato; mor- 
tui sunt illi pro Christ! nomine in lege velato. Christus habet utrosque, 
Christus puguantes adjuvit utrosque, Christus coronavit utrosque." 
Serm. ccc. 5. 

* Mr Birks (p. 150) charges me with "dismissing this remark of a 
beloved and honoured father, now gone to his rest, with contempt" a 
feeling of which, towards that precious servant of Christ, I trust I am 
incapable. 

* This Sermon was delivered at the festival of the Maccabean martyrs. 



86 KEMAUKS ON 

only crossing many express statements, but every lesson of 
analogy." Now, let us see what conclusion this will bring 
out of a single passage of Scripture.* " He that hath the 
Bride," said the Baptist, " is the Bridegroom : but the friend 
of the Bridegroom, which standeth and hcareth him, rejoiceth 
greatly because of the Bridegroom s voice. This my joy there 
fore is fulfilled." (John iii. 29.) f According to Mr Bicker- 
steth s way of viewing such language, the poor Baptist will not 
be of "the Bride at all. Though "the first resurrection," 
and the millennial glory of the risen saints, is said to be 
specially designed for suffering believers, the very forerunner 
of Christ that rare example of fidelity, humility, love to the 
Saviour, and self-sacrifice will not be found in this class at 
all, but be seen on the lower platform appropriated to the 
"friends" of the Bridegroom ! At this rate, the wise virgins 
who went forth to meet the Bridegroom in the parable (Matt. 
xxv.), represent not those who are to be " the Bride " at 
his coming, but those who merely attend the nuptials as 
" friends ; " and those who are invited to the marriagc- 

* Let me request my friend Mr Wood s attention to this. (See p. 63, 
note.) 

t The Jews thought to kindle in the Baptist a jealousy of his Master 
as one who was requiting the generous testimony he had borne to 
him by drawing all his disciples away to himself. The reply of that 
blessed servant and martyr of Jesus, in the words above quoted, I have 
always thought to be one of the most glorious and affecting of human 
utterances, and perhaps beyond all the testimonies that ever were borne 
to Christ. " The Bride is not mine why should the people stay with 
me ? Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ : 
mine it is to point the guilty to the Lamb of God, that taketh away the 
sin of the world to tell them, There is Bairn in Gilead, and a Physician 
there ; and shall I grudge to see them, in obedience to the call, flying as 
a cloud, and as doves to their windows ? Whose is the Bride, but the 
Bridegroom s ? Enough for me to be the Bridegroom s friend sent 
by him to negotiate the match privileged, as an humble instrument, to 
bring together the Saviour and the souls he is to come to seek and to 
save, and rejoicing with joy unspeakable to stand by and witness the 
blessed espousals. Say you, then, they go from me to him ? You bring 
me glad tidings of great joy; for He must increase, but I must decrease: 
This my joy, therefore, is fxilfilled ! " 



MR BONAR S VIEW. 87 

supper (Matt, xxii.), though clothed with the wedding-gar 
ment, are, on this principle, to be held as representing a dis 
tinct class altogether from those called " the Bride." I cannot 
persuade myself that the author would have accepted these 
conclusions. But why not ? and where shall we be if we 
are thus to explain the figures of Scripture? Who does 
not see that the Baptist called himself " the friend of the 
Bridegroom," not to express his personal, but his official 
standing in relation to Christ? and that the same believers 
are termed " the virgins," in respect of their call to be ready 
for Christ s coming the " guests " at the marriage-supper, 
in respect of the fellowship they hold with him and " the 
bride," in respect of their intimate and endearing union to 
him ? In vain, then, are endless " varieties of union with 
Christ " drawn out of such figurative language ; and wonder 
ful it is, that from premises so very slender such mighty 
conclusions should, by any sober writer, be drawn. 

3. Mr Bonar s theory of the distinction between the Bride 
and the whole number of the saved, has not certainly the 
repulsive appearance of the other theories we have been 
noticing. He admits that the Christians who are to people 
the earth after Christ has descended to it with his completed 
Bride, will, like ourselves, " be found in the miry clay by 
the sovereign God, be converted by his Holy Spirit, led 
to see sin and the Saviour,* sanctified probably far more 
rapidly and thoroughly, yet still by the same Spirit, through 
the Word, and so prepared for a future eternity." It is 
something to get footing like this to get a Christianity 
that one can understand for the millennium. Nor will I 
disturb it by asking, just now, how this Christianity is to 
be produced in sinful men, with Christ in glory before their 
eyes, and " the righteous shining forth as the sun " in their 
very presence. Waiving this for the present the following 

* He docs not, I observe, say, " united to him byfai h," as we are ; per 
haps, because that might look like identifying them with the Bride. 



88 REMARKS ON 

very obvious remarks are enough to show that the theory 
which Mr Bonar propounds is without any solid foundation, 
nnd is opposed to the whole current of Scripture. 

(1.) When Christ s people are termed his " Bride," his 
" Spouse " when they are said to be " espoused " and 
" married " to him in a word, when conjugal relations, 
intercourse, and affections are employed to set forth what 
subsists between him and them, who, until now, ever 
doubted that A UNION COMMON TO ALL BELIEVERS is in 
tended? And on what principle can it be maintained that the 
term " Bride " is meant to point, not to that internal, vital 
union to Christ which is common to all who shall ever believe 
in him, but to special privileges peculiar to one class of them? 
(2.) As the union of all believers to Christ is the same as 
to its essence, so the future glory of them all alike is made 
to flow from that union, and not from any external cir 
cumstances in which they may differ from each other. Let me 
entreat the attention of my premillennial friends to this 
remark. Is it necessary to give proofs of what is so manifest ? 
" Thou hast given thy Son power over all flesh," said Jesus to 
his Father, " that he should give eternal life to as many as 
thou hast given him. Father, I will that they also whom 
thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may 
behold my glory," &c. (John xvii. 2, 24.) 
Here we find all the elect getting eternal life from Christ s 
hands will any that ever shall believe in him get less 
than this? But here, also, Christ wills that the same elect 
company be with him where he is, to behold his glory and 
can any class of believers have more ? 

u This is the Father s will which hath sent me, that of all which 
he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise 
it up again at the last day. No man can come to me, ex 
cept the Father, which hath sent me, draw him: and I 
will raise him up at the last day. Whoso eateth my flesh, 
and driuketh my blood, hath eternal life ; and I will raise 
him up at the last day. He that eateth my flesh, and 



MR BONAR S VIEW. 

drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him." 
(John vi. 39, 44, 54, 56.) 

Who that reads these words can doubt that the elect 
drawn to Christ by common supernatural grace, one with 
him in common, by mutual inhabitation through the Spirit, 
and thus saved with a " common salvation" (Jude 3), are 
destined to partake in common of the resurrection, life, and 
glory of their Head ? " The glory which thou gavest me I have 
given them; that they may be one, even as we are one." (John 
xvii. 22.) 

" Whom he did foreknow," says Paul, " he also did predestinate 
to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be 
the first-born among many brethren, [in resurrection and glory 
surely, as well as every thing else.] Moreover, whom he did 
predestinate [the whole company of the elect], them he also 
called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and 
whom he justified, them [all of them] he also glorified. If 
any man [during the millennium surely, as well as at any 
other time] have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. 
Ihit if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead 
dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall 
also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth 
in you. (Rom. viii. 29, 30, 9, 11.) 

But why go on ? Who can read the New Testament, and 
fail to see that all the life, and glory, and fellowship with the 
Lamb, which any believer is ever to have, is made to flow 
from the common oneness of all believers with Christ, as 
Head of his body the Church, and not from the mere " exter 
nal circumstances" which may distinguish one class of them 
from another? 

Nay, not only is there no ground for any such distinc 
tion, but the passages which, by a palpable misconception of 
them, are adduced in support of it, prove just the reverse. 
For example : 

" If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified 

together. (Rom. viii. 17.) 
u If we suffer, we shall also reign with him." (2 Tim. ii. 12.) 



90 REMARKS ON 

Who docs not see that in these passages it is not suffering 
as opposed to unsufferlng Christians, but true Christians as 
opposed to false, that are here described ? In the one pas 
sage, we have but to read the whole verse to see this at 
once: "If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint- 
heirs with Christ: if so be that we suffer with him, that 
we may be also glorified together." Shall we say that 
the latter clause of this verse is intended to limit the 
former ? In that case, the meaning would be that none of 
God s children are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, 
but only sucli of them as suffer with him. When the apostle 
says, " There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ 
Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit," does 
he mean that not all that are in Christ Jesus are freed 
from condemnation, but only such of them as walk in the 
Spirit?* The other passage shows this even more clearly, 
when, instead of only the one-half, we read the whole of it : 
; If we suffer, we shall also reign with him; if we deny him, 
he also will deny us." Here are not two kinds of Christians 
surely, suffering and unsuffering Christians, both genuine ; 
but true Christianity distinguished from false, by fellowship 
in Christ s sufferings, and conformity to his death," as the 
indispensable prelude to participation in his glory and reign. 

Alas for the system which would set up a Christianity for 
the millennium, shorn of this essential characteristic suffer 
ing ! If these millennial Christians are to bask in such in 
ward and outward sunshine, as to be strangers to " SUFFER 
ING WITH CHRIST," call them not Christians in our or rather 
in the New Testament sense of the term ; but if, on the con 
trary, " suffering with Christ" is to be common to them witli 
us, notwithstanding the propitious circumstances by which 
they will be surrounded, why are they not to be " GLORI- 

* The second clause of both verses is (but see the critical editions on 
the latter clause) epexeyelical, not restriciive, of the former desigaed to 
charade) ize the persons mentioned in the first clause. 



MR BONAR S VIEW. 01 

TOGETHER," with their living Head, according to the 
indissoluble connection which the matchless wisdom of the 
mediatorial system has established ? It is impossible to 
answer these questions, or evade the alternatives which they 
offer. Once more, 

(3.) Let the vastness of the separation in eternal destiny, 
which this theory makes between those Christians whom 
they style " The Bride" and the rest of the saved, be ob 
served, and how very unscriptural and purely fanciful the 
theory is, will strike at once the thoughtful mind. 

" This elect body," says Mr Bonar, " of believers before the mil 
lennium is the Slide, and shall be complete at the Lord s coming 
Not one other shall be added to this body after the Lord s coming n<.<t 
one." (P. 123.) 

My estimable friend does not say that those living after this 
shall join the Bride, and be merged in that blessed company, 
when the thousand years are over he does not say that their 
accession to this body shall be merely postponed till the ever 
lasting state arrive. He knows well that he has not a ray of 
Scripture for such an expectation every text relating to the 
resurrection and glorification of believers at all being applied 
by him, and those who hold his system, to a resurrection be 
fore the millennium. For aught that Scripture says, there 
fore on his way of explaining it those believers who are 
to people the earth after the second advent must remain for 
ever apart from that " Bride that shall be complete at the 
Lord s coming to which not one shall be added after his 
coming not one." What though there be myriads of men 
during the millennium, snatched by sovereign grace out of 
the miry clay, and " prepared" by the Word and Spirit of 
Jesus "for a future eternity?" Over that future eternity a 
dark veil is drawn ; for his system has no Scripture for bring 
ing them ever out of the fleshly and imperfect state which it 
assigns to them upon earth during the millennium.* 
* " This is vain trifling," says Mr Wood. "We find them inthatiaa- 



02 REMARKS OX 

Now, this seems to me quite as irrational as the other 
theories I have noticed. The objection to them was, that it 
made saintship, for sinners of mankind, a different thing under 
the Old and the New Testament a different thing before the 
millennium and after it. The objection to this theory is, that 
while it makes saintship in every age the same thing, it makes 
the everlasting condition and issues of that saintship a vastly 
different thing in two classes of believers those living before, 
and those living during, the millennium ; and to ground this 
upon a mere difference in their " external circumstances," 
what is it but to confound what is essential with what is acci 
dental as if the glorious oneness of the whole body of be 
lievers with Christ, in his death and resurrection, in his 
humiliation and glory, had less virtue to bring them all to 
gether with their adorable Head, to grace his second appear 
ing than the adventitious diversity of their outward circum 
stances to separate them from each other at that bright, 
transporting day. 

And what, after all, are those " external circumstances " on 
which such vast stress is laid, as distinguishing the Christians 
of the millennium from all other Christians ? " They live, " 
says Mr Bonar, " during these millennial days, with scarcely 
any, or rather with no external opposition at all ; without 
persecution, and without Satan s temptations, for he is bound." 
But what of all this ? Are " external opposition and persecu 
tion," then, so bound up with Christianity as it now exists, 
that it cannot be real without them ? Is a uniformly tranquil 
and unruffled lot a phenomenon unheard of during the pre- 
perfect state. God -will not leave them there. But Scripture does not make 
all things plain, and especially Scripture gives us almost no information 
of the eternity beyond the millennium. Where it is silent, wise men will 
not speculate " (p. 31). But my fault with the system is, that it makes 
Scripture silent where it is not, and where it is hard to believe that it 
could be silent. To ask whether countless myriads of the human race 
will populate the earth during the brightest period of its history, with 
out a hint in Scripture of what is to become of them when it closes, is 
not "vain trifling." 



MR BONAK S VIEW. 93 

sent dispensation a phenomenon reserved for the millen 
nium? Can there be no living by faith now, no walking in the 
narrow way, no crucifying of the flesh and living in the Spirit, 
no occupying till Christ come nothing, in short, of living 
connection with Christ now, that shall give assurance of ap 
pearing with him in glory, unless " outward opposition and 
persecution" be superadded? Are not battles inly fought, 
and unseen victories won, in the sphere of the hidden life, 
which, to that Eye that looketh not upon the outward appear 
ance but upon the heart, are brighter manifestations of the 
grace that bringeth salvation than many a martyrdom ? 

" Nor think, who to that bliss aspire, 
Must win their way through blood and fire ; 
The writhings of a wounded heart 
Are fiercer than a foeman s dart." * 

If this be granted, even in one case, the ground of distinc 
tion, as far as that goes, is given up. This is so manifest, 
that Mr Burgh who takes the same view of outward suffer 
ing as indispensable to participation in the " first resurrec 
tion " perceiving that this will necessarily exclude many 
true Christians from the millennial reign, goes through with 
it, limiting the millennial reign expressly to those whom lie 
regards as suffering Christians. And this is the only consistent 
way of holding the theory .| 

Mr Bonar, indeed, mentions another ground of distinction 
the freedom of millennial Christians " from Satan s tempta 
tions, for he is bound." In a subsequent part of this work, 
I believe I shall be able to show that this expectation is 
totally unscriptural founded on a misapprehension of one 
single symbolical prediction, contradicted by the uniform 
tenor of Scripture, and at variance with the whole analogy 

* Christian Year. 

t Lect. on Revelation and Lect. on Second Advent. In the latter work, 
Mr Burgh is pleased to cut off from this class those who deny the pre- 
millennial advent a view which not a few have since embraced. 



1/4 SIMULTANEOUS GLORIFICATION OF ALL THE ELECT. 

of faith. But admitting for the present the total absence of 
Satanic agency during the millennium if it be allowed, as 
it seems to be, that the natural heart will be the same then 
as now, that the grace of God will find men in the same 
" mire," and be as illustrious in plucking any out of it, that 
there will be the same war with inward corruption in every 
Christian, the same inability to do the things that they would, 
and the same need to " hang upon Christ alone to the last," as 
there is now what mighty difference between them and us 
can even the absence of Satan make what, at least, that 
should sever those from us in glory who share with us in our 
deepest struggles ? 

Thus survey it in what light we will, and on whatever 
hypothesis may be framed to account for it the distinction 
between one portion of the elect, ransomed, sanctified, and 
saved Church, as being exclusively " the Bride of the Lamb," 
to be associated with him in his glory, and another portion of 
the same Church, who are not to rise and reign with him 
when he comes, is utterly foreign to the Bible and fanciful 
in its character, unknown to the faith of the Church, and 
suggested only by the necessities of a system. A tedious 
and ungenial work it has been to pursue into the shallows 
such poor, unfruitful distinctions as have engaged our atten 
tion in these supplementary remarks. Gladly, therefore, do 
we now come back to " a place of broad rivers and streams," 
to repose on the clear bosom of such words as these : 
" Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me " 
all of them " be with me where I am, that they may behold 
my glory which thou hast given me ;" " This is the Father s 
will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me 
I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day ;" 
" He shall come to be glorified in his saints, and admired 
in all them that believe." 

" Even so, come, Lord Jesus ! " 



CHAPTER IV. 

.ALL THE MEANS OF GRACE, AND AGENCIES OF SALVATION, 
TERMINATE AT THE SECOND ADVENT. 

WE have seen that the whole elect and ransomed Church ig 
complete when Christ conies. If this be correct, we may ex 
pect to find the ordained means for the gathering and per 
fecting of the Church disappearing from the stage, the stand 
ing agencies and instrumentalities, the whole economy and 
machinery of a visible Church-state, taken out of the way. 
Here then is a test, the fairest and most satisfactory that 
can be imagined, by which to try the truth of our doc 
trine. Premillermialists maintain that the saving of souls is 
to go on upon earth after the Eedeemer s second appearing. 
If this be true, we shall find the means of grace surviving the 
advent. Whereas, if grace has ceased at Christ s coming to 
flow from the fountain, we shall find that the channels for its 
conveyance have disappeared too if the building of mercy 
has been completed, we may expect to find the scaffolding 
cleared away. 

Beginning then with the Means If it can be shown that 
both the written WORD and the sealing ORDINANCES, by which 
God ordinarily gathers and perfects the Church having 
their whole ends and objects exhausted at Christ s coming shall 
then absolutely cease as means of grace and salvation to man 
kind, I think it will be clear that all saving of souls is then 
at an end. 



06 OBJECT OF THE SCRIPTURES. 

What, then, is the testimony of Scripture on this subject ? 
The answer to this question forms 

PROPOSITION SECOND : 

CHRIST S SECOND COMING WILL EXHAUST THE OBJECT OF THE 
SCRIPTURES. 

His Coming is the goal of all revelation, its farthest hori 
zon, its last terminus, its sabbath and haven. Thither are 
directed all the anxieties which divine truth awakens. Every 
hope which it kindles and every fear which it excites in 
stinctively points to that awful event, its concomitants, and 
its issues, as the needle to the pole. To prepare men for it. 
as an event future to all whom it addresses, is what the Bible 
proposes, and positively all that it undertakes and is fitted to 
do. The whole force of every reference to Christ s coming 
in Scripture, as a motive to action, absolutely depends on its 
being a future event. 

1. Look in the case of saints at all the incentives to 
patience and hope, to watchfulness and fidelity, to prompti 
tude and cheerfulness in the discharge of duty, drawn from 
the prospect of Christ s coming, and see if they would not be 
stript of all their power and all their point, on the supposition 
of its being a past event, and as addressed to saints living 
after it. Take an example or two almost at random : 

"Occupy TILL / come" (Luke xix. 13.)* 

" Be patient therefore, brethren, UKTO the coming of the Lord." 
(James v. 7.) 

" Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end 
for the grace that is to be brought unto you AT the reve 
lation of Jesus Christ." (1 Pet. i. 13.) 

"The Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give the crown of 

* In the former editions of this work, 2 Pet. i. 19 was next quoted; 
but as the sense in which alone it is applicable is at least doubtful, it is 
here omitted. 



OBJECT OF THE SCKIPTURES. 97 

righteousness at that day to all them that lore Ids appearing." 
(2 Tim. iv. 8.) 

" Our conversation is in heaven, from whence we look for the 
Saviour. (Phil. iii. 20.) 

It is impossible to deny that the attitude of expectancy 
and preparedness for a future appearing of Christ, is the 
whole burden of one and all of these passages. Just think 
how they would sound in the ears of saints living after the 
advent. " Behold I come quickly" is the exhilarating 
announcement of Jesus to those whose eyes long to behold 
him " and my reward is with me, to give every man accord 
ing as his work shall be." But from what lips shall that 
delightful response go forth after his coming, " Amen, even 
so, come, Lord Jesus?" The Church s hopes, and fears, and 
struggles, have found their object and end. Beyond that end 
toe never get in God s Word. It is the goal of all souls tra 
velling from nature to grace, from a lost to a saved state. It 
is the crisis and consummation of the state of grace, and the 
whole Bible is constructed upon the principle of its being so. 

And here, let me recall the scriptural connection which we 
found to subsist between the two comings of Christ; how 
to the grace brought by the one we look backward by faith, 
and forward by hope to the glory which is to be brought by 
the other ; how, between these two events, of unutterable 
importance to the formation and growth of the Christian 
character, the believer is thus poised : let this intrinsic con 
nection and studied juxtaposition of these two doctrines in 
the Christian system these commanding events in the work 
of redemption be duly weighed, and then let the reader 
say, whether the theory of a race of outstanding saints, living 
on earth after the second advent, does not dislocate this con 
nection, eviscerate every text which expresses it, derange 
the whole economy of evangelical motives, subvert the only 
recognised basis of a Christian character, and introduce a 
principle of inextricable confusion, where order and beauty, 

I 



98 OBJECT OF THE SCRIPTURES 

symmetry and strength, are seen otherwise to reign. This 
is strong language. Whether it be too strong, let those who 
dispassionately weigh the grounds of it determine. 

2. Similar remarks may be made upon all those passages 
in which the second advent is brought to bear upon " the 
sinners in Zion," despisers of gospel grace, such as the fol 
lowing : 

" The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty 
angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know 
not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus 
Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction 
from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his 
power, in that day." (2 Thess. i. 7-10.) 
" The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night," &c. 

(2 Pet. iii. 10.) 

" And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known 
what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, 
and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be 
ye therefore ready also : for the Son of Man cometh at an 
hour when ye think not." (Luke xii. 39, 40.) 
u As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days 

of the Son of Man. They did eat, they drank, 

until the day that Noe entered into the ark; and the flood 
came, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the 
day when the Son of Man is revealed." (Luke xvii. 26, 
27, 30.) 

Is it necessary to ask whether such warnings would be at all 
applicable to sinners living after that event, so full of terror 
to the wicked now, shall have been numbered amongst the 
things of the past? 

Thus, one half of the Scripture would be inapplicable to 
saints, and the other half to sinners, living after Christ s 
coming: In other words, the Scriptures, as a means of grace, 
will be PUT OUT OF DATE by the second advent. It is " a light 
shining in a dark place UNTIL the day dawn," and nothing 
more.* 
* The Duke of Manchester asks if I include the preached with the 



EXHAUSTED BY THE- SECOND ADVENT. 99 

In reply to this it is urged, that though " the Old Testa 
ment was a book written for men before the first advent, 
and applicable universally to such alone, this does not hinder 
us from profiting by the Old Testament after his coming." * 
But this is to mistake, and not at all to meet, my argument. 
It is not the mere fact that an event is past, that makes the 
recorded predictions of it and preparations for it useless ever 
after. It were absurd to maintain this. But it is the nature 
of the event, which I say would render the Scriptures inappli 
cable and useless to any living after it. What is that event ? 
It is " the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by 
Jesus Christ" " the day in the which he will judge the 
world in righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained" 
" the day of judgment and of the perdition of ungodly 
men, against which day (alone) the heavens and the earth 
that are now are kept in store" the day, in fine, of which 
Himself says : " Behold I come quickly, and my reward is 
with me (f^sr !//,oS), to give every man according as his work 
shall be." How different the bearings of this coming upon 
men s eternal destinies, from that of his first coming! Why, 
in this respect, it is just the reverse of it. The first coming 
opened " the door" of grace, which the second coming will 
"shut." (Matt. xxv. 10; Luke xvii. 26-30.) The first 
coming far from rendering the Old Testament inapplicable, 
or putting it out of date, for believers under the gospel 
only opened out its riches, making it, in some respects, more 
valuable to us than even to those under whose economy it 

written word here ; because if so, he " denies that that will cease at 
Christ s advent, believing from the prophets, that after the Lord comes 
with fire (Isa. Ixvi. 15), his glory will be declared among the Gentiles 
(verse 19)." P. 290. Undoubtedly, I say the same of the preached as of 
the written word. As to the passage which his Grace adduces from 
Isaiah, I can hardly conceive it possible that any one should apply the 
details of that prediction to the second advent. 

* Mr Bickersteth (Divine Warning, p. 316). To the same effect, Mr 
A. Bonar (p. 127), the Duke of Manchester (p. 291), Mr Wood (p. 76, &c.), 
Mr Birks (pp. 158, 189), &c. 



100 BAPTISM, AND THE WORK OF THE MINISTRY, 

was written. The old and the new dispensations are, in fact, 
but one dispensation of grace the former being preparatory to 
the latter the latter perfective of the former both together 
embracing the infancy and maturity of the same economy 
of grace. In short, of his first advent the Redeemer ex 
pressly says, " I came not to judge the world, but to save the 
world." Can such a saying be found respecting his second 
advent? No, but the reverse of it continually. Ever is it 
said that he comes to "judge" never once that he will come 
to " save the world." It does not follow, then, that because 
Christ s first coming to save did not supersede the Old 
Testament, his second coming to judge will not supersede 
both Testaments as means of grace ; but the opposite clearly 
follows. If the object of the Scriptures be to prepare men 
for " THAT DAY" which will be the crisis and consummation 
of the state of grace, surely the arrival of that day must 
supersede their use. 

PROPOSITION THIPvD: 

THE SEALING ORDINANCES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT WILL 
DISAPPEAR AT CHRIST S SECOND COMING. 

The very terms of their institution are singularly decisive 
on this point. 

I. With respect to BAPTISM, how conclusive are the glori 
ous words of its institution: 

Matt, xxviii. 18-20 : " And Jesus came and spake unto them, 
saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 
Go ye therefore, and teach," or make disciples of " all na 
tion, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to observe all 
things -whatsoever I have commanded you : and, lo, I am 
with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." 

Here we have Christ s commission to establish his kingdom 
upon earth, the authority on which that commission is based, 



CHASE AT THE SECOND ADVENT. 101 

and a gracious encouragement to undertake and go through 
with it. The commission is, properly speaking, twofold 
missionary and pastoral; but there is a sort of third inter 
mediate department, holding of both, linking the two to 
gether, and forming, if I may so speak, the point of transition 
between the missionary and the pastoral departments of the 
work prescribed I mean that of baptizing. " Go, make 
disciples of all nations" " Subjugate the world to me; bring 
all nations to the obedience of faith." This Is the missionary 
work. This done, " Baptize the converts in (or into) the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 
Generally speaking, this was to afford the converts an oppor 
tunity of making public profession of the faith they had 
embraced to be a solemn declaration of their principles 
and purposes, and their formal separation from a world lying 
in wickedness. But, more particularly, it was to be God s 
solemn investiture and public infeftment of believers in all 
the love of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the com 
munion of the Holy Ghost; and to be their solemn pledge 
that they yielded themselves to this triune Jehovah as their 
God and portion, and would cleave to him in love and obe 
dience as his redeemed people. Thus were they and their 
seed to be visibly declared, the Lord s, and enrolled the dis 
ciples of Christ ; and being thus formed and organized into 
churches, the Christian, ministry immediately assumed a new 
character. The missionary aggressor of those that were with 
out is now merged in the pastoral overseer of them that are 
within whose work is to train and mature those organizer! 
clustres of disciples for glory, or, as here expressed, to " teach 
them to observe all things whatsoever Christ has commanded 
us." Such, then, is the Commission. The Authority is that 
of Him " to whom all power is given in heaven and in earth" 
for this very end. And the Encouragement is, " Lo ! I am 
with you ahvay, even unto the end of the world" (cfuvTsXtia. rov 
atuio$\ At this " end of the world," then, whatever bo 



102 THE LORD S SUPPER 

meant by it, the whole work here described is to cease. 
Fortunately, we have no need to spend a moment in fixing 
the sense of this phrase ; for it is agreed on all hands that it 
denotes the time of Christ s personal coming. * This being 
the case, what do we learn from this passage? Why, clearly, 

That THE WHOLE WORK OF THE MINISTRY, both in its 

missionary and pastoral departments embracing the making, 
baptizing, and training of disciples together with Christ s 
mediatorial POWER and PRESENCE for the discharge of it, are 
to terminate at his second coming. The bare reading of the 
words makes this as clear as any comment on them could 
possibly do. Nor let any say, that though the external 
machinery of the church may be changed, the work -of saving 
souls may still go on. For in this passage, the means and 
the end, the grace and the channels for conveying it, the 
form and the substance, are plainly bound up with each 
other.j 

II. As to THE LORD S SUPPER, what can be more conclusive 
than 

1 Cor. xi. 26: " For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this 

cup, ye do show the Lord s death TILL HE COME" ? 
That the cessation of this precious and characteristic ordi 
nance of the Christian Church is here intimated, I argue, 
not so much from the word "till," as from the manifest 
design of the statement itself, which was to teach the per 
petuity of this ordinance in the visible Church its continu 
ance as long as there should be a Church upon earth in which 
to show it forth. According, then, to the apostle s teach 
ing, the visible Church-state and this ordinance are to termi 
nate together, and both at Christ s coming. And is not this 

* See pp. 34, 35, where we found that same expression, " the end of 
the world," occurring thrice in one chapter in this same sense. 

f "Now with regard to the Christian sacraments, there can be no 
doubt that these ordinances of grace will cease and determine at the 
Second Coming of the Lord." (Birk, p. 157.) 



CEASES AT THE SECOND ADVENT. 103 

tvhat any one would take for granted, from the nature and 
intent of the ordinance itself? The Lord s Supper is the 
symbol of that double attitude of the believer to which we 
find ourselves ever recurring the backward look of his faith 
and the forward look of his hope its present crucifixion 
and anticipated glorification with his Lord. Xow, this is 
precisely the note which the apostle strikes. He seems 
almost to go out of his way to get at this, his favourite col 
location. He does not bid them show the Lord s death in 
the Church " always, even to the end of the world" 
though that had come to the same thing but he bids them 
celebrate his death for them, till, as their Life, they find 
themselves appearing with him in glory. " Show the Lord s 
death till he come" till the affecting be turned into a joyous 
scene till the grace ye draw from his first, shall be merged 
in the glory ye receive at his second coming till He whose 
table ye bedew with your tears, in " fellowship with his 
sufferings and conformity to his death," shall interrupt your 
communion and break in upon you with his glory, and swal 
low up faith in sight; giving you, in place of the symbols, 
the immediate and eternal fruition of himself. Thus, the 
Lord s Supper will cease to be celebrated after Christ s com 
ing, not because the Lord of the Church has so willed it, but 
because after that it would be meaningless because the stats 
of things and the attitude of the believing soul, with reference to 
the two comings of Christ, of ivhich the Lord s Supper is the 
ordained and beautiful symbol, shall then have no place. 

What, then, have we found with respect to these ordained 
means of grace ? Why, that the second advent, come when 
it may, will put them all out of date. The passages which 
teach this, make no distinction between the means and the 
end; they so implicate the grace conveyed with the means of 
conveying it, that both are seen disappearing together at 
Christ s coming. If, then, there is to be a millennium after that, 



104 THESE STARTLING CONCLUSIONS ADMITTED 

it cannot be an era of Christianity; for the whole Christian fur 
niture, and with it all the Christianity that has hitherto ob 
tained, has been withdrawn from the earth. The word \< 
inapplicable it was for a totally different state of things: the 
ordinances are gone: and the "grace which hath appeared 
unto all men, bringing salvation" having no more salvation 
to bring, because " the blessed hope and glorious appearing" 
to which it points all its possessors as a future event, has be 
come a present and glorious reality this grace, of which the 
sacraments are but the symbols and exponents, has retired 
from the field, having accomplished all its objects. 

These conclusions are sufficiently startling, one should 
think. But it is not every thing that startles the advocates 
of this commanding theory. Mr Brooks, for example, not 
only admits all that we have said about its putting the Scrip 
tures out of date, but conceives that this very circumstance 
furnishes valuable confirmation of his view of the advent. 
One whole essay, entitled " The approaching K"ew Dispensa- 
sation," is devoted to this point ; and I have to entreat those 
who are not hopelessly committed to the doctrine of the pre- 
millennial advent, to look well, in the light of the following 
extract, whither it is likely to lead them : 

" Startling, then," says Mr Brooks, " as it may appear to some, 
yet I apprehend it will be found that the Holy Scriptures would, for 
the most part, be rendered inapplicable to the then existing circumstances of 
men in the flesh, and that there would need some further revelation from 
God* Now, I think it must be allowed, that a state of things 
which supersedes a portion of divine revelation hitherto enjoyed, and 
introduces men into a state of things which is the consummation of that 
revealed, has one grand characteristic of a new dispensation." 

The first of the things which are to " render the Scriptures 

* " To avoid being misunderstood, I would observe, that when I say the 
Scriptures would be for the most part inapplicable, I am aware that there 
are many glorious declarations concerning the divine attributes and con 
duct (!), which could never lose their power and influence on a regenerate 
soul." 



BY MR BROOKS. 105 

for the most part inapplicable," Mr Brooks says, is the bind 
ing of Satan, and its consequences ; regarding which he tells 
us, that 

" All that is written for the comfort of the believer under such 
circumstances the promises set before him, to sustain him during 
the conflict, and the experience of the cloud of witnesses, recorded 
for his encouragement, will become comparatively a dead letter a 
matter inapplicable to the circumstances in which the Church can, 
for a thousand years, by any probability be placed. I forbear," he 
adds, after one or two other examples of this kind, " to bring for 
ward many other particulars, which would obviously be rendered 
NUGATORY by our Lord s personal advent. What I have advanced is 
sufficient to evince, that the whole character of the Church and of 
the state of mankind would be so altered, together with their spi 
ritual and religious circumstances, that we should no longer find 
them portrayed generally in the length and breadth of Scripture; 
and it would not, perhaps, be too much to say, that the great bulk 
of what are called practical discourses, at present delivered or pub 
lished, would be as much unsuited to the condition of mankind, as 
they would were they addressed to the angels of God! This view of the 
subject," he continues, " is strikingly confirmed by referring to 
the past history of the Church, and reasoning from the analogy of 
the case. Whensoever any great change has been made in its 
circumstances and condition, it has always been accompanied by a 
further revelation from God, concerning the dispensation about to 
be introduced, and containing also some intimations of the dispen 
sation to succeed Again, each decidedly marked era in the 

history of the Church, has not only been accompanied by an increase 
of revelation, but by a disannulling or superseding of something 

going before When, therefore, a similar difference shall 

exist in the use of the New Testament revelation, it will be equally 
manifest that a new dispensation has arrived. Nor will the Scriptures, 
SUPERSEDED IN THE MILLENNIUM, 6s denld of interest or use; but they 
will serve in the way of retrospection and memorial ; excepting 
some very few passages, respecting the little season, when Satan 
shall be loosed and the events which are to follow." 

On this memorial use of the Scriptures during the millennium, 
there is the following singular note, which I take the liberty 



106 THESE CONCLUSIONS ADMITTED 

of introducing into the text : " Thus the manna, given in 
the wilderness, ceased on the entering of the Church into the 
promised land ; but a pot of it was laid up in the ark as a me 
morial ! " * 

Thus, then, the Scriptures will be " superseded," as being 
" inapplicable" during the millennium ; and all " practical 
discourses," founded upon Scripture, will be as " unsuitable 
as to the angels of God." These Scriptures, however, will 
not be altogether " devoid of interest or use." They will 
" serve in the way of retrospection and memorial," like the 
pot of manna, when the earth shall be flowing with the milk 
and the honey of a new and more " applicable" revelation! 

But possibly these are extravagancies of Mr Brooks alone, 
unsanctioned by his brethren. If it were so, the inconsistency 
would be theirs, not his. Certainly, a NEW DISPENSATION is 
what they are all looking for, and perpetually dwelling on ; 
and it is a necessary part of theic- scheme, since the millen 
nium they are expecting will be so organically different from 
any thing now existing, that it would be ridiculous to imagine 
it realized, save under a new and perfectly unique dispensa 
tion. And who can fail to see that a new dispensation ne 
cessarily implies a NEW REVELATION to usher it in ; in other 
words, to authorize and organize it ? I am quite aware of the 
harshness of this sound in the ears of many excellent pre- 
millennialists, who natter themselves that their doctrine may 
be held without tacking to it the repulsive expectation of a 
new revelation ; and who, amidst the cloud of difficulties in 
which their scheme is enveloped, in this view of it, are fain 
to betake themselves to their favourite refuge that " we 
have nothing to do with difficulties." But the following ex 
tracts will show that Mr Brooks is far from being alone on the 
subject of a new revelation. 

" There are," says Mr BICKERSTETH, " some original and valuable 
remarks on the millennium in the essays of the Rev. H. Wood- 

* AVidiel s Essays; Investigator, vol. ii. pp. 267-270. 



BY MR BICKERSTETH AND DR MOBILE. 107 

ward. He shows HOW INAPPLICABLE THE SCRIPTURES OP THE NEW 
TESTAMENT, written for a tempted and suffering Church, ARE TO THIS 
STATE OF THINGS, and thence draws an argument for the personal 
advent of our Lord on earth, TO OPEN THE VERT FOUNTAIN FROM 
WHICH THE SCRIPTURES THEMSELVES HAVE FLOWED, FROM WHICH NEW 
STREAMS MAT ISSUE FORTH TO WATER A RENOVATED WORLD, AND MAKE 
GLAD THE CITT OF GOD." * 

" We may expect [during the millennium] further means of 
grace says the same author, in commenting on my quotation 
from him in the foregoing paragraph " and A VISIBLE ECONOMT 

POSSIBLT OF ORAL REVELATION FROM THOSE WHO REIGN UPON THE 

EARTH, as we see in the Jewish economy." f 

In other words, the glorified saints who are to reign on the 
earth, may " orally" communicate the mind of God to those 
then living in the flesh, as the prophets did of old to the 
Jewish people, and a visible economy of such oral revelation 
may characterise the millennium ! 

" These passages of Scripture," says Dr M NEILE, " avowedly be 
long to this dispensation But, on the supposition that the dis 
pensation is to enlarge itself by degrees into the universal blessedness 
predicted by the prophets, then THESE SCRIPTURES WILL NOT CON 
TINUE TO APPLT; and who is to determine" he means, without a 
new revelation " at what point of the progress they cease to be 
applicable ? It is obvious, that in the passage from our present 
state to a state of universal holiness, THESE CHARACTERISTIC SATIXGS 
OF THE NEW TESTAMENT MUST CEASE TO HAVE ANT APPLICATION, AND 
BECOME OBSOLETE, NOT TO SAT FALSE: and again I ask, who is to 
determine at what point of the progress they cease to apply ?J We 
maintain, therefore, that as the statutes of the book of Leviticus 
continued binding, until another plain and direct communication 
from the God who gave them showed that they were superseded, 

* Guide, pp. 295, 296. Fifth Edition. 

f Divine Warning, p. 316. 

t The passages selected, as then inapplicable, are such as the follow 
ing: " Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way of life; " " Be not con 
formed to this world;" " Come out from among them, and be ye sepa 
rate, saith the Lord." On these passages I shall have occasion to touch 
at a subsequent stage of the argument. 



108 SUMMARY. 

and a better order of things introduced; so these Scriptures, de 
scribing the experience, the number, and the character of the 
Lord s people, under this dispensation, must continue applicable, 

TILL ANOTHER PLAIN AND DIRECT COMMUNICATION, FROM HlM WHO GAVE 
THEM, SHALL SHOW THAT THEY ARE SUPERSEDED, and a Still better 

order of things introduced. THIS COMMUNICATION WE EXPECT AT THE 

SECOND COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST."* 

We have thus the testimony of our friends themselves 
and these not certainly the extremest section of them in 
favour of the main position of this chapter, namely, that the 
second advent will put all that we now have, in the way of 
means, out of date.\ We, indeed, carry the matter a very 
little farther than they do. They talk of a, new order of 
things, and, in connection with this, they look with perfect 
consistency for a new revelation authoritatively to launch it : 
I have endeavoured to show that the old order of things, 
which Christ s coming is to supersede,. includes not only the 
present means of grace, but the grace itself conveyed by 
them. They Avill not go this length; but whether they are 
far short of it, let the reader judge. When they have found 
that millennial Christianity will be so different a thing from 
the Christianity of the New Testament that it will need a 
revelation for itself when they have found (though some of 
them demur to this) that " the gate " into it will no longer 
be " strait," nor the way of it any longer " narrow ; " that 
there will be nothing to " come out and be separated from " 
no " world," the " love " of which is incompatible with 
the " love of the Father " and no devil, most people will 
imagine that they have got rid of some rather important 
features of Christianity itself. Satan is gone; the world is 
gone that is to say, as in any respect inimical to salvation; 
and if the gate into spiritual safety be not strait, nor the 

* Lectures on the Jews, pp. 79-81. First Edition. 

f My friends, the Messrs Bonar and Mr Wood, explicitly disclaim tins 
sentiment, and I am far from wishing to fasten it upon them. But the 
reader will judge whether the statements I advance are unsupported. 



SUMMARY. 109 

way of it narrow, the flesh must be gone also.* Whether, 
after this, " the grace which bringeth salvation " will have 
any thing to do whether it would not be rather in the way 
whether, in short, such a view of millennial Christianity 
be any thing more savoury, or more intelligible, than the 
Adamism from which they profess to stand aloof; or rather, 
whether it be not this same Adamism, if it be any thing more 
than an inexpressible abstraction we may leave unsettled 
just now, as we shall have occasion to dissect it when we 
come to investigate the character of the millennial era. 
Meantime I cannot but hope, that, prepared as are some of 
the advocates of the premillermial scheme for all this, and 
more too, rather than abandon their beloved theory there 
are others, and not a few, who will think its advantages 
rather dearly purchased at this expense, and will suspect that 
a scheme involving an obligation to look for such things, does 
not look like a scriptural one. 

* " I am not quite clear," says the Duke of Manchester, " as to what Mr 
Brown intends here. Satan and the -world are not important features of 
Christianity," &c. (P. 292.) I can hardly think that this pleasantry 
will puzzle any one. That none will eat of the tree of life which is in the 
midst of the paradise of God without resisting and overcoming these 
enemies, is a somewhat important feature of Christianity ; and that is 
ray position. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED. 

I HAVE shown that the ordained channels or means of 
grace dry up and disappear at the second advent ; and that 
wherever this is intimated, the grace conveyed is so bound 
up with the means of conveying it, that neither can without 
violence be torn asunder from, or be imagined to survive, 
the other. 

But I said that the agencies of salvation would cease at the 
same time; by which I mean the present work of Christ in 
the heavens, and the work of the Spirit, as the fruit of it. 
The truth on this subject, which I shall now illustrate from 
Scripture, may be expressed as follows : 

PROPOSITION FOURTH : 

THE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST, AND THE WORK OP THE 
SPIRIT, FOR SAVING PURPOSES, WILL CEASE AT THE SECOND 
ADVENT. 

I. The ground and the nature of Christ s intercession are 

sufficiently known. But what I wish to be observed is the 

place which it holds in relation to his two advents. It 

stands intermediate betiveen his first and Ms second coming, as 

the following passage, viewed as a whole, plainly shows : 

Heb. ix. 12, 24-28. "By his own blood he entered in once 

into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption 

for us. Christ is not entered into the holy places made 

with hands, which are the figures of the true ; but into 



CHRIST S INTERCESSION. Ill 

heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for 
us : Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the 
high priest entereth into the holy place every year with 
blood of others ; (for then must he often have suffered since 
the foundation of the world :) but now once, in the end of 
the world, hath he appeared, to put away sin by the sacri 
fice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once 
to die, but after this the judgment; so Christ was once 
offered to bear the sins of many : and unto them that look 
for him shall he appear the second time, without sin, unto 
salvation." 

Here the two advents stand at the two extremities of 
Christ s mediatorial work, while the intercession stretches 
from one to the other, and occupies the whole intervening 
period. Each of these three things is termed an " appear 
ing" the word being somewhat different in each case, but 
the idea essentially the same and each of them is said to be 
done once. Thus: " Once, in the end of the world, hath he 
appeared (Kt<pa.vzurai), to put away sin by the sacrifice of 
himself." " By his own blood he entered in once into the 
holy place " " not into the holy places made with hands, but 
into heaven itself, now to appear (tftpawffSiivcti) in the pre 
sence of God for us." " And unto them that look for him 
shall he appear (opSqffzrai) the second time [once for all], 
without sin, unto salvation." The first and the last appear 
ances are to us : the intermediate appearance is to God, for 
us. This intermediate appearance " in the presence of God 
for us" carries into effect the work of his first appearance 
to us, and prepares the way for his second. As he appeared 
the first time " to put aicay sin by the sacrifice of himself," 
so he will appear the second time, " without sin, unto salva 
tion." Now, as the second coming is here represented as 
crowning the icliole purposes of the first, it is plain that the 
intercession, which is but a continual pleading upon the 
merit of his death, must be over, for all saving purposes, 
before he comes. 



112 CHRIST S INTERCESSION. 

Let the reader now connect this view of Christ s inter 
cession with the following : 

lleb. vii. 25 : " "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the 
uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth 
to make intercession for them." 

Taking this expression, "to the uttermost" (tic rl favrzXsi), 
comprehensively, it may denote that Christ is able to save 
" completely as to all parts, fully as to all causes, and for 
ever in duration." (OWEN, ad loc.} But as the contrast 
here between Christ and the high priests under the law, is 
made to hinge upon his " ever living " to discharge his office, 
while " they were not suffered to continue by reason of 
death," I think the apostle, by this expression, means per 
petuity to the uttermost case, to the last object, and the 
last necessities of that object, for whom salvation is designed 
and required. His people may, one by one, disappear from 
the stage; but their Intercessor liveth. Age after age shall 
find him at his post. And the last soul that " comes unto 
God by him," shall find him "in heaven itself, there ap 
pearing in the presence of God for him," a Priest in per 
petuity before the Mercy-Seat, 

" Till all the ransomed Church of God 
Be saved to sin no more." 

The last soul that ever shall be saved will be the fruit of 
this glorious intercession as well as the first. 

If these observations be just, they go to settle the whole 
question. When the Advent arrives, the Intercession is 
done ; and, when the Intercession is done, Salvation is done. 
When Christ appears the second time to us, he will cease to 
appear in the presence of God for us. 

In the first edition of this work, I dwelt upon the sphere or 
locality Avhere the intercession is conducted " the holy place 
not made with hands," " heaven itself," " at the right hand of 
God ;" affirming that as Christ s going in within the veil cor 
responds to his ascension from the earth, and session at the 



CHRIST S INTERCESSION. 113 

right hand of God, so his coming out again, as did the high 
priest at the close of his work, answers to his glorious return 
to us at his second advent ; and thus, that the period of his 
intercession is just the time of his absence from us in the 
heavens neither less nor more ; and that, while there is one 
outstanding soul to be gathered in, he cannot leave his pre 
sent abode, nor alter his present attitude " in the presence of 
God for us." 

I am satisfied that this is correct. But as great pains have 
been taken to show that it is not so, I will show that my 
argument from the intercession of Christ is not dependent on 
that particular aspect of it, by waiving it altogether. It has 
been said, for example, that the locality is of no consequence; 
that there is nothing to hinder the Eedeemer from interced 
ing on earth as well as in heaven on the Mount of Olives as 
well as at the right hand of God and that though it was ne 
cessary that he should go, it was not necessary for him to stay 
within the veil, even for a moment, with a view to the ex 
ercise of his present office as our " High Priest over the house 
of God." I believe I could show this to be unsatisfactory 
and incorrect. But as my argument from the position and 
the period of the intercession as intermediate between the 
two advents and therefore ceasing necessarily when the 
second, the consummating advent, arrives is complete with 
out it, I am content to let the other alone.* 

Nor do I enter into the questions which have been raised 
about the continuance of Christ s intercession, and in what 
sense, after the whole Church has been gathered and per 
fected. I will not be drawn into such matters. The pro 
position I have laid down is, that Christ s intercession, for 

* My friend Mr Wood seems to think I have deprived him of the satis 
faction of demolishing this argument, by not giving it in full. Others, 
however, including one who has written forcibly on this subject, havo 
expressed to me their regret that what they believe to be a scriptural 
and important position should not have more prominence. Surely the 
hints above given should be enough for both parties. 



114 WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 

saving purposes (by which I mean, the infringing of sinnert 
and the perfecting of saints ), will cease at his second coming ; 
and this I think I have established.* 

II. The second branch of our proposition, regarding the 
work of the Spirit, must stand or fall with the first. For as 
the mission of the Comforter is through the intercession of 
Christ, and the continued effusion of the Spirit results from 
the continual intercession of our High Priest, the second 
advent, if it bring the latter to a close, must be the terminat 
ing period of the former also. 

The passages which show the connection of these two 
things, are such as the following : 

John vii. 38, 39 : " He that believeth on me, out of his belly [the 
depths of his inner man] shall flow rivers of living water. 
(This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him 
should receive : for the Holy Ghost was not yet [given]; be 
cause that Jesus was not yet glorified.)" 

Chap. xiv. 16,17,26: "I will pray the Father, and he shall 
give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you 
for ever; [even] the Spirit of truth. The Comforter, which 
is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, 
he shall teach you all things." 

Chap. xv. 26 : " When the Comforter is come, whom I will send 
unto you from the Father." 

Chap. xvi. 7, 14 : " It is expedient for you that I go away : for 
if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but 
if I depart, I will send him unto you. He shall glorify 
me; for he shall receive of mine, arid shall show it unto 
you. 

Acts ii. 33 : " Being by the right band of God exalted, and hav 
ing received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, 
he hath shed forth this." 

Tit. iii. 5, 6 : " He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and 

* Let me refer the reader to Calvin (Instit. lib. iii. cap. xx.), Turrdin 
(Theol. Elenct. Loc. xiv. qusest. xv.), Owen (on Heb. vii. 5, and ix. 24- 
28), De Moor (Comm. in Marckii Comp. cap. xx. xxix.), SymingtM 
(Atonement and Intercession, pp. 348-357). 



BOTH TERMINATE AT THE SECOND ADVENT. 115 

renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abun 
dantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour. 
Rev. iii. 1 : " These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits 

of God." 

Chap. v. 6 : "And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne 
and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the 
elders, stood A LAMB AS IT HAD BEEN SLAIN, having seven 
horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent 
forth into all the earth." 

But why quote passages expressly linking the mission and 
work of the Spirit with Christ s sacerdotal Intercession and 
regal Glory at the right hand of God ? For it is admitted on 
all hands, that the whole application of Christ s work in the 
flesh is accomplished in every one of his people, from first to 
last, by the agency of the Spirit, communicated through his 
continual intercession. Thus this department of Christ s 
priestly office holds at once of the purchase and of the appli 
cation of redemption. The actual salvation of any soul, as it 
is by virtue of his meritorious death which his intercession 
pleads, so it is through the agency of his Spirit which that 
intercession procures. In this intercession the merit of his 
death and the might of his Spirit find their legal connection, 
and by means of it the one passes into the other. There is a 
continuous presentation of his sacrifice, or of himself in the 
virtue of it, in order to a continuous acknowledgment of his 
right to receive and dispense the Spirit to each of his redeemed 
in succession, down to the last, when he " appears the second 
time, without sin, unto salvation." This appearing lies, as 
we have seen, at the other extremity of the Redeemer s work. 
AVe have nothing here to do let me repeat it with ques 
tions regarding the active agency of the Spirit, the exercise 
of intercession, and other mediatorial functions of Christ, in 
the everlasting state. My views on that subject differ in 
nothing, I suppose, from those of others sound in the faith, 
and of my esteemed opponents in this great question. It is 
with the intercession of Christ and the work of the Spirit, 



116 EXTRACTS FROM PKEMILLENNIALISTS 

for saving purposes, or during the period when the saving of 
souls is going on that I have exclusively to do. And this, 
I think I have shown, is to cease at the second coming of Christ. 
The force of our reasoning on this head is felt and admitted 
even by prcmillennialists themselves, when their particular 
scheme of the second advent does not happen to require their 
opposition to it. Take the following proof of this from good 
Joseph Perry, " an unworthy servant in the work of the gos 
pel," whose premillennial system certainly has its own diffi 
culties, as we have seen, though this is not one of them : 

"There are some things," says he, "that these last do hold 
(meaning those who in his day held the views now most prevalent 
amongst premillennialists), that I cannot by any means assent to; 
and that is, when Christ shall be established upon the throne of his 
glory, in his kingdom, and all the saints with him, in a perfect, in 
corruptible state of immortality, that then there shall be preach 
ing of the gospel, and conversion-work go forward among the 
multitude of the nations that shall be found living when Christ 
cometh, according to the opinion of some good men. I say this is 
that which I cannot fall in with, but must profess my dislike 
against, because I cannot believe that the Lord Jesus Christ will come 
down from heaven, and LEAVE THAT CHEAT WORK OF HIS INTERCESSION 

NOW AT GOD S EIGHT HAND, UNTIL THE WHOLE NUMBER OF GOD S ELECT 
AMONG JEWS AND GENTILES ARE CONVERTED, AND THE MYSTICAL BODY 

OF CHRIST is COMPLETED. AND IF so, WHERE is THERE ANY ROOM FOR 

CONVERSION WORK TO GO ON AFTER THIS?"* 

The honest man never thought there could be a question 
about Christ s coming putting an end to his intercession. 
And what he could not comprehend was, how, when his 
coming had brought him out from within the veil and put an 
end to his intercession, his mystical body should still be incom 
plete, and conversion-work go on as before. 

So natural is this view of the intercession of Christ, that 
we find even those to whose system it is fatal, letting it slip 
from their pen, as if unaware at the moment what they were 
* Glory of Christ s Visible Kingdom, pp. 219, 220. 



IN CONFIRMATION OF THIS SUMMARY. 117 

conceding. For example, in one of the volumes of Lent Lec 
tures on the Second Advent, I find Mr Barker on Heb. vii. 
25, thus expressing himself: 

" It is absolutely necessary to remember that the word ( ever 
signifies continuity , not eternity of action ; for THE OFFICE OF CHRIST 
AS OUR INTERCESSOR WILL HAVE ITS CLOSE WHEN HE HAS BROUGHT 
ALL HIS PEOPLE WITH HIM." * And when will that be ? The whole 
tenor of the lecture answers, at the time mentioned in his text, 
when the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, 
when we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together 
with the risen in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so 
shall we ever be with the Lord. " (1 Thess, iv. 16, 17.) 

" When Messiah," says the Duke of Manchester, " shall leave 
the Holy of Holies, where he has now entered, to appear in the 
presence of God for us INTERCESSION, WHICH is PECULIAR TO HIS 

1SEING IN THE HOLT OF HOLIES, SHALL HAVE CEASED. Coincident 

with this," he adds, "upon resigning the kingdom, (that in which he 
now reign*, but which he will resign at the millennium) to the Father, 
he will leace the throne of grate? on which lie shall reign until the effec 
tual application, by the Holy Ghost, of all his work towards the restitu 
tion of all things. " f 

And now, summing up the argument of these two chap 
ters, what have we found ? We have found that when Christ 
comes, as the Church will then be complete, so the means of 
grace and the agencies of salvation will then terminate. In 
other words, as there will then be no more souls to be saved, so the 
whole provision for saving them will be withdrawn. The object 
of the Scripture will be exhausted ; both the sealing ordinances 
of the New Testament will disappear, and with them the grace 

* The Hope of the Apostolic Church, p. 184. Compare p. 204. 1846. 

f Horse Hebraicce, p. 90. 1835. 

In his " Finished Mystery," his Grace seems to intimate that I have 
so far misunderstood him, as at least to draw a wrong inference from his 
statement. I regret this, and the more as I have not been able to catch 
the precise import of his explanation. The reader, therefore, will bear 
in mind that his Grace does not admit the conclusion which his words 
seein to suggest. 



118 SUMMARY. 

which they " signify and seal ;" in a word, the intercession of 
Christ and the work of the Spirit, for saving purposes, will 
then terminate. I have not sought to establish one of these 
positions as a mere inference from another. Each of them has 
been established independently of all the rest. Each of them 
is thus a check upon the rest, and a test of their soundness. And 
thus the whole argument on this branch of our subject is 
cumulative; making it evident, on a number of different but 
connected grounds, that a millennium after the second advent 
was never designed, is not provided for, and will not take 
place. * 

* I have carefully considered what Mr Birks has advanced in reply to 
this and the preceding chapter, in his " Outlines of Unfulfilled Pro 
phecy," ch. iv. (pp. 156-169), but have not found any thing fresh in it. 
Charges of "utter irrelevancy" against the Scripture proofs which I 
adduce, and against my arguments as "unsubstantial shadows," will 
require something more to sustain them than Mr Birks has adduced. 



CHAPTER VI. 

TUB KINGDOM OF CHRIST ALREADY IN BEING ITS MIL 
LENNIAL ESSENTIALLY THE SAME WITH ITS PRESENT CHA 
RACTER. 

Two things are in question here the PERIOD and the NATURE 
of Christ s kingdom and reign. But as the one determines 
the other, it will be most convenient to handle them together. 
It is a very glorious and comprehensive branch of our subject. 
The points embraced under it, however, are of the most 
multifarious description, the texts with which we are met 
heaped up with often little or no classification, and the spe 
culations drawn out of them almost endless. Besides, on no 
part of the subject are our friends more at variance amongst 
themselves. When you have disposed of the texts and 
demolished the views of one writer, you find another 
untouched, who claims to be heard and tried on his own 
merits. More than once have I thrown down their books 
with a sigh, having lost myself in the thicket of texts and 
contradictory opinions in which I had got entangled, and 
nearly despairing of being able to bring order out of this 
mass of confusion. If, however, we can seize on such pro 
minent characteristics of Christ s kingdom and reign as our 
friends agree on amongst themselves, and bring these to the 
test of Scripture, the intelligent inquirer will be satisfied, and 
all that is essential will be gained. 

That Christ on his ascension was invested with a royalty 
of some sort, and is now exercising the functions of a king, 
they are not able to deny. But they deny that he is on the 



120 PREMILLENNIAL THEORY OF 

throne of his proper kingdom, and affirm that he will not be 
a king in his own right till the millennium, when he comes 
again. This brings them into great difficulty. They can 
give no intelligible account of Christ s present kingdom, or 
show in what relation it stands to this millennial one. Some 
say that Christ wields no sceptre as yet but that of Provi 
dence! 

" Sit tliou," saysDr M Neile, " on my right hand, until" when? 

" when thou wilt leave my right hand and sit on thine own throne 

when he shall have delivered up the kingdom which he at present enjoys, 
where he wields the authority, the universal kingdom of God the invi 
sible kingdom of Providence. When the Lord Jesus shall (in the 
exercise of his present Almighty authority on the Father s throne) 
have subdued all things unto himself, then shall he be prepared to 
leave the Father s throne, and set up his own kingdom upon the earth 
as the second Adam." * 

" There are two thrones," says the Duke of Manchester, " men 
tioned in connection with Messiah, one, on which he is now sitting, 
the other, on which he is hereafter to sit. The one the throne of 
God, the other the throne of David ; the one for a limited, the 
other for an unlimited period. For want of discriminating between 
the two, much confusion has been created, and some detriment to 
all the expressions in Scripture which denote eternity. It may 
not be amiss to lay down some positions respecting the kingdom of 
Messiah, for which I refer to Appendix D." Turning to Appendix 
D, we find the first part of it devoted to proving just what has 
been expressed in the foregoing quotations, that the present " ses 
sion or reign of Christ at the right hand of God," is his participa 
tion in the Divine government that " his ruling now for God 
implies his present providential universal presence" that " the 
fvpreme kingdom of God is the one which he gives up on leaving his 
right hand, and that it is HIS OWN KINGDOM in which he shall reign, 
when he appears, for ever and ever." f 

Others content themselves with strong and painful asser- 

* Sermons on the Second Advent, pp. 112-114, 5th edition. 

t Horte Hebraicse, pp 89,114-116. The capitals are the author s own. 
I have taken the liberty of combining in one sentence the contents of 
two or three. 



CHRIST S KINGDOM. 121 

tions that Christ is not now on his own throne, but on his 
Father s, without attempting to explain what sort of royalty 
that means. 

" We maintain," says a Scottish reviewer, " that CHRIST HAS NOT 

YET RECEIVED ANY KINGDOM WHICH HE CAN DELIVER UP. A man CU11 

oiily lawfully deliver up that which is his own; but by this theory 
("meaning Mr Scott s), Christ is made to deliver up that which is 
NOT HIS OWN, but the Father s. He occupies, no doubt, the Father s 
throne, being seated there beside him, and that throne he may 

leave; but, ice are not aware that ever in the New 

Testament the kingdom is used as denoting the present seat of the Father s 
power in heaven." Again: "Now, Christ is only seated upon the 
Father s throne. He is only, as it were, exalted in another s right, 
and invested with another s power ; but in the day of coming glory, lie 
is to assume HIS OWN SCEPTRE, TO SIT UPON HIS OWN THRONE, and 
exercise dominion in a way which he has not hitherto done. He 
is to take to himself his great power, as if it had been lying beside 
him unused, and only in reserve for the day of its full display, 
when he receives the crown of all the earth."* 

In a former edition I complained of this vagueness, and 
called upon them to tell us explicitly what they mean by 
Christ s present kingdom, as distinguished from what they 
call his own, his proper kingdom, to be set up during the 
millennium. To this call Mr Wood has responded, in a 
statement quite explicit in itself, but, when compared with 
his other views, leaving as much to be explained as it clears 
up. 

" That kingdom of Christ," says Mr Wood, " which is now in exist 
ence, is THE KINGDOM OP GRACE, which commenced at the time of his 
ascension, and WILL CONTINUE UNTIL HIS SECOND COMING. During it, 
Christ is seated on his Father s throne, and not upon his own, which last is 
also called the throne of David. The subjects of the kingdom are the elect, 
a hidden number known to God alone, among whom the Redeemer dispenses 
sating blessings. His rule is carried on in the midst of enemies, Satan 
being all the while, de facto, the prince of this world. Christ s proper 

* " Presbyterian Review * of Mr Scott s " Outlines of Prophecy," Jan. 
1816, pp. 409, and 468, 9. 



122 PREMILLENNIAL THEORY OP 

kingdom commences at his second coming, when he shall sit on his own 
throne, the throne of his glory, the throne of his father David."* 

That Christ s present kingdom is the kingdom of grace, is a 
refreshing statement all that could be desired. And, when 
it is added that this kingdom is to continue until the second 
advent, and then to merge in the kingdom of glory, this is so 
entirely what we say, and precisely as we express it, that we 
seem to be at one. But the language of my friend " keeps 
the word of promise to the ear and breaks it to the hope." 
First, he strenuously affirms that the kingdom of grace is 
not Christ s own, his proper kingdom. I think this distress 
ing. Surely, if there is one thing more clearly and emphati 
cally expressed in all Scripture than another, it is that this is 
just Christ s peculiar sphere. Before he came, grace was dis 
pensed, as we shall presently see, purely on the credit of his 
work in the flesh; but after that was over, it was formally 
lodged in his hands, and his august installation in the royal 
right to dispense it, with all the prerogatives thereto apper 
taining, took place on his triumphant ascension to the right 
hand of the Majesty on high. Mr Wood admits that, in 
point of fact, Christ is now dispensing grace, and doing it as 
a king; but when he says that this is done, not in the exercise 
of his proper regal authority, or from the throne of his own 
proper kingdom, but from the Father s throne, he makes a state 
ment which to me is utterly unintelligible. All that it conveys 
to me is, that Christ s present rule, which Scripture everywhere 
represents as his glory, is not so, but is merely a preparation, 
as he frequently terms it, for the kingdom properly his the 
millennial kingdom. This is one of the worst features of 
the premillennial scheme. It insensibly has the effect of 
absorbing all things into the millennium. Every thing is but 
preparative to that. " The kingly office of Christ," says Mr 
Wood, " is in exercise even now ox THE CREDIT OF HIS 

FUTURE ASSUMPTION OF THE ROYALTY THAT BELONGS TO HIM." 

* Last Things, Propositions vi., vii., pp. 112, 122. This statement ap 
pears to express substantially the views of Mr Birks (pp. 184-197.) The 



CHRIST S KINGDOM. 123 

~(P. 123.) What can this possibly mean? I pretend not to 
understand it. I had indeed said that souls were saved 
before Christ came in the flesh, on the credit of the price he 
was then to pay for them. But, if Mr Wood means that 
Christ is now dispensing saving grace as a king on the credit 
of the royalty he is to assume at the millennium, as his own, 
he either imposes upon himself and his readers with words 
which mean nothing, or he means what is derogatory to the 
honour of that Princely Saviour who gives repentance to 
Israel and forgiveness of sins. 

But Mr Wood s views are open to another objection. Who 
would doubt, when he so clearly divides between the present 
kingdom of grace and the future millennial kingdom of glory 
when he tells us that the one "continues till" the other 
that the thing which distinguishes the present kingdom, 
namely, the saving of souls, would terminate when it gives 
place to the future one? So far from this, however, the work 
of salvation is to go on with greater vigour than ever after 
Christ s second coming, and during his millennial reign. To 
call the present, then, the kingdom of grace, and the millen 
nial, by contrast, the kingdom of glory, is an abuse of words. 
Several other inconsistencies might he mentioned. It is said, 
for example, that " the subjects of Christ s present kingdom are 
the elect, a hidden number knoicn to God alone, among whom 
the Redeemer dispenses saving blessings." Will there be no 
election, then, during the millennial kingdom ? Will Christ 
dispense saving blessings then to every individual of the 
human race ? Let Mr Wood, and those who hold with him, 
speak out upon this point. If they shrink from this, it will 
be found that the principle of an election, known to God 
only, is just as truly in operation during the millennium as 
now, and that though the number of believers then may 
be vastly greater, the advantages on the side of godliness 
will be so prodigious, as to make it more difficult than 

author of " Plain Papers" goes further, deeming it unscriptural to st,y 
that Christ exercises strictly any office at present. (P. 452,) 



124 CHRIST S KINGDOM. 

now to distinguish between the converted and the uncon 
verted. 

I have dwelt the longer on Mr Wood s views, because they 
are the most recent attempt to put the premillennial scheme 
of Christ s present kingdom upon an intelligible footing. At 
the first glance they certainly look well better than any 
explanations hitherto offered ; but when narrowly examined. 
I think I have shown them to be derogatory to the honour of 
Christ, inconsistent with themselves, and, as far as the expo 
sition of them is concerned, not very intelligible. 

Here, then, I join issue with these writers, affirming as fol 
lows : 

PROPOSITION FIFTH: 
CHRIST S PROPER KINGDOM is ALREADY IN BEING; COMMENCING 

FORMALLY ON HIS ASCENSION TO THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, 
AND CONTINUING UNCHANGED, BOTH IN CHARACTER AND 
FORM, TILL THE FINAL JUDGMENT. 

I am far from meaning to say, that the kingdom of Christ 
was in no sense in being before his ascension in our nature 
to the right hand of power. On the contrary, the whole 
grace of the Mediator, in all his offices, is put forth in the 
salvation of every soul that is saved, as well before his incar 
nation as after it. In the administration of the new covenant 
and government of the Church before the fulness of time, 
there was as real an exercise of the Redeemer s proper sove 
reignty as there has been since his ascension, or ever will be 
till the end of time. Still, we are explicitly told that " the 
Holy Ghost was not given" up to the period of Christ s 
ascension " because that Jesus was not yet glorified." (John 
vii. 39.) All the grace that ever was put forth before the 
iledeemer s death, was given only on the credit of it. When, 
however, the great Sacrifice was actually offered, and when, 
on his presenting himself in the merit of it before the Majesty 



APOSTOLIC VIEWS OF CHRIST S KINGDOM. 125 

on high, it was actually accepted, his title to save was formally 
recognised, and himself FORMALLY INSTALLED IN OFFICE. 
" The Holy Ghost was then given, because that Jesus was 
now glorified," given now for the first time, not actually but 
formally, having its legal ground now for the first time pal 
pably laid in the finished and accepted work of the blessed 
Surety. 

Nor, in saying that Christ s kingdom will continue in its 
present form till the final judgment, do I mean that it will 
absolutely terminate, as Christ s kingdom, even then ; but only 
that Christ will not hereafter occupy his throne for the same 
purposes as now for putting more souls in possession of sal 
vation, and for perfecting any thing then incomplete in the 
salvation of his elect. 

Nor, yet again, in saying that Christ s kingdom will con 
tinue in its present form, from the period of his ascension on 
wards until the final judgment, do I mean that its progress 
will be uninterrupted and equable throughout marked by 
no mighty changes in its external aspect, in its relative posi 
tion, and in the development of its internal character ; but 
merely that its external administration will continue the same, 
that its constitution, structure, organic form, will remain 
unaltered, that no new economical arrangements, or change 
of dispensation, will be introduced from the commencement 
to the close of its earthly career. 

In proof of the proposition thus explained, I take my stand 
upon the 

APOSTOLIC VIEWS OF CHRIST S KINGDOM, 

as contained in the numerous addresses to the Jews which 
we find in the Acts, and some subsequent statements in the 
apostolic epistles. 

If any where, surely we may expect light here. The one 
question between the Christian Jews and their unbelieving 



126 SAME GROUND TAKEN 

countrymen was about THE KINGDOM what was the nature 
of it. The overwhelming majority of the Jewish Church and 
nation rejected the claims of Jesus to be their Messiah, solely 
because he was not the sort of king they thought they had 
good reason from the prophecies to look for, and because the 
kingdom which he announced, and of which he claimed to be 
the sovereign, was quite different from what they imagined 
the ancient prophets had foretold. This was definite ground, 
and it was not taken without deliberation. 

When the Baptist announced Messiah s approach, every 
thing concurred to give weight to his testimony. Guided 
by the signs of the times, and by the chronological predic 
tions, expectation was every where awake for the first sound 
of Messiah s footsteps. From all parts of the country they 
flocked to the man of God, who cried aloud in the wilder 
ness, " Eepent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand : 
Prepare ye the way of the Lord ; make his paths straight." 
With profound and breathless attention the motley group 
listened to the exciting tidings ; and harsh as were his ac 
cents, rougher though some of his speeches were than the 
garment which he wore, they willingly bore with them, were 
with difficulty restrained from mistaking the servant for his 
Master, and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their 
sins. Presently the Lord himself appears upon the stage ; 
and the Baptist having dutifully handed his disciples over to 
him, with this noble testimony, " Behold the Lamb of God 
which taketh away the sin of the world," retired, and was 
little more heard of. Thus heralded, the Saviour s ministry 
opened with every advantage ; and crowds followed him, as 
they had done the Baptist, " trusting that it was he who was 
to redeem Israel saving them from their enemies, and from 
the hand of all that hated them." 

But again they were doomed to disappointment. Every 
discourse he delivered every expression he gave of the nature 
of his kingdom convinced them more than another that he 



BY PREMILLENXIALISTS AND UNBELIEVING JEWS. 127 

was not the Icing they were looking for, nor Ids kingdom that 
which they thought the prophets had assigned to their Mes 
siah. Under this persuasion, the most majestic, miraculous, 
and moral evidences went for nothing with them. Disap 
pointment settled down into chagrin ; chagrin into rage ; 
and rage into a settled determination to deal with him as a 
blaspheming impostor according to law, who must die the 
death. It was done. But lo ! they had laid the foundations 
of that kingdom which his forerunner and he had announced 
as at hand ; and this teas just the glad tidings ivhich all the 
apostles ivent forth among their countrymen to proclaim. The 
burden of all their recorded addresses is just this, that the 
nation had misunderstood the prophets, and had mistaken the 
nature of the kingdom which they predicted ; that it was in be 
ing while they spoke, and not a kingdom of this world, as 
they supposed, but a kingdom of Salvation or of Grace; 
whose foundation was that accursed death which they, in 
their ignorance, had imagined to be the end of all the claims 
of its King ; and whose Rule, from the seat of his exal 
tation in the heavens, was purely a mediatorial and saving 
sway. 

If this be a correct representation of the apostles addresses 
to their unbelieving countrymen, it obviously cuts up the 
premillennial view of the kingdom of Christ. Nay, it places 
the premillennialist and the unbelieving Jew in the same 
category as respects the question in hand, both holding the 
same error on the subject of the kingdom which the apostles set 
themselves to overthrow. The error, say the premillennialists, 
into which the Jews fell, was that of overlooking the distinc 
tion between the first and second comings of the Messiah ; 
the one in suffering, and the other in glory ; the one to save 
men s souls, and the other to erect his kingdom upon earth. 
As the latter is the theme of most of the prophecies, they 
were so carried away by the expectation of, and desire for it, 
that they missed altogether the former, which, though occu- 



128 APOSTOLIC VIEWS OF 

pying less space in the prophecies, is intrinsically more im 
portant. 

I think I have here rightly represented what they say. It 
is somewhat entertaining, however, as well as instructive, to 
observe in what light the sensible Jews of modern times, who 
have given attention to the question, and written in justifica 
tion of their rejection of Jesus, regard this representation of 
the matter. They look upon it as a mere after-thought, and 
as an evasion of the real question between Jews and Chris 
tians. David Levi, in his " Dissertations on the Prophecies 
of the Old Testament," calls it a mere chimera, " an ignis 
fatuus, notwithstanding all the noise and pother that has been 
made about it."* Doubtless, premillennialists have much 
more spiritual views of the whole subject than an unbelieving 
Jew can be supposed to have. But they both oppose those 
views of the kingdom which we maintain ; and in so doing 
they use arguments identical in substance, and only differing 
in the Christian or Antichristian point of view from which 
they survey their common ground ; as will be evident on 
comparing their works together. The kingdom say both 
alike is yet to come : Jesus say both alike does not oc 
cupy the throne of the kingdom : The prophecies relating 
to Messiah s kingdom remain yet to be fulfilled say both 
alike, f 

I have said and I entreat the reader s attention to it 
that the apostles, in pleading with their unbelieving coun 
trymen, take up precisely our position against the premillen 
nialists regarding the kingdom of Christ. This I now proceed 

* Vol. i. p. 120. Lend. 1817. 

f " The Jews," says Mr Brooks, " understood them (the prophecies re 
lating to the kingdom) in their appropriate and harmonious sense, though 
not perhaps in their full sense ; and the wonder is, not, that they should 
have thus understood them, but that any among ourselves should understand 
them otherwise ; seeing that their primary and most obvious sense is so plainly 
accordant with the Jeivish expectations. 1 Elem. of Proph. Interp. chap. vi. 
on " The Kingdom of Christ," p. 185. 



CHRIST S KINGDOM. 129 

to make good, taking up one or two of the apostolic addresses 
as they are given in the Acts. And, 

I. We have the famous Pentecostal sermon. 

" Men and brethren," says Peter, " let me freely speak unto you 
of the patriarch David Being a prophet, and know 
ing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the 
fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up 
Christ to sit on his (David s) throne.* He, seeing this be 
fore, spake of the resurrection of Christ This Jesus 

hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore 
being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received 
of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed 

forth this Therefore let all the house of Israel know 

assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye 
have crucified, both LORD and CHRIST." (Acts ii. 29-36.) 

Here it is stated, as explicitly as words could do it, that 
the promise to David of Messiah s succession to his throne 
has received its intended accomplishment in the resurrection 
and exaltation of Jesus, as the fruit of David s loins, to the 
right hand of power ; and that his first exercise of regal 
authority from the throne of Israel was to send down the 
Spirit, as had that day been done. When, moreover, he 
adds that God had made that same Jesus both Lord and 
Christ, he manifestly wished to be understood and could 
not fail to be understood as affirming, that his present ex 
altation was his proper lordship or royalty, as Messiah. And 
finally, when as if emitting a solemn testimony he calls 
upon " all the house of Israel to know this assuredly," it is 

* In the former editions of this work I expressed my preference for 
the received reading of verse 34, as against that contended for by Mr 
Wood. But I am now convinced that the received reading- is quite 
untenable, and that the genuine reading (adopted by Griesbach, Lach- 
mann, Tischendorf, and Tregdles, in their critical editions of the New 
Testament) is the following: and knowing that God had sworn with 
an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins he would set [One] upon his 
throne" (omitting the words TO XTK e-a^xx atxa-Trirtit T Xji-tVf). 

L 



130 APOSTOLIC VIEWS OF 

quite clear that he knew how unwelcome his view of Mes 
siah s lordship would be to Jewish ears requiring them not 
only to believe that the predicted Messiah and king of the 
Jews was Jesus of Xazareth, but that their notions of the 
Messiahship itself, and of the royalty attached to it, were 
all wrong ; that it was this erroneous view of the prophetic 
testimony respecting Messiah which had plunged them into 
the perpetration of the greatest of all crimes, and the removal 
of which, when the veil should be taken away, would revolu 
tionize the Jewish mind. 

Premillennialists scout the notion of Christ s now sitting 
on David s throne, and ask a great many questions as to the 
points of analogy between the throne on which sat the hum 
ble son of Jesse in the midst of his subjects in Palestine, 
and the celestial seat of the Redeemer s present power. 
One is pained at the flippancy with which these questions 
are sometimes put, and the gross principles on which the 
point is decided. In whatever sense the seat of Christ s pre 
sent rule is termed David s throne, the fact, I will venture 
to say, is indisputable. That CHRIST is NOW ON DAVID S 
THRONE, is as clearly affirmed by Peter in this sermon as 
words could do it. Let any one read his words again, and 
see if it be possible to make any thing else out of them. Mr 
Wood tries it ; but his interpretation is sufficient to show the 
hopelessness of the task. 

" We maintain," says he, " that this passage asserts that David 
knew that Christ was to sit upon his (David s) throne, and that 
moreover he had himself prophesied that he should sit at God s 
right hand until his enemies were made his footstool; that is, as 
we believe, until the time should come when he should sit down on 
the throne of David, and therefore he prophesied of the resurrec 
tion of Christ, and not of his own, just as it was of Christ, and 
not of himself, that he said, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou 
at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." * 
This strange style of interpretation reminds me of a dis- 
* Affirmative Answer, p. 50. 



CHRIST S KINGDOM. 131 

cussion I once had with a zealous follower of Joanna South- 
cote, who applied to the child of that deluded woman the 
words of the prophet, " Behold a virgin shall conceive and 
bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." But are we 
not (said I) expressly told of the birth of Christ, that it was 
done in fulfilment of this prediction ? Not at all, replied 
our ingenious disputant. Look again at the evangelist s 
words, " This was done," not in fulfilment of the prediction, 
but " that it might be fulfilled" in another person, and at a 
future time : Christ s birth, then, merely prepared the way 
for, or was a necessary step in the march of events which 
were to bring about the fulfilment of that famous prediction. 
And what else is the character of Mr Wood s version of the 
words of Peter ? " David," says the apostle, " knowing that 
God would raise up Christ to sit upon his throne, spake of 
the resurrection of Christ : This Jesus (accordingly) hath 
God raised up." So he has, says Mr Wood, but only to sit 
on David s throne at some future time. " Christ s resurrec 
tion," says Peter, " was done that it might be fulfilled which 
was spoken by David, that he would sit upon his throne." 
Yes, says my respected brother, but it was done, not in ful 
filment of the prediction, but only that it might be fulfilled 
to prepare the way for the future fulfilment of the prediction.* 

On the contrary, Peter evidently wished the people to un 
derstand, that Christ was already swaying the only sceptre 
they had to look for in their Messiah : saying in effect, The 
kind of royalty ye have been looking and longing for is a 
phantom; but the reality is already in being. " MESSIAH 
THE PRINCE " already sits enthroned on high, in the person 
of the crucified but risen Nazarene, ready to dispense, not 
the poor honours of an earthly sovereignty for the rule of 
David s Successor is not like the rule of David himself 
but " repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins : " " God 

* Iu his "Last Things," Mr Wood only reiterates his former state 
ments, and confirms the above interpretation of them (pp. 113, &c.) Mr 
Birks takes precisely the same view of the passage (pp. 197-199.) 



132 APOSTOLIC VIEWS OF 

hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both 
LORD and CHRIST." 

In this view of the apostle s meaning, it is but a transla 
tion, into New Testament language, of Zechariah s majestic 
prediction, 

" Behold the man whose name is The Branch ; and he shall 
grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of 
the Lord : Even he shall build the temple of the Lord; 
and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon 
his throne; and he shall be A PRIEST UPON HIS THRONE : and 
the counsel of peace shall be between them both." (Zech.vi. 
12, 13.) * 

* Mr Wood throws this glorious prediction of Messiah s royal priest 
hood into the millennium, and he thinks the context proves it future. 
I wish I could say that in this he stands alone. But there is too much 
of this tendency, in the whole premillennial school, to futurize the most 
precious prophecies of the Old Testament. In the " Quarterly Journal 
of Prophecy " (No. I., Oct. 1848), there is a paper entitled " Objections 
and Difficulties," in which this prophecy of the union of the kingly and 
priestly offices in the person of Messiah is declared to be a prediction 
of Christ s milennial glory " lie shall be a priest upon his throne." 
" This verse," says the writer, "is commonly " (he should have said uni 
versally, and in all time, with the sole exception of a handful of pre- 
millennialists) "interpreted of ihe present time. Christ, it is said, is now 
upon his throne, and is executing at once the offices of a priest and of a 
king. This interpretation, however, appears to be entirely erroneous." 
He then assigns some reasons for holding the union of offices therein 
set forth as wholly future reasons, on the strength of which (as I have 
elsewhere said) it were easy to expel the Christianity which we fondly 
thought we had found in fifty other prophecies, till at length we were 
within sight of the Jews conclusion, that Christianity in the Old 
Testament is an impertinence, which a thorough-going literal inter 
pretation of it, with proper regard to the context and scope of each 

prophecy, would show to have no place and no business there 

It is the vice of the premillennial theory, that it of necessity hands over 
to the future, and to a new and unique dispensation, whole masses of 
prophecy, which, in the view of the great bulk of the true Church in all 
time, belong to the dispensation of the Spirit to the economy of the 
Gospel to Christianity just as it now exists, with its present Word and 
its present Spirit, as competent to effect all that is predicted. Once 
make the throne of David, as occupied by Christ, future and local, and it 
will go hard with us if we do not find ourselves compelled to futurize one 



CHRIST S KINGDOM. 133 

And is not this precisely what is scenically represented 
in the vision which the rapt apostle beheld in Patmos ? 

"And I beheld, and, lo ! in the midst of the throne and of the 
four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood 
a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven 
eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all 
the earth." (Rev. v. 6.) 

Here is the Priest upon his Throne, " building the temple 
of the Lord " sending forth for this purpose those eyes and 
horns of his, " the Spirit of counsel and of might" (Isa. xi. 2), 
into all the earth,* to bring its inhabitants under his benign 
sway . And here, certainly, he is seen " bearing the glory " 
in those rapturous hallelujahs poured into his ear ("Worthy 
is the Lamb that was slain," &c.) so dear to the heart and 
sweet upon the lips of his redeemed in every age. At the 
date of the vision they were a mere handful, and struggling 
for existence ; but, speaking for all, they anticipate the 
time when every hostile power shall go down before them, 
and they shall " reign on the earth." 

That the Redeemer himself identifies his present sway with 
the DAVIDICAL RULE, is clear from the following passage : 
" These things saith L j that is holy, he that is true, HE THAT 
HATH THE KEY OF DAVID, he that opcncth, and no man shuttetli; 
an/1 shuttetli, and no man openeth ; I know thy works : be 
hold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man 
can shut it . Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in 
the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out," &c. 
(Rev. iii. 7, 8, 12.) 

These words are evidently taken from Isa. xxii. 22, where 
the Lord tells Shebna, " who was over the house," but had 
by his base intromissions brought the royal house to the 
brink of ruin, that he would call his servant Eliakim, and 
would clothe him with his robe, and strengthen him with 

gospel prophecy after another, till Christianity itself, as a present thing 
hardly remains to us in the Old Testament. 

* Compare Zech. iii. 9, " Upon one stone (of the temple of the Lord) 
shall be seven eyes." 



134 APOSTOLIC VIEWS OF 

his girdle, and would commit the government into Ms hand, 
" And," it is added, " THE KEY OF THE HOUSE OF DAVID 

WILL I LAY UPON HIS SHOULDER; SO HE SHALL OPEN AND 
NONE SHALL SHUT, AND HE SHALL SHUT AND NONE SHALL 

OPEN." When Christ, therefore, claims to have the key of 
David s house, so as to open and shut it at will, his mean 
ing clearly is, that he has that antitypical authority in 
David s house which Eliakim s robe, girdle, and key, faintly 
shadowed forth ; that he is now exercising this power of 
" the key," as he did to the Philadelphian Church, when in 
opposition to a party " calling themselves Jews when they 
were not, but did lie," and who had denied the claim of 
these faithful Philadelphians to a church-standing and 
church-privileges, he says, " Behold, I have set before thee 
an open door, and no man can shut it." But if Christ is 
now using " the key of the house of David " in his admini 
stration of the Church, then that HOUSE OF DAVID as Christ 
is Euler in it, at least can be no other than THE CHURCH 

OF THE LIVING GOD UNDER THE EEDEEMER S REGAL ADMI 
NISTRATION, which is just what we have found Peter pressing 
on the unwilling ears of his carnal audience. 

Mr Wood admits that, in this place, Christ s " having the 
key of the house of David laid upon his shoulder," means, 
" the authority which he now exercises over the Church ; " 
but he thinks it only an apocalyptic symbol borrowed from 
the strict and literal sense of the terms elsewhere. But 
what means Isaiah s sublime prophecy, " Unto us a child is 
born, unto us a Son is given, AND THE GOVERNMENT SHALL 
BE UPON HIS SHOULDER ? " Does not this mean, that Messiah 
shall be the EULER OF THE CHURCH OF GOD ? And if this 
be the sense, it determines the meaning of " the throne of 
David" in the next verse beyond all question.* After sum 
ming up his august titles with that one, " The Prince of 

* Mr Birks s answer to this concedes in substance what I have ex 
pressed, but fails to show that it suggests an opposite conclusion from 
miue (p. 201). 



CHRIST S KINGDOM. 135 

Peace," which in the New Testament sense of "peace" 
by the blood of his cross means just the " Priest upon his 
Throne," the prophet adds 

" Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no 
end, UPON THE THROVE OF DAVID, AND UPON HIS KINGDOM, 
to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with 
justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the 
Lord of Hosts will perform this." (Isa. ix. 7.) 
In understanding this of the administration of CJirist in 
tlie Church in the sovereignty and the grace of it, the 
righteousness, the progress, and the perpetuity of it we 
would appeal to the reader whether we do not give a sense 
equally sound and soul-satisfying, which a patient compari 
son of Scripture with Scripture will only the more confirm, 
and on which the heart can repose with ever growing con 
tentment. 

In the use of this same " key of the house of David," 
Christ says farther to the faithful of Philadelphia, " Him 
that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my 
God, and he shall go no more out " I will not only admit 
him to membership in the Church upon earth, in spite of all 
pretended excommunications by the " synagogue of Satan;" 
but, in virtue of my office as Ruler in the house of my God, 
I will " set before him an open door " into the heavenly 
temple, and make him a fixture in it, to go no more out. 
In this extended, but most legitimate, application of " the 
key of the house of David," on Christ s shoulder, it is iden 
tical with his own consolatory announcement to John him 
self, when lying prostrate before his effulgent majesty as one 
dead: "He laid his right hand upon him, saying, Fear not, 
I am the First and the Last, and the Living One ; and I was 
dead, and behold I am alive for evermore. Amen. And I 

have THE KEYS OF DEATH AND OF HADES."* The key of 
* E-v& titu i rfSrof, xtti i Itr^mnt, xa.1 e %uv tu Ij-evo^v vt*{f Tu 

*M.rm xa.1 rot a Jw. In this order the concluding words are found in 
the best MSS. 



136 APOSTOLIC VIEWS OF 

the world of spirits is mine, to bring back the souls of my 
dead people from their disembodied state ; mine, too, are 
the keys of the grave, which at the appointed time shall 
yield up its precious deposit : I am the Eesurrection and the 
Life, and as I have the keys of my Father s house, they shall 
find its portals on the resurrection-morn flying open before 
them, that they may go in, never more to go out. 

Thus clearly does it appear, from the Eedeemer s language 
to the Church of Philadelphia, that " the house of David " 
is the house of God s Church or people, over whom David 
had a rule of a very inferior kind in Palestine, in comparison 
with that to which it ultimately pointed ; that " the key of 
David," or of " David s house," in Christ s hand, is just the 
supreme administration or rule of the Church ; and that as 
he exercises this " power of the key " now in the Church, 
so he will exercise it in its loftiest sense, when he " sets 
before his victorious people an open door " into the heavenly 
temple, whence they shall go no more out. 

II. In his next address to the wondering people who 
stood gazing on him after his miracle on the lame man, at 
the beautiful gate of the temple the same idea is expressed 
by Peter with equal brevity and beauty : 

"The God of our fathers," says he, " hath glorified his Son Jesus"- 
that is, in the apostolic sense of the phrase, hath raised him 
up and enthroned him in the heavens " whom ye delivered 

up Ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and 

desired a murderer to be granted unto you; and killed THE 
PRINCE OF LIFE, whom God hath raised up from the dead; 
whereof we are witnesses." (Acts iii. 13-15.) 

Here Messiah s Princedom is not only admitted but pro 
claimed ; but the sense given of it is as opposite as the poles 
from the Jewish one, and expressly intended to displace 
it. He lets them know that they mistook something else 
than the time of the kingdom, which, according to some, 



CHRIST S KINGDOM. 137 

was all they did mistake about it ; that its whole nature was 
misconceived by them; that it was for the dispensation of 
"LIFE" that he is exalted a "PRINCE." Ye killed him; 
yet he lives, the Royal Dispenser of Life to the dead, of 
Salvation to the lost/ 

In the sequel of this address we have that noble passage 
about " the times of restitution," so constantly and confidently 
adduced in favour of the premillennial theory, but which I 
think completely subverts it. 

" Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be 
blotted out ; so that times of refreshing may come from the 
presence of the Lord,* and he may send him who was fore 
ordained for you,t even Jesus Christ, whom 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." (Acts iii. 19-21.) 

In the third note below, the reader will see how much 
diversity exists as to some things in this passage. J But as 

* Our version of this clause " When the times of refreshing shall 
come from the presence of the Lord" is certainly inaccurate. The 
Vulgate here (ut cum) was followed by Beza (postquam), from whom, no 
doubt, our translators adopted it. But Beza s examples in support of it 
are not in point, nor are those of Scholefield, who alone now defends it 
(Hints, etc.). Nearly all good interpreters render the words as we have 
done above, and even our translators themselves render the same phrase 
(Xsritf an), in Luke ii. 35, not " when," but " in order that (the thoughts of 
many hearts luay be revealed)." The difference in sense, to be sure, is 
not very great; but as the true sense makes the coming of those "times 
of refreshing " dependent upon Israel s national " repentance and conver 
sion," i*. is surely of some consequence not to lose this instructive con 
nection. 

{ UpxiKiiyirfAtyfi, "foreordained," has vastly greater authority, and 
brings out a much better sense, than the received reading, ^^oxtx-r^vy pita, 
"before preached." 

J 1. As to what is meant by "times of refreshing " whether the times 
of the gospel generally, as some with Lightfoot think; or, the time of 
Israel s conversion the latter day, according to Vitringa and others; 
or whether, as Calvin and many judge, it be the same period with "the 
times of restitution," when "He shall send Jesus Christ" in which 
last case the "blotting out" is understood in the well-known sense of 



138 APOSTOLIC VIEWS OP 

this diversity affects but slightly what I have to observe on 
the words, we need not stay upon it here. 

Whether we understand the " restitution " here meant of 
a moral or a physical restitution, or both considered as the 
burden of all Old Testament prophecy, and requiring com 
plete accomplishment ere Christ can come the words of 
the apostle are clearly subversive of a millennial state after 
Christ comes. Premillennialists tell us that Christ s second 
coming must precede the conversion of the Jews : Peter here 
tells them just the reverse. The Jews thought his going 
away from the earth was a bad sign of his Messiahship. 
But if you would only repent, says Peter, and be con 
verted, your sins would be blotted out; and times of refreshing 
would then come from the presence of the Lord; and events 
thus hastening on apace, he would send again to the earth 
your predicted Messiah, who is none other than Jesus Christ: 
but heaven in the mean time (ptv)* must receive him, till 
the times of restitution of all things which God hath spoken 
by all his prophets. 

Mr Wood says this does not mean till these times be 
exhausted/ but till they arrive. But the sense plainly is 
that, whatever the things predicted be, they are to be ac 
complished ere Christ comes; and that certainly will not be 
before the millennium, j" 

This famous passage, then, instead of making for pre- 

the public judicial declaration, at the great day, of pardon already 
obtained upon earth. 2. "Whether we should read "which" or "of which 
God hath spoken." (In the former case, a is attracted by the preceding 
aravTiuv, and is equivalent to , or eus \_xntus\.) 3. What is the "restitu 
tion" here meant. 

* " Particula iJ.lt, quidem, apodosin, cui alias autem servit, representa- 
tam habet in mittat, versa 20." (BENGEL.) 

f I will not advert to Mr Wood s remarks on the observations made 
on this passage in my first edition. It were easy, if it were a matter 
of any interest to the reader, to repel them all except one, namely, my 
ascribing inadvertently to premillennialists a criticism which is not pecu 
liar to them, and which I regret. 



CHRIST S KINGDOM. 139 

millennialism, tells decisively against it. And I may add, it 
was one of the passages which convinced Joseph Perry pre- 
millennialist though he was that there could be no such mil 
lennium after the Lord s coming as is now contended for. 

" The last restitution," says this good man, " or the restitution 
of all things, will not be, as I conceive, until Christ s personal 
coming. As the heaven received him, so it will retain him 

until this time, in which all things shall be restored If 

but one soul should be converted after Christ s descension from 
heaven, then must he come before the restitution of all things ; 
which is quite contrary to this text ; because the heaven must 
receive or retain him until then. What though this restitution 
of all things takes in the restoration of the creation unto its para 
disiacal state : yet it is certain that the bringing in of the elect by 
regenerating grace, and completing the whole mystical body of 
Christ, is the principal part of that restitution, they being prin 
cipally concerned in it, and for whose sake all other creatures 
are to be restored ; all which plainly shows that there will be no 
more conversion when Christ is come; which will not be until the 
restitution of all things, as before hinted." * 

III. In the following chapter we have a touching scene, 
and a bright application of Old Testament scripture, which, 
if I mistake not, is as subversive of the premillennial, as it 
certainly was of the Jewish, principles of interpretation, and 
their views of the kingdom : " Peter and John being let go," 
hasten " to their own company, and report all that the chief 
priest and elders had said unto them ;" on which the audience 
give vent to their feelings, and commit their now critical 
cause, in a sublime prayer to Him who, having " made heaven 
and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is," could with 
infinite ease sustain them ; and who, " by the mouth of his 
servant David," had foretold the very things that were then 
happening to them. And to which of David s psalms are 
their thoughts directed ? To one whose very burden is rie 
TJirone and Kingdom of Messiah. Here then, if any where, 
we may look for light. Its topics are the combined attacks 

* The Glory of Christ s Visible Kingdom, &c., pp. 224, 225. 



140 APOSTOLIC VIEWS OF 

of civil and ecclesiastical rulers against this Throne the de 
rision with which these are regarded by Jehovah the im 
movable security of his " King upon his holy hill of Zion," 
whereon he hath set him, and the certainty with which all 
who will not " kiss the Son," or bow their hearts and bend 
their policy to his sceptre, shall be " dashed in pieces." Pre- 
millennialists make all this future; and that is the vice of 
their system. But what say this worshipping company ? 
They apply the psalm, beyond all contradiction, to the pre 
sent Sovereignty and Rule of Jesus in the heavens. 

" The kings of the earth stood up," say they, taking up the 
words of the psalm "and the rulers were gathered together 
against the Lord, and against his Christ. For of a truth, 
against tliy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, as 
Messiah or Christ, " both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with 
the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered to 
gether, for to do what thy hand and thy counsel determined 
before to be done." (Actsiv. 26-28.) 

In the estimation, then, of this band of primitive disciples, 
" the vain things which the people imagined," and which the 
kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers took counsel 
to accomplish, was just to overthrow Christ s gracious Eule, 
whose sweetness they were then tasting in the salvation of 
their own souls, and wh ~ se power was bracing them to the 
endurance even of death for his name.* It was the " bands " 
of this saving authority over men which they saw them re 
solving to " break asunder " it was the "cords" by which 
it sought to bind them in believing subjection, which they 
saw them madly determining to " cast away from them." And 
if this view of the second psalm do not prove that the proper 
kingdom of Christ is now in existence that it is administered, 
not from a poor throne at Jerusalem, but from the heavens 
and that it consists, strict" y and formally, in the royal dispen- 

* Nothing can be "weaker, in my judgment, than Mr Birks s reply to 
this, grounded on its being an attempt not to interfere with Christ as 
already on the throne, but to "hinder him from assuming it" (p. 202). 



CHRIST S KINGDOM. 141 

sation of grace by him as a Saviour, and the saving rule of 
the subjects of that grace it is difficult to conceive what 
kind of evidence would be held competent to establish it.* 

IV. But the noblest expression of the idea, which we have 
found to be the burden of Peter s early addresses to his un 
believing countrymen, as well as the favourite conception of 
Messiah s Grace and Glory amongst the converts, occurs in 
this apostle s second speech before the Jewish council, when, 
being demanded why, in contravention of their peremptory 
command "not to teach in that name," they had "filled 

* "I have considerable doubts," says Mr Wood, "about the bands of 
saving authority, and the cords which bind in believing subjection, as 
I think the psalm naturally suggests another idea altogether."" (P. 118.) 
What that other idea" is, we are not told; but no doubt it is some- 
tliing future all goes to the future. 

" But even Mr Brown believes that the inheritance of the heathen, and 
the possession of the ends of the earth, shall not be received, nay, shall 
not be formally asked by Christ till the day when the Ancient of Days 
shall sit, and the Son of Man for the very purpose shall be brought be 
fore him ; that is, according to him, at the beginning of the millennium. 
(See p. 348.) Wherein, then, in principle of interpretation, does his view 
differ from mine ? " (Last Things, pp. 118, 119.) Mr Wood has totally 
mistaken me. The passage he refers to says nothing so absurd as that 
Christ will not formally ask the inheritance promised him in this psalm 
till the beginning of the millennium. He has been asking it ever since 
he sat down on his Father s right hand ; every portion of the heathen 
world actually " given " to him from age to age is first claimed, and then 
granted in recognition of these claims ; and it was just to show that when the 
whole world becomes actually his, it will be given him on the same footing, 
that a scenic exhibition of the installation of Christ in the government of " all 
peoples, nations, and languages," was presented to the view of Daniel. The 
difi erence between Mr Wood and me, then, is manifest. The same dispen 
sation of grace which gave Rome to Christ, or Britain, or any Christian 
nation, will give him all lands at length. When the Papacy falls, and 
the utmost ends of the earth become Christian, it will, on my principles, 
be no more a different dispensation from the present, than the accession 
of heathen Rome to Christianity was a new dispensation, or the great 
Reformation of the sixteenth century was a new dispensation. All be 
longs to one kingdom of grace. Mr Wood will surely admit that " in prin 
ciple of interpretation, " we totally differ here. 



142 APOSTOLIC COMMENTARIES 

Jerusalem with their doctrine, and intended to bring that 
Man s blood upon them," Peter, with the heroism of faith, re 
plied, 

" We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our 
fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew, and hanged on a tree : 
Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be A PRINCE 
AND A SAVIOUR, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgive 
ness of sins." (Acts v. 29-31.) 

Let the reader put himself into the position of the Jews 
whom Peter addressed, whose perverted notions of the Prince 
dom of their promised Messiah inflamed them with such " a 
zeal of God not according to knowledge," as to plunge them 
into the guilt of his precious blood ; and he will be satisfied 
that it was just these notions which Peter meant to dissipate, 
and in place of them to lodge in their minds a view of the 
Messiahship to them altogether new to describe the Prince 
dom of Messiah as strictly a SAVING dignity for the purpose 
of communicating, with royal authority and sovereign power, 
" repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins." Indeed, the 
words might be rendered with equal fidelity, and bring out 
perhaps quite as vividly the idea intended, were they to run 
thus in English (by what the critics call a hendiadys] : " Him 
hath God exalted to be a SAVIOUR-PRINCE [" A PRIEST 
UPON HIS THRONE "], for to give repentance," &c. 

V. Closely connected with these earliest representations of 
the regal dignity and kingdom of Messiah, are the apostolic 
commentaries on that massive verse of the hundred and tenth 
Psalm: " Jehovah said unto my Lord, SIT THOU AT MY RIGHT 

HAND, UNTIL I MAKE THINE ENEMIES THY FOOTSTOOL." (V. 1.) 
" David is not ascended into the heavens ; but he saith himself, 
Jehovah said unto my Lord, SIT THOU ON MY RIGHT HAND, 
UNTIL I MAKE THY FOES THY FOOTSTOOL. Therefore let all 
the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made 
that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and 
Christ." (Acts ii. 34-36.) 



ON THE HUNDRED AND TENTH PSALM. 143 

" This man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever 
SAT DOWN ON THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD ; from henceforth ex 
pecting TILL HIS ENEMIES BE MADE HIS FOOTSTOOL." (Heb. X. 

12, 13.) 

" Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the 
kingdom to God, even the Father ; when he shall have put 
down all rule, and all authority and power. For he must 
reign, till he hath PUT ALL ENEMIES UNDEK HIS FEET. The 
last enemy shall be destroyed, [even] death." * (1 Cor. xv. 
24-26.) 

These passages afford abundant materials for settling the 
whole question of Christ s kingdom. Beautiful is the light 
which they throw upon each other. " SIT on my right hand," 
says one of them, " till I make thine enemies thy footstool." 
" He must REIGN," says another, "till that be done by his own 
royal hand." " From henceforth," says the remaining pas 
sage from the time of this glorious Session and Enthroniza- 
tion. for they are both one " EXPECTING till " the Father s 
promise to do it for him be made good. He has entitled 
himself to this at God s hand, by " the offering of that one 
sacrifice for sins for ever " eternal in its efficacy, because in 
finite in value. On the completion of this work, exalted to 
the Father s right hand in the high consciousness of his own 
merit, and in full assurance that the promise is now all his 
own, our apostle gets a glimpse of him in the seat of power, 
and beholds him in the attitude of tranquil " expectancy," 
till the enemies of his regal authority be made his footstool : 
an expectancy commencing from the first moment of his re 
pose in glory, unruffled amid all opposition, and unexhausted 
by the longest delays, until the day Avhen he shall rise up to 
the prey.f 



t Koble are the words of CALVIN : " In excelsis ergo sedet, ut transfusi 
inde ad nos sua virtute, in vitam spiritualem nos vivificet, ut Spiritu 
suo sanctificet, ut variis gratiarum dotibus ecclesiam suam exoruet ; ut 
protectioue sua tutam adversus omnes noxas conservet, ut ferocientes 



144 THE KINGDOM TO BE DELIVERED UP 

On the last of these passages 1 Cor. xv. 24-26 premil- 
lennialists get into inextricable confusion, and come into such 
collision among themselves, as to subvert the doctrine com 
mon to all of them, and establish its opposite. It has been 
said, indeed, that others are as much divided on the sense of 
the passage as they. But that is a mistake. It is true that 
there is some difference on the " delivering up of the king 
dom." But what is it ? Just a diversity of conception as to 
the form which the kingdom of Christ shall assume, and the 
position which Christ himself shall occupy, in the everlasting 
state. On this point, involving some of the most delicate 
distinctions in the personal and official relations of the triune 
Jehovah, and in the economy of grace on this high point, 
my own views, which, with the deepest humility, I may pre 
sently try to express, coincide, as I have said, pretty much 
with those of my opponents. But this has nothing to do with 
our question about the kingdom. That question is not, What 
is meant by the " delivering up" of the kingdom ? but, What 
is the kingdom to be delivered up ? To this question the ma 
jority of premillcnnialists reply, It is Christ s proper kingdom, 
not yet assumed his millennial kingdom. Xay say Dr 
M Neile, the Duke of Manchester, and several others it is 
the kingdom over which Christ is now placed, and which he is 
to exchange for his own Davidical throne and kingdom, at 
the millennium. 

Here, as perhaps in every instance in which they differ 
among themselves, there is a portion of truth on both sides, 
which each can plead against the other with resistless force 
portions of truth which it is not possible to harmonize but by 

crucis SUSD ac nostrse salutis hostes manus suss fortitudine coerceat, de- 
nique ut omnem teneat potestatem in ccelo et in terra ; donee inimicos 
omnes suos, qui etiam nostri sunt, prostraverit, ac ecclesise suse asdifica- 
tionem consummarit. Atque hie verus est regni ejus status, hsec potes- 
tas, quam in eura contulit Pater, donee ultimum actum ad vivorum et 
mortuorum judicium adveniens compleat." (Inst. Christ. Eelig. lib. ii. 
cap. xvi. 16.) 



WHAT IT IS. 145 

abandoning the doctrine common to both, and falling back 
upon that to which both are with equal zeal opposed. These 
portions of truth are the following : 

On the one hand, it is beyond all controversy, that when 
the apostle says, " He must reign till he hath put all enemies 
under his feet," the " reign" spoken of is his present authority, 
and the " enemies" of that reign are the enemies of that same 
present authority. Mr Wood, and those who take his view of 
the passage, may deny this " as entirely unscriptural ;" but it 
will be in vain. The Duke of Manchester, Dr M Neile, and 
others, in affirming it, are on immovable ground; and no-one 
would ever take any other view of the passage but for the ne 
cessities of a system. To drag the apostle here into the mil 
lennium, as if he were speaking of the enemies of a millennial 
sovereignty, is of all interpretations the most preposterous.* 

On the other hand, it is equally incontrovertible that the 
" reign " here spoken of is the Redeemer s rule in his own 
proper kingdom, and the " enemies " are those of that rule. 
This is so manifest, that Mr Wood, in asserting it, can stand 
against all his brethren who affirm the contrary. The ene 
mies of this reign, according to the apostle, are of two kinds, 
moral and physical. Of the former class he says, " Then 
cometh the end, when he shall have put down all rule and all 
authority and power." Will this be done before the millen 
nium ? Have we not evidence that during that bright period 
the world s subjection to the sceptre of Christ will not be 
quite absolute ? (Zech. xiv. 17-19.) And after it, are we 
not explicitly told of a vast confederacy of Christ s enemies 
to arise against the camp of the saints ? (Rev. xx. 7-9.) 
When Mr Wood therefore affirms, that " all rule and all 
authority and power" of a hostile character will not be put 
down before the millennium, and that Christ will have this to 
do during that period in the exercise of his proper rule, and 

* Mr Birks (pp. 204-209) contends for the futurity of this reign. 
Alford (Gr. Test, in loc ), with Mr Wood, while espousing the prcmillen- 
nial advent, stretches " the kingdom " from the ascension to the close of 
the millennium thus combining both views. 



140 THE KINGDOM TO BE DELIVERED UP 

so will not deliver it up till after the millennium, he is on 
solid ground. So of the physical enemies : " The last enemy 
shall be destroyed, even death " that passive and unconscious 
" enemy" of Christ s reign, " the wages of sin," and the boast 
of Satan, but to be " destroyed," with all other " works of the 
devil," by " the Seed of the woman." In this view of it, it 
includes all physical evils springing from the fall, and similarly 
hostile to the ends of Christ s reign. Thus largely under 
stood, not even Mr Scott can very well maintain that " death " 
shall be destroyed before the millennium. Though at 
tempting to prove that death, in the mere fact of it, will 
not prevail during the millennium, even he seems to admit 
that physical as well as moral evils will remain, to some 
extent, till the end of the millennium.* And thus, as Christ 

* Dr M Neile (Lent Lectures for 1849, entitled, "The Priest upon his 
Throne "), takes up the same ground as Mr Scott; but his positions and 
the illustration seem to me directly to contradict each other, and to ex 
hibit a strange mode of thinking altogether. " The chief particulars," he 
says, " of that state the state of the earth when Christ comes are these : 
1. There shall be no more sin. All the then inhabitants of the earth shall 
be righteous. All shall love God, and serve God; so that his will shall 
then be done on earth as it is in heaven. Or, if any of the inhabitants 
of the earth shall at any time caase to do his will [in other words, if sin 
do break out] on earth, they shall instantly be treated as those angels were 
treated who ceased to do his will in heaven ; that is, they shall be cast out. 
From a passage in the prophecies of Isaiah (Ixv, 20), some have imagined 
that such an event might possibly occur during the thousand years ; that 
a man who had lived an hundred yeais without sin might then become a 
Dinner, and that if so he would be immediately accursed. That such an 
event shall take place on a large scale after the thousand years, seems not 
obscurely predicted in Rev. xx. 7-10. But in no case shall the holiness of 
Messiah 1 s kingdom be interfered ivith, any more than tJte holiness of heaven was, 
by the great rebellion there of Beelz bub and his associate. Of his king 
dom there shall be no end. The final assault, permitted at the end of 
the thousand years, serves but to confirm his reign for ever; and so (!) 
the state of things then existing, and to exist for ever, on the earth, 
shall be a state uithout sin." 1 " (Pp. 96, 97 ) In this way of arriving at 
conclusions, the reader will not be surprised to learn that Dr M Neiie 
finds " no more sorrow," "no more ignorance," "no more curse, 1 from the 
tiiue that CJurist comes that is, while the earth is peopled by " the re- 



WHAT IT IS. 147 

is to " reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet," Mr 
Wood, and those who agree with him, are upon impreg 
nable ground in maintaining that the " reign" here is Christ s 
proper reign, and the " enemies" those of his own kingdom. 
These, then, are the portions of incontrovertible truth, 
maintained by the two classes of preniillennial interpreters 
respectively. The one class hold, upon ground that cannot 
be shaken, that the " reign" spoken of in this famous passage 
is a present reign a reign commencing on the Redeemer s 
session at his Father s right hand. The other class, on ground 
equally unassailable, hold that, as the enemies mentioned will 
not be destroyed till the end of the millennium, the assurance 
that " He must reign " till that be done, carries the reign 
down till after the millennium. The one class give us the 
beginning of the reign, and the other class the end of it, quite 
correctly. And thus, in opposition to both, and by means of 
both, we get our proposition established that " the kingdom," 
and the Redeemer s " reign" in it, as they commenced on his 
ascension to power, so they will continue till the final judg 
ment. 

How precious is the view given of " death " in this passage, 
as the Saviour s " last enemy" the last enemy of that media 
torial crown which he now wears, as the Redeemer of his 
people from the whole ruins of the fall ! On his own throne 
sitting, " a Lamb as it had been slain " taken up to it fresh 
from the cross, and placed upon it in high testimony of Jeho 
vah s complacency in his work in this character, and vested 
with this authority and power, will he destroy that last enemy 

stored Jews," and " the millions of the heathen who have never rejected 
the gospel," and of whom it is written that " they shall come to Judah s 
light," &c. Pp. 97-104. Of course, these " restored Jews and converted 
heathens" must start at once not only into a converted state, but into a 
sinless, sorrmvless, perfectly illuminated, and curseless state, in order to 
realize the millennial picture which the lecturer draws. What can one 
make of this ? 



143 " THE LAST ENEMY 

of his gracious sway death. Virtually, indeed, it has been 
done already on the field of law, though not of fact. 
" Through death he destroyed him that had the power of 
death, that is the devil. " (Heb. ii. 14.) " He spoiled prin 
cipalities and powers, and made a show of them openly, 
triumphing over them in his cross." (Col. ii. 15.) There he 
"ABOLISHED," or "DESTROYED DEATH." (2 Tim. i. 10.)* A 
legal basis had to be obtained for the actual destruction of 
so righteous a penalty as death, " the wages of sin." In the 
righteousness of that penalty, Satan was strong. On that 
field, but for Christ s death, he was invincible. In this sense, 
" the accuser of the brethren " had " the power of death " 
power to insist on its infliction, on the same eternal principles 
of the Divine government by which himself was ruined as a 
sinner power to see it invested, in its approaches to men, 
with unmixed terrors, with " fearful lockings for of judgment 
and fiery indignation, to devour the adversaries" power to 
have a hand in mixing " the cup of trembling " to the dying 
sinner. Yes! " the sting of death is sin, and the strength is the 
law;" nor could the Son of God himself override these awful 
securities for "the execution of vengeance. But that vengeance 
he could draw off, by placing himself under it as Jehovah s 
substitutionary Victim ; and this he did " through death " 
not actually " abolishing " death, but obtaining a legal title 
to abolish it from the Throne. He met the enemy on his 
own chosen field, that proud arena " where was the hiding of 
his power;" and having "taken from him all his armour 
wherein he trusted," he has gone up to " divide his spoils." 
(Luke xi. 21, 22; compare Isa. liii. 12.) And the distribu 
tion is going gloriously on. The sweet sense of pardon and 
reconciliation the envy of Satan is one of the spoils he 
divides. Superiority to the " sin that dwellcth in us," is an 
other of the spoils left on the field of battle, and which, fall 
ing into the Redeemer s hands, he divides to his people. But 
* It is the same word (a.-t.y/(u) in both places. 



DESTROYED.* 149 

the death of death is reserved for the last. Already he is un- 
stinged; so that, though he tears asunder soul and body, 
leaving what Christ redeemed a lifeless carcass, in this he is 
no longer Satan s but Christ s servant, who "to this end 
both died [and rose] and revived, that he might be LORD both 
of the deadand living" (Rom.xiv.9), and who, as such, " hath 
the keys of death and of hades." (Rev. i. 18.) Still the 
enemy lives. While his victims lie rotting in the grave, he 
is not " abolished," " destroyed," " put under his feet/ But 
it must, and it shall, come to that. The Redeemer " expects" 
that what he accomplished sacrificidlly on the field of law 
shall be made good royally in the region of fact. The prey 
shall be taken from the terrible, and the lawful captive deli 
vered ; and thus, in the most absolute and comprehensive sense, 
shall He " see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied." 

It now only remains, before dismissing this grand passage, 
that I advert to the " delivering up of the kingdom." Not 
that it has any thing to do with our subject it relates to a 
stage of the kingdom beyond the limits of our question. But 
it would be unsatisfactory to take leave of it without some re 
ference to this very remarkable statement with which it closes. 

Two ideas, then, seem to be included in this " delivering 
up" of the kingdom. 

1. It is the Mediator "giving an account of his Steivardship." 

It is fit that this should be done. As Infinite Rectitude 
will have his intromissions judicially investigated and pro 
nounced upon, so his own fidelity desires and demands it, 
that his work may, in this sense, be taken offliis hands. He 
will have it publicly owned, and Himself as the Doer of it. 
For this purpose, he advances to the Throne. His dead 
people summoned from their graves, and his living ones 
changed in the twinkling of an eye, are all around him 
" a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any sucli 
thing ;" and as their crowns are cast before him, and his ear ia 



150 " DELIVERING UP THE KINGDOM " 

filled with their grateful hallelujahs, while " glorified in his 
saints, and admired in all them that believe" he turns to " Him 
that sitteth upon the Throne," as Judge of his work, saying, 
" Behold I, and the children whom thou hast given me : The 
glory which thou gavest me I have given them ; and they are 
one, even as we are one." (Heb. ii. 13 ; John xvii. 22.) 
The Trust committed to him was awful ; the wheels of it 
" were so high that they were dreadful" (Ezek. i. 18) ; the 
issues suspended upon the successful execution of it were 
infinite ; the glory of the Godhead was bound up with it : 
and Jesus, knowing all this, and exulting in the consciousness 
that his work will abide the lustre of Divine Inspection, will 
have judgment given upon it, that his ear may be greeted 
from the Throne with that sound sweeter to him than celes 
tial music " Well done, Good and Faithful Servant !" But, 

2. This " delivering up" of the kingdom seems to imply 
the end of the kingdom in its present form. 

" Then cometh the end" the end, certainly, of some 
thing ; and the words which immediately follow, " when he 
shall have delivered up the kingdom," seem naturally to sug 
gest this as the thing ended. That a termination of some 
kind is intended, we gather not from the word rendered " de 
liver up" a word which does not necessarily imply, either 
in classical or Scripture usage, a giving away of the thing 
spoken of, as critics have shown ; but we gather it from what 
is stated at the end of the whole passage, as the object in view. 
" The kingdom," says the apostle, " shall be delivered up 
that God may be all in all." Now, explain this as we may, 
it seems to imply something more than the mere presentation 
of the kingdom to the Father, for the purposes of judicial 
investigation. Even those who seem disposed to rest in this 
as the whole sense of the apostle, allow nevertheless, that, in 
point of fact, there will be a change of form, and a termina 
tion of not a few things now going on in, and now charac 
terizing the kingdom. And if so, why should we be so jea- 



WITAT IT IS NOT. 

lous of admitting this to be what the apostle means to cx^ 
press? 

When the Ecdeemer said, as he was on the wing 1 for hea 
ven, " Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, and 
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have com 
manded you" he gave out a commission which will un 
doubtedly be at an end when the time arrives of which our 
apostle speaks. His concluding words imply as much : " And 
lo ! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." 
Now, this commission is prefaced with the delightful announce 
ment, " All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth ; 
Go ye, therefore" implying that both the authority to issue 
that commission, and the power to sustain in the execution 
of it, were given to the Mediator expressly for those saving 
purposes. When, therefore, the work is done, the whole 
Commission is at an end not merely the matters to be per 
formed, but the whole Mediatorial Trust, and the whole 
Mediatorial Furniture, of authority and power, of gifts and 
graces, committed to him for the ends of that Trust. 

But does it follow from this, that the Mediator, as such, 
will sink and disappear ? By no means. The termination 
of which we have spoken leaves all mediatorial relationships 
untouched; and in the two following respects they will un 
doubtedly be eternal : 

(1.) In his mediatorial merit Christ must for ever be recog 
nised by the redeemed, and be in that character the Object 
of their unceasing contemplation and praise. " Worthy is 
the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and 
wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing" 
that dearest utterance of every heart that has ever been 
sprinkled with his blood must get out. Nor will it go forth 
merely in one sublime shout, bursting simultaneously from 
the lips of all, as they " enter in through the gates into the 
city" to die away, or be lost in some other and unknown 
feelings, kindled by the sight of an altered Lord. No. 



152 " DELIVERING UP THE KINGDOM " 

Nothing will ever content the ransomed of the Lord, br.t 
still to discern " in the midst of the throne a Lamb as it had 
been slain" ever fresh, so to speak, from the Altar. They 
will love to feel the eternal freshness of his merit, and its 
righteous power to keep them where they are. As he un 
veils himself to them in this overpowering character, and 
they gaze upon him in the vivid, adoring perception of that 
in him which brought them from hell to heaven, those melo 
dious notes will steal upon his ear, and fill it gratefully 
through all duration, " Unto him that loved us, and washed 
us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings 
and priests to God and his Father, to him be glory and 
dominion, for ever and ever. Amen." 

(2.) His Mediatorial Person will be the eternal SEAT of 
Divine manifestation ; the MEDIUM of communication be 
tween the Unseen One and all heaven ; and the very PILLAR 
of the eternal system. It is on this point that the heart is 
ready to tremble, as it hears of his " delivering up the king 
dom to God, even the Father that God may be all in all," 
as if it were meant to intimate that, somehow or other, the 
mediatorial character of its Lord would merge and evanish 
a thought abhorrent to saved and grateful souls. But on 
this point other Scriptures gloriously reassure us. The 
heavenly state is in one place called "THE EVERLASTING 

KINGDOM OP OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS ClIKIST." (2 

Pet. i. 11.) In another, it is called, " The kingdom of CHRIST 
and of GOD." (Eph. v. 5.) And what this last passage ex 
presses nakedly is in the Apocalypse (as usual) symbolically 
represented : " And he showed me a pure river of water of 
life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of GOD 

and of the LAMB And there shall be no more curse; 

but the throne of GOD and of the LAMB shall be in it" the 
new Jerusalem. (Rev. xxii. 1, 3.) Here, God and the 
Lamb are named with emphatic distinctness ; and the pure 
river of the water of life is seen flowing from the throne of 



WHAT IT IS NOT. 153 

both, from that of God, as the Unseen, Absolute, Eternal 
Fountain of life and of love; from that of THE LAMB, as the 
visible Channel, throughout eternity, of all gracious and 
beatific communications from God to the redeemed. 

" He that hath seen Him will have seen the Father." In 
his glorious Person, the triune Jehovah will stand confessed 
and manifested to all heaven and through all duration. Nor 
will it be mediatorial manifestation only. There will be in 
cessant mediatorial intercourse and communication between 
God and his people. The river of life, as we learn from 
what is here said, shall flow, through him, from its Foun 
tain to the souls that shall never have enough of it ; and from 
them it shall be, through the same dear channel, sent back 
again, in the outgoings of their full hearts and in the services 
of their perfected natures, without end. Never a benignant 
look, never a gracious communication, from the triune Je 
hovah will reach the citizens of the New Jerusalem, but it 
will pass through, or rather proceed from, his manifested 
Person : Never a grateful feeling, nor a willing service, shall 
go from them to the Godhead, but it shall light upon, and be 
absorbed by, Him in whom shall be seen dwelling all the 
fulness of the Godhead bodily. Thus the mediatorial rela 
tionships will remain, not in the passive state of mere exist 
ence, so to speak, but gloriously active and effectual. They 
will be the life of all heaven. The preservation and continu 
ance of the heavenly state will be as dependent upon the 
continued application of his mediatorial merit, and the con 
tinued exercise of his mediatorial power, as was the attain 
ment of heaven before. As in the kingdom of Nature, " In 
six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and rested the 
seventh day," and yet " my Father workcth hitherto," said 
Christ, " and I work" as every moment He " upholdeth all 
things by the word of his power," the same creative power 
which called them into being at first so in the kingdom of 
Grace, the whole saving grace and redeeming power of the 



15 "DELIVERING UP THE KINGDOM" AVHAT IT is NOT. 

Mediator will go out incessantly, in the heavenly state, for the 
preservation and continuance of what hath been attained for 
the eternal sustentation of the Church, in its being and bliss. 
Tims, in the strictest sense, will it be the " KINGDOM of 
Christ and of God" " His appearing and HIS KINGDOM" . 

" THE EVERLASTING KINGDOM OP OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR 

JESUS CHRIST" " He shall REIGN for ever and ever." In his 
glorious Person not only shall Grod be manifested, but re 
stored humanity shall stand represented and headed up, as 
"the First-begotten from the dead, the First-born among 
many brethren," " the second Man." In Him also shall 
" elect angels" find the principle of their stability, and the 
Head of a system of new creation, of which they are a part ; 
in whom are " gathered together all things in one, both which 
are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in Him" " by 
whom all things are reconciled, whether they be things in 
earth or things in heaven." (Eph. i. 10 ; Col. i. 20.) At 
the head of this magnificent kingdom of new creation Jesus 

O O 

shall sit, the Life of all its activities and of all its felicities, 
and the, very Prop of its being feasting himself with the 
worthy and enduring spectacle. Long he "expected :" Now, 
he expects no longer, and expects nothing more ; for he has 
gotten all. "He SEES the travail of his soul, and is SATIS 
FIED." He rests and is refreshed. The Trust-character of 
mediation is at an end ; but mediation itself is not at an end. 
The Stewardship has ceased, with all its mutual engagements, 
and interchanged fidelities, and surrenders and acceptances 
between the high contracting parties. " The Strength of 
Israel has not lied unto Him; 1 nor has He proved to Him 
that appointed him " altogether as a liar, and as waters that 
fail." So the covenant stands fast for ever, and " His THRONE 

AS THE DAYS OF HEAVEN !" (Psal. Ixxxix. 28-37.)* 

* The further prosecution of this important branch of our argument 
I reserve to the second part of this volume ; that the stream of evidence, 
under the successive heads, may flow uninterrupted. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE ENTIRE CHURCH " MADE ALIVE" EITHER BY RESURREC 
TION OR TRANSFORMATION AT CHRIST S COMING. 

THERE is no part of the premillennial scheme, as now advo 
cated, where it comes so entirely to a stand, as on the subject 
of the RESURRECTION. When Christ appears, we are told 
at the beginning of the millennium he will raise all the 
saints that shall have died before that time, and change all 
that shall then be alive. But what is to become of the 
myriads of saints that are to people the earth during the 
millennium? 

The answer to this question will startle the reader, if he 
happens not to be well read in the changes which this un 
steady scheme has from time to time undergone, and is un 
acquainted with its latest modifications. The fact is, This 
whole subject is a blank in the system. It has positively got 
no Scripture on the subject. It applies all that Scripture 
says about the resurrection of saints at all, to those living 
before the millennium. Of course, then, they find it silent 
about either the raising or the changing of any other saints 
without a word about the vast numbers whom they have to 
dispose of after the millennium. What do they do with 
them, then ? For the most part, the subject is avoided. 
Those, however, who venture to grapple with it, are hurried 
into such revolting speculations as, I believe, will open many 
an eye to the true nature of the whole scheme. 

I shall not take my statement of these speculations from 



156 EVERLASTING CONTINUANCE OF 

those who are reckoned extreme men, nor from books which 
may be supposed to be out of date. The following is from 
the pen of Mr BICKERSTETH. The startling nature of it, 
and its important bearings, will justify our giving it pretty 
nearly in full. 

" If," says he, "the resurrection of the righteous and the wicked, 
and the general judgment of all men, took place at one time, and 
in the same day, none would, none could be left, as the heads and 
parents of a redeemed people on. earth [after the general judgment.] 
But the Holy Scriptures reveal to us a progress in judgment, and 
that the resurrection of the righteous and the wicked are clearly 
distinct in time. There is the first resurrection of the saints at 
the commencement of the millennium, and after the thousand 

years the rest of the dead [the wicked] live, and are judged." 

At the close of the millennium, " there is a last open apostasy of 
the wicked, who during the thousand years had yielded only a 
feigned obedience." This " finally separates all the believers, and 
removes them from the earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. The 
apostates are first slain by fire, and afterwards raised with the rest 
of the wicked dead for judgment. But NO CHANGE is THEN MEN 
TIONED AS PASSING ON THE JEWISH NATION, OR ON THE LIVING RIGHT 
EOUS, who continue faithful to God, AS IN THE TRANSLATION OF THK 
SAINTS BEFORE THE MILLENNIUM.* The object of the rebellion, to 
overthrow the camp of the saints and the beloved city, fails of its 
design. God protects them. The lining righteous, then, after the 
Millennium, MAY YET CONTINUE A SEED TO SERVE GOD, AND IN SUCCES 
SIVE GENERATIONS BE TRAINED UP FOR HEAVENLY GLORY." f 

In this statement, the least surprising thing which the 
reader will mark is, that there is to be no simultaneous 
change of those myriads of believers who have lived durina 
the millennium, " as in the translation of the saints before 

* I thought the author had, in the previous sentence, " finally re 
moved all the believers from the earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. " 
How he keeps them on earth still, unchanged and untranslated, I am at 
a loss to understand. 

t Lent Lecture for 1843, second edition, pp. 329, 331. The Lecture is 
entitled, " The Kingdom of Christ the Lord, in its successive stages and 
heavenly glories." 



THE FLESHLY STATE MB B1CKEKSTETII. 157 

the millennium." That, be it observed, is given up. What, 
then, becomes of them? One by one, throughout " succes 
sive generations/ they get glorified we are not told how, 
or on what principle but the race of them never dies out: 
they live on, and propagate their kind to all eternity; they 
" continue a seed to serve God!" 

But possibly this 13 but a hasty conjecture; for, says the 
author, " they may continue." In the next sentence but 
one, however, the conjectural is changed into the positive; 
and page after page is spent in attempts to prove the mon 
strous position of an eternal perpetuity of the generations 
and families of men in flesh and blood upon the earth. 

" Its truth," says he, "is distinctly revealed in many testimonies 
of Scripture, both in the Old and New Testament. The covenant 
with Noah was an everlasting covenant between God and every living 
creature of all Jleslifor perpetual generations The covenant of Abra 
ham is called by the psalmist the word which he commanded to 
thousand generations So Moses describes the Lord as keeping 
covenant and mercy for a thousand generations This period of a 
thousand generations, thus repeatedly mentioned, WOULD REACH FAR. 
BEYOND THE CLOSE OP THE MILLENNIUM. The promise made in Isaiah 
concerning the kingdom of Christ, and his reigning on the throne 
df David, are in the strongest expressions of NEVER-ENDING CONTI 
NUANCE. The same promise of perpetuity is often given to the 
people of Israel : The people shall be all righteous, they shall 
inherit the land for ever. (Isa. Ix. 21.) Corresponding with this is 
that very full and clear promise, They shall dwell in the laud, 
thoy and their children and their children s children for ever, and my 
servant David shall be their prince for ever The plain and obvious 
meaning of such passages would lead us to the conclusion of a con 
tinuance both of Israel and Gentile nations in a state of righteous 
ness on our earth." After attempting to show " the consistency 
of this with the last fire described in St Peter, and the new heavens 
and the new earth afterwards to come forth," he says, " Thus re 
markable are the proofs in the Old Testament of the PERPETUAL 
continuance of the Jewish nation on our earth." * 

* The reader will observe how studiously the estimable author avoids 
raying, "eternal continuance." Is it that an everlasting propagation of 



158 EVERLASTING CONTINUANCE OF THE FLESHLY STATE 

Mr Bickerstoth s New Testament proofs are still more sin 
gular. 

" The apostle," says he, " closes his prayer for the Ephesians by 
leading us to the same wonderful fact of a perpetual continuance 
of the church upon earth : * Unto God be glory in the Church by 
Christ Jesus, world without end; or, as it might be rendered, 
throughout all the generations of the ages of ages. The Apostle 
James, speaking of believers, says, Of his own will begat he us 
with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of 
his creatures. Thus the Christian Church is described as only the 
first-fruits of a glorious harvest yet to be reaped on our earth." 

That is, after " the end of all things" as we innocently 
sav for it seems there is to be no end of any thing. 

" So," he goes on, "in the description in the Hebrews of the future 
glory, and of the heavenly society partaking of it, there is not only 
the general assembly and church of the first-born which are writ 
ten in heaven, but * the spirits of just men made perfect, which 
seems to refer to those gathered, after the number of the Church of the 
first-born is completed." 

But enough of these singular specimens of exegesis. 

Soon after the publication of the volume from which these 
paragraphs are transcribed, Mr BIRKS S acute work on " The 
Four Prophetic Empires and the Kingdom of the Messiah" 
appeared. There the same views are stated, the same pas 
sages, with a little enlargement, adduced, the same style of 
reasoning and language employed. A few sentences, how 
ever, I will give from this work. 

" Does the Word of God," asks Mr BIRKS, " distinctly reveal to 
us a time when the number of mankind shall be complete, and a 
close put for ever to the course of human generations? Or, does it 
unfold the prospect of successive generations of the redeemed throughout 
the course of the ages to come? It has appeared already, that the 
latest prophecy of Scripture encourages, rather than forbids, the 

latter view No one could infer from these parts of the 

inspired volume [the Old Testament], that there was any final 

human families upon earth is a sentiment scarcely palatable enough to be 
nakedly stated ? 



MR BIRKS MR LORD. 159 

Lound assigned to the course of human generations. The direct 
statements of their perpetual continuance are so numerous, and 
expressed in such various forms, that nothing less than the clearest 
evidence in other parts of revelation can warrant us in restricting 

them to a narrower sense The last fire is, in the Book 

of Revelation, seen to fall on the rebels who compass the beloved 
city. But the camp of the saints itself is preserved, the fire harms 
it not. The dead, then, and the dead only, so far as that prophecy 
reveals, are summoned in judgment, but the faithful who are then 
living are passed by in silence? and the natural conclusion seems 
to be, that from them the new earth is peopled with holy and 
righteous generations."* 

In the Lent Lectures for 1849, the same views are repeated, 
in a modest and sweet spirit, by Mr BROCK. | But as he 
refers his readers to Mr Birks and Mr Bickersteth for a fuller 
treatment of the subject, I pass from him to give one more 
extract from the other side of the Atlantic. 

" The annunciation," says Mr LORD, " that He who sent his 

angel to testify these things in the Churches is Jesus, that 

the Spirit and the bride say, Come, and that whoever hears it is to 
say, Come, is marked by a beauty and grandeur of meaning scarce 
ly surpassed in any other passage of the book. As the saints, who 
are the bride, do not in their intermediate state address men, the 
invitation they utter is to be referred to their reign with Christ on 
earth, when they are to exercise the office of kings and priests. 
The passage indicates an agency, therefore, they are to exert 
throughout the interminable agts of redemption. The Root and the 
Offspring of David, the bright and morning Star, is the incarnate 
Word, who is to reign and CARKY ON THE WORK OF SALVATION FOR 

EVER AND EVER. THE SPIRIT IS TO CONTINUE HIS RENEWING AND 

SANCTIFYING INFLUENCE, and say to the sons and daughters of the race, 
at they are sunimoned FROM AGE TO AGE into existence, Come. The 
raised and transfigured saints are to repeat the call THROUGH THE 
FLIGHT OF EVERLASTING YEARS, J and the unglorificd also; and every 

* The Four Prophetic Empires and the Kingdom of the Messiah. By 
the Eev. T. R. Birks, pp. 310, 311, 319, 320, 325. Second Edition, 1845. 
f The Priest upon his Throne, Lect. x. 
j Compare this with Mr Bickersteth s " visible economy of oral reve- 



1GO REMARKS 

breast be filled and transported with a sense of the infinitude and 
freeness of the Saviour s grace." * 

I thought that my duty to the truth and fidelity to the 
system which I am examining, demanded that these extracts 
should be given to my readers. (Since this \vas first written, 
indeed, it seems to have become the received premillennial 
view.) And now, what shall I say of such views ? 

(1.) They are in the last degree repulsive. "Who can 
hear of " successive generations" of men after the last judg 
ment of " sons and daughters of our race summoned into 
existence through the flight of everlasting years" of a 
" perpetual continuance of the Church upon earth," for the 
purpose of being " trained for heavenly glory" without any 
end of an everlasting birth of sinful men, to be saved by 
grace implying, of course, THE ETERNAL CONTINUANCE OF 

SIN, AND ITS INSEPARABLE ACCOMPANIMENTS, On that " new 

earth wherein dwelleth righteousness:" who can hear of 
such things without astonishment, and is it too much to 
add without loathing? I know it may be said, that this 
everlasting continuance of sin and misery on the new earth is 
repudiated by the writers from whom I quote; inasmuch as 
they repeatedly tell us that " the people that sojourn on the 
earth will be all righteous" in the most absolute sense. Mr 
Lord, for example, says this, and so do others. But that is 
their strange inconsistency. They talk of " the incarnate 
Word carrying on the work of salvation for ever and ever," 
and in the next breath speak of men on the earth as having 
no sin to be saved from of " the Spirit continuing his renew 
ing and sanctifying influence" on the new earth, and anon, as 
if no renovation and sanctification were needed at all of 
" the perpetual continuance of the Church upon earth to be 
trained for heavenly glory," and then, as if men were beyond 

lation from those who reign upon the earth" to those who are reigned 
over; p. 113, supra. 
* Exposition of the Apocalypse. New York, 8vo, 1847, p. 535, 



ON THIS VIEW. 161 

tho need of any such discipline. What can be made of con 
fusion like this? 

(2.) The arguments in proof of these views are worthy 
of the views themselves. What canon of criticism is 
more self-evident and more universally recognised than this, 
that terms and phrases, expressive of perpetuity, are to be 
stretched no further than the known duration of the thing 
spoken of? as when the Jews were commanded to keep such 
and such of their institutions " throughout their generations 
by an ordinance for ever," that is, of course, not through all 
eternity, but throughout the whole duration of their peculiar 
polity, and no longer. On this familiar principle, all Mr 
Bickersteth s and Mr Birks passages about " perpetual gene 
rations," " thousand generations," " inheriting the land for 
ever," and such like, admit of the easiest possible explanation. 
Nor does the greater strength of the language in one place 
than in another, for which there will always be found some 
reason, alter the principle upon which all such passages are 
to be explained. As for their interpretation of the glory 
which Paul ascribes to God " in the Cliurch throughout all 
ages," as if it taught the eternal continuance of a Church- 
state upon earth after the last judgment, it is only equalled 
in originality and in value by their two next interpretations 
of " the first-fruits of his creatures " in James, and " the 
spirits of just men made perfect" in the Hebrews.* 

But the intelligent reader will scarcely, I think, be con 
tented with repudiating such wretched interpretations. He 
will go on to consider what could ever suggest them to such 
excellent ministers of Christ. It must have something to 

* Mr Birks says, in reply to this, that he holds " the contrary " of an 
" eternal continuance of a Church- state upon earth after the last judg 
ment" the name of "Church" belonging exclusively to "the election 
out of the present world what he thinks is pointed at in the above 
passage is "those successive generations of the world to come," or, in 
other words, men born in succession throughout all eternity. Well, but 
I presume he holds these future men are to be saved as men now are ; in 
which case the difference is as little worth noticing as the exposition 
itself seems to be. 

N 



162 REMARKS 

recommend it to such men ; and I apprehend that something 
to be the gap otherwise left in the premillennial system. 
That system provides for the saints whom it has to dispose 
of before the millennium. It provides also for the resurrec 
tion of the wicked at the dose of the millennium, in such a 
way, at least, as will bear to be looked at. But since "no 
change upon the living righteous," after the millennium, is ex 
pected no simultaneous transformation of the millions of 
saints that will be found on the earth after the millennium 
is over what can they do with them but just leave them where 
they were upon earth and as they were in the flesh to all 
eternity ? Abhorrent though the idea be, I do not see how, 
without it, or something very like it, the scheme can be gone 
through with. It is the system, then, of Christ s coming be 
fore the millennium, which drives sober men into such spe 
culations. Truly it is "a burdensome stone" to all who 
warmly espouse and resolutely hold by it, dashing against 
every truth, and throwing the whole system into disorder. 
It is a wedge which, once introduced into the Word of God, 
dislocates it all, and unsettles its every text. One way of 
clearing all is open, and only one to give it up. 

(3.) If there is to be a Church-state upon earth, or, at 
least, all the processes of salvation of souls after the last 
judgment, the battle against the unwersalists which, on the 
ordinary principles of sound theology, used to be thought an 
easy one must be fought over again, and on altogether new 
ground. We must concede much to them, it seems, which 
we were used to repudiate. We must not only admit that 
there will be "an accepted time and day of salvation" 
throughout all eternity for sinners of mankind, but that there 
will be "ages," or (as the premillennialists interpret that 
term in the New Testament) dispensations or economies of 
grace, distinct from each other, and following each other in 
succession ; that there will be " ages of ages," nay, that there 
will be whole " generations of these ages of ages ;" insomuch 
tliat the apostle, looking through the interminable vista of 



ON THIS VIEW. 163 

them, and seeing amidst their endless variety a Church-state 
characterizing them all, ascribes glory to God through Jesus 
Christ in this ever-changeful, never-ceasing Church upon 
earth ! This is what we must concede, I say, to the universal- 
ists, according to Mr Bickersteth, Mr Birks, Mr Lord, &c. 
What use the universalists make of this doctrine of post- 
millennial and eternal " ages," is known to every one ac 
quainted with the literature of theology, and may be readily 
conjectured by those who are not. It is the very life of their 
system, and the one exegetical plausibility which they are 
able to urge. And though our esteemed friends may guard 
their views against universalism, by denying that this Church- 
state will be for the benefit of any that have died rejecting 
a preached gospel, even this does not preclude the notion of 
a future day of grace being extended to such as have died 
in heathenism a notion which has actually been broached 
by a few of the bolder premillennialists. And when 
once this awfully perilous door has with rash hand been 
opened, it will not be found so easy a thing to get it shut 
again. 

We have thus seen that our friends make no provision at 
all for the resurrection or transformation of those who live 
during the millennium, that though they draft them, one 
by one interminably, into the glorified state, they do not 
pretend to show any revealed arrangements for effecting so 
important a change, and have positively no Scripture for 
removing them from the earth at all, according to their way 
of interpreting Scripture, but just the presumed necessity of 
their getting up higher. 

Is this like a scriptural scheme? 

I know well how cordially the authors I have referred to, 
would join with me in branding every thing that savours of 
universalism. But I think it neither unbecoming nor inap 
propriate to show the dangerous weapons with which they 
are playing ; and I make bold to ask the reflecting reader, if 



Ibi THE WHOLE CHURCH 

it be not the placing Christ s second coming before the mil 
lennium which puts these weapons into their hands? 

In opposition to all these speculations, I affirm as follows : 

PROPOSITION SIXTH: 

WHEN CHRIST COMES, THE WHOLE CHURCH OF GOD WILL BE 
" MADE ALIVE " AT ONCE THE DEAD BY RESURRECTION, 
AND THE LIVING, IMMEDIATELY THEREAFTER, BY TRANS 
FORMATION ; THEIR " MORTALITY BEING SWALLOWED UP 
OF LIFE." 

how firm is the ground we tread on here ! What a re 
lief, after the dangerous region we have just been drawn into, 
and the insecure footing we had in it, to find " our foot 
standing in an even place," and "our goings established!" 
Reader, look on this proposition, and on that set up in oppo 
sition to it, and say which commends itself most imme 
diately to the devout student of Scripture as " the mind of 
the Spirit." I think I could peril the whole question upon 
this appeal. 

The proof of this proposition has been given already in 
our fourth chapter. The same passages which showed the 
completeness of the Church at Christ s coming, proved also 
their simultaneous appearance in the glory of the resurrection. 
I do not infer the one of these from the other in no case 
do we need to do this ; but the same passages establish both 
things. In the same passages we find the whole Church of 
God present when Christ comes, and present in the glory of 
the resurrection. Let us just glance at them again, in con 
nection with the point we are now upon. 

The formal subject of our first passage being the resurrec 
tion of believers, and it being the most comprehensive and 
systematic statement on the subject to be found in Scrip 
ture, let us recur to it. 



" MADE ALIVE " AT ONCE. 165 

" Cut now," says the apostle, " is Christ risen, and become the first- 
fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by 

man came also the resurrection of the dead But each " 

$xxffri; S, each party, the Representative and the repre 
sented) "in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterward 
they that are Christ s at his coming." (1 Cor. xv. 20, 21, 23.) 

The point of comparison here between Adam and Christ, 
as was noticed before, is the connection between them and 
their respective constituents. The apostle assumes that 
Christ stands in the same legal and vital relation to those 
whom he represents, as Adam does to those for whom he 
stood. As the wages of Adam s sin is death, so the merited 
reward of Christ s righteousness is life. And the apostle s 
argument for the resurrection of them that sleep in Jesus is, 
that as the death soul and body of all them that stood in 
Adam has not only been procured in law, but hath actually 
" passed upon all men, in that all have sinned " in Adam ; so 
the life in body as well as soul of all them that are Christ s, 
has not only been absolutely secured in law, but must infal 
libly "pass upon them all " the whole represented company 
" in that all of them are made the righteousness of God 
in him." It is not death and life, as mere events in men s 
history, of which the apostle is treating : It is death and life 
considered as the reward of merit, as the wages paid for work 
done, and under the strict operation of law. Nor is it death 
and life, even in this sense, to each individual for himself and 
by himself : It is death and life under a representative constitu 
tion, and altogether within the limits of that constitution; 
the merit of each of the two Heads taking legal and actual 
effect upon the entire company represented by them re 
spectively in ruin by the one, and rise by the other in 
death from the one, and life from the other, body as well as 
soul. 

"But each in his own order." That is, surely, each of 
the two parties just mentioned " Christ," and "all who in 



166 OBJECTION. 

Christ shall be made alive ; " the first-fruits, and the subse 
quent harvest. Here, "they that are Christ s" are surely 
identical with the "all in Christ made alive;" and both 
expressions denote the whole company represented in Christ 
as the second Adam, the "Mediator of the new covenant" 
all to whom shall ever extend the legal virtue of his 
obedience.* All these are to be made alive at his com 
ing not some of them then, and the rest one knows 
not when ; but all absolutely, numerically, at once, " at his 
coming." 
The other passages need no comment 

" This is the Father s will which hath sent me, that of all which 
he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it 
up again at the last day. And this is the will of Him that 
sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and bdieveth on 
him, may have everlasting life : and I will raise him up at 
tie last day: (John vi. 39, 40.) 

" I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast giten me" 

Mark the contrast here between " the world " and " them 
that have been given to Christ by the Father," as one undi 
vided company 

" Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be 
with me where I am ; that they may behold my glory, which 
thou hast given me." (John xvii. 9, 24.) 
The all-inclusiveness of the resurrection and glorification 
here spoken of is abundantly evident. 

Here, then, I might close this chapter, holding the proof of 
our proposition to be complete, that all who have been " given 
to Christ by the Father" shall appear together, in the glory 
of the resurrection, at his coming. 

But there is one plausible objection to which I must advert; 
otherwise entire satisfaction might not be felt. Passages 

* Mr Birks (p. 216) takes me to task for my confidence on this point. 
Let the reader judge between us. 



OBJECTION REPLY. 1G7 

of Scripture are adduced which it is alleged connect the 
resurrection of believers with events confessedly millennial; 
showing that there will be believing men living in the flesh, 
and an earthly state, after that resurrection of believers 
which those passages speak of. Such, for example, is Isa. 
Ixv. 17, undoubtedly referred to in 2 Pet. iii. 13, as pre 
dicting the renovating of the heavens and the earth; and 
such are Isa. xxv. 8, and Hos. xiii. 14 both quoted in 1 
Cor. xv. 54, 55, the one as " brought to pass " in the 
Church s resurrection, and the other as a song of triumph 
because of the same event; both, too, furnishing the lan 
guage in which the celestial glory of the Church is, in Eev. 
xxi. 4, described. 

The argument from these passages is stated in very much 
the same way by almost all defenders of the preraillennial 
advent. 

" The testimony of Isa. xxv. 8," says Dr II. Bonar, " in favour of 
a premillennial advent is very strong ; for it makes resurrection 
antecedent to Israel s earthly blessedness and glory. It is, more 
over, one of a series occurring in this prophet, all of which occuf 
in the same position and connection, establishing the priority of 
resurrection to the triumphs of the latter day." Speaking of Isa. 
xxv. 8, he says, " I cannot imagine any passage, or series of 
passages, more clear and conclusive in favour of the premillennial 
advent. Their order runs thus : Destruction of Antichrist j 
Resurrection of the Just ; Restoration of Israel." * 

Now, let the reader observe the singular theory on which 
this is made out the novel principle of interpretation on 
which these conclusions are founded. It is, that in the pro 
phecies founded on, there are two distinct parties spoken of, 
and two quite different states of things. There are men in 

* "The Coming and Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ," pp. 175, 
177 (1849). 

Mr Elliott s able and candid argiiment, to the same effect, may be 
eeen in his Hor. Apoc. iv. 155-167 (fourth edition) ; and Dr M Neile s, 
in his " Sermons on the Second Advent," No. iii. The above is tbe 
briefest statement I could find. 



168 ONE CLASS OP SAINTS ONLY IN THESE PROPHECIES. 

the flesh, and there are men in glory the latter the ruling 
men, the former the men ruled over. The subject-matter 
of the prophecies in question is the millennial kingdom, in 
two distinct and contemporaneous departments, it seems 
the one a celestial, the other a terrestrial department ; 
there is an upper, and there is a lower sphere a mortal 
and an immortal class, COEXISTENT and CONTEMPORANEOUS, 
in these prophetic passages. Thus, in Isa. xxv. 7 : " He 
will destroy the veil that is spread over all nations " that 
means the millennial nations, the men in the flesh. But 
the very next words (verse 8), " He will swallow up death 
in victory " that means not the same men, at the same, or 
at a more advanced stage of their redemption, but risen 
men, contemporaneous with, and holding rule over, these 
millennial, unglorified, mortal men. 

Need I appeal to any ordinary reader of the Bible, whether 
he ever saw or imagined such a distinction in the passages 
referred to ? There is not a trace of this twofold condition 
of the Church an upper and a lower, a mortal and an 
immortal, a terrestrial and a celestial, one of grace and one 
of glory coexistent and contemporaneous in the prophetic 
strains. There may, indeed, be some difficulty in ascer 
taining the scientific principle on which strains, so catholic 
and all-embracing in their sweep, are to be dealt with how 
predictions, inclosing THE WHOLE WORK OF MESSIAH AND 
ALL ITS RESULTS, are to be expounded how the events of 
all time, as they stand connected with Christ held forth 
before the eye at one view on the panoramic canvass of Old 
Testament prophecy are to be resolved and sorted. I say, 
there may be some difficulty about the proper way of ex 
pounding such remarkable portions of divine truth. To this 
point I will presently advert in the Supplementary Remarks. 
But these I purposely throw into a place by themselves, that 
the reader may not be diverted from the one thing on which 
this argument hinges, namely, the presence of two distinct 



ONE CLASS OF SAINTS ONLY IN THESE PROPHECIES. 169 

bodies of men in these prophecies. If this be not made out, 
then, the plea from these prophecies for a millennial state 
after the resurrection of saints, vanishes at once. 

Now, let the reader glance at any one of the predictions 
in question, and see if he can find this alleged twofoldness 
in the Church spoken of. In Isa. xxv. 6-8, for example, it 
is one class of men (they would tell us) for whom the " feast 
of fat things is made ; " the same from whom " the veil " of 
ignorance is taken away ; a different class, in whose persons 
" death is swallowed up in victory ; " and again the former 
class, whose " tears are wiped away," and whose " rebuke 
is removed from off all the earth ! " Was ever such a way 
of explaining the prophecies thought of by unbiased readers ? 
Did ever critic or commentator, worthy of the name, commit 
himself to such capricious principles of exposition ? Never 
one, to my knowledge. * 

I dismiss this argument, then, as having nothing to sup 
port it. That the resurrection, and the new heavens and new 
earth, are truly predicted in the prophecies in question, I 
grant most readily; and that it is by no accommodation of 
them that the Apostles Paul and Peter quote them in this 
sense. I grant, too, that the millennial state is held forth in 
the same prophecies : in short, that the kingdom of Christ 

* Thus I expressed myself in a former edition. "Well," says Mr 
Wood, "I will bring forward OLSHAUSEN, who will be allowed to be 
entitled to the name of a commentator " (p. 12). Undoubtedly ; and I 
thank my friend for the correction. That the reader may be able to judge 
for himself, I will give him the passage which Mr Wood quotes from his 
commentary on Matt. xxii. 29, to the benefit of which premillenialism 
is fairly entitled. " It does not appear," says Olshausen, "how the con 
tradiction is to be reconciled without the supposition of a twofold 
resurrection ; while, if the supposition be adopted, such passages are 
easily explained. In that case, those living in the kingdom must not 
by any means be regarded as all having risen from the dead ; and, 
accordingly, descriptions like those in Isa. Ixv. 20, 23, must be referred 
only to those who have not risen, and consequently still belong in part 
to the present world." Vol. iii. p. 192. (Clark s translation.) 



170 SUPPLEMENTARY REMARKS. 

in all its stages is there. In this all orthodox interpreters 
agree. If they differ, it is merely, as I have expressed it. 
in the scientific principle on which the common result should 
be brought out. But while all agree thus far, the premil- 
lennialists stand alone seeing what none but themselves 
will ever be persuaded is to be seen in these prophecies 
some of the clauses of these prophecies realized in men 
walking the earth in flesh and blood, and other clauses of 
the same prophecies accomplished at the same time in men 
beyond the reach of mortality. And this mere assertion 
capricious and unsustained is the whole ground of their 
argument for a millennial state after the resurrection of 
the saints. 

Thus, then, the evidence of Scripture for the vivification 
of the whole Church of God at once, is conclusive, and 
there is none against it. 

SUPPLEMENTARY REMARKS. 

I have said that orthodox commentators, in expounding 
the prophecies which are quoted in the New Testament, 
while agreeing generally in their results, differ somewhat in 
their way of bringing them out. On this subject I dwelt at 
considerable length in my first edition. Dr H. Bonar, in 
his " Examination " of my book, has handled this part of 
it in a strain which, on reflection, he will probably regret, 
as I am sure that he did not mean to misrepresent my senti 
ments and misquote my words. The point of criticism is an 
interesting one, and with this only will I trouble the reader 
for a few moments. 

When the apostles quote the Old Testament prophecies 
as foretelling the resurrection, the new heaven and new 
earth, &c., it is taken for granted on all hands that they 
give the true sense of them that they do not accommodate 
them, as the neologians affirm, from a true to a false sense, 



WHEREIN EXPOSITORS AGREE AND DIFFER LOWTH. 171 

a sense which they do not and cannot legitimately bear. 
I say, this is taken for granted on all hands by those who 
feel any difficulty on the point : Those who believe in 
accommodation have no difficulties they make short work 
of it. But seeing the prophet, in the same passage where 
these^waZ and perfect things are predicted, introduces things 
neither final nor perfect, as parts of one and the same picture 
of the kingdom of Christ how is this to be explained? 
That is the question on which commentators somewhat 
differ. Prebendary LOWTH, for example, supposing that the 
physical renovation of the heavens and the earth is not only 
truly predicted in Isa. Ixv. 17, because Peter says so (2 Pet. 
iii. 13), but is the prominent idea of renovation in the pas 
sage, is led to apply the next verse of the prophecy to the 
same heavenly state : 

"But bo ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create ; 
for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy." 
(Verse 18.) " This," says that sensible expositor, " may be best 
expounded by the New Jerusalem, which shall come down from 
God, when the new heavens and earth are created. See Rev. 
xxi. 1, 2, and compare chapter Ixvi. 22, where there shall be 
no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, nor pain, ibid., verse 
4, and the following verse here. " 

Others reverse this method; and conceiving that "the 
creation of Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy " (v. 
18), relates not so directly to the heavenly as to the earthly 
Jerusalem, they are disposed to extend the same view to the 
foregoing verse, making " the new heavens and new earth," 
which God was to create " (v. 17), to be a moral rather than 
a physical creation. 

"The Apostles Peter and John," says SCOTT, on v. 17-19, "use 
the expression new heavens and a new earth for the heavenly 
state, after the end of the world and the day of judgment; and 
St Peter says, that we look for it according to his promise, which 
may refer to this very passage : yet the context requires us to interpret 
the words, in this place, of that state of the Church on earth which shall 



172 WHEREIN EXPOSITORS AGREE AND DIFFER CALVIN. 

most resemble the world of glory, in knowledge, holiness, and 
felicity, and which will terminate in it. By the new creating 
power of God, the circumstances of the Church, and the character 
of men, shall be so altered that it will appear as entirely a new 
world ; so that the former confusions, iniquities, and miseries of 
the human race shall be no more remembered or renewed. The 
servants of God are therefore commanded to rejoice in this new 
state of things, which he was about to create ; for he would make 
Jerusalem (the true Church) and all her inhabitants joyful, and a 
joy to all around them ; nay, he would rejoice in them, and put a 
final end to all their sorrows and complaints." 

CALVIN, with his usual judgment, avoids both these extremes. 
He sees in it fundamentally an announcement of that NEW CRE 
ATION of which Christ is the author, and his work in the flesh 
the grand foundation ; he sees it realized in every instance 
of the new birth, when " if any man be in Christ he is a new 
creation" (Kaivq jcr/cvg, 2 Cor. v. 17); he sees it realized in 
every new face which the gospel puts upon human affairs 
and human society; and he sees it realized in its highest and 
most perfect sense only at Christ s second coming, " when 
the heavens and the earth shall be wholly renewed, and be 
brought into a perfect state. And hence it appears," he adds, 
" as we have often observed, that the prophet has respect to 
the whole kingdom of Christ, even to the final goal, which is 
termed accordingly the day of renovation and restitution." * 

* " His metaphoris (v. 17) promittit insignem rerum mutationem, ac 
si diceret Deus, sibi in animo esse, atque etiam in manu, non modo resti- 
tuere Ecclesiam suam, sed ita restituere ut novam vitam obtinere, atque 
in novo mundo habitare videatur. Hyperbolicse sunt lite locutiones, sed 
non potuit aliter exprimi tanti beneficii magnitude, quod adventu Christi 
exhibendum erat. Nee vero de primo tantum adventu intclligit, sed de 
universo regno, quod ad extremum usque adventum protendi debet: 
sicuti jam aliis locis dictum est. Itaque per Christum mundus quodam- 
modo renovatur : unde etiam Apostolus ad Hebr. Sasculum novum 

appellat ; nee dubium quin hanc Prophetse sententiam spectarit 

Atque nos etiamnum in cursu sumus ; nee ista complebuntur usque ad 

resurrectionem ultimam, quce nobis velut meta constituta est Memi- 

nerimus bice in nobis eatenus habere locum quatenus renovati sumus. 



CALVIN. 173 

On the same principle, of what BACON calls the germinant 
accomplishment of prophecy, CALVIN explains, Isa. xxv. 6-8, 
including the words, " He will swallow up death in victory," 
as " relating, without doubt, to the whole kingdom of Christ. 
I say, his whole kingdom," he emphatically adds, " embracing 
not only the commencement, but the consummation and the 
goal." He conceives that the immortal character of the 
felicity that belongs to the kingdom of Christ is the 
radical idea in the words, " He will swallow up death in 
victory" in contrast with the " temporary and fading" 
character of all other joys; but such an immortality as will 
not only survive the death of all that is seen and tem 
poral, but will extend to the whole man, embracing the 
resurrection of the body and the restitution of this blighted 
world,* 

Surtius autem duntaxat ex parte renovati ; idcoque nondum plane ccdum 
novum et terrain novum cernimus. Non est igitur mirum mocrores nobis ct 
luctus superesse, quando nondum exuimus omnino veterem hominem, sed 
multso adhuc supersunt reliquiae: novitas autem nobis initium facere 
debet, quia primum ordinem tenemus, et nostro peccato creaturse inge- 
rniscunt, et vanitati subjectaa sunt, ut ostendit Paulus. Ubi veroplenis- 
sime fuerimus renovati, ccdum quogue et terra penitus renovabuntur, inte- 
yrumque statum recipient Atque hinc colligendum, quod ssepius notavi- 
mus, Proplietam univenum C/tristi regnum spectare, usque ad metam 
ultimam, quse etiam dies renovationis et instaurationis appellatur." 
(In Isa. Comm. ad loc.) 

* " In summa, promittit solidam felicitatem futuram sub Christ! 
regno, quod ut melius exprimat, utitur variis figuris apte ad rem ipsam 
accommodatis. Vera est ista felicitas, non temporaria aut caduca, 
quam nee mors ipsa adimere potest ; quia in rebus ketissimis defectus hie 
non parum Isetitiam minuit, si desit immortalitas. Duo igitur conjungit, 
quae felicitatem pcrfectam et absolutam reddunt : primum quod perpetuit 
sit vita, (nam iis qui beati alioqui sunt ad tempus, interire miserum est) 
deinde, vita hsec gaudio conjuncta est ; nam alioqui moestas et serumnosaj 
vitae mors videtur prseferenda. . . . Sed quaari potest, ad quod tempus 
referendoe sint istae promissiones ? nam in hoc mundo conflictandum 
nobiscum variis serumnis, assidueque pugnandum est : nee tantum des- 

tinati sumus morti, sed quotidie morimur Ubi igitur, aut quando, 

heec locum habent ? Ilaud dubie ad univenum Christi regnum referenda 
sunt: univcrsum dico; quia non tantum initium spectandum est, sed 



171 COMPREHENSIVENESS OF THESE PROPHECIES. 

This last way of bringing out the sense of the prophecies 
in question was the one I adopted the one which I thought 
most consonant with the Catholic, all-embracing fulness 
which distinguishes these majestic oracles the one which, 
while it admitted of our seeing in them all that the apostles 
quoted them for, allowed of our seeing more than that in 
them, without in the least displacing or disturbing the other ; 
that as they embraced " the whole kingdom of Christ, from 
his first to his second advent" (to use the words of Calvin), 
there was ample room in them for the earlier and the later 
stages to lie peaceably together the starting-point and " the 
goal" to be seen in the same prophetic stadium; so that the 
apostles might select any one of the stages of the kingdom 
the final one, if it suited the subject they had in hand; and, 
quoting the words of the prophecies in question, might say 
with perfect truth, that " then shall be brought to pass the 
sayings therein written," without thereby excluding every 
other and previous stage of the same kingdom as if the 
same words could receive no accomplishment in them, but 
must necessarily be limited to the one stage and period of 
the kingdom for which the apostles refer to them. More 
over, in showing how the prophecy in Isa. xxv. 6-8, was to 
be expounded on this comprehensive principle, and how 
much we missed by restricting any of its clauses exclusively 
to the resurrection of the body in expatiating on the fulfil 
ment of it in the stages prior to this I took occasion to say, 
that " the feast" predicted can mean nothing but the Salva 
tion of the Gospel " made unto all people" properly when 
it was prepared by Christ s work in the flesh, and the univer 
sal invitation to come to it was thereupon issued; that the 
prophet, nevertheless, sees the actual " feasting" of all people 

etiam complementum et meta. Atque ita usque ad secundum Christ! 
adventum extend! debet, qui propterea dies redemptionis et instaurati- 
onis vocatur ; quoniam ornnia quce nunc videntur confusa restituentur 
in integrum, et iiovam formam induent." (In Isa. xxv. 8.) 



COMPREHENSIVENESS OF THESE PROPHECIES. 175 

at this gospel table, which carries us onwards to the general 
submission of the nations to Christ, with its saving effects; 
and that while this is the stage of the kingdom its stage of 
fullest development upon earth, and the next to its heavenly 
stage on which the mind of the Spirit seems chiefly to 
repose in the swell of this glorious prophecy, yet " there is 
not one of the terms by which the state of grace is there 
described, which does not convey underneath it an announce 
ment of the corresponding state of glory; that it is, in fact, 
the same thing at two different stages of its progress which 
is described, the one farther forward than, and the perfec 
tion of, the other; and, as Christ s work secured the whole, 
so all that ever will be is seminally contained in the Church s 
present state, and truly couched under every description of 
that state." (Pp. 204, &c.)* 

* Will the reader believe that for thus expounding these prophecies I 
am classed with Swedcnborg, in expelling the corporeal to make way for 
a mere spiritual resurrection, and with Heologians, such as Jaspis, in 
charging the apostles with accommodating prophecies that mean one thing 
to a purpose that makes them mean quite another thing? After show 
ing the application of the prophecy last noticed to those stages of the 
kingdom that precede the resurrection, I spoke of the " delightful sense" 
of the prediction thus obtained, and " how much we are deprived of by 
those who, admitting no sense but that of physical resurrection, would 
carry us straight into the eternal state with these words, over the head 
of all that is terrestrial in the meaning of them." In this passage I am 
made to say, that the prophecy " does not refer to corporeal resuscitation 
but to spiritual revival, which he affirms," says Dr Bonar, " to be a more 
delightful meaning than the other." (Pp. 175, 176.) The author must 
see that he thus misrepresents me here I am sure unwittingly as I 
made no comparison between any one meaning and another, and still 
less between a corporeal and a spiritual resuscitation; and that, as they 
were all " delightful" to me, I grudged being deprived of any of them 
for the purpose of securing the exclusive place for one of them. Not 
content with this, when I speak of the primary meaning of a prophecy, 
Dr Bonar charges me with making the secondary one " subordinate," 
and so disparaging the apostles, in their quotations of them. (P. 181, 
note.) Not so. If I say of the 41st Psalm, for example, that it has a 
primary reference to David, and to Ahithophel, who " ate of his bread, 
and lifted up his heel against him," do I mean that its reference to 



176 PROFESSOR ALEXANDER MR ELLIOTT. 

I have only to add, that Professor Alexander takes the 
same comprehensive view of the prophecies which have en 
gaged our attention, in his recent and valuable Commentary 
on " The Earlier and Later Prophecies of Isaiah." 



The following are Mr Elliott s remarks on the foregoing 
line of argument, in the fourth edition of his " Horrc:" 
" Again, as regards those passages cited from the prophets, 
in which predictions which the New Testament explains 
of the resurrection time and state are connected with the pre 
dictions of the earthly happiness of the restored Jews and Jeru 
salem, this connection of the two, it is said, does not imply 
the synchronism; but arises only out of the comprehensive 
glancings of prophecy, embracing and interlacing together 
in its view the whole history and results of Christ s redemp 
tion, in its various chief stages of development; from that 
of its first promulgation by Christ, to that of its universal 
reception in the world on the Jews conversion, and then 
yet farther than that, of the postmillennial stage of the 
redeemed saints heavenly and everlasting blessedness follow 
ing the resurrection. So Mr Brown, pp. 179-189 (second 
edition) ; a disquisition written with his usual force and ability ; 
but which has left a strong impression on my OAvn mind of 
the inability alike of himself and the eminent expositors cited 
by him Calvin, Lowth, Scott to construe the passages 
fairly on their anti-premillenarian hypothesis. No doubt, 
sometimes there are comprehensive glancings at, and inter- 
minglings of different future eras of prophecy. But in various 



Christ and the traitor Judas is subordinate ? No, but secondary. It is the 
difference between first and next in point of time, as every one acquainted 
with the language of theology knows. " Not as if this secondary sense," 
says Prebendary Lowth, " were less principally intended by the pro 
phets, but rather with respect to the time, because it is the last or ultimate 
completion of their predictions. 1 (Preface to Commentary on the Pro 
phets.) 



MR ELLIOTT. 177 

chief passages urged by me, it is not a mere intermingling 
of subject that we find, but a direct chronological synchro 
nisation of the saints resurrection-state with the earthly 
blessedness of the restored Jews and Jerusalem." (iv. pp. 
165, 166, with note embodied.) 
Let the reader judge. 



CHAPTER V11I. 

RESURRECTION OF ALL THE WICKED AT THE COMING OP CHRIST. 

I HAVE shown that the whole Church of God will be simul 
taneously " made alive" at the second advent. I now proceed 
to show, that at the same time a like process shall pass upon 
the opposite class. 

PROPOSITION SEVENTH: 

ALL THE WICKED WILL RISE FROM THE DEAD, OR BE " MADE 
ALIVE," AT THE COMING OF CHRIST. 

In establishing this, let us first observe the arguments which 
have been brought to prove two separate resurrections, the 
one at the beginning, and the other at the end of the millen 
nium. 

And here, one cannot but be struck, at the outset, with 
the character and the amount of the evidence offered us in 
proof of such a position. One direct information of a " first 
resurrection," and one only, is alleged to exist. And where 
is that one plain statement ? In confessedly the most difficult 
book of Scripture, the most symbolical in its structure and 
figurative in its style ; and, I may add, in that part of the book 
on the precise sense of which there has been, perhaps, the 
greatest diversity of opinion. Additional evidence is, in 
deed, alleged to exist in favour of a first resurrection, though 
only, it is admitted, confirmatory, and but for the plain reve 
lation of it in this one passage, scarcely sufficient to rely on. 



A PRIOR RESURRECTION BUT ONE DIRECT PASSAGE. 179 

As Mr Bickersteth somewhere says, " This (in the book of 
Revelation) is the seat of the doctrine." 

Hear their own estimate of the character and amount of 
the evidence they have to offer us for a " first resurrection." 

" But the first resurrection," says the candid and acute Mr Birks, 
"offers a still severer trial to the faith of the Christian. We can 
not here appeal to innumerable texts where it is plainly revealed. 
The analogy of Scripture, however decisive in its favour, appears 
at first sight obscure and ambiguous. In maintaining this doctrine, 
therefore, we have to rest only upon the Word of God, and chiefly 
on this one prophecy. (Rev. xx.) Why, then, should a doctrine, in 
appearance so disputable, and beset with such difficulties, be now pressed 
on the attention of the Church ? The answer is very plain. Grant 
for one moment that the doctrine is true, and you must feel that it 
is one of deep interest to ourselves." * 

Of course; but grant what has just been admitted as to the 
evidence for it, and its truth cannot but appear suspicious. 
No doubt, God has a right to reveal truth as he pleases ; but 
AVO observe God s way of revealing truth to be very different 
from this. We do not find such grand and delightful, such 
stirring and influential truths, wrapt up in mystic folds, re 
served for apocalyptic disclosure, apparently negatived by all 
those passages which we might expect to be the very " seats" 
of those truths, and only peeping, by their own account, 
" obscurely and ambiguously" through a few passages and 
expressions. And we say that this constitutes a prima facie 
presumption, of the strongest nature, against the doctrine 
of a " first resurrection," literally understood. 

Waiving, for the present, the direct passage, let us look at 
those which are thought to confirm this expectation. They 
are of two classes: 

(1.) Such as, while treating formally of the resurrection of 
believers, make no mention at all of the resurrection of the 

* Lent Lectures for 1843, pp. 155, 156. 

Some, thinking that Mr Birks has here admitted too much, have tried 
to show that the doctrine is directly expressed elsewhere ; but their at 
tempts to show this are the best proof to the contrary. 



180 RESURRECTION OF BELIEVERS PECULIAR TO THEMSELVES. 

wicked a thing natural, it is alleged, supposing each to have 
a time of its own, but difficult to account for if both classes 
rise together. In this class, 1 Cor. xv., 1 Thess. iv., and 
Luke xiv. 14, are usually adduced. 

The answer to this is very simple. The wicked are ex 
cluded from these passages, not because they will not rise at 
the same time with the righteous, but because they will not 
rise on the same principle.* They will not rise as represented 
by and entitled to life in Christ. When He said to his disciples, 
" Because I live ye shall live also," he enunciated a principle 
under which the wicked do not stand, and spoke of a life 
which they will never taste. The character of that life, the 
grounds of it, and the subjects of it, are all restrictive. What 
have the wicked to do with a resurrection which Christ 
secured for his people by his meritorious righteousness, as the 
second Adam a resurrection of which his own was the 
blessed pledge ? In such a train of thought as in 1 Cor. xv., 
the resurrection of the wicked had been out of place. Eaised 
on a different principle, they are set aside, and do not once 
come into view. It would but have clogged and diluted an ar 
gument whose force depends on points applicable exclusively 
to believers, to have connected with them the case of the unbe 
lieving, and massed up together the objects of the new cove 
nant and the victims of the old. " He that hath the Son 
hath life: he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." 
" He that belie veth on the Son hath everlasting life: he that 
believeth not the Son SHALL NOT SEE LIFE, but the wrath of 
God abideth on him." (1 John v. 12; John iii. 30.) When 
any thing common to both is spoken of such as the judgment 
then we have the resurrection of both classes at once, as we 
shall soon see expressed in the most unequivocal terms. But 
when the subject in hand is something peculiar to believers, 
the exclusion of the wicked from such passages is just what 

* Mr Birks, misrepresenting me as saying that " there is no common 
principle in the two cases." goes on to characterize my theology as "erro 
neous and antiscripturaJ." (p. 218). 



DUTCH REMONSTRANTS. 181 

we expect. It does, indeed, imply that believers rise ALONE 
that is, on a principle peculiar to themselves, and in a company 
amongst whom the wicked are not found. But it does not im 
ply that no others rise contemporaneously with them, that in 
a company by themselves, and on a principle of their own, 
the wicked will not rise at the same time. 

It may strengthen these remarks, and be interesting to 
some to know, that the extreme Socinians and the Socinian- 
izing party of the Dutch Remonstrants employed these very 
passages to prove not that the wicked would not rise at the 
same time with the righteous, but that they would not rise at 
all. And how were they answered by orthodox divines ? 
They were answered precisely as I have answered the premillen- 
nialists by showing that the resurrection treated of in the 
passages adduced was a resurrection peculiar to believers, 
with which the wicked have nothing to do.* 

I have only farther to add on these passages, that the 
reason I have given for the exclusion of the wicked from 

* "Enimvero," says MARCKIUS, in an elaborate treatise on "The 
Expectation of the Future Glory of Jesus Christ " " magis ab adversan- 
tibus urgeri solet, quod resuscitatio passim spectetur ut privilegium seu 
peculiare bonum piorum et fidelium, in quo hinc impii et infideles partem 
non habeant ullum. [He then refers to Luke xx. 35-37; to Luke xiv. 
14, " The resurrection of the just ; " to John vi. 39, and xiv. 19, " Bocause 
I live ye shall live also ; " and to 1 Thess. iv. 14 as the passages on which 
the adversaries founded.] Verum quam parum adversus fidem nostram 
obstent ista omnia et similia forte plura, jam supra audivimus ex Soci- 
nianorum quorundam ore proprio ; ubi ipsi nobiscum observant, Resusci- 
tationem et Resurrectionem saepi sumi strictius, pro Beata et Iseta ad 
Beatitatem ./Eternam, de qua nemo dubitet quin ista sit piis propria, et ex 
unione arctissima cum Christo unice fluens; dum heic latiori sensu vocem 
capimus de qualicunque hominum restitutione ex pulvere in vitam, uti 
hauc vox ilia simpliciter dicit. Eodem modo, quo solemus nos ex Scrip- 
tura Vitam ./Eternam vindicare solis piis, dum Mortem j^Eternam tribui- 
mus impiis ; neque sic negamus impios revicturos, ut etiam deinde vivere 
non desinant unquam inter dolores ineSabiles, quidquid optarent. Illud 
autem inter ista duo est discrimen ; quod JEternam Vitam nunquam tri- 
buamus impiis, quia illam phrasin nusquam tarn late Scriptura usurpat, 
Bed constanter piis, vindicat," &c. (Expectatio GLorice FuturccJesu Christi 
lUmtrata, lib. ii. cap. xii. 4.) See also DE MOOR, Comm. xxxiv. 15, c. 



182 JESUS DIED BELIEVERS SLEEP IN HIM. 

them is that which commentators generally assign.* "The 
Scripture everywhere (says Bengel on 1 Cor. xv. 22), in 
treating of believers, treats of the resurrection of them 
primarily (1 Thess. iv. 13, etc.): of the resurrection of the 
wicked it treats but incidentally." On v. 23, after saying 
(as quoted under a former head, p. 54, note) that Chris 
tians are "a sort of appendix to the First-Fruits," this 
distinguished expositor adds, " The wicked rise at the same 
lime, but they come not under this blessed category." On the 
words, " they that are Christ s at his coming," he says, 
" Paul does not call it the judgment, because he is treating 
of believers" The terms by which the death of Christ 
and of believers respectively are usually expressed, are 
strikingly different: the one being the naked word death; 
the other, the placid term sleep. Sweet is the little com 
ment on this distinction as employed in 1 Thess. iv. 14 
by the same acute critic and most spiritual man : " If 
we believe that Jesus DIED and rose again, even so them 
also which SLEEP in Jesus will God bring with him." 
" Yes (says Bengel), His was another death from his 
people s. He tasted DEATH for every one of them 
(U-TTI^ TTKVTos, Heb. ii. 9), that they might SLEEP in 
him. " 

Considerable stress is laid on the following passage, 
belonging rather to the next class, but to be explained by 
the principle now stated. I mean, 

Phil. iii. 11 : "If by any means I might attain unto the 
resurrection of the dead." 

* "Scriptura" says BENGEL, on 1 Cor. xv. 22 "ubicunque cum fide- 
libus agit, de ipsorum resurrectione agit primario, 1 Thess. iv. 13; s. de 
iiupiorum resurrectione, iucidenter." 

On verse 23, after saying, as quoted before, that Christians are "a sort 
of appendix to the First-Fruits," he adds, " The wicked rise at the same 
time, but they come not under this blessed category." 

"They that are Christ s at his coming," Paul (says he) does not call il 
the judgment, because he is treating oi believers. 



ATTAINING TO THE RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD. 183 

Why, it is asked, should the apostle be so anxious to 
attain to a general resurrection, alike certain to the righteous 
and the wicked ? The simple answer is, It was not the 
general resurrection he was striving to attain to it was 
not a resurrection common to both classes. It was a re 
surrection peculiar to believers, a resurrection exclusively 
theirs, exclusive, however, not in the time of it, but in its 
nature, its accompaniments, and its issues. This is put be 
yond doubt in the two last verses of the chapter, where all 
its peculiarity all that for which it is desired is made to 
lie in the thing itself, and not in the time of it : 

" From heaven we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ : 
who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned 
like unto his glorious body, according to the working 
whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto him 
self." (V. 20, 21.)* 

The expressive contrast (not so vivid in our version as in 
the original) between the body of our humbled and the body 
of his glorified condition,! points, as do the preceding pas 
sages, to the fontal character of Christ s resurrection, and 
stamps the resurrection looked for at Christ s appearing as 
one having its cause in the merit, and its character in that 
of " the First-begotten of the dead." It is this, and not the 
time of it, that limits it of necessity to believers. 

But " the word," says Mr Birks, " is a compound which 
occurs here only, and might be rendered the peculiar re 
surrection. The emphasis is even redoubled, the peculiar 
resurrection, even that from among the dead. " J That the 

* Our version, "from whence" (we look, &c.), rightly expresses the 
adverbial sense of i$ tS, here. Bengel and others connect it with *oa./Tu,a 
because it cannot refer to tu^a.iiit. But, as Winer remarks, EJ , in the 
usage of the language, has become an adverb, and signifies unde, whence 
(Gramm. 21, 22.) 

"|" To (rapa, r. TKXtivairtu; f,fj,uv TU f2fj.tt.Tl <r. io^r,; avrrj. 

I The received reading is not a reduplicated form {U-xxifTocfit TU> tr(f 
being simply equivalent to itaitrrxTK \x nx^S,, the article being omitted 



184 MR BIRKS* VIEW OP THIS. 

sentiment of the apostle, in this verse, is an emphatic one 
the desire expressed an intense one is manifest enough; 
although, as will be seen in the note below, I do not attach 
much importance to the mere formula which the apostle 
here employs to express the resurrection which he longed to 
reach. He who sees the glory of that resurrection which is 
held forth as the goal of the " race set before us," will think 
it "peculiar" enough; but if he be among those who are 
" striving (ayuvifyedi, Luke xiii. 24) to enter in at the strait 
gate," he will probably think the glory of it lies in some 
thing else than a priority in time. Certain it is, that critics, 
quite as much alive to the nicest shades of the apostle s 
Greek as Mr Birks, have not detected " the first resurrec 
tion " here ; and even BENGEL, though he held a sort of 
literal first resurrection, makes not the slightest allusion 
to it. Not content with this criticism, and aware, as would 
seem, that another interpretation of the verse might be 
thought quite as natural, Mr Birks tries to press the context 
into his favour. 

" This might," says he, " of itself be referred to the momentous 
difference in the nature of the resurrection which he sought. But 
the context points strongly to the further meaning of a precedence 
in point of time." 

Here one is apt to ask himself if he could have read so 
often that well-known chapter, and failed to perceive what 
is " strongly pointed to " one resurrection prior in time to 

in this latter form). But the preferable reading appears to be the re 
duplicated form, " The resurrection, that from the dead" (l^taifTa,fis r<i* i* 
!*). Though this, however, was originally an emphatic form, it came 
gradually to be employed even where no emphasis was intended. Winer 
says it " almost uniformly " did so, and he makes this remark in connec 
tion with the passage before us. (Gramm. ut supra, 19, with second 
note.) Whether this last remark is well founded, I should be disposed to 
doubt; but to conclude from the form alone that a special emphasis is 
intended here, and ground upon this an argument in favour of a prior 
resurrection of believers, is surely to strain the phrase. 



RESURRECTION OF, AND FROM, THE DEAD. 1&5 

another. We recur to the chapter, but miss it still. Mr 
Birks, however, sees 

" The blessing metaphorically journeying towards the Church. 
Those who press forward with earnest desire to attain it, meet 
the heavenly gift on its w<iy; while, as for others, it passes them by, 
and leaves them to the prospect of the widely different resurrec 
tion then to follow." (Pp. 175, 176.) 

This journey of the first resurrection towards the Church 
I have not been able to find a trace of in a single metaphor 
throughout the chapter, nor of any resurrection to follow 
it.* We see the resurrection Paul aimed at, represented 
as a " prize " not advancing to us, but held up at the goal 
as an encouragement to " reach forth unto " it; and we hear 
Paul telling us that he pressed " towards the mark," in 
order that, when he reached it, he might win the prize. 
" Of others," we find him merely saying that " their end is 
destruction;" but how that determines its posteriority to 
the resurrection of believers, or the time of it all, we are at 
a loss to conceive.f 

(2.) Such as describe the resurrection of believers as a " re 
surrection from amongst the dead" (ex, raxftSy), which implies, 
it is alleged, that others the wicked will be left in their 
graves after they rise: while the general resurrection is, by 
.a marked distinction, termed the "resurrection of the dead" 
(VSXPUIV or TUV i>.). 

Could this distinction be critically established, it would be 
of some weight. Mr Wood s elaborate investigation of this 
point issues in this, that the phrase "resurrection OF the dead" 

* In his " Outlines" (p. 223), Mr Birks candidly withdraws his criti 
cism on xaTKtTyira, us implying that the first resurrection was on its way 
to meet us. 

f Mr Wood quotes a passage from Moses Stuart, to show that the 
resurrection here meant could not be the general one, because the 
apostle could have no possible doubt of his resurrection at the end of 
the world. But " the particle if by any means, " says Calvin, " is not 
meant to express doubt but difficulty." 



186 RESURRECTION OF, AND FROM, THE DEAD. 

is used of the resurrection generally, while the phrase "re 
surrection FROM the dead" is used to denote a resurrection in 
which others are left behind, or the resurrection of the just 
prior to that of the wicked. If this were correct, we should 
expect the latter phrase " the resurrection/ro?ft the dead," 
to be appropriated to the resurrection of the just, and the former 
phrase " the resurrection o/"the dead," to be used only when 
the resurrection of both classes, righteous and wicked indiscri 
minately, is intended. But how stands the fact ? This latter 
phrase, " resurrection from the dead," is very little used at all 
in the New Testament only four times in any of its forms ; * 
while of the eight times in which the former phrase, " resur 
rection of the dead," is used (exclusive of two passages in 
which it is applied to Christ f), perhaps in all of them the 
resurrection of believers is intended, | but almost certainly 
in Jive or six; and what is most decisive is, that four of these 
examples occur in the only chapter (1 Cor. xv.) where the 
resurrection of believers is the subject of formal and elaborate 
treatment ; in other words, when the apostle had two phrases 
in his option, he passed by the one which is alleged dis 
tinctively to express the thing he was treating of, " the 
peculiar resurrection," and selected, and exclusively employs, 
the one which is alleged to denote a resurrection common 
to righteous and wicked, which he was not treating of. To 
me this is utterly inexplicable ; and till this is cleared up, 
I shall regard the whole argument founded on these Greek 
formulas as baseless. I do not find Mr Elliott committing 
himself to it, nor have the best critics seen any indications 
of a double resurrection in them. I may add, that the 

* Luke xx. 35 ; Acts iv. 2 ; Phil. iii. 11 ; 1 Pet. i. 3. 

t Acts xxvi. 23 ; Rom. i. 4. 

J Matt. xxii. 31 ; Acts xvii. 32 (compare the immediately preceding 
words, v. 31, where the phrase is used of Christ) ; ch. xxiv. 21 (the 
reference here to ch. xxiii. 6, determines the sense) ; 1 Cor. xv. 12, 13, 
21, 42 ; Heb. vi. 2. 



RIGHTEOUS AND WICKED " AWAKE " TOGETHER. 187 

Greek fathers, who surely understood their own language, 
seem to have been blind to the alleged distinction between 
the two phrases in question ; and that Calvin, Beza, and 
other distinguished critics, use " OF " and " FROM the dead" 
(mortuorum and de mortuis) indiscriminately. 

As to the expression " from the dead," as it is an exact 
rendering of the original words, the mere English reader is 
as competent to decide as the critic is, whether the supple 
ment should be "from amongst the dead" or "from the 
place or state of the dead" [a<5?jj, /ISt?].* "We have here 
no assistance from classical writers, to whom a resurrection 
was unknown ; and though the phrase had been found, it 
would not at all have determined in which of the two senses 
it is used in Scripture. Although, therefore, we cannot 
affirm that the translation, " from amongst the dead," is criti 
cally inadmissible, no more can it be shown to be critically 
demanded. In other words, this phrase determines nothing, 
for even its own sense must be determined by what we other 
wise know to be the Scripture doctrine of the resurrection/)- 

There is no confirmatory evidence, then, at all. We have 
gone through it, and found it wanting. 

They are shut up, then, to the direct passage. If the literal 
resurrection of the righteous a thousand years before the 
wicked, be revealed in this celebrated passage, it is not only 
revealed here alone, but it is revealed here as I shall now 
show in direct opposition to the teaching of Scripture every 
where else. 

The following passages speak for themselves : 

Dan. xii. 2 : " And many of them that sleep in the dust of the 

* " Horn. Eli, & AVSaa (sc. topus, M/iovs) in, into the nether world: hence 
also in Attic prose, i and it Aiitu (sc. <u%u, oT*c)." (Liddell and Scott s Gr. 
and Engl. Lex.} 

"E<V aSou, sc. Su/**. see Buttm. 132, n. 9." (Robinson s Gr. and Engl. 
Lex. o/N. T.) 

f See Appendix. 



188 RIGHTEOUS AND WICKED " AWAKE " TOGETHER. 

earth shall awake; SOME TO EVERLASTING LIFE, AND SOME TO 

BHAMi! AND EVERLASTING CONTEMPT." 

The thing which stands out on the face of this passage is the 
simultaneousness of the resurrection of both classes, righteous 
and wicked. If the prophecy admit of any primary fulfil 
ment before the period of the literal resurrection, it must bo 
such a fulfilment as sbaU realise this feature of it. If not, 
and the literal bodily resurrection be the one only thing iu 
the passage, still it must be the resurrection of both classes 
at once. 

Mr Begg true to the literal principle at whatever cost 
admits this, and expects accordingly the resurrection, along 
with the righteous, of some of the chief enemies of the 
Church of God at the beginning of the millennium. " The 
resurrection," he says, " of some to shame and contempt is as 
really a*t the restoration of Israel, as that of some to ever 
lasting life." * This is consistent at least. But as few are 
prepared for this, another turn is given to the passage, by 
which it is made to announce that while the saints are to 
rise from the dead, the wicked are to lie still. Thus : " Many 
of them who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake ; these 
( ! T?^) to everlasting life (meaning those who awake), and 
these (i" 1 ?^ 1 !) to shame and everlasting contempt " (meaning 
those who do not awake, but lie still). f The objection to 
this lies not in the substitution of " these " and " those," for 
their equivalents " some " and " some;" but in the unnatural 
turn it gives to the passage, which every one on reading it 
would take to be a prediction of the resurrection of one class to 
everlasting life, and the resurrection of another class to shame and 

* Connected View, &c., p. 179. 

f So Mr Elliott, who quotes several authorities in support of this in 
terpretation, but only suggests "that it is more than doubtful whether 
the Hebrew original of the passage makes any assertion at all about the 
resurrection of the unjust." (Horse, iv. p. 185, fourth edit.) So Mr A. 
Bonar (Redempt., p. 251); and Mr Wood (Last Things, pp. 44, 45); but 
not so Mr Birks, who disapproves of this criticism (p 224). 



THAT ARE IN THE GRAVES COME FORTH TOGETHER. 189 

everlasting contempt. And what puts this construction, I think, 
beyond all doubt, is the adoption of it by our Lord himself. 

For this verse, and the one which follows it, have furnished 
the language in which the Redeemer himself announces the 
final resurrection on two separate occasions : 



John v. 28, 29 : The hour 
is coming, in the -which 

all that are in the graves " Many of them that sleep in 

shall hear his voice, and the dust of the earth 

shall come forth ; shall awake ; 

they that have done good some 

unto the resurrection of to everlasting life, 

life, 

and they that have done and some 

evil 

unto the resurrection of to shame and everlasting con- 

damnation." tempt. 1 * 

* " Those," says AUGUSTIN, "who in the one place are said to he in 
their graves, are in the other place said to sleep in the dust of the 
earth ; and as in the one case they are said to come forth, so in the 
other to awake ; as here, those that have done good to the resurrection 
of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of damnation, 
so there, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting 
contempt. Let it not be thought, however, that there is any difference 
[between the announcement of our Lord and that of the prophet], be 
cause the one says, All that are in the graves, while the other says not 
all, but many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth. For Scrip 
ture sometimes puts many for all, as when it is said to Abraham, I 
have made thee a father of many nations; while in another place it is 
said, In thy seed shall all nations be blessed. " (De Civ. Dei, lib. xx. 
cap. xxiii. 2.) So Calvin and many others. But to this Cocceius objects, 
because although " many " be often equivalent to all, it is not equivalent 
to " many of all." Marckius takes "many" to be equivalent to "the 
multitude of" Avhich would meet the objection of Cocceius, if consistent 
with the usage of the language ; but this, though formerly inclined to 
adopt it, I now greatly doubt. Munster and Glaring, adhering to the 
letter of the text, understand the prophet to hint at the fact that only 
tome, both of the righteous and of the wicked, will " awake out of the 



1 90 THE VIEW WHICH PREMILLENNIALISTS TAKE OF THIS 

It is hardly possible to conceive a plainer statement of the 
simultaneousness of the resurrection of both classes. All the 
commentators and theologians, known to the Church, take 
this feature of the passage to be so manifest as not to require 
any illustration. Yet even this can be got over, and the 
presence of any such feature in the passage is denied by the 
premillennialists. Of course, they must deny it, or give up 
their scheme. But on what plea do they rest that denial ? 
Why, on the fact that the word " hour " here, does not 
necessarily mean a period of sixty minutes, just as the word 
" day " means a much longer period than twenty-four hours. 
The same word " hour," we are reminded, is employed just 
before (v. 25), to denote the whole period of the Gospel dis 
pensation. Why, then, may not this " hour " of the resurrec 
tion of " all that are in the graves " denote a period equally 
long, and embrace " the resurrection of life " at the beginning, 
and " the resurrection of damnation " at the end of it ? * 

dust of the earth v at Christ s coming the rest, namely, the living, being 
only changed. Be this however as it may, a resurrection of righteous and 
wicked at once, such as the premillennial scheme does not admit of, ia 
here, I think, clearly predicted. 

As to the time more immediately in view in this passage, conceiving 
that it was that of the "deliverance of Daniel s people" (v. 1), and taking 
this to mean their future conversion, I applied the whole, in my first 
edition, primarily to that blessed period when in bright anticipation 
of " the times of restitution of all things " " judgment shall be given 
to the saints of the Most High," and their enemies shall be exposed 
to never-ending shame and contempt. Other orthodox men, as Venema 
and Cocceius, have done the same only taking the "deliverance of 
Daniel s people " differently; some understanding it of their deliverance 
under the Maccabees from the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, 
others, of the deliverance of as many of them as were " found written in 
the book (of life)" at the coming of Christ, and the erection of the 
Gospel kingdom on the ruins of the old polity. But whether I was right 
in supposing any such primary reference in the words or not, I never for 
a moment doubted that the only adequate fulfilment of the prediction 
will be at the literal resurrection of both classes of men. 

* Mr Birks (Lent Lect. for 1843), p. 181. Mr Bickersteth (Guide 
5th edition), pp. 273, 274, &c. Mr Elliott (Horae, iv. 186). Mr Wood 
(Last Things, pp. 44, 45), &0. 



NOT TENABLE. 191 

That this argument puts a very forced and harsh construc 
tion upon our Lord s words, must, I think, be evident to every 
unbiased mind, even though unable to see the proper answer 
to it. That answer, however, will readily occur to any one 
who considers how such phraseology is employed in Scrip 
ture, and in common speech. It is quite true that the words 
" day " and " hour " in Scripture, and in all language, are 
often equivalent to time or period; yet always as meaning the 
definite or fixed period of the thing spoken. For example, 
when the apostle says (1 John ii. 18), " Little children, it is 
the last hour" (or " time," as we render the word o- ga), he 
means that this is the last dispensation of grace which the 
world is to see. In the same sense, another apostle (2 Cor. 
vi. 2) emphatically says, " Behold, now is the accepted time : 
behold, now is the day of salvation." So the Lord himself, 
in the passage referred to, " The hour is coming and now is, 
when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and 
they that hear shall live." In all these passages, while a long 
period is doubtless intended, the unbroken continuousness of it, 
as the proper time for obtaining salvation, is essential to the 
very propriety of the language. Take that element out of 
it, and the words " hour," " day," " now," and even " time," 
as applied to the period of grace, cease to have any intelligible 
meaning. 

Now, apply these remarks to the resurrection here an 
nounced by our Lord. If it were merely said that " the 
resurrection of life," and " the resurrection of damnation," 
are events which it will take a thousand years to get through 
with that, beginning at the commencement of that period, 
as the proper " hour" for them, they will go on both to 
gether throughout the millennium, and that not till the end 
of that period shall it be true that " all that are in their 
graves have come forth :" if it were merely said that in this 
sense the millennium will be the resurrection-hour, I should 
readily admit that the passages adduced as parallel are strictly 



192 THE VOICE WHICH SHALL AWAKE THE DEAD. 

so. For in that case, we should merely have along continu 
ous " hour" of resurrection, even as we have confessedly a 
long continuous period of saving grace. I would even admit, 
that according to Tertullian s idea of the millennial resurrec 
tion of the saints that they will rise, " some earlier, some 
later, within the period of the thousand years,"* there is 
nothing positively against it in our Lord s words, provided 
only " the resurrection of damnation" were admitted to go on 
in the same way throughout the currency of the thousand 
years a thing, however, which no premillennialist, ancient 
or modern, admits, because fatal to their scheme. 

But the millennium, as now contended for, is in no sense 
one unbroken resurrection-hour. For neither is it said, with 
Tertullian, that " the resurrection of life" is to go on through 
out the whole of it, nor is it admitted by any of them, " that 
the resurrection of damnation" is to go along with it : but all 
the righteous are to rise together before the millennium, and 
the wicked are to rise in a body not even at the end of the 
millennium not within the millennial " hour" at all, there 
fore but at the end of another period to succeed the millennium; 
a period which, though it be called " a little season" (Rev. 
xx. 3), relatively to " the thousand years," may, according to 
that way of reckoning, extend over two or three hundred 
years. To make the words of our Lord agree with such a 
theory is surely to " wrest" them.f 

But this is not all. For, says our Lord, In this resurrec 
tion-hour, " all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of 

* "Hsec ratio regni terreni, post cujus mille annos, intra quam Eetatem 
concluditur sanctorum resurrectio, pro meritis maturius vel tardius re- 
surgentium," &c. (Adv. Marc, iii 24.) 

t " In such a case," says Mr Wood, "as this, common sense is worth a 
thousand criticisms. If there be a period at the commencement of which 
the graves shall be opened and the righteous dead shall rise, and at the 
close of which all that remain behind shall be in like manner raised, I 
can conceive no more appropriate designation for that period than the 
season of the resurrection. " (Pp. 44, 45.) In this Mr Birks agrees 
(pp. 226, 227). Let the reader judge where the common sense lies. 



THE VOICE WHICH SHALL AWAKE THE DEAD. 193 

ihe Son of Man, and shall come forth." Now, I think it is 
universally admitted, that " the voice" which is here said to 
raise the dead, is the same with that referred to by the 
apostle to the Corinthians and Thessalonians : 

" We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a mo 
ment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, (for the 
trumpet shall sound;) and the dead shall be raised," &c. 
(1 Cor. xv. 51, 52.) 

"The Lord himself shall descend with a shout, with the wice of the 
archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ 
shall rise first," &c. (1 Thess. iv. 16.) 

That this " voice," "shout," "sound of trumpet," means 
something more than the mere forth-putting of the poicer 
which is to raise the dead that there will be an audible and 
mighty sound has never, I believe, been questioned. Well, 
is this " shout" to be prolonged through a thousand years ? 
Is the trumpet-blast to be kept up all that time ? None, I 
presume, will go this length ; and if not, since " the voice of 
the Son of Man" is expressly said to raise both classes it 
must either raise them both together, which is the natural 
sense of our Lord s words, or it must be uttered twice : it 
must sound, that is, before the millennium to raise the 
righteous, and, after a silence of more than a thousand years, 
it must sound again to raise the Avicked. Can any thing 
more unnatural be forced upon the simple and majestic words 
of our Lord? No: The trumpet-sound is one. The two 
allusions to it in Corinthians and Thessalonians connect it 
with the resurrection of believers, because there the exclusive 
subject of discourse was " the resurrection of life ;" while our 
Lord s words connect it with the resurrection of both kinds 
and both classes.* And thus we have the simultaneous resur- 

* The above argument " appears too puerile to Mr Wood to require 
more than the observation that lie presumes the wicked dead will not 
rise without a command, and that that command is (<?) nv vlou -rev Qim) 
the voice of the Son of God. "(P. 47.) But why should we require 
to " presume" any thing, when the thing is definitely expressed ? My 

P 



194 THE LAST THUMP PARABLE OF TARES. 

rection of tlie righteous and ilie wicked doubly brought out all 
contrary interpretations being clearly inadmissible. 

The united force, then, of these two passages in favour 
of the simultaneous resurrection of the righteous and the 
wicked, is as strong as it can be conceived to be, and there 
is nothing alleged against it that can stand a moment s calm 
investigation. 

I said that this passage in Daniel furnishes our Lord with 
another of his descriptions of the resurrection besides the 
one just commented on. I refer to the concluding words of 
the parable of the Tares. 

Matt. xiii. 43 : Then shall Dan. xii. 3 : " And they that be 
the righteous wise 

shine forth as (ixXa.^- shall shine as (Xa^suovv &>?, 

evffiv as) Ixx.) 

the sun the brightness (^.a^fdwi;) of 

the firmament (compare Acts 
xxvi. 13, the brightness of 
the SMM, ^a.fj.^forti-ra, <r. n&iov), 

in the kingdom of their for ever and ever." 

Father." 

But I shall reserve the remarks I have to make upon this 
and other testimonies to the simultaneous resurrection of the 
righteous and the wicked, till I come to treat of the Judg 
ment. One passage, however, belonging to this class I 
must here take up, and with this I shall close the present 
chapter. 

Rev. xx. 11-15 : " And I saw a great white throne, and him that 
sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled 
away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the 

argument is founded on the " voice which is to raise the righteous and 
the wicked at once not " its physical loudness " (Birks, p. 228), but its 
being one majestic uttered summons. 



THE GREAT WHITE THRONE. 195 

dead, the great and the small,* stand before the throne;* and 
books were opened; and another book was opened, which 
is the book of life : and the dead were judged out of those 
things which were written in the books, according to their 
works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it ; 
and death and hades gave up the dead which were in them : 
and they were judged every man according to their works. 
And death and hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is 
the second death, the lake of fire.* And whosoever was not 
found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." 

If ever language expressed the doctrine of a simultaneous 
and universal resurrection, surely we have it here. Who 
would ever imagine that all mankind were not in this august 
scene, in their resurrection-state, and that himself would 
not form part of it ? But premillennialists see none but 
the wicked here, and even of these only such as have lived 
before the millennium. The plea for this is found in what 
one would think proved the reverse. " The book of life " 
is admitted to be the record of the elect; and the produc 
tion of it, we naturally conclude, is an evidence that the 
elect are in the scene. But the negative way in which it 
is introduced "whosoever was NOT found written in the book 
of life was cast into the lake of fire " proves, it is said, that 
none of those who are then judged will have their names 
in that book, that the dead, small and great, who shall 
then stand before the throne, shall every one of them be 
found among those not written in the book of life/ and so 
be cast into " the lake of fire." That any such sense should 
be put upon these words may seem incredible. I will, there 
fore, let the premillennialists here speak for themselves. 

" A number of toots," says Mr Dallas, on this passage, " are 
opened; and this is contrasted with the opening of a single book; 
and while it is stated that the dead are judged every man out of 
those books, according to their works, the opening of the other 
book is for another purpose altogether. It is not used to call tip 

* So the best critical authorities. 



196 THE BOOK OF LIFE MR DALLAS MR LORD MR BIRK3. 

to judgment any individual whose name is written therein; but it is 
employed simply as a testimony to establish the perfect justice 
of the sentence on the others; to manifest that not one of those who 
will then be judged had his name written in the book of life. As the 
solemn tribunal is sitting for the judging of the rest of the dead, * 
we may suppose that there will be a reference to this book; and as 
each individual is accused, we may imagine the question to be 
asked, Is his name in the book of life ? Is there any escape for 
him ? No, it is not found there, will be the answer. Who 
soever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the 
lake of fire. This is all which can be grounded upon the mention 
of this book of life, in this awful passage of God s Word. All the 
dead whose names were in the book of life will have been raised a 
thousand years before this, and not one shall perish or be again 
judged ; while all the dead will be raised afterwards to a judgment 
at which none shall be sated." + 

Mr Lord, in his " Exposition of the Apocalypse," entitles 
this passage, " The Resurrection and Judgment of the Unholy 
Dead" 

" All the unholy dead" he says, " of all ages, are to be the subjects of 
this resurrection and judgment. Whoever was not found written in 
the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. And they only are 
to be its subjects, manifestly from the representation in the vision 
of the souls of the saints, that all the holy who die anterior to the 
millennium are to be raised at its commencement, and reign with 
Christ throughout that period, and the representation in the next 
vision, that none are during that period to suffer the infliction, of 
death." J 

" Of what nature," asks Mr Birks, " is the resurrection of the rest 
of the dead [that is of the wicked, Rev. xx. 5] ? The prophecy 

* What a liberty does Mr Dallas take here, in substituting for " the 
dead, small and great," this restrictive clause, " the rest of the dead " a 
clause occurring not only at a distance of seven verses from this passage, 
but in a distinct vision (for the expression "I saw" is purposely re 
peated, v. 4 and v. 11, to show this), and a clause which, instead of 
being equivalent to the one here employed, is the strongest contrast to 
it ! And yet the same thing is done by Mr Birks, as we shall see. 

f Lent Lect. for 1843, pp. 217, 218. 

j Expos, of Apoc. pp. 525, 526. (1847.) 



BOOK. OP LIFE MR BIRKS DR HILL. 197 

gives a distinct reply. After the close of the thousand years, we 
have this impressive description (Rev. xx. 11-15), And I saw 
the dead, small and great, stand before God, &c. These words 
answer in all respects to the predicted resurrection of the rest of the dead, 
that is, in the sense in which he understands the phrase, of the 
wicked alone." * 

"We would not venture," says Mr Hill, "to pronounce it ab 
solutely impossible that the vision of the great ichite throne, and 
the books opened, should be the counterpart of Daniel s vision of the 
Ancient of Days for the destruction of the fourth monarchy [that 

is, before the millennium ].f This interpretation, too, would 

account for the mention in this place of the book of life, which, 
if the judgment is >os-millennial, it is not easy to explain [inas 
much as, there being none then whose names are in that book, 
there would seem to be no use in producing it; and so the mention 
of it in that case is difficult to be explained]. This interpretation, 
however, is attended with difficulties apparently insuper 
able Assuming, then, that the vision is post- 
millennial, the dead, small and great, that stand before God 

are ( the rest of the dead, as distinguished from THE DEAD IN CIIKIST 
who rose at the first resurrection. Their resurrection ..... 
is here represented as succeeding the judgment of the devil and of 
the nations of living men whom he had deceived." 

Now, seeing our author found it " not easy to explain the 
mention of the book of life " on this theory, and as he is 
not satisfied with the view given of it by other premillen- 
nialists, it may be right to hear Mr Hill s one. It certainly is 
something new. 

" The account usually given [by premillennialists] of the intro 
duction of this book is, that it was to ascertain that none of the 
wicked were written in it. It should, however, be remembered, 
that this book is not described as the book of life of the Lamb 

* Lent Lect., ut supra, pp. 171, 172. 

T This extraordinary theory is the one which the Duke of Manchester 
supports, which will account for the great difference on many points 
between him and most of his brethren; though this gives him the 
advantage over them of enabling him to make it a judgment 
classes. 



198 " THE DEAD SMALL AND GREAT." 

slain from the foundation of the world, nor yet as the book of 
life from the foundation of the world. - (Rev. xiii. 8, xvii. 8.) 
It may then be another book, indicating another kind of salvation, 
even of Israel in the flesh, who are saved in the beloved city, 
like Noah s family in the ark, to be the seed of a new world." * 

Since the above was printed, I find that Hengstenberg, in 
his Exposition of the Revelation, adopts the same view of the 
Last Judgment, and on very much the same grounds. t 

And now, will this view of the final resurrection stand for 
a moment ? 

If " the dead, great and small," whom John saw " stand 
before the throne," mean merely the party styled " the rest 
of the dead," seven verses before, why was not the same 
expression retained, or at least one so equivalent to it as 
to be easily identified with it ? Such loopings of one clause 
with another at some distance from it, for the express pur 
pose of showing that they mean the same thing, and relate 
to the same time, are not only acknowledged by all who 
have studied this wonderful book to be a common device 

* Lent Lect. for 1843, pp. 287-291. 

t Strange to say. Mr Elliott has not, in his voluminous commentary 
on the Apocalypse, one word on this passage. He spends about seventy 
pages upon the first part of this chapter, and especially "the first 
resurrection." He argues the literality of that resurrection pretty 
elaborately, and adverts to what seemed of most weight against it. 
And yet not even a passing hint have I been able to discover on this 
passage, except one, indicating that he referred it to the end of the 
millennium. How is this ? Had it no important bearing on the pre 
ceding scenes, and on liis premillennial theory ? As the final crisis 
of this world s affairs, did it not invite special attention ? Did not the 
remarkable language which it employs regarding t\\Q parlies, the books, 
and the issue, demand from a commentator so voluminous and minute 
a formal investigation ? 

In Mr Brooks "Elements of Prophetical Interpretation," in which 
about a thousand passages of Scripture are commented on or referred 
to, and about forty pages spent expressly on " The Judgment," I can 
find no explicit allusion to this passage, far less any discussion of it. 
And much the same remark is applicable to Mr Bicker steth s " Guide." 

These singular omissions are they purely accidental ? 



"THE DEAD SMALL AND GREAT." 199 

in it, but constitute one of the artistic charms of the book. * 
But so far is the same, or any thing like an equivalent ex 
pression to " the rest of the dead," from being employed 
here, that probably no reader ever did imagine them to 
mean the same party without some supposed necessity for 
doing so ; nor is it easy to believe that even then this 
sense is deemed a natural one. Certain it is, that all readers, 
in all countries and at all periods (with hardly an exception 
worthy of notice), have understood " the dead, small and 
great," who were seen " standing before the throne," as 
meaning the ivhole human race. How easy would it have 
been by some such device as I have noticed to prevent 
so great a mistake, if mistake it be ? Is there not, then, 
the strongest reason to conclude that it is no mistake; and 
that the sublime catholicity and transparent simplicity of 
the language actually used, were expressly intended to 
convey what all but every reader from the beginning has 
understood it to mean ? " If," says Mr Hill, in the lecture 
already quoted, and I admire his candour " If it were 
lawful to consider it, as it has been in past ages considered, 
a description of a simultaneous and universal judgment of 
all that have ever lived, IT WOULD NOT BE EASY TO FIND 
WORDS MORE COMPREHENSIVE THAN THESE, The dead, small 
and great, stand before God But as such an interpretation 
is necessarily precluded by considerations already stated, 
and as the judgment here announced must consequently be 
supplementary to a former one" &c. (pp. 294, 295, ut supra) 

* Ex. gr. 

Compare Chap. v. 10 with Chap. xx. 4. 

vi. 9-11 xi. (15) 17, 18; six. 2, 6; xx. 4. 

vii. 3, 4 xiv. 1. 

vii. 1 5 xxi. 3, 4 ; xx. 3. 

x. 2, 7 xi. 15, 17; xix. 6; xx. 4 

xi. 2 xiii. 5. 

xi. 3 xii. G, 14. 

xiv. 11 xix. 3, 20. 

xv. 2 xx. 4. 



200 " THE DEAD SMALL AND GREAT." 

that is to say, Mr Hill interprets the latter part of the 
chapter by the former; in other words, he explains a passage 
about which there has been more unanimity in all ages than on 
almost any other portion of Scripture, by a passage on which 
there has been more diversity than perhaps almost any por 
tion of God s Word. Is this reasonable ? Yet it is the 
method taken by nearly all premillennialists now. 

But again, the emphatic way in which " THE DEAD" are 
thrice, and DEATH and HADES twice, mentioned in this pas 
sage, precludes any restrictive sense of the terms. 

First, " The dead, great and small." In two other places 
of this book, where the same phrase is used, the particular 
class of persons intended is carefully pointed out. Thus, 
ch. xi. 18, " That thou shouldest give reward unto them 
that fear thy name, small and great ;" and ch. xix. 5, "Praise 
our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small 
and great ; " * whereas in the passage before us, the only party 
to whom " the small and great" belong as far as appears 
is " the dead." Are we not irresistibly led, then, to conclude 
that the meaning intended is, THE DEAD UNIVERSALLY, or 
at least INDISCRIMINATELY? 

Then, " And the dead were judged out of those things which 
were written in the books, according to their works" which 
as I shall immediately show, fixes the resurrection to be of 
both classes. 

" And the sea gave up the dead which were in it" The 
wicked dead that are in it, says the new interpretation. Is 
not this excessively unnatural? 

" And death and hades delivered up the dead which were 
in them." For what purpose this minute specification, if 
only one class of mortal men be meant? I do not see what 
answer can be given to this question; whereas, if it mean 
that Mortality itself shall render up its victims in the most 

* So substantially, in the only other passages where the phrase occurs 
in this book xiii. 16, six. 18. 



"THE DEAD, SMALL AND GREAT" THE " OTHER BOOK." 201 

comprehensive sense of that expression the language is 
sublimely appropriate. 

" And death and hades were cast into the lake of fire : this 
is the second death." The sense of this statement cannot, 
I conceive, be better expressed than in the words of the poet 

" AND DEATH ITSELF SHALL DIE." 

Taking all the clauses together, then, they seem altogether 
worthy of the subject, supposing them to describe a final, 
general resurrection of both classes of mankind: Any nar 
rower interpretation, as it has scarcely ever been thought of, 
so it is unnatural in the extreme. 

But what is said about " books," and that " other book," 
fixes conclusively the sense of the whole passage. It is uni 
versally agreed that the " opening of books 5 here is an 
allusion to the practice of human tribunals " To show," 
says Durham, " that the judgment shall be as accurate and 
particular in the trial, and just in the close, as if all were 
registered and put on record: Nothing shall be missed or 
mistaken in its circumstances, but things shall be so just in 
themselves, and so manifested and put beyond all doubt to 
others, as if an exact register of them had been keeped, and 
now published These books are opened in compa 
rison of what they were before, viz. sealed, neither was it 

known what was in them. Now nothing is hid 

which shall not be discovered, even as to others, before men 
and angels/"* Well, as no previous judgment, at all resem 
bling this, is mentioned in the Apocalypse, is it not most 
unnatural to view this as a mere supplement to some other 
judgment a judgment of the righteous? And is it not alto 
gether extravagant to consider these " books," now for the 
first time " opened," in the august language of this scene, to 
be a record of nothing but the materials for condemnation? 

* Comment, on Rev. ad loc. 

" Per libellos," says GUOTIUS, "intellige acta litis. Per acta autem 
litis, hominum cogitata, dicta, facta." (Annott. ad Apoc.) 



202 THE BOOK OF LIFE. 

As to the " Book of Life, there is happily a very general 
agreement about the meaning of it. It is all but unanimously 
understood to denote the book of God s elect; and in this 
sense it is undoubtedly employed four times in this same 
book, besides twice here. * As such, it will be used, not as 
the "books" will be as materials for judgment but as the 
counterpart of the decisions pronounced upon the testimony of 
those " booh." 

" God does not refer to that book," says Augustln, " lest he 
should err through forgetfulness; but it denotes the predestination 
of those to whom is to be given eternal life. Nor is it that God is 
ignorant who these are, and refers to this book that he may know. 
But rather, His own infallible prescience of them is the book of 
life, in which they are written, that is, eternally foreknown." + 

" This," says MarcJc, " is another book, chiefly because it has 
regard not to the actions [of every man s life], nor to the principles 
[on which these are to be judged of], which is the case with those 
called the books, but to the persons to be judged." J 

As " the book of LIFE," it is a catalogue of the names of 
all that are destined to life everlasting; as " THE LAMB S 
book of life" (chap. xxi. 27), or " the book of life of THE 
LAMB SLAIN" (chap. xiii. 8), it proclaims the meritorious 
ground on which alone that life is bestowed; and as having 
the " names" of all that are in it " WRITTEN FROM THE 
FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD" (chap. xvii. 8, xiii. 8), it teaches 
the origin of the choice of each and all of them, in the ever 
lasting electing love of God. When those on the right 
hand find their names all there without one exception, it will 
tell them, in a language not to be mistaken, whence came that 

* In ch. iii. 5, xiii. 8, xxi. 2 7, and xxii. 19. Marck, whose observations 
on " the book of life" here are judicious some of them even touching 
refers as parallels to Phil. iv. 3; Heb. xii. 23: Luke x. 20; Ps. Ixix 
29 ; Dan. xii. 1 ; Ezek. xiii. 9 ; Isa. iv. 3, &c. He should have added 
Exod. xxxii. 32. 

+ De Civ. Dei, lib. iii. cap. xv. 

J " Hie liber," says GKOTIUS, " est velut matricula civium regni codes- 
tis," &c. 



THE BOOK OP LIFE SUMMARY. 203 

faith and holiness which " the books" evidenced them to 
possess, and they will say, Now we know that " God had 
from the beginning chosen us to salvation through sanctifica- 
tion of the Spirit and belief of the truth;" for, while the 
" sanctifaation" and the " belief of the truth " have been 
evinced by " the books," lo, the " choice" of us from ever 
lasting, is found in that " other book, the book of life!" 
" Who, then, hath made us to differ, and what have we that 
we have not received?" Thus they will for ever feel that 
they are mere "vessels of mercy before prepared unto glory." 
But, when those on the left hand find not one of their names 
in the book of life, they will discern therein God s eternal 
purpose, that they should be left to show what a fallen state 
is, what a state of wilful and wicked, persevering and deter 
mined, rebellion against the God of heaven is; and that what 
God might righteously have done with all, he resolved to do 
with them, as " vessels of wrath fitted for destruction" to 
glorify his justice in their " everlasting destruction from his 
presence, and from the glory of his power." Thus, this 
" book of life," while it will show that " known unto God 
were all his works from the beginning of the world," will at 
the same time " stop every mouth" the mouths of the right 
eous from ever boasting, the mouths of the wicked from ever 
complaining. 

If this be a correct view of the object for which the book 
of life is produced at the last judgment, it of course takes 
away even the shadow of a plea for limiting it to the iciclced; 
though I am far from admitting that there is so much as that. 
As for the negative way in which the book of life is mentioned 
in the concluding words of the passage " Whosoever was 
not found written in this book of life Avas cast into the lake 
of fire" the chief difficulty is to persuade one s self that 
those who urge it place any reliance on it themselves. (Com 
pare Matt. xi. 6.) 

On the whole, I hesitate not to say of this passage and 



204 SUMMARY. 

of the testimony which it bears to the simultaneous presenta 
tion, in a resurrection-state, of the whole human race before the 
great white throne what AUGUSTIN says of the two follow 
ing chapters, that " if we deem this obscure, we ought not 
to seek or find any thing clear in the Holy Scriptures." 
(De Civ. Dei, lib. xx. cap. xvii.)* 

Other irrefragable testimonies to the same truth will pre 
sent themselves when we come to the subject of the Judg 
ment. 

* Even premillennialists themselves, when their system does not re 
quire them to limit the subjects of the last judgment, feel all the force of 
our reasonings upon it. Mr Burgh, for example, thus writes on this sub 
ject : " If all the saved had been raised previously [to the final resurrec 
tion], and the dead, small and great including all the dead whom 
the sea, and death and hades deliver up be only the lost, wherefore 
open the book of life to judge them ? And if it be said, Merely to show 
that none of them were entered there, I think verse 15 leads to a diffe 
rent conclusion And whosoever was not found written in the book of life 
was cast into the lake of fire; which surely does not imply that the whole 
number of those so judged were cast into the lake, and none of them 
found written in the book." Again : "The whole [twentieth chapter of 
Revelation] closes Avith the scene of the last and general judgment, where 
again I think we have proof both from the dead, small and great, stand 
ing before God to receive judgment, and from the book of life being 
one of the books then opened that the award of the whole redeemed Church 
had not been decided so long before as the commencement of the millennium." 
(Lect. on Sec. Adv., pp. 273, 274, third edit.; and Lect. on Book of Rev., 
p. 367, fourth edit.) 



CHAPTER IX. 

SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED: THE MILLENNIAL RESURRECTION 
LITERAL OR FIGURATIVE ? 

WE have seen that, by the confession of candid premillen- 
nialists themselves, there is no direct announcement of the 
literal resurrection of the righteous a thousand years before 
the wicked if it be not in the twentieth chapter of the 
Revelation : We have seen that even confirmatory evidence 
of it there is none all mention of it, all allusion to it, else 
where being sought in vain : And finally, we have seen that 
the very contrary of this the simultaneous presentation of 
the whole human race, in a resurrection-state, before the 
great white throne is unambiguously announced in Scrip 
ture. At the same time, the judgment of distinguished men 
and acute interpreters in favour of a literal resurrection in 
this passage, and the confidence with which that sense of 
it is continually pressed in the present controversy, demand 
a full and candid investigation of it. This I shall now en 
deavour to give it. The passage is as follows : 

Rev. xx. 4-6 : " And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, 
and judgment was given unto them : and I saw the souls 
of them that had been beheaded for the witness of Jesus, 
and for the word of God, and whosoever ("*)* had not 
worshipped the beast, nor his image, neither had received 

* The supplement here may either be, "I saw those whosoever," or " I 
saw the souls of those whosoever." In either case, as we shall presently 
see, the sense is the same. Tregelles translates simply, " such as." 



206 MILLENNIAL RESURRECTION 

his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they 
lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. [But] 
the rest of the dead lived not [again] until the thousand 
years were finished. This is the first resurrection. 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." 

It would take whole pages to enumerate the treatises that 
have been written upon this celebrated passage, and nearly as 
much space to mention the opinions and speculations to 
which it has given rise. The one question, however, of any 
great importance whether the resurrection here predicted 
is to be taken in a literal or figurative sense may be brought 
within moderate compass, and determined, I conceive, by or 
dinary Christian intelligence. 

Before entering, however, into the details of a passage like 
this, it is natural to look at the presumptions and probabilities 
of the case, in so far as they lie on the surface, or suggest 
themselves readily to the mind. We are not, of course, to 
be swayed by these in opposition to direct and explicit evi 
dence. But in all questions of such a nature as this, it is 
usual to take a broad view of the case first, and then to in 
quire how far our general conclusions are or are not borne 
out by closer and more detailed investigation. 

If the question then be, Was this celebrated passage de 
signed to announce A LITERAL AND GENERAL RESURRECTION OF 
THE SAINTS ? the following appear to me to be strong prima 
facie 

PRESUMPTIONS AGAINST IT. 

1. It is very strange that the resurrection of the righteous 
a thousand years before the wicked, if it be a revealed truth, 
should be directly and explicitly announced in one passage 
only. We are not, indeed, to set limits to God; but, judg- 



PRESUMPTIONS AGAINST THE LITERAL SENSE. 207 

ing of Him by his way of revealing other truths of equal im 
portance and of kindred nature, we may safely say, that it is 
not according to his usual method. Still, there might be 
reasons for a deviation in this case ; and if we found, scattered 
up and down the Scripture, hints of a prior resurrection 
hints which, though not at all explicit, were yet sufficient to 
suggest it, or at least were best explained on that theory, and 
thought by impartial expositors substantially to express it 
this might go far to neutralize the presumption against it, 
arising from its being nowhere directly announced, if not 
here. But it is not so. Though the resurrection is a theme 
on which the apostles delighted to expatiate though the 
nature of it, the grounds of it, and its connection in point of 
time with the coming of Christ, are abundantly dwelt on 
and though in such passages the prior resurrection, if a true 
doctrine, could hardly miss to have dropt from the apostolic 
pen it is altogether wanting, as we have seen, and what are 
alleged to be hints of this doctrine are not so, nor have ever 
been so regarded by critics and expositors. This, I think, 
makes the presumption against its being found here very 
strong. But if to this be added all that points in an opposite 
direction what the overwhelming majority of the Church 
have held to be direct, explicit, and indubitable announce 
ments of a simultaneous resurrection of the whole human race 
the presumption, that a general resurrection of the right 
eous a thousand years before the wicked is not the true sense 
of this prophecy, is greatly increased. 

2. If this was to be the chosen place for announcing such 
a prior resurrection, it is surely reasonable to expect that a 
clear and unambiguous revelation of it would be made. " It 
was enough," says Mr Birks, " that one dear statement should 
be given before the inspired volume was closed, which might 
serve for a key to all the other prophecies, and brighten into 
fuller and fuller evidence when the time of the fulfilment 
should be drawing near." (Pp. 158, 159, ut supra.} This is 



208 MILLENNIAL RESURRECTION 

a frank admission, that if " one statement " was to be held 
" enough," it would require to be a " clear one." But, can 
this be modestly said in the face of the diversity that prevails 
upon it ? How far those who take the prophecy figuratively 
differ among themselves, may be seen in the note below.* 

* Mr Elliott professes to give " the most famous solutions of the mil 
lennial prophecy that have teen offered in the Christian Church, from 
the time of the publication of the Apocalypse down to the time now pre 
sent;" but his statement is far from being a fair one. It leaves upon his 
reader s mind an impression not consistent with fact. One would think 
from his summary of opinions, that among the literalists there was no 
difference, and amongst the figuratists no agreement. The literal sense of 
this prophecy is with him one unbroken, harmonious solution of it, and 
the first in order; while the figurative sense of it is split up into three 
not three modifications merely, or particular applications, of one figura- 
1 ivo sense, but three " most famous solutions," separate and distinct. To 
be just, he should have told his readers that the literal interpretation must 
also be split up into three solutions; some, as we shall see above, limiting 
the first resurrection to the martyrs (as Burgh); others including, along 
with these, the most eminent confessors of the truth in every age (as 
Bishop Newton) ; while a third, and the largest class, extend the millen 
nial resurrection to all the saints. There might have been no occasion to 
go into this detail ; but if done on the one side, justice demanded its 
being done also on the other if omitted in the one case, in fairness it 
should have been so in the other. On this being pointed out to him, his 
reply was singular. " My statement," said he, " was professedly a state 
ment of the literal view as held by the early fathers, and I must 

altogether decline mixing up the names of Mede, Newton, with the rest. 
I should consider the mention of them exceedingly out of place." But 
why so ? On the figurative side, Mr Elliott is far from stopping at " the 
early fathers." Any modification of the figurative sense no matter how 
trivial, nor how late introduced is " in place," as if to swell the appa 
rent diversity among those who take the prophecy figuratively. On this 
side, Grotius and Hammond; Whitby, Vilringa, and Faber; even the 
"modifications" of Mr Gipps and Professor Bush are all "in place." 
But on the literal side, the mention of any modification or subdivision is 
held to be " exceedingly out of place," I cannot understand this partia 
lity. Mr Elliott pleads " the magnitude of the difference between those 
whom I would class together, in justification of his making three classes 
of them instead of one. By all means, provided only it be done upon 
both sides alike, that the reader may be able to judge for himself on which 
of the two sides the greatest " magnitude of difference " exists. Every 



PRESUMPTIONS AGAINST THE LITERAL SENSE. 209 

But do all those who take the prophecy literally interpret it 
alike ? By no means. It is true that the early chiliasts seem 
to have thought that all the saints would, sooner or later, 
partake of the millennial resurrection and reign. But every 
one who has read their writings will admit, that they show 
a strong tendency to apply it chiefly to the martyrs. Xor 
can I see how multitudes could have been inflamed, as they 
are said to have been, with a passion for martyrdom, in hope 
of thereby having " part in the first resurrection," if that 
resurrection was believed to be the portion, not of martyrs 
only, but of all believers.* Be this as it may, John Henry 

one s opinion on such a point is apt to be influenced by his general views. 
With regard to the figurative view of the prophecy, the difference is just 
this : Some take the predicted resuscitation chiefly in a spiritual light, 
and so see in it a glorious era of " life from the dead " in the sense of 
vital religion; while others take it to relate chiefly to the public aspects of 
the Church, and so see in it the Church s elevation out of a depressed, 
persecuted, and comparatively powerless condition, into a state of free 
dom, honour, influence, and whatever of an external nature is fitted to 
aid the development of its spiritual character, and make it, under its 
living Head, the great regenerator of society, and to the world at large 
"life from the dead." Of course, these varying aspects of one and the 
same new life, imparted to the Church, will suggest different periods for 
the fulfilment of the prophecy : some dating it, accordingly, from the 
commencement of the Christian era, and identifying it with the whole 
dispensation of the Spirit ; others identifying it with one or other of the 
public interpositions on the Church s behalf that have issued, or will yet 
issue, in her elevation to a freedom and power unknown before such as 
the fall of Judaism at the destruction of Jerusalem ; of Paganism at the 
conversion of Constantine ; and of Popery and its ally, Infidelity, in every 
form, yet to come. It would be out of place, in this note, to dwell on the 
unity of idea that pervades these different conceptions of the prophecy. 
Suffice it to say, that, for myself, I take them to be all constituent ele 
ments of one predicted enlargement of the Church. 

* The following words of MEDE here are worthy of notice: " I will 
say something more, namely, that this opinion of the first resurrection 
was the true ground and mother of prayers for the dead, so anciently re 
ceived in the Church, which were then conceived after this manner L t 
partcm haberent in resurrectione prima (that they might have part in the 
first resurrection). See Tertullian, who first mentions them. The reason 
was, because this having part in the first resurrection was not to lc 



210 MILLENNIAL RESURRECTION 

Alsted, professor at Herborn (Xassau), and one of the divines 
of the Synod of Dort, who, before Mede came upon the 
stage, was styled by an English writer of his own party, " the 
champion of the late millenarians, and a main prop of this 
new revived doctrine" this Alsted, in a Latin work on the 
millennial reign, while contending for the literal sense of the 
first resurrection, confines it exclusively to the martyrs, f 
Then again, the man who is beyond all question the father 
of the modern form of premillennialism, and whose minute 
study of this particular prophecy entitles him surely to be 
heard as to the parties intended in the prediction, or the sub 
jects of the millennial resurrection JOSEPH MEDE, says: 
" The rising of the martyrs is that which is called the first 
resurrection, being, as it seems, a prerogative to their suffer 
ings above the rest of the dead." And so far was he from 
finding all the saints in this vision, that it was with great 
difficulty he persuaded himself that any more than the 
" martyrs," and " confessors equipollent to martyrs," would 
rise before the last resurrection; and all the length he ever 
came was to be " inclined on the whole to the opinion, that 
all the righteous will rise during the course of the millennial 
kingdom." Further, Bishop Newton calls this first resurrection 
" a peculiar prerogative of the martyrs and confessors above the 
rest of mankind." But afterwards " the confessors" drop 
out, as when he says, " Of all the prophets, St John is 
the only one who hath declared particularly, and in ex 
press terms, that the martyrs shall rise to partake of the 

common to all, but to be a privilege of some, namely, of martyrs, and con 
fessors equipollent to them, if God so would accept them. Moreover, the 
belief of this prerogative of martyrs, in resurrectione prima, was that 
which made the Christians of those times so joyously desirous of mar- 
tyrdom." (Works, p. 771.) 

f The author died in 1638. The original I have not been able to pro 
cure. The English translation is entitled, " The Beloved City, or The 
Saints Reign on Earth a Thousand Years," &c. [By William Burton.] 
itto, Loud., 1643. 



PRESUMPTIONS AGAINST THE LITERAL SENSE. 211 

felicities of this kingdom." And again, " The learned Dod- 
well hath justly observed, that this belief [_m the literal 
first resurrection] was one principal cause of the fortitude 
of the primitive Christians; they even coveted martyrdom, 
in hopes of being partakers of the privileges and glories of 
the martyrs in the first resurrection. * Coming down now to 
our own day, Mr Burgh says 

" On the persons who shall partake of the first resurrection, I 
confess I find it difficult to agree with the modern expectants of 
the Lord s advent.-)* Their opinion, generally speaking, is, that all 
the redeemed from the beginning shall then rise to reign with 
Christ ; while I feel constrained rather to acquiesce in an opinion 
known to have been generally held in the early ages of Christianity, 
that the first resurrection is not general, even as it respects tho 
saved in this dispensation, but limited to certain from among it, pos 
sessing a qualification to be noticed presently, f There are two 
distinct arguments by which this may be decided; one from the 
nature and objects of the millennial reign, the other from the ex 
press language of Scripture." 

On the second of these two arguments, to prove the mil 
lennial resurrection a limited one, he says: " I do think 
Rev. xx. must be admitted to be conclusive," and comments 

* Dissertations on the Prophecies (on Rev. xx.) 

t Thus do many premillennialists monopolise to themselves the ex 
pectation of the Redeemer s coming. 

t I have not been able to verify this statement by reference to the 
early chiliastic fathers. Probably Mr Burgh gives as their actual belief 
the impression merely which their language conveys as a whole. But 
this is hardly fair, in opposition to pretty plain statements extending the 
first resurrection to believers generally, which may be adduced, for ex 
ample, from Justin Martyr, Ircncsus, and Tertullian high authority 
certainly on this point. The truth I believe to be this, that looking at 
the passage (Rev. xx.) in the light of the persecutions and martyrdoms 
of their own time, they took it in its natural import as pointing to that 
very state of things ; but when they were expressing their faith and hope 
on the subject more generally, the restriction of the passage to the mar 
tyrs seemed harsh, and thus they were led to extend it to believers gene 
rally. Be this, however, as it may, I have tried, in the statement given 
above of what the early chiliasts held, to set down the result of my owu 
examination of their writings. 



212 MILLENNIAL RESURRECTION 

upon it, to show that the parties of saints there specified ex 
clude the notion of their embracing all saints.* 

In his " Lectures on the Revelation," a later work than 
the former, he says : 

" I have revised with care the opinion I gave in the Lectures 
above referred to [on the Second Advent], that the First Resur 
rection is limited to a portion of the redeemed Church I have 

reconsidered this opinion, the more so as I learned that there were 
not a few who objected to it, who in all the other matters there 
discussed agreed with me fully; yet I confess the result has been 

to confirm me more in it My strongest argument next 

to the condition so clearly and frequently expressed IF we shall 
suffer, we shall also reign with him, f was the passage in the 
chapter before us (Rev. xx. 4, 5), which is also the clearest and 
strongest passage in the Scripture on the First Resurrection." J 

Finally, says Mr Molyneux, the most recent advocate of 
the premillennial scheme - 

" Nor does this passage teach that His saints, universally, or even 
generally, shall rise and reign with him. So far from this, it does 
not say a syllable about his saints generally, or about his saints at all, as 
saints merely; it speaks exclusively of martyrs." % 

I might have added that Bengel, early in the last century, 
and Moses Stuart in our own day, take the same restricted 
view of this prophecy limiting it to the martyrs. 

These testimonies are, I think, sufficient to show that the 
passage before us is not a clear and unambiguous prophecy of a 
literal resurrection of the righteous at large a thousand years 
before the wicked. For while those who see in it a literal 
resurrection at all are a mere handful in opposition to the 
general voice of the Church, even those who do take it lite 
rally are not agreed as to the parties intended by it; and of 

* Lect. on Sec. Adv. No. vii. ut supra. Mr Burgh, like Bishop New 
ton, seems disposed to extend the word martyr so as to include sufferers 
for Christ in general. But this appears an after- thought, not coming 
out of his exposition, and designed to meet, as far as possible, the objec 
tions which would be taken to his restricted view of the passage. 

f See, on this passage, my own remarks, pp. 93, 94. 

J Lect. on Rev. No. xxii., ut. sup. " World to Come," ut. sup., -p. 199. 



PRESUMPTIONS AGAINST THE LITERAL SENSE. 213 

those who conceive it to embrace the righteous at large, 
some, and the most distinguished have come to that con 
clusion with much hesitation, and with great diffidence as to 
the soundness of that opinion. 

Should it be said that the difference above noticed, is, 
after all, not s great as to throw doubt upon the clearness 
of the passage, I have just one question to put in reply: 
Has there ever "been any such diversity of opinion about the sub 
sequent prophecy of the final resurrection ? That I call a clear 
and unambiguous prophecy of the resurrection of all the 
righteous and wicked at once, and in proof of this I appeal 
to the all but universal voice of the Church. Has there ever 
been any testimony approaching to this, either in amount or 
harmony, in favour of the literal sense of the millennial pro 
phecy ? No, there has not. This, then, is my second presump 
tion against it. It would be unreasonable to insist that every 
testimony in favour of a truth should be equally explicit. 
But if we are reduced to one direct testimony, as we are 
here, in favour of a literal millennial resurrection, it is reason 
able to require that it be unequivocal; and because it is not, 
as I have shown, I think this circumstance must be set down 
among the presumptions against the literal sense. 

3. If a resurrection of the righteous in general as contra 
distinguished from the wicked be the true sense of this 
prophecy, the description is very unlike the thing to be de 
scribed. It is not in the least like any other description of 
that event in the New Testament. Every other description 
of the resurrection and glory of the saints, as such, is catholic 
in its character, while this is limited even laboriously so. 
Let me request the reader to run his eye over the few follow 
ing specimens of the usual language of Scripture on this 
subject: 

" But the righteous into life eternal. (Matt. xxv. 46.) 

" All that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come 
forth ; they that hare done good, unto the resurrection of life," 
(John v. 28,29.) 



214 MILLENNIAL RESURRECTION. 

" Wlioso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; 
and I will raise him up at the last day." (John iv. 54.) 

" To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and 
honour and immortality, eternal life." (Rom. ii. 7.) 

They that are Christ s at his coming." (1 Cor. xv. 23.) 

"Who shall change our vile body" our s "whose conversation is 
in heaven." (Phil. iii. 20, 21.) 

" He shall come to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all 
them that beliere." (2 Thess. i. 10.) 

" Our gathering together unto him." (Chap. ii. 1.) 

" To them that look for him shall he appear the second time with 
out sin unto salvation." (Heb. ix. 28.) 

" An inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not 
away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power 

of God through faith unto salvation The grace that is 

to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." 
(1 Pet. i. 4, 5, 13.) . 

"And now, little children, abide in him; that when he shall ap 
pear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before 

him at his coining It doth not yet appear what 

we shall be : but we know that, when he shall appear, we 
shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." (1 John 
ii. 28, 29; iii. 2.) 

"I saw the dead, small and great, stand before the throne. 

And whosoever was not found written in the book 

of life was cast into the lake of fire." (Rev. xx. 12, 15.) 

Now, compare with this catholic and transparent style 
the description here given of the subjects of this millennial 
resurrection, and say if it is natural to suppose that they are 
the same class of persons the righteous at large. 

" And I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the witness 
of Jesus and for the Word of God, and such as had not worshipped 
the beast, nor his image, neither had received his mark upon their 
foreheads or in their hands; and they lived," &c. 

I shall by and by analyse this description, and show how 
studiously limited it is to one particular class of saints. At 
present, I take it as it strikes one on first reading it; and I 
have just to ask, whether it be natural to think that this is 



UNTENABLE ARGUMENTS FOR THE FIGURATIVE SENSE. 215 

neither more nor less than a description of "the righteous" 
" entering into life eternal" of " them that have done good" 
" coming forth unto the resurrection of life" of " those 
who have eaten Christ s flesh and drunk his blood raised up 
at the last day," in short, of our universal " gathering 
together unto Him " ? If it be so, I can only say as before, 
that the description is singularly unlike the thing to be 
described not in the least fitted to suggest it, and wholly 
unlike all other descriptions of the same thing. 

These presumptions and more that might be mentioned 
against the literal sense of the millennial prophecy, though 
they are far from superseding the necessity of examining 
the passage itself, are more than sufficient to neutralise any 
supposed presumptions on the other side. 

In now coming to the examination of the passage in 
detail, I will first disencumber myself of some arguments 
in favour of the figurative sense, which I believe to be 
untenable. 

It is frequently urged, for example, that because " SOULS " 
(4/y^a/) were seen in this vision, and no mention is made of 
BODIES, it cannot be a bodily resurrection that is meant.* 
But this is to mistake what the apostle saw in the vision. 
He did not see a resurrection of souls. He saw " the souls 
of them that were slain;" that is, he had a vision of the 
martyrs themselves in the state of the dead after they 
were slain, and just before their resurrection. Then he saw 
them rise : " They lived" not their souls, but themselves. 
Mr Elliott puts this very happily. " The word souls is but 
a term designative of their state just previous; . . . and thus 
it no more indicates that they were still mere (-v^u^a/) incor 
poreal souls, than the title dead (vexso/) just after inverse 12 
I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God implies 
that these last were still at that very time of their standing be- 

Scott (in loco), Dr Hamilton (Mod. Millen. pp. 203, 204), Barnes 
(Notes on Revel., 1852), &c. &c- 



216 MILLENNIAL RESURRECTION FIGURATIVE 

fore Him, dead men." He gives other examples equally in 
point.* VITRIXGA, who takes the prophecy figuratively, never 
theless takes the same view of the thing seen in the vision, 
namely, a literal resurrection from the dead. Indeed, all 
figurative resurrections in Scripture are couched in the lan 
guage of literal ones ; and why should this be any exception ? 

Again, it has been argued, that because no mention is 
made of the earth in this prophecy, a literal resurrection to 
reign on the earth is not the sense of it. t But nothing, I 
think, can be clearer than that the earth is the theatre of the 
millennial reign; that having " destroyed them that de 
stroyed (or corrupted, diapQiieovras) the earth," he is now 
giving it into the hands of those who will possess it for the 
Lord; that it is just what Daniel saw, " the giving of the 
kingdom and dominion of the greatness of the kingdom, 
under the whole heaven, to the people of the saints of the 
Most High" (Dan. vii. 27); or what the elders were heard 
anticipating in song, " We shall reign on the earth" (Rev. v. 
10). Whether this reign be literal or figurative, the earth is 
without doubt the place of it. 

Once more, it has been said, that because the word " re 
surrection" is sometimes used in Scripture to denote the life 
of the soul in its disembodied state, there is no reason why 
it should not be so taken here. Thus Dr Ash and others. 
Mr Gipps, in his able " Treatise on the First Resurrection," 
though he does not go this length, recounts the various 
senses in which the word " resurrection" may be taken in 
Scripture, to show that we are not compelled, by the mere 
use of the word, to understand it literally here. I am not 
aware that any one has been so unreasonable as to say this ; 

* Horce Apoc. iv. 147, fourth edition. 

t Dr Ash, in some sensible and judicious Lectures on the Apocalypse, 
urges this. (Four Lect. on the Apoc. delivered in the Spring of 1848, 
p. 87.) On the same ground, Piscator, Dr Henry More, Bengel, and 
others long ago, while they took the millennial resurrection to be literal, 
made the place of their reign with Christ to be not earth but heaven. So 
also Moses Stuart now. 



FIRST ARGUMENT. 217 

nor can I see what is gained by such criticism. It is impos 
sible to deny that the word here denotes the restoring of life 
to tlie dead; and as such language is, beyond all contradic 
tion, employed in Scripture to express a figurative resuscita 
tion as well as a bodily resurrection, the only question ought 
to be, In which of the two senses is it employed here? To 
that question, then, let us now address ourselves. There 
appear to me, then, to be 

NINE INTERNAL EVIDENCES THAT THE MILLENNIAL 
RESURRECTION IS NOT LITERAL, BUT FIGURATIVE. 

As the vision is followed up by certain explanatory clauses, 
it is natural to begin with them. And, 

FIRST. The clause, " This is the jirst resurrection (v. 5), 
which is thought to prove it literal, seems to me to suggest 
the reverse. " It is allowed by all," says Daubuz, in his Com 
mentary on the Revelation, " that the second resurrection is 
of bodies; and if so, why not also the first, since both are 
expressed in the like terms." And Bishop Newton says, 
" We should be cautious and tender of making the first re 
surrection an allegory, lest others should reduce the second 
into an allegory too." Unfortunately for this way of rea 
soning, the very next verse contradicts it : " Blessed and 
holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection, on such 
the second death hath no power" (v. 6). Here " the first 
resurrection" and " the second death" are intentionally 
brought together and contrasted. But are these deaths of 
the same nature? Quite the reverse. The first death is 
that of the body, the second that of both body and soul; 
the first death is common to the righteous and the wicked, 
the second is the everlasting portion of the wicked alone. 
To suffer the first death for Christ carries with it exemption 
from the power of the second death " Be thou faithful 
unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life" " He 
that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death" 



218 MILLENNIAL RESURRECTION FIGURATIVE 

(Rev. ii. 10, 11). " The Scriptures," says Fraser of Kirk- 
hill, " frequently mention the second or new birth. The 
first birth is that of the body. Is it necessary that the 
second should be so too? Will any man, acquainted with 
the Scriptures, put the question now which Kicodeinus for 
merly proposed to our Lord, " How can a man be born 
when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his 
mother s womb, and be born?" (John iii. 4). The second 
birth is doubtless an allegory. But does it follow that the 
first birth is an allegory too ? The Scriptures mention the 
second death : now, the first death is that of the body. But 
is it necessary that we understand the second death of the 
body only? Does it affect the body in the same manner, by 
putting it in a state of insensibility and putrefaction? The 
terms, first and second, are used in Scripture to distinguish 
subjects which are in some respects similar, but in others 
are very different, lest we should mistake the one for the 
other; and so the term "first resurrection" is used here, to 
show that this part of the prophecy does not describe such a 
change as shall take place at the general resurrection."* 

SECOND. It cannot but appear strange that we should be 
told that the risen and glorified saints do not perish eternally. 
Yet this is what the second explanatory clause tells us, 
according to the literal view of this vision " Blessed and holy 
is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second 
death hath no power" (v. 6), or, in other words, they shall not 
be " cast into the lake of fire, rchich is the second death" (v. 14). 
Is it likely that the Spirit of God means nothing more here than 
such a truism? But only suppose that the first resurrection 
is a glorious state of the church on earth, and in its mortal 
state, a period emphatically of " life from the dead" when 
the whole world shall seem to hear a voice saying to them, 
" AicaJce, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ 

* Key to the Prophecies, pp. 408, 409. (1795.) Of this argument Mr 
Birks, I observe, takes no notice. 



SECOND ARGUMENT. 219 

shall give thee light" (Eph. v. 14) take it thus, and the 
whole clause becomes intelligible and highly consolatory.* 
Accordingly, in another part of this same book, where we 
have the same identical promise, that certain persons " SHALL 
NOT BE HURT BY THE SECOND DEATH," the promise relates not 
to risen and glorified men, but to " him that overcometh in 
the struggle for " the crown of life" (Rev. ii. 10, 11). And 
as exemption from the power of the second death is here 
made to rest upon a certain character, namely, fidelity to 
Christ even to death, and in our millennial chapter, exemp 
tion from the power of the same second death is made to rest 
upon participation in the first resurrection, is it not reasonable 
to conclude that this " first resurrection" is meant to signify 
a certain character in the present life, and not the possession 
of bodily resurrection and glory ? In that case, the assurance 
of our prophecy is, that this victorious spirit, as it will be the 
reigning characteristic of the millennial period, so it will be 
the bright pledge of immunity from the power of the second 
death. The word "blessed" will then express the high privilege 
they enjoy who have their lot cast in such a period. Indeed, 
the same language is employed by Daniel to express the pri 
vilege, not of bodily resurrection, but of living in the body 
during this very period. " Blessed is he that waiteth, and 
cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty 
days" (Dan. xii. 12). And then, the word "holy" will ex 
press the high devotedness and spirituality that will distin 
guish the Christians of that period, and signalise the millen 
nial day itself above all former periods in the world s history; 
Avhile the following words, " over such the second hath no 

* Compare with this apostolic call, to au-aJce from the sleep, and arise 
from the death of sin, the prophetic call from which it is borrowed : 
" Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon 
thee." (Isa. Ix. 1.) What the apostle applies to individual conversion is 
just this prophetic summons to the Church once confined to Palestine, 
and shrouded in dark ceremonies to feel the meridian splendour and 
quickening warmth of the Sun of righteousness. 



220 MILLENNIAL RESURRECTION FIGURATIVE 

power," will just be one more example of a spiritual as the 
earnest of a bodily resurrection, a present of a future, so 
familiar in the language of the New Testament. " The hour 
is coming," says our Lord, " and now is, when the (spiritu 
ally) dead shall hear his voice, and they that hear shall (spiri 
tually) live : marvel not at this, for the hour cometh in which 
all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come 
forth (bodily)." " My sheep hear my voice, and I give unto 
them (now) eternal life, and they shall never perish (or die 
the second death)." " If," says the apostle, " the Spirit of 
Him that raised up Jesus our Lord dwell in you, He that 
raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal 
bodies by his Spirit that divellcth in you (your quickened 
souls)."* 

THIRD. There are but two alternatives in this prophecy 
either to " hate part in the first resurrection," or to be under 
the "power of the second death." " Blessed and holy is he 
that hath part in the first resurrection: on them (svi rovruv) 
the second death hath no power." Into which of these 
classes are we to put the myriads of men who are to people 
the earth, in flesh and blood, during the millennium ? They 
have no " part in the first resurrection," if it be a bodily 
one. Are they given over, then, to " the power of the 
second death? " But only suppose " the first resurrection" 
to be a phrase denoting the character of the millennial era, 
as one of prevailing spiritual life bright earnest of life 

* The answer given to this is, that the words " on such the second death 
hath no power, 1 are merely " the repetition of the same idea in a differ 
ent form, than which nothing is more common in Scripture." (Kitto s 
Journal, July 1850.) So Mr Birks (p. 115). And Mr Wood considers it 
as designed to announce the fulfilment of the promise (ch. ii. 11), " He 
that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death." He even con- 
siders the words in Daniel, " Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to 
the 1335 days," to mean, not Blessed is he who shall be alive at that 
happy era, but Blessed is he who shall be then raised from the dead 
(pp. 51, 52). I leave the reader to judge which is most natural, especially 
in connection with the following arguments. 



FOURTH ARGUMENT. 221 

everlasting on that " new earth wherein dwelleth righteous 
ness;" and then the assurance that "on such the second 
death hath no power," becomes a promise that such as pos 
sess this character found in its substance in every renewed 
man, and constituting the prevailing character of the millen 
nial era shall not "be hurt of the second death."* 

FOURTH. The express mention of how long this "life 
and reign with Christ " will last, namely, " a thousand years" 
if meant to inform us what a long period of earthly pro 
sperity the Church is yet destined to enjoy, is intelligible 
and cheering. But to say that the risen and glorified 
Church is to live and reign with Christ for a period of a 
thousand years, is totally unlike the language of Scripture 
in every other place. I know what is said in answer to 
this, but it has no force. The limiting of the life and reign 
to a thousand years, wo are told, has relation not to the 
risen saints, but only to those over whom they reign, and 
to the imperfection which will continue upon earth till that 
thousand years be ended. But so says not the text. No 
mention is made of their reigning over any other class of 
persons; still less is it said that they reigned over them only 
for a thousand years, but with Christ for ever. On the con 
trary, it is just this reign of the saints with Christ that is to 
last a thousand years. The very thing which everywhere is 

* As for the millennial saints, says Mr Wood, in reply to this argu 
ment, the assurance they possess of protection from the second death, 
"lies in the promise that they, too, shall by and by put on immortality." 
But what promise is that ? I was curious to know this, since Mr Wood 

DXHAUSTS ALL THE PROMISES OF RESURRECTION IN THE BIBLE UPON THOSE 

WHO LIVE BEFORE THE MILLENNIUM, leaving not one for those who live 
a uring the thousand years. "Are not these," says he, "the nations of 
the earth who dwell not in the New Jerusalem, but eat for healing of the 
leaves of the tree of life?" (p. 53). The reviewer in Kitto takes the same 
view of the tree of life, assigning its fruits to the citizens of the New Jerusa 
lem, and its leaves to the nations outside. Mr Birks laconic answer is 
more plausible, though I think unsatisfactory : " The myriads who people 
the earth during the millennium belong to neither class. Hence the 
vision does not speak of them at all" (p. 116). 



222 MILLENNIAL RESURRECTION FIGURATIVE 

said to be unbroken and everlasting (" So SHALL WE EVER BE 
WITH THE LORD") is here said if it be a reign in their glo 
rified state to be limited to a thousand years. Yain are all 
the attempts made to explain away this, as if the still change 
able state of the earth might account for a period being men 
tioned. For the words of the text fix down the limitation 
not to the accidents but to the essence of the reign telling us 
that it was their " living and reigning with Christ," whatever 
that means, that lasted a thousand years. And as we are 
immediately told of a great change for the worse, after the 
expiry of this period, and during another shorter period called 
" a little season," it is perfectly clear that the " life and reign 
with Christ," considered as the characteristic feature of the mil 
lennial state, terminate with the thousand years.* I think this 
is enough convincingly to show that it is no literal resurrec 
tion of the Church of God to be ever with her Lord that is 
here meant, but just the long period of a thousand years 
life from the dead" (Rom. xi. 1 5), in that figurative sense with 
which Scripture, in previous portions of it, had made us so 
familiar.f 

FIFTH. If the first resurrection be literal, the other or 
wicked party, styled "the rest of the dead," who "lived not 
again until the thousand years were finished," must of course 

* Least of all can those who believe that there will be a fleshly state to 
all eternity, over which the glorified will reign, and of course imperfec 
tion on earth for ever, assign even a tolerable reason for the emphatic 
saying, that the risen saints will "reignw7/i Christ a thousand years." 
But the difficulty is nearly as great in any way of it. 

f But is not this same millennial reign said in Daniel (vii. 18) to be 
"forever, even for ever and ever" ? (Kitto, ut supra, and Mr Wood, p. 53.) 
True : but it is easier to understand the extension of the earthly and tem 
poral condition of the kingdom into the heavenly and eternal, which 
is done in Daniel, than to understand how the reign of risen and glorified 
saints with Christ should be definitely fixed to a thousand years. To say 
with Moses Stuart, and Mr Wood, who quotes him, that " the simple ob 
ject of the words is merely to affirm the certainty of the reign during all 
that period," is, I think, manifestly weak. 



FIFTH ARGUMENT. 223 

be expected to " live again," or rise from the dead, in the 
same bodily sense, " when the thousand years are finished. * 
But so far from this, we read of no bodily resurrection at 
all on the expiry of this period. 

" When the thousand years are finished" (rfXftfdff), we read 
that " Satan shall be loosed out of his prison" (v. 7) for a 
period expressly called " a little season" (v. 3). Some would 
make this, from its supposed brevity, no period at all ; but 
if we take it in relation to the preceding thousand years, 
and to the work to be done, perhaps it will not be so 
little as many suppose. " He shall go out to deceive the 
nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and 
Magog, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea;" and 
observe not only the multitudes he collects, but the union 
and organization effected in this stupendous and appalling 
confederacy the last desperate effort of the serpent 
" they went up on the breadth of the earth, and com 
passed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved 
city : " In view cf this, the little season of the enemy s li- 

* " Mr Elliott, indeed, observes that the expression till the thousand 
years were finished, does not necessarily imply that the rest of the 
dead would rise immediately on the completion of the thousand years, 
and cites two passages in proof." [So Mr Birks, " Four Empires," &c., 
Appendix II.] " We do not dispute this. We hold that a statement to 
the effect that a particular event shall not take place till after a given 
time, does not necessarily imply that it must take place even then. But 
when, as here, two things are mentioned together; when their order is 
stated ; when a period is assigned to the first, and the commencement of 
the second is deferred till the period is fulfilled ; and when, after this 
distinction of times, the first is again brought forward and characterised 
it seems impossible to avoid the conclusion, that the two constitute one 
uninterrupted series, gradational or antithetic, and that the specification 
of times is exact. Besides, the time till which their living again is de 
ferred, is expressed word for word as the time is till which Satan is 
bound. Both are li^i tiXirOy TO, yi\n*. IT* till the thousand years should 
be fulfilled. Whence it is but reasonable to infer that there exists an 
intimate connection between them." British Quarterly Review, Feb. 
1849 " Modern Mille?iarianism," an able article, and on this vision 
particularly so. 



224 MILLENNIAL KESURRECTION FIGURATIVE 

berty, after the expiry of the thousand years, and compared 
with that long period of " imprisonment," seemed to Bengel 
and Faber to require a century or so. However this may 
be, during all this time we read of no bodily resurrection at all. 
This postmillennial period is to be filled up with something 
else than bodily resurrections. It will indeed be employed 
in the raising of a icicked party, but not bodily, from their 
graves. Where, then, do we read of the bodily resurrection 
of that party called " the rest of the dead" ? Nowhere. We 
go downwards in the chapter to find them, till we come to 
the account of the last judgment, and there observing that 
" the dead, small and great," are seen " standing before the 
throne," we must suppose that these " dead, small and great," 
are just "the rest of the dead" we have been seeking for 
otherwise, they never appear again at all. 

And when once we have made " the dead, small and great, 
that standbefore the throne" at the final judgment, to be merely 
" the rest of the dead that lived not again until the thousand years 
were finished," we are forced to exclude the righteous altoge 
ther from the last judgment, making " the dead, small and 
great," to be all ivicked. This, besides doing the greatest 
imaginable violence to that august scene, gives no explanation 
of the " opening of the book of life" on that occasion, except 
one which I have shown to be wholly inadmissible (pp. 214- 
216), and I would say absurd namely, to show that none of 
those then judged have their names written in it ! * 

Now, reverse the process. Make the resurrection of both 
the parties figurative, and understand by it first the extinc 
tion of the one and triumph of the other for a thousand 

* The keen-edged reflections of Mr Birks on this argument (pp. 
119-121) contrast unpleasantly with his usual style. Vitringa, from 
whom he quotes, though connecting v. 5 with v. 12, is the farthest pos 
sible from identifying "the rest of the dead, who lived not again till the 
thousand years were fulfilled," with the WHOLE " dead, small and great, 
who stand before the throne" at the final judgment, which Mr Birks and 
his friends are obliged so unnaturally to do. This makes the reference to 
Vitringa of small avail, if it be not fitted to convey an erroneous impression. 



FIFTH ARGUMENT. 225 

years, and then the temporary resuscitation of the defeated 
party, with their gigantic death-throes, under the desperate 
agency of the old serpent before the final ruin of his king 
dom and not only are all the difficulties of the literal sense 
avoided, but a meaning put upon the whole chapter consis 
tent with itself, and entirely accordant with the phraseology 
of Scripture in other places. At the close of the previous 
chapter, we find " the Beast taken, and with him the False 
Prophet, and cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brim 
stone" (xix. 21). This puts an end to the antichristian 
kingdom ; but it is added, " The remnant " or the rest (o l 
XO/TO/) " were slain with the sword of Him that sat upon 
the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth ; and all 
the fowls were filled with their flesh" (v. 21). A marked 
distinction is thus drawn between the doom of " the beast 
and false prophet," and that of " the rest." The former go 
to " the lake of fire " never more to reappear : The other 
do not so, but are merely " slain with the sword from the 
mouth of Christ." We are prepared, then, for the possibi 
lity, at least, of their reappearance upon the stage. Ac 
cordingly we find them in the fifth verse of the next 
chapter, under their old name " the rest (01 XO/TO/) of the 
dead ;" dead, that is, in respect of the cause they espouse. 
In this sense they " live not again (after being slain with 
the sword from Christ s mouth ) until the thousand years 
are finished." To use the triumphant language of the pro 
phet, pointing to this same period, "They are dead, they 
shall not live: they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore 
hast thou visited them, and made all memory of them to 
perish" (Isa. xxvi. 14). Meanwhile, the other party, so long 
held down, are seen springing to life and dominion. The 
devil is bound that he may no more deceive the nations till 
the thousand years be fulfilled (ver. 1-3). The earth is at 
rest from the plots and seductions of the enemy. His cause 
is at an end, his kingdom extinguished, and for a thousand 

B 



226 MILLENNIAL RESURRECTION FIGURATIVE 

years, " THE SOVEREIGNTY OP THE WORLD" is " OUR LORD S 
AND ins CHRIST S"* (chap. xi. 18). "The Lord alone is 
exalted in that day ; " and " the kingdom and dominion, 
and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, 
is given to the people of the saints of the Most High." But 
the very hint, they lived not again till the thousand years 
were finished," is a warning to expect their reappearance 
at the close of that period. Accordingly, though in the 
sense of a literal resurrection of their bodies we never hear 
of them again, we find them duly reproduced, as a party, by 
the old serpent, who is loosed at the close of the millen 
nium for that very purpose. " When the thousand years 
were fulfilled," and Satan is loosed, he shall again " go out 
to deceive the nations;" not, of course, the same individuals, 
but their successors, who are spoken of under the same name, 
as deceived first for long ages, then undeceived for a thou 
sand years, and finally again exposed, for a brief period, to 
deception, f 

Thus does this famous prophecy, when viewed as symbolical, 
explain naturally from beginning to end ; when taken literally, 
however well some expressions may interpret, we cannot get 
through with it. 

SIXTH. We have seen (pages 202, 203) that the " opening 
of the book of life," at the time when the dead are judged 
(ver. 12, lo), signifies the manifestation of those who are 
written in it. " Two reasons," says Mr Gripps, " lead me to 

* "EJ/EVETO j3xe/, K.t. A. " Much more glorious," says BEXGEI, " is this 
primitive reading than that of a hasty transcriber, \?iwr <*} pour&tini, 
*.T.X." Since then, every critical edition of the text has introduced this 
" much more glorious " reading. The English is from Tregelks. 

f Mr Birks (pp. 122-120) gives no fewer than eleven arguments against 
tiiifl view of the " living again" of the rest of the dead, which he erro 
neously calls "novel." It would be tedious to go through these, every 
one of which admits of easy answer. But if my view does not commend 
itself to the impartial reader of the vision, on this point on which di 
versity of opinion may very well exist let him just blot out number FIVE 



SEVENTH ARGUMENT. 227 

conceive that this must take place at the second coming of 

Christ. First, It is utterly inconceivable that all 

this glory [described in Matthew xxv. 31, &c.] can be con 
ferred upon the saints, and such a manifestation of them be 
made in the presence of Christ and of all the holy angels, of 
one another, and of all the ungodly living in every part of 
the earth, one moment before what is called the opening of the 
book of life. The very absurdity of the idea would con 
vince me that such a manifestation of the glory of those who 
are written in the book of life must coincide with, and be 
the same as the opening of that book. And the expression 
(v. 15), "Whosoever was not FOUND written in the book of 
life, still farther proves that this is the time when the open 
discovery or manifestation is made of those who are written 
therein. Secondly, It is expressly set forth that the mani 
festation of the sons of God will take place at their resurrection 
(Rom. viii. 19, 23). As, therefore, I am convinced that this 
manifestation cannot take place before the book of life is 
opened, in which their names are written, but must be the 
same as the discovery of those who are written therein, I 
feel assured that the resurrection of the saints will be at the 
time of the opening of the book of life, and not at the 
first resurrection. These two reasons, therefore, prove to 
my mind that when Christ sits upon the throne of judgment 
and the book of life is opened, must be the time of his second 
coming, and of the resurrection of the saints."* 

SEVENTH. " The omission," says the acute author just 
quoted, " of any declaration as to the sea, death, and the grave 
[or hades ] giving up the dead at the first resurrection, and 
the making such a declaration respecting the dead in verse 

from the list of internal evidences against the literal sense of the First 
Eesurrection. 

* Treatise on the First Resurrection (1831), pp. 21-23 a work of 
great modesty, but full of acute verbal criticism ; although I think it 
fails to establish the author s view of the period of the millennium. 



228 MILLENNIAL RESURRECTION FIGURATIVE 

13, convinces me both that the first resurrection is not that 
of the saints, and also, that the dead in verses 12, 13, include 
all mankind, both the saints and the ungodly. In every 
other part of the Word of God, the information given con 
cerning the resurrection of the saints is not only much more 
frequent, but also much more explicit, than concerning the 
resurrection of the ungodly. I feel convinced, therefore, that 
in this portion also of Scripture, if it were intended to foretell 
a resurrection of the saints distinct from that of the ungodly, 
more explicit information would be given concerning the 
former than concerning the latter. I find, however, that the 
information given concerning the first resurrection, instead 
of being much more, is much less explicit than that concern 
ing the resurrection intimated in verses 12, 13 ; for there is 
not the least allusion to the sea, death, and the grave giv 
ing up the dead at the first resurrection, and it is expressly 
declared that they do this at the time of the resurrection set 
forth in verses 12, 13. By contrasting this, therefore, with 
the course pursued in other portions of the Word of God, I 
feel convinced that the first resurrection cannot be that of the 
saints ; and that verses 12, 13, do not describe the resurrec 
tion of the ungodly only, but that of the saints also, and in 
clude all the dead without any exception." 

The seven foregoing arguments have been gathered from 
the surface of the millennial prophecy: the two following, 
with which I will conclude, are suggested by a narrower ob 
servation of the vision. 

EIGHTH. It is a fatal objection to the literal sense of this 
prophecy, as announcing the bodily resurrection of all dead, 
and the change of all living saints, that it is exclusively a 
martyr-scene the prophet beholding simply a resurrection of 
THE SLAIN ; whereas this very circumstance eminently favours 
the figurative sense. 

The vision is described first generally, and then in detail. 



EIGHTH ARGUMENT. 229 

Two companies are seen in the vision, and in two successive 
and opposite conditions first as dead and dishonoured, next 
as risen and reigning. Thus : 

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE VISION. 

"And I saw thrones, and they sat iipon them, and judgment 
was given unto them : 

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE VISION. 

First Company seen Dead. 

" And [I saw] the souls of them that had been beheaded for 
the testimony of Jesus, and for the Word of God ; 

Second Company seen Dead. 

" And [I saw] such as had not worshipped the beast nor his 
image, neither had received his mark upon their forehead, 
and on their hand : 

Both Companies seen Risen and Reigning. 

" And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." 
(V. 4.) 

A few remarks on the several clauses of the passage will 
still further open it up. 

" I saw thrones, and they sat upon them." Who sat upon 
them ? Not any mentioned as yet, for the vision begins 
here. Clearly, therefore, it is the two companies about 
to be specified. Accordingly, as soon as the prophet has 
described these in detail, he comes back to his first general 
statement " And they (those now specified) lived and 
reigned a thousand years ; " as if he had said, And I saw 
thrones, and persons sitting on them, to whom judgment 
was given: these thrones were filled by the beheaded, &c., 
and such as had not worshipped the beast : And their reign 
lasted a thousand years. * If this be the construction of the 

* Mr Elliott, perceiving how much depends npon this point, gives 
the \vords another turn, but one that I am convinced is untenable. 
"Christ and his saints," says he, "were seen to take their sitting on 



230 MILLENNIAL RESURRECTION FIGURATIVE 

passage, as it clearly is if the words " they sat upon them," 
mean "they to be presently mentioned" then we must 
put no other saints into the vision besides those afterwards 
specified ; and the concluding words, " And they lived and 
reigned," tie us peremptorily down to those two companies 
alone. Let us now see who they were : 

" And [I saw] the souls of them that were beheaded for 
the testimony of Jesus and for the Word of God." Behead 
ing,* a well-known Roman mode of putting to an ignomi 
nious death, is mentioned here, merely to denote the Roman 
authority by which they were slain, in the Pagan and un 
broken period of the empire. All the martyrs of Jesus, then, 

thrones of judgment and royalty. St John specifies particularly, as if 
consrjicuous among them, the souls of them that had been beheaded, 

and others also, -whosoever had not worshipped," &c. (Hor. 

Apoc. iv. 125, fourth edition.) One objection to this is, that it intro 
duces into the vision those who were not seen in it, and makes the only 
parties who were seen to be merely " conspicuous among the whole 
number of Christ s saints." Another objection is, that it obliges us to 
seek for a nominative to the verb " sat " the parties that were seen in 
the thrones out of this vision altogether. Mr Elliott takes the nomina 
tive to " sat " to be " Christ and his attendant hosts, described at large 
in the preceding chapter as combatants against, and conquerors over, 
the beast," &c. That is to say, he takes his nominative out of a perfectly 
different vision from the one where the verb is ; and not only so, but 
since another vision comes in bettveen these two, we have his nominative 
in the first vision and the verb in the third, or at least another and 
quite distinct representation of the same period from the second vision. 
Could any more unnatural and inadmissible construction be proposed ? 
But take the verb (ixSia-m) " they sat," impersonally, as equivalent to 
" they were sate upon "a usage quite familiar in the Greek Testament 
and the Septuagint and the construction of the whole passage becomes 
transparent. "Nothing scarcely," says Moses Stuart, who takes the 
literal sense of our vision, " is more common in the Old Testament and 
in the New, and especially in the Chaldce of the book of Daniel, than 
to employ the third person plural for the passive voice, thus making a 
kind of impersonal verb of it: Gramm. 174. Note 2." (Comm. on 
Apoc. ad loc.) " In the New Testament, " says Winer, " verbs are used 
impersonally, in the third person plural." Then follow some examples. 
(Gramm. 49) 
* Di*iftcMfytfMi>| from *&izvs, an axe. 



EIGHTH ARGUMENT. 231 

under the Pagan persecutions are here embraced. The next 
clause describes another class of martyrs, to arise after this 
class was completed. But before coming to it, let me re 
quest the reader s attention to the following passage, in the 
sixth chapter of this book, where the same class of martyrs 
(under Paganism) are described in nearly identical terms, 
and the other class announced as yet to come : " And when 
ho had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls 
of them that were slain for the Word of God, and for the 
testimony which they held : And they cried with a loud 
voice, How long, Lord,* holy and true, dost thou not judge 
and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth ! 
And a white robe was given unto every one of them ; f and 
it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a [little] J 
season, until both their fellow-servants and their brethren, 
that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled." 

The persons seen in this vision are unquestionably the same 
as the first class in our millennial vision ; "their souls" in 
both cases, or themselves in the state of the dead as slain 
for the Word of Grocl. In the former vision, however, the 
apostle hears them asking "judgment; " in the latter, he sees 
them act it. " How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou 
not judge and avenge our Hood on them that dwell on the 
earth ? " is their doleful cry in the one vision : " And I saw 
thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment icas given unto 
them" is the delightful response to that cry which the apostle 

* AtirvoTw, Master Thou that rulest over the oppressors and the op 
pressed alike. 

f ESofl^ avn7; \xa.ff<rta rre^ teuxy. So the true reading would seem to 
be, as given by Sc/iolz, Lochmann, Tischendorf, and Tregclks. Scholz, 
however, omits IXOLO-TU, and Tregelles puts it in brackets. Bengcl, whose 
verbal accuracy seldom fails him, in reply to Wolfius, who had said it 
might justly be doubted whether John Avrote a-jr/ii; Ixda-ru, says, " But 
he has written Ifjui la-, chap. ii. 23 ; and so Luke, ii. 3, .vns ixxirw 
and Acts ii. 8, f,pi7s ixna-ro;. Paul, Eph. v. 33, upus Ixa.*;. This very 
mtiTt7t txKtna occurs in Kir. xvii. 14." 

t It seems doubtful whether " little " belonss to the text, but the evi 
dence is scarcely sufficient to remove it. 



232 MILLENNIAL RESURRECTION FIGURATIVE . 

was privileged to announce in the other. The one, in short, 
is the petition presented, and the other, the petition granted. 
But the connection of the two visions is closer than this. 
The petitioning party in the former vision are one. But they 
are told there is another party to come after them, to be 
treated like themselves, and who will have to be judged and 
avenged as well as they. They must wait, therefore, till 
their time be over; and then they shall both together " have 
judgment given them, and their blood be avenged on them 
that dwell on the earth." "White robes were given unto 
every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they 
should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also, 
and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be 
fulfilled." As these are clearly two distinct parties suffering 
in succession for Christ, and as the former includes all who 
suffered under the great red dragon in his Pagan form, the 
latter can be no other than those who were to suffer under 
the same dragon in his subsequent, and, I believe, Papal form 
of opposition to Christ. Now, as judgment is promised to 
the former party as soon as their brethren and fellow-servants 
of the other party have suffered, or after Antichrist shall have 
fallen, and the millennial time have arrived we naturally 
look for both parties in our vision, and expect to find "judg 
ment given " to both together " against them that dwell on 
the earth." Accordingly, so it is. That exquisite jointing 
of the corresponding parts of this book which, with other 
peculiar features of it, so fascinated Sir Isaac Newton, that 
he pronounced it to have more characters of divinity than 
any other book of Scripture is nowhere better seen than 
here. " I saw," says the apostle, " the souls of them that were 
beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and for the Word of 
God : " Those whom I had before seen under the altar, 
the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, and 
for the testimony which they held them I now saw again, 
getting the judgment which then they sought. So much 
for ihejirst company of martyrs, under Paganism. 



EIGHTH ARGUMENT. 233 

The next clause of our passage describes the second com 
pany. " And [I saw] such as had not worshipped the 
beast, neither his image, neither had recieved the mark upon 
the forehead and in the hand." The resurrection of this 
company shows they were seen as dead, while the "judg 
ment " given to them along with the former class in ful 
filment of the promise made to that class, that they should 
have judgment given them as soon as the other party were 
" KILLED as they were " puts it beyond doubt that this is a 
martyr-company too. Accordingly, we read (ch. xiii. 15), 
that " it was given to him " the second beast that spake 
like a dragon, v. 11 " to cause that as many as would not 
worship the image of the beast should be KILLED." 

Thus this celebrated vision is exclusively a visional resur 
rection of martyrs. Not only are none else in it, but the 
first and last clauses of the passage the one referring us to 
those about to lie described, and the other to these as already 
described tie us down to the very parties specified in the 
two middle clauses of the passage, and necessitate the re 
striction of the whole to the slain witnesses of Christ. * 

In this view of the vision, it is utterly inadequate to express 
the resurrection of the whole Church of God bodily from the 
grave. I think every one must see this. The amazing con 
trast between the all-comprehensive idea to be expressed, 
and the rigidly-limited expression of it, if such it were, would 
prevent any cautious interpreter from recognising it in the 
passage. And is it conceivable that the Spirit of God, sup 
posing him to have reserved the announcement of a prior re 
surrection of the righteous to one single passage at the end 
of the canon of revelation, and intending this vision to be 
"Nor," says the REV. CAPEL MOLYNEUX, an extreme premillen- 
nialist, " does this passage teach that his saints, universally or even ge 
nerally, shall rise and reign with Him. So far from this, it does not say 
a syllable about his saints generally, or about his saints at all as saints 
merely ; it speaks exclusively of martyrs, of those " that were beheaded," 
c., while of others it makes no mention whatever." World to Coma 
(1853), p. 199. 



234 MILLENNIAL RESURRECTION FIGURATIVE 

the one formal announcement of it, should have selected such 
a mode of revealing it, that only an inconsiderable few out of 
the whole Church of Christ have been able to detect it that 
those few are not able to assign satisfactory reasons for the 
conclusion at which they have arrived and that the more 
closely every clause of the passage is investigated, the more 
sternly are we forbidden, by all the admitted rules of inter 
pretation, to put that construction upon it ? 

But what is fatal to the literal sense is eminently favour 
able to the figurative. Need I ask any familiar with the 
figurative language of Scripture, and with the scriptural 
figuration of this very period, familiar with the best writers 
in every language and every age, or himself accustomed to 
think and speak in vivid style, whether a resurrection of the 
slain witnesses of Christ of every period, to people, possess, 
and hold the supremacy of the earth icith their Lord, be not a 
conception worthy of the Spirit of God to dictate, and inex 
pressibly refreshing for the soul of an oppressed Church to 
be filled with ? In this very book, the figurative resurrection 
of the witnesses for the truth is thus expressed : " And after 
three days and an half, the Spirit of life from God entered 
into them, and they stood upon their feet." (Rev. xi. 11.) 
It is indeed part of the classic style of Scripture in depicting 
this very millennial period. For example, Will the Jews be 
brought in? "Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, O my 
people, I will OPEN TOUR GRAVES, AND CAUSE YOU TO COME 
UP OUT OF YOUR GRATES, and bring you into the land of 
Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have 
opened your graves, and brought you up out of your graves, 
and shall put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live ; and I will 
place you in your own land." (Ezek. xxxvii. 12-14.) " After 
two days will he revive us ; in the third day he will RAISE 
us UP, and we shall LIVE in his sight." (Hos. vi. 2.) This 
certainly is figurative. 

Again, Will this resurrection of Israel be a mighty blessing 
to the Gentile world? " What shall the receiving of them be 



EIGHTH ARGUMENT. 235 

but LIFE FROM THE DEAD ?" As of the return of a prodigal, 
it is said, " He \vas DEAD and is ALIVE AGAIN;" and of the 
change which passes upon the believer in justification, it is 
said, " He shall not come into condemnation, but is PASSED 
FROM DEATH UNTO LIFE; "and of sanctification, that he is 
" quickened who was DEAD in trespasses and in sins," so it 
is said of the church: " THY DEAD MEN SHALL LIVE,"&C.; 
just as it is said of the opposite party, " They are DEAD, 
they shall not LIVE; they are DECEASED, they shall NOT RISE: 
therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made 
all memory of them to perish." (Isa. xxvi. 13, 14.) 

I have said, further, that this idea is current coin in all 
vivid thinking, in every age and every language. 

" When the venerable priest," says Merle D Aubigne, speaking of 
John Huss, " had been summoned by Sigismund s order before 
the Council of Constance, and had been thrown into prison, the 
chapel of Bethlehem, in which he had proclaimed the gospel and 
the future triumphs of Christ, occupied his mind much more than 
his own defence. One night the holy martyr saw in imagination, 
from the depths of his dungeon, the pictures of Christ that he had 
painted on the walls of his oratory effaced by the pope and his 
bishops. This vision distressed him ; but on the next day he saw 
many painters occupied in restoring these figures in greater number 
and in brighter colours. As soon as their task was ended, the 
painters, who were surrounded by an immense crowd, exclaimed, 
Now let the popes and bishops come, they shall never efface them 
more ! And many people rejoiced in Bethlehem, and I with them, 
adds John Huss. Busy yourself with your defence rather than 
with your dreams, said his faithful friend, the knight of Chlum, 
to whom he had communicated this vision. I am no dreamer, 
replied Huss; but I maintain this for certain, that the image of 
Christ will never be effaced. They have wished to destroy it, but 
it shall be painted afresh in all hearts by much better preachers 
than myself. The nation that loves Christ will rejoice at this. 

AN!) I, AWAKING FROM AMONG THE DE.4D, AND RISING, SO to Speak, 
FROM MY GRAVE, SHALL LEAP WITH GREAT JOY. * 

"" History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century, vol. i. p. 93. 
Oliver and Boyd, 18 16. 



236 MILLENNIAL RESURRECTION FIGURATIVE 

Mr Elliott mentions that a medal exists, representing 
Huss at the stake, and having this legend round it, Centum 
revolutis annis Deo respondebitis et milii " When a hundred 
years shall have revolved ye shall answer to God AND TO 
ME." He also refers to a brief addressed by Pope Adrian, in 
1523, to the Diet at Nuremberg, containing these words : 

" THE HERETICS HUSS AND JEROME ARE NOW ALIVE AGAIN 
IN THE PERSON OF MARTIN LUTHER." * 

These last illustrations supply a complete answer to the 
only plausible argument that I have met with against the 
figurative sense of our vision. " Surely," it is said, " the re 
surrection must correspond with the death. If the one be figu 
rative, so may the other; but if the death be literal as we 
have admitted to be the case with both the martyr-compa 
nies in this vision then must the resurrection be the same." 
This argument is adduced by all literalists as triumphant. 
But though the principle of it is undoubtedly correct, Mr 
Elliott, who among others urges it with his accustomed force, 
has, in the above illustration, himself furnished enough to 
show that it is pointless in the present case. John Huss, 
before his death, anticipated the day when, " awakening 
from among the dead, and rising from his grave, he would 
leap with great joy." Suppose, then, I were to reason thus : 
" A resurrection ought to be of the same character with the 
death from which it is a revival : but Huss s death was literal 
and personal ; therefore it must have been his own literal 
and bodily resurrection which he anticipated on the eve of 
his death." But it was not. Did Huss, then, expect no 
resurrection of himself personally? Of course he did; but 
that was not the burden of his thoughts at the time. He was 
filled with the thought of the eventual triumph of the truth he 
was dying for, and that was the resurrection of himself which 
he so joyfully anticipated. Take now the other case. Pope 
Adrian said to the Diet at Nuremberg, " The heretics Huss 
- // on Apoc., ii. 442, 443, fourth edition. 



EIGHTH ARGUMENT. 237 

and Jerome are now alive again in the person of Martin 
Luther." But the death which Huss and Jerome died was a 
literal and bodily one: Shall we therefore say that Adrian 
meant to tell the Diet that Huss and Jerome were not figu 
ratively, but literally and personally alive in Martin Luther? 
Absurd. It is true that Huss and Jerome were literally 
slain, just as the witnesses in our vision were; but as this 
did not in the least prevent either Huss himself anticipating 
a glorious resurrection in the person of his successors in the faith, 
nor the enemies of both from testifying that they had risen 
and were actually living in the man who of all others best 
represented them, so neither does it hinder us from seeing in 
this vision the same figurative resurrection of the slain wit 
nesses of Jesus in the millennial day.* The only difference 
is, that what was realized at the Reformation, in Luther and 
his compeers, was but as a drop in the bucket " the little 
cloud as a man s hand" compared with the millennial resus 
citation, not only in point of numbers but the completeness 
of the triumph. For while Huss and Jerome, as witnesses 
for Christ, were put completely down by the antichristian 
party in their day, Luther and his coadjutors at the Refor 
mation were not able to put them completely down in their 
turn. But at the time of our vision, the witnesses for Christ 
of every age shall not only " live and reign" in their succes 
sors " for a thousand years," but " the rest of the dead (the 
opposing party) will not live again until the thousand years 
shall be fulfilled This is the first resurrection." And "blessed," 
surely, "shall he be" whose lot is cast in such times, and 
" holy shall he be that hath part in this first resurrection" 
representing in his person the noble army of martyrs, yet 

* Mr Elliott, though adverting to other points of my argument, simply 
repeats, in his fourth edition, his own statement here, as if my answer 
to it, as above, had not been before him. Mr Wood s reply is merely an 
endeavour to show, I think without success, that more were meant than 
were actually seen in the vision. As to Mr Birks statement (pp. 135- 
137), I have nothing to add to, or alter in, the above. 



238 MILLENNIAL RESURRECTION FIGURATIVE 

without being exposed, as they were, to be crushed and 
swept off the stage, merely because Jesus and his truth were 
dearer to them than life itself ! 

LASTLY. The literal view can offer no consistent explana 
tion of the "judgment that was given unto" the slain martyrs. 
What judgment was this ? Clearly the same that the first 
company of them sought, and were assured they would get as 
soon as the second company were ready to receive it along 
with them " How long, O Lord, dost thou not JUDGE and 

AVENGE OUR BLOOD ON THEM THAT DWELL ON the earth ? " 

If the two words "judge" and " avenge" here do not mean 
precisely the same thing, the latter being explanatory of the 
former, they at least mean things inseparable from each other, 
and to be received at one and the same time. When " it was 
said unto them, that they should rest yet a little longer 
until" the other company " should be killed as they were" 
the meaning is, " Judgment shall be given unto you, and 
your blood shall be avenged on them that dwell on the earth," 
when that period arrives. Accordingly, when our millennial 
vision says, " I saw JUDGMENT given unto them" the martyr 
companies it is impossible, I think, to doubt that the 
meaning is, " I saw the Lord fulfilling his pledge to the souls 
under the altar, I saw him judging and avenging their blood 
and the blood of the other company along with them on 
them that dwell on the earth" If this be correct, of course 
the slain, and those who slew them, must be taken in the same 
sense. If the judgment is to be given unto the martyrs per 
sonally at the millennium, their blood must also be personally 
avenged on them that dwell on the earth. If the martyrs are 
to rise bodily from their graves, in order that judgment may 
be personally given to them, then their persecutors, every one 
of them, must be raised from their graves to have vengeance 
rendered to them for the blood of those dear saints which 
they shed. If Paul, for example, was seen in this millen 
nial vision having "judgment given to him" in his individual 



NINTH ARGUMENT. 239 

person, why is not Nero here also, to have apostolic " blood 
avenged upon him ? " If Ignatius, why not also Trajan ? 
If Justin, and Polycarp, and the blessed martyrs of Lyons 
and Vienne, why is not the mild and lauded Marcus An 
toninus confronted with them in this "judicial," "blood- 
avenging " resurrection ? Why, in a word, is not the long 
line of bloody emperors, and their more guilty minions, 
arrayed in person before the hundreds of thousands of the 
martyrs of Jesus, of whom the world was not worthy, whose 
blood they poured out like water, with little intermission, 
for three hundred years? On all just principles of inter 
pretation, if the cry for " judgment " and " vengeance ON 
their enemies " is to bring up the martyrs in their persons 
at the millennium, the same cry ought to bring up their 
enemies in person along with them, for their part of the 
judgment. So with respect to the second class after whose 
slaughter the whole army of martyrs is to be judged if 

the Lord s 

" Slaughtered saints, whose bones 
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold," 

are personally to appear in this millennial resurrection, why 
not also 

" The bloody Piedmontese, that rolled 
Mother with infant down the rocks ? " 

And shall the seventy thousand dear French Christians that 
perished in three days to the eternal infamy of the Church 
of Rome rise from their graves for "judgment" at the 
millennium, and, while looking for the avenging of their 
blood on them that shed it, shall they miss the bloody Guises, 
and that Man of Sin who, from his throne on the seven hills, 
caused a medal to be struck in honour of this fearful slaughter 
of the Huguenots ? 

Certain it is, that the judgment which John saw the 
martyrs get, brings up not one of the persecutors in their 
individual persons. Have the martyrs been deceived, then ? 



240 MILLENNIAL RESURRECTION FIGURATIVE 

Having asked bread, have they gotten a stone ? No, but 
you misinterpret their petition. The thing granted shows 
what we are to understand by the thing asked. They get 
" judgment " on the cause that slew them. That, there 
fore, is the judgment sought. It is just the testimony of 
Jesus, once slain in the martyrs, at length living in their 
millennial successors trodden once, but now triumphant. 
Listen to the following words of the 18th chapter : " Re 
joice over her (over Babylon), thou heaven, and ye saints and 
apostles and prophets ; * for God hath avenged you on her " 
(v. 20). "Reward her even as she rewarded you" (v. 6). 
And again, in the 19th chapter, " He hath judged the great 
whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, 
and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hands " (v. 2). 
Here you have both parties together the party avenged, 
namely, " the saints and apostles and prophets," from the be 
ginning; and the party "on whom God hath avenged them," 
namely, Babylon, the harlot- Church, in its destruction. It 
is simply the fall of this antichristian, cursed, bloody system, 
that is meant. Over her ruin the whole Church of God, of 
every age, and especially those who fell under her murderous 
policy, are called to rejoice, as if personally avenged in the 
destruction of that which destroyed them. 

I am far from denying that this righting of the cause of 
Christ and his enemies involves an ultimate resurrection of the 
persons of all on either side to everlasting life in the one 
case, and to shame and everlasting contempt in the other. 
In this sense, the millennial state, as being the next stage and 
the nearest resemblance to the eternal state, is described in the 
Old Testament prophets in language which in the Apocalypse 
is appropriated, with slight elevation of strain, to the ever 
lasting state. But if you raise the platform of the vision on 
the one side into the celestial and eternal region, by bringing 
up the martyrs into glory at the millennium, you must not 
* Ka.i a before a.?*, in all the critical editions. 



SUMMARY. 241 

sink the platform on the other side, by leaving the persecutors 
to rot quietly in their graves for a thousand years more. 
This is a clumsy expedient, which creates more difficulties 
than it removes, and in the case of our vision fails, as we 
have seen, to meet the requirements of the text.* 

To put this argument, then, in a single sentence, the 
"judging" and " avenging," if not precisely the same thing, 
plainly go together as in the petition, so in the bestowment : 
the thing meant is one and the same interposition in favour 
of the one party and against the other ; with reference to the 
cause at the millennium, and at the great day with reference 
to the persons, when all who have had anything to do in the 
conflict shall " go to their own place." 

Thus have I examined this celebrated passage both pre 
sumptively and directly, both generally and in detail. Though 
I have adduced some considerations which, even before ex 
amining the passage, seemed to bear very hard against the 
literal sense, it will not be said that I took advantage of 
these to prejudge the question. I have rejected some argu 
ments in favour of the figurative sense which did not appear 
to be tenable, as proceeding upon a mistaken apprehension 
of what the vision really was ; and while I have freely availed 
myself of the observations of others on both sides, I have 
presented the whole in the light in which it rose before my 
own mind. Some of the arguments which I have advanced 

* Mr Elliott says, it would be poor comfort to persecuted Christians 
merely to be told that one day their cause would triumph ; and, in a note, 
he states, that though he urged this in the Free Church Magazine in re 
ply to me, I made no answer to it. (Ilorce, ut supra, iv. 145. ) lie is 
mistaken. I answered it there, and I have answered it in the above para 
graph, which was before him when he was writing this complaint, though 
he overlooked it. It is a vast comfort to persecuted Christians to be 
assured that the cause for which they suffer will one day triumph ; but 
their own personal reward is, of course, over and above this, as it is 
written. " If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified 
together." 



242 SUMMARY. 

appear to me decisive of themselves ; but taking the whole 
nine arguments together, I believe the conclusion to which 
they lead that the millennial is a figurative, not a literal 
resurrection cannot be overthrown. 

And this is the " seat " of the doctrine of a resurrection of 
the righteous a thousand years before the wicked. If this, 
now, be dislodged and the confirmations of it elsewhere 
were found to be none the whole doctrine falls, and with 
it, of course, the premillennial theory itself, which absolutely 
depends upon it.* 

* "Yet on this verse alone," says the Eev. Capel Molyneux, " out of the 
whole Bible, on this verse, despite its own internal evidence, and that 
of the context, to the contrary on this verse alone has it been, and still 
is it maintained, that an interval of a thousand years shall elapse be 
tween the resurrection of saints and sinners ! Nay, and further 

still, not only is the assertion made despite the opposing evidence of this 
passage, but despite the, testimony of all Scripture, which bears on the sub 
ject ; for unexceptionable is the testimony of Scripture, that however the 
righteous may rise, in order, before the wicked, yet that the resurrection 
of the wicked, with all its attendant judgment and condemnation, shall 
quickly, yea almost immediately, follow the coming of the Son of Man," 
&o. World to Come (pp. 201, 202). 



CHAPTER X. 

JUDGMENT OF RIGHTEOUS AND WICKED TOGETHER AT 
CHRIST S COMING. 

THERE is no department of divine truth more deeply and 
dangerously affected by the premillennial scheme than that 
which relates to THE JUDGMENT. It is not the mere division 
into two parts of what the Word of God represents as one un 
divided scene ; it is not the separation into two periods, dis 
tant from each other by the space of a thousand years, of 
what Scripture holds forth as one unbroken piece of divine pro 
cedure; but it is, that it mixes up with the judgment what 
has nothing to do with it, that it takes out of the judgment 
some of its essential features, and that for a large portion of 
the human race it provides no judgment at all. 

Finding it impossible to deny that the immediate purpose 
of Christ s Second Coming is to judge the world, and post 
poning, as they do, the last judgment till a thousand years 
after his coming, they require to find judicial employment for 
the Saviour, onwards from the time of his coming till the 
period cf final judgment arrive. For this purpose, the expe 
dient first devised by Mede, if I mistake not has, with 
modern premillennialists, found universal favour, by which 
the judgment-day is spread over the whole thousand years. 
In justification, or at least illustration, of this, the words of 
Peter are usually quoted, " A thousand years are with the 
Lord as one day." Of this long day, the period of Christ s 



244 THE JUDGMENT MB BROOKS 

coming is the morning, while the end of the millennium is 
the evening; and throughout the whole of it, but especially 
the morning and evening divisions of it, judicial work is 
found for the Saviour. 

Mr Brooks thus represents the work of the day: 

" The single idea entertained of the judgment by most persons 
is that it will be a great assize, at which the Lord Jesus will pre 
side, and all mankind be put upon their trial. But the character 
istics of a judge, as given in the Scriptures, are as follow to rule 
and govern as a king, to deliver and atenge his people, and to protect and 
defend them from their enemies ; whence it follows that the judgment 
of Christ must consist, not only in vengeance and punishment, but 
also in government and rule, and that the Lord must consequently 
act the King in this his character as Judge." After several refer 
ences to places where the words judge and judgment are used in 
this extended sense, he adds, "The chief prophecies which relate 
to Christ as a judge, and to the judgment he will execute, will 
further demonstrate that princely rule and goternment are to be the 
special characteristics of his judgment, and that it will be a continued 
office among or over the nations." A little further on, he says, 
" Another important feature of the judgment is the vengeance of 
the Lord upon his own and his people s enemies; for all this, and 
the gathering out of his kingdom every thing that offends and does 
iniquity, is, in my apprehension of it, included in THE JUDGMENT. 
The period of judgment must consequently comprehend those 
tremendous visitations or vials of wrath which precede the millen 
nium, the whole time of the saints rule, and that final visitation of 
the wicked which occurs at the expiration of the millennium."* 

Now, there can be no doubt that the words "judge" and 
"judgment" are used in Scripture, both in the sense of 
exercising kingly rule and in the sense of inflicting public 
vengeance. But the question is, Are these the senses in which 
Christ will come to judge at the great day? I say emphati 
cally, No ;f and nothing but the most violent distortion of all 

* Elem. of Proph. Interp., pp. 207, 208, 217. 

t Mr Birks makes me say that "the coming of Christ to judgment is 
never spoken of in Scripture with reference to the exercise of kingly 
rule, or the infliction of public vengeance;" and then adds, "A most 
astonishing assertion," &c. This is a complete misrepresentation of my 



REMARKS ON THESE VIEWS. 245 

the passages which announce that coming to judgment, can 
bring these senses of the terms into the procedure of that day. 

For what are those things which, it is alleged, belong to 
the judgment of the great day, and are its special character 
istics? The answer is, Rule over nations, and vengeance 
inflicted upon public bodies, of one sort or other ; whereas 
the essence of the judgment Avhich Christ comes for, is a 
judgment upon individual persons, in which " the secrets of 
the heart" are brought out, weighed, and decided upon for 
ever. But you say, We hold that too; we take both in. I 
answer, You do in words; but in reality, or to any practical 
purpose, you neither do nor can include both in one judg 
ment. Let any one try it in his own mind, let any minister 
try it in his preaching, and he will quickly find the truth of 
what I say. The two things are so perfectly different 
judgments upon public masses of men and judgment upon 
individual souls of men, temporal judgments and what 
Scripture, with an emphasis which speaks volumes here, calls 
" eternal judgment," not to speak of " kingly government," 
which also they say they take in these things are so differ 
ent from each other, and they suggest so different a train of 
thought, that the mind cannot get hold of them all together 
cannot put them into one unmixed conception. They 
will ever be falling asunder. They want unity; and wanting 
this, that riveting and absorbing power which the single word 
judgment, on the ordinary view of it, possesses, is wanting also. 

But another difficulty arises here as to these public chas 
tisements these inflictions of temporal vengeance, carrying 
with them the temporal destruction, it is alleged, of vast num-- 
bers of Christ s enemies. Since they certainly are not of the 
nature of an " assize," in which the individual victims of that 
temporal destruction are " put upon their trial," one natu- 

statement, as may be seen at a glance. All admit that the Lord, in every 
exercise of public vengeance, however partial and oft- repeated, is said to 
" come " for the purpose, therein to " execute judgment. But I am speak 
ing of Christ s second coming, and the "judgment of the great day." 



246 THE JUDGMENT 

rally asks, Is this all the judgment they are ever to undergo? 
If so, then all judicial trial of such persons, except in the 
loosest sense, is given up ; and if in the case of so many, why 
not of all ? 

So very loosely do some write on this awful subject, that 
in the very paragraphs in which they are speaking of " the 
judgment of the quick," or living, as a personal judgment of 
the living iviclced as well as righteous, they tell us, that 
K remnants of such shall be spared in the judgment, and con 
verted by means of it, to enter into the millennial kingdom 
in the flesh, and be the means of converting others." Did 
ever any one hear of ungodly men standing at the judgment- 
seat of Christ, and, instead of being condemned as such, being 
spared, nay, converted by that very judgment, and made mis 
sionaries to others? 

But if you say, These premillennial judgments, with which 
the coming of the Lord is to be ushered in, are altogether in 
dependent of the personal judgment of the individuals in 
volved in them, which will remain still to be gone through 
against them at the final judgment of the wicked you give 
up your own principle. You made the premillennial judg 
ments part of the judgment of the great day; and yet, con 
scious that this would never suffice, and as if no judgment 
had taken place on the parties involved in them, you bring 
them up to the judgment over again in the only true and pro 
per icay. Is this a manageable and self-consistent view of 
the judgment? 

One of the best illustrations of the impracticability of the 
scheme on this head, we have in the comments of premillen- 
nialists upon the judgment recorded in the twenty-fifth chap 
ter of Matthew. As righteous and wicked appear there be 
fore one tribunal, and the premillennial scheme will not 
admit of that, the problem is, how to get over it. 

First, Mr Elliott, the Messrs Bonar, Mr Wood, and others, 
make the august scene here described to be a mere judgment 
upon Christendom, meaning the living nations called Christian, 



MESSRS ELLIOTT, BONARS, AND WOOD. 247 

not of course a personal and eternal judgment upon every in 
dividual within the pale of nominal Christianity, but such public 
judgments against the enemies of Christ s kingdom, as will 
admit of "remnants escaping," and, as we have just seen, 
being converted by means of these very judgments, to play 
an important part among the millennial nations. " It re 
sembles most closely," says Dr H. Bonar * (Mr Elliott | says 
it is the same as) "that of Joel (iii. 2-14), I will gather 
all nations (craira ra sdvq, in both passages), and will bring 
them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat Pro 
claim ye this among the Gentiles (tv r. idvsffiy~): Assemble 
yourselves, and come, all ye heathen (cratra r. sdyq xvxXodsv) 

Let the heathen (T. sSv^) be awakened : for there 

will I sit to judge all the heathen round about (crai/ra r. 
zdvT) xux^odzv) Multitudes, multitudes in the val 
ley of decision/ If this be the case, the difficulty supposed 
to be against us from this passage does not exist." Thus 
is the Judgment in Matthew resolved into a mere tern- 
poral judgment a judgment against nations opposing the 
kingdom, cause, and people of God. This is decidedly 
the lowest view of the Judgment in Matthew which I have 
met with ; nor am I able to comprehend the parallelism 
in Joel. There the "nations" are all of one class hostile 
nations gathered to the valley of Jehoshaphat, to have 
vengeance executed against them. But when Christ sits 

O O 

upon the throne of his glory, and gathers before him "all 
nations," he will "separate them as a shepherd divideth 
his sheep from the goats;" receiving the one to life eternal, as 
well as consigning the other to everlasting fire. The paral 
lelism, therefore, is so far from holding, that I am not able 
to discern one feature that the passages have in common, 
save that " all nations " is expressed in the Greek by the same 
two words in both places ! Dr Bonar, by the way, calls this 
the judgment of " the quick." Does he mean, then, that this 

* Coming and Kingdom, pp. 105, 106. 
t Hone Apoc., ut supra, p. 191. 



248 TUB JUDGMENT 

temporal judgment is to be all the judgment that is ever to 
pass upon these "nations?" If not, and these "quick" need 
to be "judged" over again as " dead," what has such a judg 
ment to do with the solemn awards recorded in the 25th of 
Matthew? 

So plainly unsatisfactory is this, that even those who 
adopt it are obliged to eke out its deficiencies by at least 
the semblance of a universal judgment. 

Mr A. Bonar " conceives that it is very likely there shall be a 
meeting at the great white- throne, which shall be truly universal. 
We lose nothing of the advantage supposed to be found in this 
idea. There shall be a general judgment after the millennium. 
There shall be a resurrection of the wicked ; and how immense 
the multitude, small and great, that arise and come to judgment ? 
But besides these endless millions of the ungodly, there are 
present the happy millions of the saved, in their white robes, and 
with their crowns. For now is the season when that word shall 
be fulfilled, Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the 

world ? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? It 

is every way likely, too, that on that day Satan and every lost 
soul of all these millions shall hear from the lips of the Judge 
the grounds on which he acquitted each one of his redeemed." * 

Mr Bonar here takes the final resurrection and judgment, 
in Rev. xx. 11-15, to be of the wicked alone. The righteous 
are present as " assessors " indeed, but Mr Bonar does not 
say, and evidently does not hold, that they are judged then. 
" Satan and the lost hear from the lips of the Judge the 
grounds on which he acquitted each one of his redeemed ; " 
that is to say, the grounds on which he had done so a 
tliousand years before. The fact of this long prior judgment, 
and the grounds of it, may be announced ; but the judgment 
itself is not then. And if so, of what use is it to say, 
" There shall be a general judgment after the millennium " ? 
It does homage to the principle of a general judgment, as 

* Eedemption, pp. 158, 359. Mr Alford interprets this scene of a ge 
neral judgment at the end of the millennium, but asks, " to what purpose 
would be a judgment if all were to be condemned?" {(Jr. Test., 2d ed., in loc.) 



OLSHAUSEN AND MR DALLAS. 249 

that which every one feels to be a first principle in religion ; 
but while conceding it in words, it is not meant to convey 
the belief of it in the only sense in which every one under 
stands such a statement. * 

Second. The late distinguished German commentator, 
Olshausen, who held the premillennial theory, takes " all na 
tions" (xavra ra zdvri) to denote here " all men. with the excep 
tion of believers," that is, a?? unbelievers.^ These unbelievers are 
of two classes, " the righteous " (5/xa/o/) on the right hand, 
and the opposite class on the left. And if it be asked how 
good works can be ascribed to .unbelievers, and the kingdom 
said to be prepared for them from the foundation of the 
world, the answer is, that " it is by no means consistent with 
Scripture to view the non-Christian world as absolutely ex 
cluded from good works, or from that faith which alone can 
produce good works ; on the contrary, in all nations there 
are noble minds who follow out their knowledge with great 
fidelity, and are to be regarded as righteous persons. Only 
the degree of knowledge and faith in these non-Christian 

o o 

devout men must be estimated as very subordinate, and hence 
the point of view which they occupy, as such, is in reality 
nothing but susceptibility for the operations of the grace of 
God in Christ." 

I should not have thought it necessary to advert to this 
obnoxious view of the judgment in Matthew, were it not that 

* Mr Elliott s admission sounds to me very much the same, though 
his way of reconciling these two things is different from Mr Bonar s. 
" At the same time I admit," he says, " though there may be ^primary 
reference to the judgment on the living at Christ s coming ; yet, second 
arily, a more extensive judgment on the dead too on all the dead may 
be included in the parable. How so will be seen in my next chapter. 
A direct individual judgment on the parties interested is described in 
the two preceding parables." (Iforce, ut supra.) 

f Equivalent to arin-pb, as opposed to the people of Israel. He 
says that Professor Keil had taken this sense of the passage before him. 
(Comm. in loc.) Believers, according to this exposition, stand by the side 
of the Judge, and come not into judgment, but in and with Christ judge 
the world. (1 Cor. vi. 2.) 



250 THE JUDGMENT MEDE, MR BICKERSTETH, AND MR BIRKS. 

one nearly identical with it is advocated by Mr Dallas. * 
According to him, too, unbelievers are the only party brought 
into judgment in this scene ; and these are of two classes. 
The righteous unbelievers are such as do kind deeds to Chris 
tians, yet not knowing them to be such. But instead of re 
garding these as actuated by faith, as Olshausen does, and 
so admitted to the glory of the risen saints, as I suppose 
Olshausen means, he takes the invitation, " Come, ye blessed 
of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the 
foundation of the world," to mean, Come, inherit the sove 
reignty described in the first chapter of Genesis have domi 
nion over the fish of the sea, &c. " These," says Mr Dallas, 
" are set apart as the new stock of the generation of Adam, ivhom 
he will educate for a thousand years, without the influence of 
the devil to counteract the efforts of a dispensation of sight." 
Comment on this would be alike difficult and superfluous. 

Third. Mede s way of solving the difficulty adopted by Mr 
Bickersteth and Mr Birks, is at least less repulsive than the 
two foregoing ways. According to this view, it is not one 
judgment at all, but two one at the beginning and the other 
at the end. They take " the sentence of absolution to con 
tinue all the time of the first resurrection, that is, all the 
thousand years long. That once ended and finished, and 
not before, he shall proceed to pronounce the sentence of 
condemnation upon such as are to be condemned.""}" 

" The true and full view," says Mr Bickersteth, " seems to be 
that which makes it include the resurrection of the just at the 

beginning, and the unjust at the close of the millennial day 

The work of acquittal and mercy, which is our Lord s delight, is 
first in order; afterwards follow the sentence of wrath, which is his 
strange work. We follow the current of God s Word, as well as 
the deep instincts of a heart and conscience renewed in love aftei 

* Lent Lect. for 1843, ut supra. 

t Mede s Works, p. 841. Mr Birks has now modified his views, bring 
ing them into nearer conformity with the received sense of the passage 
(p. 241), though not, as I think, in keeping with simplicity. 



REMARKS ON THESE VIEWS. 251 

the image of Christ, in assigning the sentence of reward and mercy 
to the morning, and the sentence of condemnation to the evening 
of that great and terrible day." He thinks this view of the passage 
is confirmed by the omission of the word " brethren" in the case of 
the wicked. To the righteous, it is said, " Inasmuch as ye did it unto 
one of the least of my brethren, " without any mention of the 
wicked; whereas to the wicked it is merely said, " Inasmuch as ye 
did it not unto the least of these" by which he conceives is meant, 
not " these righteous," but " these wicked" each company stand 
ing by itself, and without the presence of the others, before the 
Judge, and each " containing within itself the full test of its accept 
ance and its rejection; the righteous in their own mutual and 
brotherly love, the wicked in their own mutual hatefulness and 
hatred."* 

Need I appeal to the reader whether this broken judgment 
does not utterly break down the solemn impression which 
the bare reading of this scene in Matthew irresistibly makes 
upon all minds ? Mr Bickersteth himself, than whom no man 
was more able to feel the force of this remark, seemed con 
scious of danger in this direction. " For this purpose," he 
says, "of clearly enforcing the great issues of the judgment, 
our Lord brings into close contrast the acts of the morning 
and evening of that great judgment-day. FURTHER DETAILS 

WOULD ONLY HAVE BROKEN THE SOLEMN IMPRESSION OF THE 

TRUTH taught in this account of the last judgment." I think 
" the solemn impression of the truth taught here, is " bro 
ken" sufficiently by the "details" which Mr Bickersteth 
himself introduces into it. 

But this suggests an important question: Why should 
" details" tend to break up our solemn impression of the 
judgment? If details be in the thing, why should the men 
tion of them have that effect? I will answer the question. 
The Word of Grod represents the judgment, and every en 
lightened conscience instinctively looks forward to it as one 
unbroken and simultaneous act how brief, or how protracted, 
does not in the least affect this view of it ; and every intro- 

* Guide, pp. 284-286, with note. Fifth Edition. 



252 THE JUDGMENT 

duction of those " details" which the premillennial theory 
brings into it, of morning acts and evening acts, besides the 
mid-day acts of " government and rule," is an intrusion 
which the mind will not tolerate, and can only listen to at 
the expense of having all its solemn impressions of it dissi 
pated. 

So much is this the case, that you cannot take up a 
volume of sermons in which the judgment is handled by 
a premillennialist, and pressed home upon the conscience, 
without finding that he proceeds upon the common view of 
it, laying aside, or, as much as possible, keeping away from 
" details," which just means every tiling different from the 
ordinary view. I remember being struck with this many 
years ago, in Dr M Neile s volume of " Seventeen Sermons;" 
and one of his " Sermons on the Second Advent," entitled, 
" Eighteous Eetribution at the Second Advent," is much 
of the same nature. In all its general descriptions and 
appeals, it is solemn and stirring; but in proportion as pro- 
millennial " details " find their way into his statements, the 
subject is lowered, and the impression diluted. 

In reply to this Dr H. Bonar says, " I am unable to ap 
preciate the force of Mr Brown s reasonings against the 

judgment being broken up into parts I confess 

I do not see how the breaking up of the judgment into 
acts and parts will dissipate its solemnity." (Pp. 105, 106.)"* 
This is a point which I am very much disposed to leave to the 
reader. At the same time, I can furnish Dr Bonar with a 
statement to which he will probably attach some weight : 
"There are three decisive objections," says Mr Birks, "to 
the view [of this passage in Matthew] which refers it to the 
judgment of living nations before the millennium begins. 

* Mr Birks thinks the very reverse. Such details, he affirms, would, 
in consequence of the narrowness and limitation of the human faculties, 
be a jar and dissonance intolerable to the human mind" (p. 235). How 
Mr B. reconciles this with the multitudinous and distracting details 
Avhich he himself introduces into his theory of the second advent, I am 
unable to comprehend. 



ALL THESE VIEWS OF IT UNSATISFACTORY. 253 

First, the judgment of the living has been described in the 
previous parables. Secondly, the nations not included in 
the Church are not all gathered together at the opening of 
the millennium. (Isa. Ixvi.) And thirdly, the sentence on 
the wicked is plainly not the sentence of present death, but of 
everlasting judgment, ivhich follows the close of the millennium. 
And besides, from the evident climax, no other interpretation 
answers to THE MAJESTY AND GRANDEUR OF THIS IMPRESSIVE 
DESCRIPTION. Accordingly THE CHURCH HAS UNIVERSALLY 
APPLIED IT to the decision of THE FINAL STATE OF MAN 
KIND." * 

But we have a large class of men yet to provide for, on 
the premillennial scheme of the Judgment. At what part 
of the great judgment-day do the myriads of mankind who 
live during the millennium come in to be judged? Nowhere. 
They were not in being to be included in the acts of the 
morning, and share in the resurrection glory then awarded. 
The mid-day acts of government and rule are no judicial trial 
of, and decision upon, their personal character for eternity; 
and the closing act of all, at the end of the millennium, which 
is the evening of the day, cannot take them in the saints 
among them at least for it is a judgment of the wicked 
only. The scheme, in fact, makes no provision for their being 
judged at all, as Ave found it made no provision for their being 
raised at all. From this, the reader will judge of its scrip 
tural merits. 

In direct contrast to these most unsatisfactory views of the 
Judgment, I feel persuaded that the following simple pro 
position will commend itself to every unprejudiced reader, as 
it has done to the Church of God in all ages, as the truth : 

* Lent Lect. for 1843, No. vii. Note at end. I cannot but thank Mr 
Birks here for his acute and satisfactory proof that a premillennial judg 
ment on the living is an untenable vi,w of this sublime scene. 



254 SIMULTANEOUS JUDGMENT 



PROPOSITION EIGHTH: 

THE RIGHTEOUS AND THE WICKED WILL BE JUDGED TOGETHER, 
AND BOTH AT THE COMING OF CHRIST. 

The passages which express this truth are very numerous, 
and amongst the plainest in Scripture, requiring, indeed, no 
comment, except it be to show how forced is every other 
sense of them. 

Matt. x. 32, 33 ; Mark viii. 38 : " Whosoever therefore shall 
confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father 
which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before 
men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven 
When he cometh in the glory of his Father, with the holy 
angels." 

Here the acknowledging of the one class and the disown 
ing of the other embracing, unquestionably, all the confes 
sors and all the deniers of Christ s name of every age are 
expressly said to take place at the same time, namely, " when 
Christ comes in his glory." 

To the same effect 

Rev. xxi. 7, 8 : " He that overcometh shall inherit all things ; 
and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the 
fearful [the fainthearted, the cowardly] and unbelieving, 
&c., shall have their portion in the lake which burneth with 
fire and brimstone: which is the second death." 

Ch. xxii. 1215 : " Behold, I come quickly ; and my reward is 
with me, to give to every man according as his work is.* I 
am Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Begin 
ning and the End.f Blessed are they who wash their robes,:}: 

* E<rnv (Lachm. Tisch. Treg.) Scholz retains ec-rcu. 

f So the critical editions. 

t OS XXI/WTIS 10.; ir-reiMs awtm. This beautiful reading of several 
manuscripts, and of the Vulgate, Elhiop., and Armenian versions, is 
adopted by Lachmann, Tisckendorf, Tregelles, and Wordsworth. It 
is easy to account for the introduction of the received reading from 
the resemblance between vKdwiis (or irhwevvris) and xomuyns, and of yn>Ms 



SCRIPTURAL PROOF OF IT. 255 

that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter 
in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, 
and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idola 
ters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." 
This admission of the one class and rejection of the other is 
manifestly the immediate sequel of Christ s " coming, and 
his reward with him, to give to every one" of both classes 
and at the same time "according to his work." If any 
doubt of this could remain, it would be removed by 

Matt. xvi. 24-27 : " If any man will come after me, let him deny 
himself," &c. " For whosoever will save his life shall lose 
it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. 
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain," &c. ; " or what 
shall a man give in exchange for his soul ? For the Son 
shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels ; and 
then (TOTE) he shall reward every man according to his works," 

With such a passage as this before us, how is it possible to 

doubt that both classes and of all ages will be judged together? 

Matt. vii. 21-23: "Not every one that saith, Lord, Lord, shall 

enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth the will 

of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in 

that day, Lord, Lord," &c. " And then will I profess unto 

them, I never knew you: depart from me," &c. 

Chap. xxv. 10: " And while the foolish virgins went to buy, the 

bridegroom came ; and they that were ready went in with 

him to the marriage : and the door was shut. Afterward 

came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto 

us. But he answered and said, Verily, I say unto you, I 

know you not." 

Here we have the reception and rejection admission and 
exclusion both at once " in that day." * 

to IvroXaf without supposing doctrinal leanings to have had any influence. 
Mr Elliott notices the beautiful reference of this reading to chap. vii. 9, 
13, 14; " the state of heavenly bliss being in the earlier chapter antici- 
patively foreshown, and in the latter one symbolized as actually realized 
smd present." (iv. 214, ut sup.) 

* " But this plainly refers to professing Christians at the very time 
when the Bridegroom comes. How can the dead, righteous or un 
righteous, trim their lamps, or buy oil, at the time of our Lord s re- 



256 SIMULTANEOUS JUDGMENT 

We have the same truth in the parable of the Talents 
(Matt. xxv. 14-30) in which " the man who travels into a 
far country," but before his departure " calls his servants and 
delivers to them his goods, returns after a long time, and 
reckons -with them." As this represents the departure and 
return of Christ, with the whole period of his absence from 
the earth, so the " reckoning," which is manifestly one trans 
action, embraces all the professed servants of Christ from first 
to last not only the " good and faithful " classes, who, in the 
language of the parable, having doubled their talents, are 
invited to " enter into the joy of their Lord," but also the 
" iviclced and slothful," or " unprofitable " class, who are ordered 
to be " cast into outer darkness," &c. 

And does not the immediately subsequent description of 
the JUDGMENT convey the same truth, of a simultaneous judg 
ment of the righteous and the wicked, in language as trans 
parent as it is sublimely worthy of the scene itself? 

Matt. xxv. 31-46: "When the Son of man shall come in his 
glory, and all the holy angels with him, then (ran) shall 
he sit upon the throne of his glory. (Compare chap. xvi. 
27.) And before him shall be gathered all nations : * and 

turn ?" (Birks, p. 246.) Of course they cannot; but my present point is 
the personal and eternal judgment of righteous and wicked simultaneously 
at the coming of Christ, whether then alive, as supposed in this parable, or 
raised for that express purpose, as elsewhere. 

* UMVTO, TO I6w. " He does not bring before us here," says tne 
eloquent CHRYSOSTOM, " two, or three, or five persons, representing, 
however, so many classes, but THE WHOLE WOELD " (T-}V tixwpinp .a.<r.t). 
And again, " Then shall be gathered all nations, that is, the ivhok human 
race" (vovriirTi. 3-<r ^ tZv avBgaxat <pC<ri{). In Matth. Horn. Ixxix. 

Undoubtedly this, like every similar expression, is often used in a 
limited sense. But in Matt, xxviii. 19 (travra, T. Wv/i = x&.ir^ rj ZTIO-U, 
Mark xvi. 15), and other places, it denotes mankind universally and 
individually. To refer, therefore, to places in which it is employed 
in the former sense, does nothing to show that this is its meaning 
here. But it is urged, that the test by which the parties are here 
tried, is one which is applicable only to professed disciples of Christ; 
and, consequently, that this must be a limited judgment, from which 
all heathens strangers to Christianity are excluded. I am surprised 



SCRIPTURAL PROOF OF IT. 257 

he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd 
divideth his shoep from the goats : And he shall set the 
sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then 
(r an) shall the Xing say unto them on his right hand, 
Come, ye blessed, &c. "Then (raVs) shall he say unto 
them on the left, hand, Depart from me, ye cursed," &c. 
"And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but 
the righteous into life eternal." 

We have seen what efforts are made to set aside the testi 
mony of this passage ; some, as Mr Elliott, Dr H. Bonar, and 
Mr Wood, admitting it to be one transaction, but bringing 
it down to the level of judgments against living nations, or 
confederacies of evil ; while others not to recur to the 
views of Olshausen and Mr Dallas as Mede, Mr Bickersteth, 
and Mr Birks, not prepared for such a degradation of the 
solemn scene, make it two judgments, seen in sacred per 
spective as one, but separated from each other by a thousand 
years. Both of these interpretations are alike forced. As 
the former destroys the personal and eternal character of the 
judgment itself, so the latter is directly in the teeth of some 
of the most solemn features of the passage, which first gathers 
both parties before the throne in one mass, at the summons 
of " the King ;" next separates the sheep from the goats ; 
and then, having judged and passed sentence upon each, 
finally disposes of both accordingly.* The bare unsophisti- 

that such men as Mr Elliott should reason thus. We might as well 
conclude that because the test mentioned in Rom. ii. 5-11, is much the 
same as here" obeying " or " not obeying the truth " (meaning there, 
the truth of the Gospel) therefore the judgment there described will be 
limited to hearers of the gospel ; whereas the subsequent verses, 12-16, 
show that the heathens will be judged at the same time, though by a 
different rule of course. Does not the Scripture, and indeed every 
species of writing, speak of things as if they stood alone, when the 
sense merely is, that they are the only subjects of consideration at tlie 
time ? See note, p. 259. 

* Dr II. Bonar, though adopting an explanation of this scene, which 
makes it one transaction, reasons upon it exactly as those do who make 
it two one at the beginning and the other at the end of the millennium 

I 



2u8 SIMULTANEOUS JUDGMENT 

cated reading of the passage will do more, I believe, to dis 
sipate such expositions of it as I have mentioned than whole 
pages of reasoning. I merely add, that commentators of 
every description regard the scene here depicted as one con 
tinuous transaction. 

Matt, xiii. 30, 38-43 : " Let both [tares and wheat] grow to 
gether until the harvest : and in the time of harvest I will 
say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and 
bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat 

into my barn The field is the world ; the good seed 

are the children of the kingdom ; but the tares are the chil 
dren of the wicked one ; the enemy that sowed them is the 
devil ; the harvest is the end of the world ; and the reapers 
are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and 
burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of the world. 
The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall 
gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them 
which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of 
fire : there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then 
(r ori) shall the righteous shine forth as the Sun in the 
kingdom of their Father." 

This passage was referred to on the head of RESUR 
RECTION (p. 194) ; but its bearings on the JUDGMENT are 
too important to be passed by. The points to which I re 
quest the reader s attention here are these : first, that the 
judgment spoken of is at the very time of Christ s coming, 
as is admitted on all hands ; next, that not only are the tares 
gathered at the same " harvest-time " with the wheat, but the 
tares are gathered and burned first (so in Matt. xxv. 4G) ; 
lastly, that as the sowing of the tares runs parallel, in point 

comparing it to binary stars, which, though one to the naked eye, the 
telescope has resolved into two. (P. 107). And in a note (No. viii.), he 
gathers together a number of difficulties in the way of sorting the various 
descriptions of the judgment, to show, I suppose, that it is impossible to 
determine by them whether the judgment will be simultaneous or not. 
A single glance at the examples he gives, of apparent contradiction in 
these descriptions, is enough to show how very trifling they are. But I 
cannot go into such minutiae here. 



SCRIPTURAL PROOF OF IT. 259 

of time, with the sowing of the good seed, and represents 
all the false-hearted professors of religion in every age, whom 
Christ will have to remain till he come ; so the gathering and 
burning of these at the time of harvest, denotes the judgment 
of THE WHOLE OF THE WICKED at the time of Christ s coming. 
And " THEN (rori)," and not till then, " shall the righteous 
shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." No 
ingenuity, it appears to me, can set aside this bright testi 
mony to the truth of the proposition we are now illustrat 
ing.* 

John v. 28, 29: "The hour is coming, in the which all that are 
in their 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, unto the resurrection of dam 
nation." 

After what was said on this passage under a former head 

* Were we to conclude that because no tares could be gathered at 
the time of harvest from a field, but such as were actually in tfte field at 
that time, therefore only the wicked living at the time of Christ s coming 
were meant here, we should pervert the figure to what it was never 
meant to teach. There is always a defect in the capacity of parabolic 
teaching. The defect here is, that it cannot represent those corrupt 
members of the Clrarch visible who have been in the field (to use the 
figure of the parable), but are removed out of it by death, generation 
after generation, before Christ comes. And yet we have seen above, that 
all these are meant as the tares to be gathered and burned when Christ 
comes. Though the figure represents only the wicked tlien living, the 
parable as a whole teaches that the tares represent the children of the 
devil at large. So, even in those representations which are not parabolic 
those alive when Christ comes, though alone directly spoken of, are to 
be understood as embracing all of the same class whether saints or 
sinners that have ever lived. (See the quotation from BEXGEL, Note, 
pp. 16, 17.) Mr Wood s reply to this (pp. 151, 152), is doubly unsatis 
factory. Does he hold that " unworthy and corrupt members of the 
Church visible shall be removed " at the beginning of the millennium, 
by such a personal and eternal judgment upon them as will never bring 
them up for judgment again ? No, he does not. And will he affirm that 
" the new earth" will not be polluted by the presence of any "corrupt 
and unwoithy members" of the millennial Church? No. 



2GO SIMULTANEOUS JUDGMENT 

(pp. 189-194), I need not remind the reader that the Resur 
rection and the Judgment are here connected together, the 
one act being represented as in order to the other, and both 
said to be done in one " hour." It is not the length of time 
which this word " hour " is designed to mark it may take 
a short or a long time but it is the unity of period and ac 
tion which alone is intended, and which, notwithstanding all 
the criticisms made upon it, can never, without violence, bo 
made to comprehend under it the multifarious and broken 
transactions that are expected to occur from the beginning 
of the thousand years to the last judgment. Mark here also, 
by the way, the different character of the resurrection in the 
case of the righteous and the wicked : the one " the resur 
rection of life; the other, the resurrection of damnation : the 
one holding of the second Adam ; the other of the first." The 
Son of God is the doer of both. But the one class he raises 
in the exercise of grace, the other in the exercise of justice. 
It is the life of the Head, in the one case, reaching the bodies 
of his members, as long before it had reached their souls : it 
is " the wrath of the Lamb " in the other case, summoning to 
damnation all the workers of iniquity. 

Acts xvii. 31 : " He hath appointed a day, in the which he will 
judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath 
ordained ; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, 
in that he hath raised him from the dead." 

Whether we look at the parties here said to be judged, 
namely, " the ivorld " generally, and " all men every inhere," in 
particular ; or observe the " fixing " (stfrjjtfgv) of " a day " for 
doing the whole, without a hint of any break it seems diffi 
cult to conceive how the Spirit of God could have conveyed 
to us the idea of one continuous unbroken judgment, of 
righteous and wicked together, more plainly than this passage 
does it. To break up a judgment so described into two or 
more fragmentary judgments, as premillennialists are forced 



SCRIPTURAL PROOF OF IT. 261 

to do, only shows what unreasonable demands their system 
makes upon them.* 

Rom. ii. 5-16: "But, after thy hardness and impenitent heart, 
treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath 
and revelation of the righteous judgment of God ; who will 
render to every man according to his deeds : to them who, 
by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, and 
honour, and immortality, eternal life ; but unto them that 
are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey un 
righteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, 
upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and 
also of the Gentile: but glory, honour, and peace, to every 
man that worketh good ; to the Jew first, and also to the 
Gentile, in the day when God shall jud<je the secrets of men by 
Jesus Christ." 

This passage is singularly decisive. Observe the alterna 
tions from righteous to wicked, and from wicked to righteous, 
in the description of one and the same day of judgment. Ob 
serve, too, the names given to this day : It is called empha 
tically " the day of wrath, and of the REVELATION of the 
righteous judgment of God;" implying, that immediately on 
the arrival of this day, that righteous judgment which till 
then had been in abeyance, will burst forth upon " the world 
of the ungodly :" and not temporal, but " eternal judgment 
for as soon as that day arrives and reveals his wrath, God 
shall judge the SECRETS " of the heart, and " the secrets of 
MEN " indiscriminately, " by Jesus Christ." How, then, is it 
possible to doubt that the judgment here described will ba 
one unbroken continuous trial of men s hearts, righteous and 
wicked together? The same truth is unequivocally expressed 
in 

2 Cor. v. 9-11 : " Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or 
absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear 

* Mr Wood actually understands this passage to express Christ s 
"millennial rule"! because the same phrase occurs in Ps. xcviii. 9. 
(P. 154) 



2G2 SIMULTANEOUS JUDGMENT 

before the judgment-seat of Christ; that every one may receive 
the deeds done in the body, according to that he hath done, 
whether good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the 
Lord, we persuade men." 

How can it be doubted, in the face of such a passage as 
this, that righteous and wicked will be sisted before one and 
the same judgment-seat of Christ, at one and the same time ; 
that the judgment on both classes will be strictly personal, 
and in its issues eternal; and that the anticipation of judg 
ment, in this precise view of it, was the grand spring of action 
in the apostle s own mind, and what he wished all others to 
share with him in ? So 

1 Cor. iv. 5 : " Therefore judge nothing 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." 

If this passage does not inform us that the object of Christ s 
coming will be to lay bare the secrets of men s hearts, for the 
express purpose of passing sentence upon them accordingly, 
and that this will be done alike upon all classes, the faithful 
and the unfaithful, the honest and the hypocritical, alike 
what does it declare ? 

2 Thess. i. 6-10 : " Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to re 

compense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who 
are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed 
from heaven with his mighty angels, in Haming fire, taking 
vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not 
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished 
icith 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 have be 
lieved (because our testimony among you was believed), in 
that day." 

Here we have something to be done both to saints and to 
sinners, and the express time for the doing of both. We have 



SCRIPTURAL PROOF OF IT. 263 

also a double expression both of what is to be done to each 
party,, and of the time. To "them that trouble" believers, 
he " will recompense tribulation." Of what sort ? " They 
shall be punished with everlasting destruction." But "to 
those who are troubled, he will recompense rest," and he will 
" be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that be 
lieve." So much for what is to be done to each. Now for 
the time. Both parties are to be "recompensed" at the same 
time the troublers with tribulation, the troubled with rest 
"WHEN the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven." 
This is again, and yet again, repeated. " The Lord Jesus 
shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in 
flaming fire, talcing vengeance " not to take it some thousand 
years thereafter but with that "flaming fire" of his "ven 
geance," he will burst upon the world of the ungodly at his 
second coming. And lest it should be said that this " ven 
geance" may mean merely public judgments upon antichris- 
tian nations a turn to give to the words as absurd as it is 
offensive, yet by no means uncommon as if to cut off every 
such meagre view, the apostle adds, " who shall be punished 
with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and 
from the glory of his power ; " and once more he notes the 
time " WHEN he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and 
admired in all them that have believed ;" and as if even this 
were not enough, he adds, after a parenthesis, " in that day." 
If such emphatic reiterations of the same thing, in every form 
of language the most vivid, be not sufficient if after this, the 
judgment of righteous and wicked together, and both, " at 
the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven," be questioned 
it seems difficult to conceive what way of expressing this 
truth would be deemed sufficient. If the apostle had been 
writing expressly against the notion of a divided judgment 
a judgment of each class separately, and with an interval 
between them of a thousand years it is not easy to see how 
he could have expressed the reverse of this more clearly and 



264 SIMULTANEOUS JUDGMENT 

more emphatically than this passage does. And yet this is 
got over by premillennialists. 

1 Cor. iii. 12-15: " If any man build upon this foundation gold, 
silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble: every man s 
work shall be made manifest : for the day shall declare it, 
because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try 
every man s work of what sort it is. If any man s work 
abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a re 
ward. If any man s work shall be burned, he shall suffer 
loss; but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire." 

Here " the day" of Christ s second coming is said to be 
" revealed byjire;" just as in the preceding passage it is said, 
" the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in naming 
fire." This fire shall be applied to the "building" which 
every professed Christian has erected upon Christ, the true 
" foundation," for the purpose of testing the soundness of the 
materials employed. The worthless materials are termed 
" wood, hay, stubble," which, being all combustible, " shall be 
burned." The valuable materials are styled, "gold, silver, 
precious stones," which stand the fire, and so will come out 
from the fiery test, to which they are to be subjected, unin 
jured. Thus "every mans work shall be made manifest: for 
the day shall declare it; and the fire shall try every man s 
work of what sort it is." As this fiery test will discover who 
are true members of Christ, and who are hypocrites, so will 
it separate the chaff from the wheat in Christ s own people, 
some of whom will " scarcely be saved." This fire, then, is 
to test the righteous and the wicked together, at " the reve 
lation of the day of Christ;" and shall we say, that though 
this test will be applied in the day of Christ s coming to all 
the righteous that have ever lived, it will not be then applied 
to all the ivicJced, but only to so many of them as shall be 
found living when Christ comes, leaving all the rest for a 
thousand years undisturbed in their graves, thereafter to be 



SCRIPTURAL PROOF OF IT. 265 

tried in a party by themselves ? Surely this is a very pre 
posterous turn to give to the passage.* 

Col. i. 28 : "Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching 
every man in all wisdom; that we may present f every man J 
perfect in Christ Jesus." 

Here Paul does not assert, but takes it for granted,^ that he 
and other ministers will be confronted with all the people to 
whom they have ministered in the day of Christ s appearing 
embracing of course both classes of them and tells us how 
he agonized in order to be able to give a good account of 
" every man" that had been the object of his labours; not of 
his genuine converts in their presence, and of the rejecters of 
his message in their absence while rotting in their graves, or 
at some long subsequent resurrection and judgment of the 
wicked but that he might be able to present them all per 
fect in Christ, which implies surely that he might have a very 
different presentation to make of some from others, in that 
day. So in 

Ileb. xiii. 17: "Obey them that have rule over you, and submit 
yourselves : for they keep watch (ayysooi/<m) for your souls, 
as they that must give acconnt; that they may do it with joy 
and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you." 

* I am aware of the reference to doctrines in this passage, as the thing 
more immediately intended by the " wood, hay, stubble," &c., and these 
too as introduced by men "holding the Head" building on "the true 
Foundation." In that view, the passage is deeply instructive. But he 
who stops short at this point, and fancies that he has exhausted the whole 
scope and object of the passage when he has brought out its bearings on 
doctrine, has taken but a feeble grasp of it. The personal bearings of the 
passage we shall do well not to miss, for they are as searching and solemn 
as they are obvious. 

f n5(TT;-4),. This is the presentation of the Church to Christ at 
his coming, which we have found to be a favourite idea with more than 
one apostle. See chap. iii. pp. 55-57. 

t nvr y0a<Tov, thrice repeated in one verse. " Hoc (says BENGEL) 
toties positum maximam habet SE/VO T>;T ac vim. 

Mr Wood says it is I only who take this for granted, for " only one 
class those that shall be saved is mentioned " (p. 155). Let the reader 
judge. 



266 SIMULTANEOUS JUDGMENT 

1 Thess. ii. 19, 20: "For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of 

rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord 
Jesus Christ at his coming ? For ye are our glory and joy." 

In the first of these passages the people are reminded that 
their spiritual guides have to give an account of them indi 
vidually, and that it might be one either of joy or of grief, 
according to the class they should be found in at the great 
day. In the other passage the apostle refers to the joy he 
would experience, and the crown he would receive, as the 
spiritual father of his Thessalonian converts, when he met 
them at the coming of their common Lord. 

2 Tim. iv. 1: " I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus 

Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his ap 
pearing and his kingdom, Preach the word, &c. 

The "judgment of quick and dead" is an expression 
thrice used in the New Testament: once (Actsx. 42) in con 
nection with the Person who is to do it " It is he (Christ) 
who is ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead;" 
again (1 Pet. iv. 6), in connection with tne nearness of it 
" Who is ready to judge the quick and the dead;"* and 
here, in connection with the time of it " Who shall judge 
the quick and the dead at Ms appearing and his kingdom." 
The " kingdom" here is unquestionably that of glory: some 
times called the kingdom of our Father " Then shall the 
righteous shine forth as the sun in THE KINGDOM OF THEIR 
FATHER" (Matt. xiii. 43); sometimes called the kingdom of 
Christ " So an entrance shall be ministered unto you abun 
dantly into THE EVERLASTING KINGDOM OF OUR LORD AND 

SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST" ( 2 Pet. i. 11); and sometimes the 
kingdom of both the Father and the Son " No whoremonger, 
nor unclean person, nor idolater, hath any inheritance in 

THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST AND OF GOD" (Eph. V. 5). In this 

sense of it, " Christ s appearing and his kingdom" are ever 

* "Paratus est Judex; nam, evangelic pnedicato, nil nisi finis restat." 
(BEKGEL.) 



SCRIPTURAL PROOF OF IT. 2G7 

associated in point of time; as when Paul charged the Thes- 
salonians that they would " walk worthy of God, who had 
called them to his kingdom and glory" (1 Thess. ii. 12).* 
Well, it is at this, " his appearing and kingdom," that 
Christ is to " judge the quick and the dead" not " the 
quick" at his appearing, and " the dead" a thousand years 
thereafter; but the quick and the dead together, and of both 
classes, " at his appearing and his kingdom." 

1 John ii. 28; iv. 17 : " And now, little children, abide in him; 
that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and 

not be ashamed before him at his coining Herein is 

our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day 
of judgment; because as he is, so are we in this world." 

Rev. iii. 5 : " He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in 
white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the 
book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, 
and before his angels." 

1 Tim. v. 24, 25 :" Some men s sins are open beforehand, going 

before to judgment ; and some they follow after. Likewise 
the good works [of some] are manifest before hand ; and 
they that are otherwise cannot be hid." 

Rom. xiv. 10, 12: " But why dost thou judge thy brother? 

for we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ. 

So then every one of us shall give account of himself 

to God" namely, " before the judgment-seat of Christ." 

Leaving these passages to speak for themselves, I conclude 
these testimonies to the simultaneous judgment of the right 
eous and the wicked with two of the grandest description, 
but scarcely requiring illustration. 

2 Pet. iii. 7, 10, 12 : " But the heavens and the earth which are 

now, are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of 

judgment and of the perdition of ungodly men But the 

day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; IN THE WHICH 

* Bant.*!*! xoii Sojan, regnum et gloriam : Magnificum cditii, says BEN- 
GEL. Though here called " God s kingdom," the identity of it with that 
which is called Christ s, is too manifest to admit of doubt. 



268 SIMULTANEOUS JUDGMENT 

(* 5) the heavens shall pass away," &c "Looking 

for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, by which 
(bl r,v) * the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved." 
Here " the clay of judgment," and even " the coming of 
that day, as a thief in the night," is spoken of as one, in 
point of time, with " the perdition of ungodly men," and 
both with the dissolution of the heavens and the earth. 
How, then, can it be maintained that this " perdition of 
ungodly men" will be a thousand years later than the com 
ing of Christ? The usual reply to this is, that the passage 
speaks only of such "ungodly" as shall be alive when Christ 
comes. Even if we should admit this, I have again to ask, 
Do those who adopt it believe in any such " perdition of un 
godly men" when Christ comes, as involves a strictly personal 
judgment of the " secrets of their hearts?" Do they believe 
that this " perdition" will be the execution of the sentence 
passed upon them after such judgment, and that it will con 
sequently be not any sweeping acts of vengeance upon public 
bodies or masses of men, but their " everlasting destruction 
from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his 
power?" In a word, do they believe that it will be such a 
judgment as leaves not one of the condemned to escape? If 
so, what becomes of the notion of " remnants" of these very 
" ungodly men" spared to " stock the new earth," " con 
verted by this judgment," and made* missionaries* to the heathen 
world? 

Another theory has been devised for solving these inextri 
cable difficulties, namely, that as the day of judgment is to 
last a thousand years, the perdition of ungodly men may be 

* Compare with this Rev. xx. 11 : " And I saw a great white throne, and 
him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; " 
and 2 Thess. i. 9 : " Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction 
from the presence (or face) of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." 
" This face (says BEXGEL) will be intolerable to the wicked: They shall 
not see, but they shall feel it." So our passage speaks as if the heavens 
would kindle at the presence, or under the influence, of " that day." 



SCRIPTURAL PROOF OP IT. 269 

said to take place " in the day in which the heavens are dis 
solved," though it do not take place till the end of it. This 
is Mr Burgh s view, to whose statement I shall have some 
thing to say in the following chapter. 

The last passage, though already given, I must here repeat 
in full : 

Rev. xx. 11-15 : "And I saw a great white throne, and him 
that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven 
fled away; and there was found no place for them. And 
I saw the dead, the great and the small, stand before the 
throne : and books were opened ; and another book was 
opened, which is the book of life : and the dead were judged 
out of those things which were written in the books, accord 
ing to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which 
were in it; and death and hades delivered up the dead which 
were in them : and they were judged every man according 
to their works. And death and hades were cast into the 
lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And 
whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast 
into the lake of fire." 

On this passage I observed (pp. 198-204), that if ever 
language expressed the doctrine of a simultaneous and uni 
versal RESURRECTION, surely we have it here. I would now 
add, that if language be capable of expressing the doctrine 
of a simultaneous and universal JUDGMENT, it is undoubtedly 
expressed here. But I will not try to make plainer by com 
ments what is so very plain without them. * 

And now what have we found on this head of THE JUDG 
MENT ? 

1. "We have found that the premillennialists are constrained 

* " The other passages," says Mr Birks, (meaning all the foregoing 
passages adduced by me except the first one or two,) " are so clearly irre 
levant, that it is needless to offer any remarks in de.tail on their obvious 
teaching " (p. 247). Mr Birks will perhaps find that he has here mis 
taken the feeling with which the passages in question will be read by 
impartial inquirers. 



270 SUMMARY. 

to admit, in one form or other, that Christ, when he comes 
the second time, will come to judge the world. But, 

2. As their system does not admit of any general judgment 
any judgment of the whole world at once we have found 
them obliged to parcel out the judgment, not only into sepa 
rate acts or processes, distant from each other by long periods 
of time, but into heterogeneous transactions, that cannot be 
brought under one category ; and to call the whole period 
of the thousand years " the day of judgment." Thus, they 
make the judgments upon the antichristian nations which are 
to usher in the millennium to be part of " the judgment of the 
great day," and style these the "judgment of the quick," an 
expression which, in their sense of it, is fitted only to mislead. 
Farther, they make the millennial rule, administration, or 
government of Christ which in Scripture is doubtless called 
by the name of "judgment," just as all rule is this also they 
make part of " the judgment of the great day." Of course, 
it cannot be pretended that this is of the nature of a judicial 
trial of men s previous state and character for eternity. So 
that, during great part of their thousand years day of judg 
ment, there is to be no judgment at all, in the only sense in 
which Christ is said to come to judgment. They may try to 
give it something of that character, by telling us, as they do, 
of the instant death with which all outbreakings of evil dur 
ing the millennium will be visited. But he who can persuade 
himself that such judgments allowing there were more 
ground to look for them than has yet been produced will 
make the millennium to be "the great day of judgment," 
must be easily convinced. And then, by placing the judg 
ment of the righteous before, and that of the wicked after the 
millennium, they make the last judgment, so majestically 
described in the 20th of Revelation, to be a judgment of one 
class only ; and they make " the book of life" to be produced 
and opened for no other purpose but to condemn all that are 
then judged, as not having their names written in it: Thus 



SUMMARY. 271 

are they driven to do manifest violence to that whole scene. 
But, 

3. We have found that even this thousand years day of 
judgment is not long enough to serve their purpose ; and that, 
to help them over the work which they put into this period, 
it would require to be made longer still. For, not to speak of 
the judgment of the righteous, which they represent as prior 
to the thousand years, and therefore no part of the day s work, 
strictly speaking ; the judgment of the wicked, instead of 
taking place within the millennial period, does not take place 
till after it has so entirely run out, that even " the little season" 
which succeeds it and which we found reason to believe 
would be, relatively, not so very little would be exhausted 
ere it takes place. And thus by no fair stretch of language, 
are they warranted to say that such a judgment will take 
place in any part of the millennial day. This singular scheme, 
then, of a thousand years day of judgment so very unlike 
a true view of the judgment-day, fails to meet the case which 
it was invented to suit, and must, independent of other objec 
tions, be given up even on this ground. 

4. This whole scheme of the judgment makes no provision 
whatever nor does it pretend to make any for judging the 
vast multitudes of believing men by whom the world is to be 
peopled during the millennium. They are not among those 
judged before the millennium, for they are not then born ; 
and they are not among those judged after it, for none but 
the wicked are expected to be judged then. And so they 
are not judged at all; that is to say, this scheme makes no pro 
vision for their being judged. 

Thus the premillcnnial scheme of the judgment falls out 
at every turn, and presents such gaps as to expose to the 
impartial eye its fatal deficiencies. While it is too artificial 
and complicated to look like a true doctrine, its supporters 
have not been able, with all the pains they have taken to 
adjust it, to provide for the judgment of the whole human 



272 SUMMARY. 

race. Tried by its theory of the judgment, then, the pre- 
millennial scheme is found wanting ; and, if wanting here, it 
must be given up. But, 

5. In contrast with this, how unencumbered, how majestic, 
how self-approving, and as we have abundantly shown 
how conformable to all Scripture, is the doctrine of a simul 
taneous and universal judgment of all mankind at the coming 
of Christ! The passages we have adduced prove beyond 
all reasonable doubt, that the whole human family Avill at 
once stand before the bar of Christ in their resurrection-state; 
and that the judgment then held and pronounced will be one 
continuous unbroken transaction. And, if this be the case, 
the premillennial scheme must be abandoned. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE CONFLAGRATION, AND THE NEW HEAVENS AND NEW 
EARTH, AT THE COMING OF CHRIST. 

THERE is probably nothing in Scripture so hard to bend 
to the premillennial doctrine as that which relates to the 
conflagration and its issues, as announced in the following: 

O * O 

well-known verses : 

2 Pet. iii. 7, 10-13 : " But the heavens and the earth -which 
are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto 
fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly 
men. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief [in the 
night] ; * in the which the heavens shall pass away with a 
great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, 
the earth also and the works that are therein shall he burnt 
up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, 
what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conver 
sation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the 
coming of the day of God, by reason of which \ 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, wherein 
dwelleth righteousness." 

Rev. xx. 11 : "And I saw a great white throne, and him that 
sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled 
away ; and there was found no place for them." 

Rev. xxi.l : "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth : for 

* Gries., Sch., Lach., and Tisch. omit U *;. 
t See note, p. 268. 



274 FINAL CONFLAGRATION 

the first heaven and the first earth were passed away ; and 
there was no more sea." 

The premillennial theory will never survive the reception 
of these passages in their plain and obvious sense. They 
describe a conflagration to take place when Christ appears 
the second time, which it is utterly inconceivable should 
occur before the millennium. 

When we turn to the descriptions of the world s condition 
in the latter day, we not only find no intimation of such 
a change as is here described, but every thing to prove that 
there neither will nor can be such a premillennial revolution 
upon the globe we inhabit. Earth and sea are precisely 
where they were, and what they were. Not a place disap 
pears ; not a feature of any thing is changed. Not to speak 
of Assyria and Egypt, Elam and Shinar, Pathros and Gush, 
Hamath and the islands of the sea, the borders of Palestine 
are given with the minutest geographical and topographical 
precision, as if nothing had happened to disturb them. 
Mount Zion is still the mount it ever was ; and En-gedi, 
and En-eglaim, and " the way of Hethlon, as men go to 
Zedad," and Gilead and Jordan, and the waters of strife in 
Kadesh, and the great sea (Ezek. xlvii.), and every place, 
as it was. Nay, what may be called the meteorological 
features of every country remain precisely as before. Any 
nation of the earth not coming up to Jerusalem to worship, 
upon thorn is to be no rain; but whereas "the family of 
Egypt have no rain" their land being watered by the 
bounteous Nile some other plague is to visit them. " If 
the family of Egypt go not up, that have no rain ; there 
shall be the plague, wherewith the Lord will smite the 
heathen," c. (Zech. xiv. 17, 18.) 

So much for the physical condition of the earth, and of 
all that contributes to make and keep it what it is. But we 
find its inhabitants as unaffected as itself by any such con 
flagration as Peter describes. We find Jews and Gentiles 



MR BURGH, MR TYSO, AND MR OGILVY. 275 

transacting their affairs, secular and religious, precisely as 
before, and without the briefest interruption. 

Now, what are we to make of all this? It is met in 
several ways, all equally at variance with the express state 
ments of the passages before us. 

1. Some, finding the sheer impossibility of believing that 
such a conflagration as Peter predicts is consistent with the 
unaltered condition of the earth and its inhabitants during 
the millennium, candidly admit that it cannot be premil- 
lennial, and agree with us in referring it to the close of 
the thousand years. Such are Mr Burgh, Mr Tyso, and Mr 
Ogilvy. 

" If," says Mr Burgh, " the general conflagration takes place at 
the commencement of the millennial reign, it follows that the nature 
and object of that reign must be completely altered, and that the 
scriptural descriptions of the millennium can no longer hold ; for, 
during the millennial reign, we are told that the inhabitants of the 
earth will be still in mortal flesh, and their national distinctions 
still maintained ; the great object of Christ s reign on earth during 
the thousand years being, as I have said, to carry Christianity into 
effect in this world, to gather to himself all the nations of the 
earth, and bring about their conversion. I ask, How could this 
be ? How could the nations of the earth continue to exist as men, 
and under these circumstances, if the general conflagration had 
taken place at the descent of the Lord from heaven ? " * 

But how, you ask, does he reconcile this attempt to place 
the conflagration a thousand years after Christ s coming, 
with those words of the apostle emphatically connecting it 
with the very act of his coming ? " The day of the Lord 
will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens 
shall pass away," &c. All the answer we get is, that this 
" day " is a thousand years long, and as it is only " in the 
day," it may be as well at the end as at the beginning of 
it.f This, however, will never do, for it runs counter to the 

* Lect. on Rev., ut supra, p. 373. 

t " It may indeed be objected, that in 2 Pet. iii., where the conflagra- 



276 FINAL CONFLAGRATION 

express object of the apostle in introducing the subject. He 
had been warning thorn against the scoffers who would deride 

o o 

the expectation of Christ s coming, or of a day of judgment 
reminding them that the old world had been destroyed by 
water, and intimating that " the heavens and the earth that 
are now, are reserved unto fire against the day of judgment 
and of the perdition of ungodly men;" and having ex 
plained the merciful design of God in delaying this fire, and 
the execution of his vengeance against the ungodly by 
reason of which men flatter themselves that it will never 
come he warns such that it will burst upon them when 
least expected. " But the day of the Lord will come as a 
thief in the night ; in the which the heavens shall pass 
away," &c. Manifestly, therefore, it is the conflagration 
itself which is to take the world by surprise, bursting upon 
it " with a rushing noise " (co/^Sov), just as the antediluvians 
" knew not until the flood came and destroyed them all." 
No thousand years, therefore, are to intervene between " the 
day of the Lord " and " the passing away of the heavens." 
Nor, indeed, would a thousand years interval save the 
theory, since, as we have seen, the last judgment is outside 
of the thousand years altogether, and even after the expiry of 
the " little period " which succeeds the thousand years. 



tion of the present world is mentioned as followed by new heavens and a 
new earth, these events seem to be identified with the coming of the 
Lord : Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, 
WHEREIN the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, &c. (12, 13). It, 
however, requires but little examination into the other places where these 
expressions, coming of the Lord, and day of the Lord, occur, to show 
that they are far from denoting, the one merely the descent or appearing 
of the Lord, and the other a literal day. The word rendered coming, 
is in fact the being present, (trx^vfia, not nr<fattia), and the day of God 
and the day of judgment may easily be shown to be designations of the 
whole period of Christ s reign, when executing justice and judgment in 
the earth. It is then ckar, that if the conflagration and new creation take 
place in any part of this day of the Lord, the apostle s words hold true. 
(Pp. 375, 376.) 



MK ELLIOTT. 277 

2. Others, constrained to admit that the conflagration and 
the second advent are contemporaneous, and taking both to 
be premillennial, explain the conflagration in a contracted 
sense as extending no farther than the prophetic earth, or 
the territory of old Borne. 

" As to the grand difficulty," says Mr Elliott, " in the way of 
this (premillennial) theory, which has been supposed to arise 
out of St Peter s description of the earth s being burnt up before 
the promised new heavens and new earth, I shall only suggest, as 
others before me, that the >yn, or earth, of the apostle s conflagration 
is by no means certainly the ichole habitable world (indeed the par 
allel prophecy of Isa. Ixv. 17, 18, Ixvi. 22, &c., seems to forbid it) ; 
or, in fact, any other than the Roman earth, which we have seen 
on Apocalyptic evidence is to be destroyed premillennially by fire 

at the time of Antichrist s destruction It would seem 

that in this state of things and of (sceptical) feeling (in regard to 
the coming of Christ) in professing Christendom, all suddenly and 
unexpectedly, and conspicuous over the world as the lightning that 
shineth from the east even to the west, the second advent and ap 
pearing of Christ will take place Meanwhile it would also 

appear, that with a tremendous earthquake accompanying, of vio 
lence unknown since the revolutions of primaeval chaos (an earth 
quake under which the Roman world at least is to reel to and fro like 
a drunken man), the solid crust of this earth shall be broken, and 
fountains burst forth from its inner deep, not as once of water, but 

of liquid fire; that this, I say, shall then burst forth and en- 

gulph the vast territory of the Papal Babylon, and the godless of 
its inhabitants; thence spreading even to Palestine, and every where 
as in the case of Sodom, making the very elements to melt with 
fervent heat; and that there (in Palestine) the flame shall consume 
the Antichrift and his confederate kings, while the sword also does its 

work of slaughter And then immediately, it would seem 

also, the renovation of this our earth is to take place; its soil being 
purified by the very action of the fire, in all that shall remain of it, 
for the nations of the saved, that is, the Gentile remnant and re 
stored Israel," &c (Ilor. Apoc. iv. 217, 221, 222, 224-227, ut 
ntpra.) 

" It is well known," adds Mr Elliott in a note, "that the words 
yn and oixov^.n are often used in a limited sense of Judaea or the 



278 FINAL CONFLAGRATION 

Roman earth, just as the Romans themselves called their \vorld the 
orlis termrum : and, after careful consideration of the various pro 
phetic descriptions of the consummation, I incline to think that 
the meaning of the term, -when used in these prophecies of the 
concluding revolutions of the earth on Christ s advent, is thus 
limited, and that it refers to the Roman world alone; with this modi 
fication, moreover, that the circumstance of the separation of the 
Eastern and "Western Empire, and political destruction of the 
former by the Turkish invasion, having caused the phrase to be 
used in the later Apocalyptic prophecies of Western or Papal 
Christendom only, it may be so in those of the consummation also. 
The idea of SOME OTHER and more universal conflagration at the general 
judgment is NOT HEREBY EXCLUDED." 

Mr A. Bonar takes the same contracted view of the con 
flagration, as limited to Christendom, though its effects may 
be " felt all over the wide globe." After referring to Dan. 
vii, and Rev. xviii., which speak of the body of the fourth 
beast as given to the burning flame, and of the smoke of 
Babylon s burning, and identifying this with the conflagra 
tion described in Peter, he says : 

" It appears to intimate that at the Lord s coming all that is 
called Babylon"" in short, all Christendom become Papal shall be 
one blaze of consuming fire. This tremendous fire shall purge 
Europe from the filth of its destroyers more effectually than Joshua s 
sword did Canaan; and the (European ?) soil thus cleansed shall 
soon receive a new race of inhabitants. It may be, too, that the 
effects of the conflagration shall be felt all over the wide globe, 
penetrating through the earth, and working that change on it ap 
pointed by the Lord. And thus, not the heavens only and the ele 
ments, but earth also and its works, are visited with fire. In Heb. 
xii. 2G, God s voice is said to have shaken the earth when it made 
Sinai tremble. On that day, not only did the skies above feel the 
tempest, but earth shook as the Lord came down. So it may be 
i-aid that earth is flung into the crucible when Dan. vii. 11, and 
Rev. xviii. 9, are fulfilled" that is, when Papal Europe only is 
" flung into the crucible."* 

* Redempt., pp. 117, 118. Mr Birks view seems to coincide with 
this. He makes an ingenious case, from Scripture parallels, for a par 
tial and superficial change; but his parallels are really no parallels. 



MR A. BONAR. 279 

On this principle, the excellent Mr Maitland (of Brighton), 
and others, limit the " every eye" that " shall see" the Ile- 
deemer at his second coming, to every eye in Christendom ! 

Mr Bonar himself, however, seems to stagger at this miser 
able explanation of the conflagration in Peter. 

" It may be," he candidly says, " we are wrong in supposing that 
the tremendous Sodom- doom of Christendom shall be what is meant 
by earth and its works sharing in the fire that melts the elements; 
but even if so, what better can the antimillenarian say?" (Pp. 
119, 120.)* 

Never, perhaps, was more palpable violence done to the 
text of Scripture, than by this singular attempt to limit the 
conflagration predicted by Peter to Rome Papal, or Christen 
dom. The whole context proclaims it a world-wide confla 
gration, and every clause of the passage itself seems framed 
on purpose to exclude all limitation. Scoffers, says the 
apostle, are to arise, who shall deride the expectation of Christ s 
coming, alleging that " all things have continued as they 
were from the beginning." To repel this, the apostle reminds 
them of the provision made from the first for the devastation 
of the old world by water. " By the word of God, the hea 
vens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and 
in the water ; whereby the world that then was (6 TOTS 
X&V/AOC), being overflowed with water, perished." A like pro 
vision, he adds, has been made for the destruction of the 
world that now is by fire. " But the heavens and the earth, 
that are now (o/ & vvv ougctvol, xai 55 y?j), are by the same word 
stored with fire, kept unto the day of judgment and of the 
perdition of ungodly men."f The analogy here so emphati- 

* The antimillenarian difficulty to which Mr Bonar alludes is the 
fact, that in Isa. Ixv. 17, to which Peter refers, there are found Jerusa 
lem and her people, houses and vineyards, after " the new heaven and new 
earth" which the prophet announces. On this supposed difficulty, I have 
merely to refer the reader to pp. 106, 167. 

f So I incline, with Mr Elliott, to render the words, connecting we) 
with nQwa.uyirn.iiu preceding, and not with r^oCpimt following ; by which 
also the idea of a preparation within the bowels of the earth itself for 
its eventual destruction by tire, as before by water, is better conveyed. 



280 FINAL CONFLAGRATION 

cally traced between " the world that then was," and " the 
heavens and the earth that are now" the one " overflowed 
with water," the other doomed to the flames precludes all 
reasonable doubt that the ichole icorld, physically considered, 
is the subject of this prophecy, and the victim of the confla 
gration. To thrust in here Rome Papal, or Christendom, is 
in the last degree unnatural. 

But when we examine the detailed description of this con 
flagration in the subsequent verses, it seems inconceivable 
how any impartial expositor can put a limited sense upon it. 

" The (sublunary and visible) heavens shall pass away 
(vaot kivGovrai) with a great noise" (ooifydbv, the word con 
veying the idea) :* " The elements (ffroi^iTa) shall melt," or 
"be dissolved (Xu^jjtfwo/), with fervent heat." 

The "heavens" and the "elements" seem to be here dis 
tinguished very much as " the earth" and the " works that 
are therein" afterwards are. Whatever "elements" mean 
here, as contradistinguished from the " heavens," it must be 
something, the " dissolution" of which would incapacitate 
human beings, as at present constituted, from subsisting for 
a moment. What, then, becomes of the theory of mortal men 
tenanting the new heavens and the new earth ? It is nothing 
better than a dream. 

" The earth and the works that are therein shall lie burnt 
p."t " The earth," as here distinguished from " the works 
that are therein," doubtless means the body of the globe as 
distinguished from all that adorns its surface. If this is to 

* " Peribunt magno impetu." (GROT.) Mr Elliott s illustration from 
the noise and shock of the earthquake which accompanied the volcanic 
eruption at Sumbawa in 1815, and which he tells us was felt and heard 
970 miles off, seems to me to be a very good illustration of the bathos, but 
of nothing else. 

t Karazat/nrou, " shall be burned down?" the Latins would say exurentur, 
" shall be burnt out;" while we say, " shall be burnt up:" the idea of 
complete consumption being alike conveyed by all these forms of expres 
sion. 



IOS1VERSALITY OF IT. 281 

"be " burnt up," it must surely be something greatly more 
searching and fundamental than the mere "paring and burn 
ing" process to which Air Elliott, in the foregoing passage, 
and others as we shall see, appear nothing loath to debase 
this magnificent prediction. 

" Seeing then that all thesetlnngssliall be dissolved (hvopsvuv). 
.... Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of 
God, through which the heavens, ~being on fire* sliall be dissolved, 
and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless 
we, according to his promise, look for new Jieavens and a new 
earth, ivlierein dwelleth righteousness" 

This crowns the description, and completes the evidence 
against a limited conflagration. For, as " the new heavens 
and the new earth" come in the room of "the heavens and 
the earth that are now," if the latter are to be subjected 
to the action of fire to the extent only of Rome Papal or 
Christendom, the renovation must be equally limited. But 
as the brethren whose views of this passage we have been 
examining contend for a renovation of the ichole earth, they 
must give up their limited conflagration, or explain this pas 
sage in the most capricious and inconsistent style. 

These and similar considerations seem indeed to press 
upon their own minds, insomuch that at the very time they 
are endeavouring to narrow this conflagration as much as 
possible, in order to avoid the fatal difficulties it would 
otherwise occasion them, they do reluctant homage to the 
scriptural and almost unanimous expectation of a universal 
conflagration. Thus Mr Elliott says, in the passage already 
quoted: " The idea of some other and more universal confla 
gration at the general judgment is not hereby excluded." 
But where shall we find any " other conflagration," and 
"more universal" than this, described in Scripture? Nowhere. 
This is beyond all comparison the most " universal" conflagra- 

* " n^utvu, fusi igne ut metalla ftmdi solent : a^n SS, Ps. xii. 7; Es. 
L 25; Daii. xii. 7; Zech. xii. 9," &c. ((JEOT.) 



282 FINAL CONFLAGRATION 

tion announced in the Bible; and, even if there were any other 
worthy of being compared with it, Mr Elliott and those who 
think with him would be sure to make it prcmillennial, as 
they do this. The above admission, therefore, " keeps the 
word of promise to the ear, but breaks it to the hope." It 
gives the author the benefit of apparently admitting what he 
must be held to deny a universal conflagration. That he 
does not believe in any " more universal conflagration at the 
general judgment," notwithstanding his admission, is plain 
from that part of his book in which he treats of the close of 
the millennium. Nothing of the sort is so much as hinted 
at, and even the general judgment itself is left mysteriously 
unapproached. In like manner we have seen that Mr A. 
Bonar does homage to the universality in some sense of 
the conflagration, while contending that its action is limited 
to " Europe." " It may be," lie cautiously says, " that the 
effects of the conflagration shall be felt all over the wide 
world, penetrating through the earth, and working that 
change on it appointed by the Lord." This is just the best 
effort which that estimable brother could make, to graft 
what every one perceives to be the sense of the passage 
upon a sense of it the most inadequate and unnatural : In 
deed, it would be difficult to extract from it any definite 
meaning. 

Thus sweeping, then, and thus penetrating, is this conflagra 
tion announced so magnificently by the Apostle Peter; so 
all-involving and all-reducing, that many able critics and 
divines conceive it to express a total annihilation of sub 
stance as well as form. The Lutheran divines for the most 
part maintained this, but were opposed with great force of 
argument by the Reformed; who contended, that so far 
from the annihilation of our physical system, in its primary 
elements, being here expressed or implied, the reverse is 
rather conveyed the dissolution of its present physical con 
stitution only, and its reconstitution under new and higher 



ALL-INVOLVING ALL-REDUCING. 283 

laws. With them agreed such of our own divines as had 
occasion to touch upon the point, as will be seen from the 
extracts given below.* But the very existence of such a 

* " We take it for granted," says DURHAM (on Rev. xxi. 1), " that there 

is not to be a full annihilation of this universe by this change 

yea, this exception, that there shall be no more sea, confirmeth it; for it 
snpposeth somewhat more to befall it than the heaven and the earth, 
which could not be if the annihilation of all were absolute. The ques 
tion therefore lieth mainly in this, whether that change be substantial, 
so that these heavens and this earth being removed, there are new hea 
vens and new earth again created ; or whether that change be but in 
respect of qualities, as it is with respect to the body of man, which is 
raised the same as to its substance, yet so as to its qualities it may be 
called another, for its spiritualness, purity, glory, incorruptibleness, &c. 

We conceive this last to be truth that as the heavens and earth 

are not substantially changed or annihilated, so the new earth and hea 
ven succeeding are the same for substance, but for nature more stable, 
for beauty more glorious, for use free from the abuses sinful men put 
them unto, and from the effects of the curse put upon them for man s 
sin they are altogether freed and set at liberty from these. Therefore 
(Acts iii. 21), it is called the time of the restitution of all things* For 
confirmation whereof, we may consider these places wherein this change 
is most expressly mentioned: As Ps. cii. 26, with Heb. i. 10, 12; 1 Cor. 

vii. 31; 2 Pet. iii. 10, 12, 13; and that famous place, Rom. viii. 

19-22, where the scope purposely is to prove the glorious condition the 
saints have to expect after this, and that such as even senseless creatures 
wait and long for, as being to be made partakers of it at the general 
manifestation of the sons of God; where observe, 1. That by creature, 
in the singular number (v. 19, 20), is understood the universe, as contra 
distinguished from the elect, and such a creature as by the sin of man is 
made subject to vanity ; and so is not to be understood of the whole crea 
tion simply, as certainly neither of angels nor of the seat of the blessed. 
[Durham, though expecting " the heavens and the earth that are now," 
after undergoing the conflagration, to " result in the new heavens and 
earth as a refined lump from which the dress is taken away" did not 
identify this with " the seat of the blessed," and was at a loss to know 
what was to be its destination.] .... 3. That the creature here men 
tioned is to be fully delivered from the effects of sin and the curse 

because (v. 21) it is expressly said that it is to be delivered from bondage, 
and to share of that liberty of the sons of God ; and as their change is 
not substantial but qualitative from the worse to the better so shall it, 
in some proportionable suitable manner, be freed from changes, corrup 
tion, &c., and be in another way glorious. These excellent privileges 



284 "FINAL CONFLAGRATION 

controversy shows how very far the predicted change was, 
on all hands, felt to go. 

3. An attempt has been made to form, out of the two 
former explanations of the conflagration, a third, by which 
some of the foregoing difficulties are avoided, though in a 
way not more to be approved in other respects. We mean 
the breaking of it up, as they do the Judgment, into two or 
more conflagrations on a small scale, no one of them interfer 
ing to any great extent with the previous state of things, 
but all of them together accomplishing the change described 
by Peter. 

" It does not," says J/r Bickerstcth, " appear decisively from any 
thing in St Peter s account, in what part of that day of judg 
ment, the day of the Lord, which is as a thousand years, the 
general conflagration may take place ; or whether there may not 
be, as some have supposed, a partial fire at the beginning (2 Thess. 
i. 7, 8; Rev. xix. 20), and another more complete at the close of 
that day. About the order of events foretold, and in what part of 
that order the new heavens and the new earth will take place, 
there is much of that obscurity in which unfulfilled events are 
purposely left. * 

As to this alleged obscurity regarding the time of the 
new heavens and new earth, it exists only in those minds 
which the premillennial theory puts out of all their reckon 
ings on such matters. But, whereas here are introduced 

waited for by the creature cannot consist either with annihilation or 
substantial change, but with a qualitative mutation far to the better, 
though we cannot in every thing satisfy our curiosity about it, neither 
should we aim at that." 

" This liberty," says BROWX (of Wamphray banished 1G62), " which 
the creature shall at that day enjoy, shall not be by its annihilation, or 
being reduced to nothing, as if all the glorious liberty of the sons of 
God, to which it shall be redeemed, were nothing else but a ceasing to be 
used by sinners as now it is ; seeing we hear of a new heaven and a new 
earth (2 Pet. iii. 13), and that these shall only be changed, Ps. cii. 26," 
&c. (Expos. ofEp. to Rom. on ch. viii. 19-22.) 

* Guide, p. 288. 



NEW HEAVENS AND NEW EARTH PEOPLED BY WHOM? 285 

but two conflagrations, the following passage seems to speak 
of something more than this: 

" It is questioned," says Mr Brooks, " what will be the process 
of this burning;, namely, whether all at once, or by gradual erup 
tions of volcanic matter, and to what extent it will take place."* 

The note here introduced we copy in part, to show how 
loio in their conceptions of those " new heavens and new 
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness," good men can de 
scend when under the influence of the system we have been 
investigating. 

" Some," he says, " have argued, that the conflagration cannot 
be until the annihilation of the world, on the ground that the 
action of fire would render the soil unfit for the use of man. This 
is arguing in ignorance of the real facts of the case, even at pre 
sent ; for unfruitful land is now often pared and burned to produce a soil, 
and the soil formed by triturated lava is excellent! 

But we have still to ask, how the inhabitants of " the hea 
vens and the earth that are now," are tided over this all- 
enveloping, all-reducing deluge of fire, into " the new heavens 
and the new earth," of which the most of them are to be the 
occupants, according to the premillennial theory. As to the 
saints raised from the dead, or changed when Christ comes 
there is no difficulty. Caught up in the clouds to meet 
the Lord in the air, they are safe enough from the conflagra 
tion, if in their risen state they could be in any danger from 
it. | The ungodly, too, are out of the way, at least the most 
of them; for they are destroyed, according to the premillennial 

* Elem., p. 239. 

f What MEDE threw out as a modest conjecture in one of his letters, 
is now the general understanding of prcmillennialists on this subject. 
" What," says he, " if this rapture of the saints be, that they may be pre 
served during the conflagration of the earth and the works thereof, 
2 Pet. iii. 10, that as Noah and his family were preserved from the deluge 
by being lift up above the waters in the ark, so should the saints at the 
conflagration be lift up in the clouds unto their Ark, Christ, to be pre 
served from the deluge of fire, wherein the wicked shall be consumed ? " 
(P. 776). 



286 NO SINNERS IN THE 

theory, by the judgments that accompany the second advent.* 
But a " remnant" of this class is expected to survive the con 
flagration, and on the new earth to find themselves associated 
with the Jewish nation and the vast Gentile world. This 
"remnant," converted amidst these scenes, are to become 
missionaries to the Pagan world ; while the Jews, by the per 
sonal appearing of Jesus to them as their Messiah, are to be 
brought to repentance and the acknowledgment of the truth. 
Thus, " the new earth" is to be tenanted by a world of men 
in the flesh, THE VAST MAJORITY OF WHOM, AT THE FIRST, ARE 

TOTAL STRANGERS TO CHRIST, AND DEAD IN TRESPASSES AND 

SINS. And this is "the new heavens and the new earth, 

WHEREIN DWELLETII RIGHTEOUSNESS," which " W6, according 

to his promise, look for ! " This statement of the apostle can 
have but one meaning. The " righteousness" which is to dis 
tinguish the new from the old earth does not surely mean 
partial righteousness, for that exists already on the old earth. 
It can only mean absolute or unmixed righteousness. All 
commentators agree in this.f Mr Wood, however, says, 
" righteousness is not holiness," and so lowers the " righteous 
ness " which is to " dwell in the new heavens and new earth," 
down to the "justice " which is to distinguish " the Lord s 
reign," and " on which the prophets loved to dwell" (p. 260). 
But this theory does not even people the new earth with pre 
vailing righteousness; for, until the Gentile world is brought 

* If you ask, With what kind of destruction ? You will get no satis 
factory answer. Sometimes you would think it were by flames of fire 
breaking out upon them. But, judging from the prophecies to which they 
commonly refer, and the literal sense which they insist upon giving to 
them, they appear to expect one vast carnage slaughter in a literal battle 
or battles " the land soaked with blood, 1 and " all the fowls filled with 
flesh." And this is what they term the judgment of the quick, or at least 
a principal part of it miserable view ! 

T" IN ILLO STATU EKIT JUST1TIA PURA SINK VITIO ; NON, UT IN HOC S.ECULO, 

BONI MALIS PEKMIXTI. Hue spectat parabola Matt. xiii. 39, (30 ?). 
(GROT.) ABSOLUTA TUSI EXTABIT BOXI ET MALI SEPARATJ.O. Matt. iii. 12, 
xiji. 30. (BENG.) 



NEW HEAVENS AND NEW EARTH. 287 

over by the labours of the "remnant," the majority of mankind 
will be unbelievers. Who can possibly take this in ? Nay, 
even after the millennial state of the earth is at its meridian, 
hypocrisy seems not to be excluded. " The subjection during 
the millennium," says Mr Bickerstcth, " not being a complete 
and full subjection of the heart to God, the corruption of man 
will, at its close, have a yet further manifestation. During 
the millennium the faithful are mingled with those who only 
yield a feigned obedience. The last open apostasy removes 
them from the earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, (so that 
they were upon the new earth all the while)." Nay, after 
the last judgment, as " no change is then mentioned as passing 
on the Jeivish nation, or on the living righteous, who continue 
faithful to God," they " continue a seed to serve God in suc 
cessive generations of the eternal state." * Of course, if this 
be the case, mortality and sin, the corruption of nature, and 
all the inseparable accompaniments of these things, remain for 
ever on the "new earth." 

I have not touched upon the difficulty of mortal men sur 
viving such a conflagration as we have found to be predicted 
by Peter. The attempts which have been made to get over 
that difficulty will never satisfy any dispassionate inquirer. 
The preservation of Noah s family from the waters of the 
deluge, and of the three Hebrew youths in the burning fiery 
furnace, together with the promise, " I am the Lord thy God, 

and I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have 

covered thee tcith the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant 
the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say 
unto Zion, Thou art my people " (Isa. li. 16), have been ap 
pealed to, but in vain.f I do not in the least question the 
power of God to preserve from fire as well as water, and a 
whole world as easily as three individuals. But Noah s flood 
of water was but typical of this deluge of fire, and the type 

* Lent. Lect. for 1843, ut supra, pp. 330, 331. 

t See Birks (Proph. Einp., ut supra, pp. 324, 325), and others. 



288 NEW HEAVENS AND NEW EARTH. 

over comes short of the antitype. That was Christ s coming 
to judgment, in a sort, but not his second personal advent to 
pass " eternal judgment" upon men. Other differences will 
readily occur; but this is enough to show, that though there 
be a manifest analogy between the cases, the analogy must 
not be overdriven. As to the three youths, and the promise 
to " Zion" which we have quoted, though we should admit 
that it gave ground to expect the preservation of God s cove 
nant people in the conflagration, what ground does it give to 
expect the preservation of God s enemies ? 

Thus hopelessly opposed is the premillennial scheme to the 
Scripture testimony regarding the conflagration, and " the 
new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteous 
ness/ I have examined all the attempts at reconciliation 
deserving of notice, and shown them to be alike incompatible 
with the inspired descriptions of the change. On this head, 
therefore, nothing remains but to embody in a proposition, 
as under the previous heads, what is all but universally ac 
knowledged as the truth on this branch of our subject. 

PROPOSITION NINTH: 

AT CHRIST S SECOND APPEARING, " THE HEAVENS AND THE 
EARTH THAT ARE NOW," BEING DISSOLVED BY FIRE, SHALL 
GIVE PLACE TO "NEW HEAVENS AND A NEW EARTH, 
WHEREIN DWELLETH RIGHTEOUSNESS" WITHOUT ANY 
MIXTURE OP SIN GOOD UNALLOYED BY THE LEAST EVIL. 

The observations already made sufficiently illustrate this 
proposition. But as I have been silent on one of the passages 
which we placed in the forefront of this chapter, I may here 
state wherein its importance in the present argument appears 
to me to lie. I refer to Rev. xx. 11 ; xxi. 1 : " And I saw a 
great white throne, and him that sat on it, from wlwse face the 



SUMMARY OF WHOLE PRECEDING ARGUMENT. 289 

earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place 

for them And I saw a new heaven and a new earth : 

for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away: and 
there was no more sea." 

That the change here described is posterior to the last 
judgment, and not prior to it, has been fully proved by writers 
on both sides of the millennial controversy by Mr Birks, for 
example, and by Mr Gipps.* By putting this passage, then, 
in Revelation alongside of the passage in Peter, we obtain 
the following argument, which I believe it to be impossible 
to answer: 

The conflagration and passing away of the heavens will be 
" as a thief in the night, in" or " at the day of the Lord " 
the time of his second advent. (2 Pet. iii.) 

But the millennium precedes the "fleeing" or "passing 
away" of "the earth and heaven." (Rev. xx., xxi.) 

Therefore, the millennium precedes the second advent, j 



Here ends my chain of Scripture evidence against the prc- 
millennial theory. 

We have seen that when Christ comes, the Church which he 
hath purchased with his own blood will be absolutely and nu 
merically complete admitting of no subsequent accessions. 

We have seen that the Bible makes the hopes and the fears 
of all men to turn upon the second coming of Christ, as an 
event future to every human being, and makes no provision 
for the bringing in of any after it. 

* Birks "Four Prophetic Empires," lit supra, p. 306, &c. Gipps 
" First Resurrection," p. 13, Note H ; and see p. 67. 

t This syllogism was so expressed in my former edition as to be cap 
able of a construction contrary to my meaning. It is now rectified. For 
this correction I am indebted to a brother in Guernsey, from whose 
correspondence, though his view of the premillennial advent is the 
reverse of mine, I have derived both pleasure and profit, and whose 
critical and minute study of the prophetic word I sincerely honour. 

X 



290 SUMMARY. 

We have seen that baptism, and with it the gathering and 
training of disciples for glory, and the whole mediatorial 
power and presence of Christ for saving purposes, are or 
dained to continue till " the end of the world " the admitted 
period of Christ s second coming and not beyond it ; and 
that, in the Lord s Supper, the Redeemer s death is to be 
showed forth only " till he come." 

We have seen that the kingdom of Christ is just the king 
dom of grace in the hands of the Mediator a kingdom 
already in existence virtually ever since the fall, and for 
mally since his ascension to the right hand of power ; and 
that it will continue unchanged, both in character and form, 
till the final judgment, when, in its state of glory, it becomes 
" the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ " " the kingdom of Christ and of God." 

We have seen that at Christ s second coming, his whole 
Church " all that the Father hath given him " tihall be 
made alive at once, the dead being raised and the living 
changed; and that, at the same time, all the wicked shall 
stand up in a resurrection state the whole human race ap 
pearing together before the great white throne. 

We have seen that when Christ comes, the whole human 
race will be tried together for eternity at his judgment-seat. 

Finally, we have seen that at Christ s second coming, the 
heavens and the earth that are now, being dissolved, shall 
disappear, and be succeeded by " new heavens and a new 
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness/ without the least 
mixture of sin good unalloyed by aught of evil. 

Each of these Scripture views of the second advent is dia 
metrically opposed to the premillennial theory, arid subver 
sive of it. Taken together, they form a chain of evidence 
against it of such strength, that, if rejected as insufficient, it 
will be hard to refute any error, or to establish any truth 
from the Word of God. 



PART II. 
THE MILLENNIUM. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE MILLENNIUM HOW BROUGHT ABOUT. 

IP the premillennial theory be unscriptural, it must of course 
teach unscriptural views of the millennium as well as of the 
second advent. That it does so I now proceed to show 
under different heads, pointing out under each the opposite 
truth. 

The first in order of these errors relates to the way in 
which the subjection of all nations to Christ is to be brought 
about. 

The millennial conversion of the world to Christ is not ex 
pected to take place by the agencies now in operation, l>ut alto 
gether IN A NEW WAY. 

That on which most dependence seems to be placed, is 

THE PERSONAL MANIFESTATION OF CHRIST ; but to this are 

added judgments on the antichristian nations, and a pentecos- 
tal effusion of the Spirit. On all these agencies they write 
with great looseness, and distressing are the sneers which 
they sometimes throw out at alleged attempts to convert 
the world by means of Bible and Missionary Societies, and 
their ill-disguised insinuations sometimes not disguised at 
all against the WORD and the blessed SPIRIT themselves, as 
inadequate to accomplish the predicted evangelization of the 
world. 

" The more common opinion," says Dr M Neile, " is, that this is 
the final dispensation, and that by a more copious outpouring of 



294 DR M NEILE, MR BROOKS, 

the Holy Spirit it will magnify itself, and swell into the universal 
blessedness predicted by the prophets, carrying with it Jews and 
Gentiles, even the whole world, in one glorious flock under one 
Shepherd, Jesus Christ the Lord. This is reiterated from pulpit, press, 
and platform. It is the usual climax of missionary exhortation, or 
rather missionary prophecy." * 

Multitudes of professors of religion," says Mr Brooks, " are at 
this time under a delusion in regard to the nature of those events 
which are impending over the Church of Christ. The generality 
are agreed that a great crisis is at hand, and likewise that we are 
on the eve of the millennium ; but the party just alluded to are 

disposed to think, that we are to glide into it, as it were, by 

the instrumentality of our various institutions for evangelizing the 
heathen ; by means of which there will be a gradually increasing 
diffusion of scriptural light, until the whole earth shall be filled with 
the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Isa. xi. 

9.) As regards, however, the kingdom of Christ, which is 

the millennial kingdom, the testimony of Scripture is most abundant 
to the fact, that it is to be ushered in by desolating judgments ; 
and that the universal prevalence of religion hereafter to be en 
joyed, is not to be effected by any increased impetus given by THE PRESENT 
means ofetanqelizitig the nations, but by a stupendous display of Divine 
wrath upon all the apostate and ungodly." f 

" The rectifying which comes at last," says an esteemed brother, 
writing on the parable of the tares, " is not by mercy but by judgment 
not by the sowing of grace but the sickle of vengeance not by an 
extension of the Gospel, the labours of ministers, or any gracious instrumen 
tality whatsoever now at work, but by the angels of God, who are to ac 
company the Son of Man at his second advent It will consist, 

not in resowing, but inreajnngfhe field The termination of this 

economy, therefore, is in judgment, not mercy, mercy, however, 

not by an extension and enlargement of the economy of grace, but in a new 
economy altogether; for in it the evil shall be purged out by consum 
mate judgment on the wicked. The present economy, according to this 
sketch of its course, does not terminate by an enlarged exercise of grace, 
in the common meaning of the word, nor BY THE USE AND SUCCESS 

OF ANY AGENCY NOW IN OPERATION THE GOSPEL THE MINISTRY THE 



* Lect. on the Jews, ut supra, p. 72. 
t Elem. of Proph. Interp., pp. 227, 228. 



SIR TYSO, AND MR OGILVY REMARKS ON THEIR VIEWS. 295 

SPIRIT. It is ended by an agency and an act entirely new and differ 
ent by the immediate intervention of the Son of Man," &c.* 

" The Scriptures," says Mr Tyso, " do state the design of the 
Gospel, and what it is to effect ; but they never say it is to concert 
the world. Its powers have been tried for eighteen hundred years, and it 
has never yet truly converted one nation, one city, one town, nor 
even a single village. Yet some Christians are vainly supposing 
that it will, by a gradual and accelerated progression, convert the 
world The Scriptures never state that the Gospel, or Chris 
tian economy, will be the means of converting the world 

That the world is to be converted is evident from many Scrip 
tures ; but they ascribe it principally to other causes, and not, as 
our opponents will have, entirely to the preaching of the Gospel. In 
all cases the Jews will have a pre-eminence. To the Jews first ; 
and their restoration will be to the Gentiles as life from the 
dead," &c.f 

" The Christian," says Mr Of/ihy " sees this command written 
in legible characters, Go ye into all the world, and preach the 
Gospel to every creature, and he feels it to be his duty to do so, 
for he does not know who may or who may not receive it ; but he 
does not find it added, and your preaching shall sooner or later concert 

the whole world ; therefore he does not draw that conclusion He 

further finds that the kingdom and universal Church are to be 
established, not by gradual conversion, or by conversion more or less rapid 
under this dispensation, BUT BY THE PERSONAL ADVENT of our Lord him- 
tclf, and all the EVENTS that accompany it." 

Can any thing be looser than these statements, or more 
painful than the inferences which they suggest? A few para 
graphs will put the matter upon its right footing. 

* Present Dispensation Its Course. (No. 2 of a Series of Prophecy.) 
Kennedy, Edinburgh. 

t Defence of the Personal Reign of Christ, pp. 41, 42. 1841. 

J Mr Bickersteth specially notices the omission of all reference to this 
author in my first edition. I had not then read it; but having since 
procured it, and found nothing new in it, I content myself with an occa 
sional reference to it, just to show that on such a point as this the senti 
ment ascribed to premillennialists is not peculiar to one or two writers. 

Popular Objections to the Premillennial Advent Considered. By 
Geo. Ogilvy, Esq , pp. 216, 217. Second edition. 1847. 



2% MESSRS BONAR 

1. The question here is not, Whether the conversion of 
the world is to be quick or slow, gradual or instantaneous; 
but, Will the means of effecting the predicted changes be the 
same as are now in operation, or will they be different ? 
Will the cause of them be the same as of conversions now, or 
will it not? Nor let these writers shelter themselves under 
such expressions as " our various institutions for evangelizing 
the heathen" " the present means of evangelizing the na 
tions." These, they know well, are but vehicles for convey 
ing the Gospel to a world of perishing sinners ; and as they 
find no fault with them as such, and never hint that their in 
adequacy to convert the world lies in the defective or un- 
scriptural way in which they are wrought, it is plain that by 
" the institutions for evangelizing the heathen " " the pre 
sent means of evangelizing the nations," they just mean the 
Gospel itself in any way that the Church can now convey it 
to the world. Accordingly, one of the writers we have 
quoted explicitly states, not that our Bible and Missionary 
Societies have failed, but that the Gospel itself has failed, to 
accomplish any general conversion for want of power to 
effect it. " Its powers have been tried for eighteen hundred 
years," and this is the result. But even this writer is forced 
to soften down his language in the end. The world s con 
version is to take place "principally" through these "other 
causes;" nay, it is only "not entirely" to be brought about 
by " the preaching of the Gospel." And this he follows up 
by telling us of the pre-eminence the Jews are to have, and 
how their recovery is to be to the Gentile world as life from 
the dead. What matters it to our question in what order the 
thing takes place, and what special influence in forwarding it 
particular events may have? The one question is, "Will this 
general conversion, come when and by what instrumentality 
it may, consist, as conversion now does, of the reception by 
sinners of a preached Gospel ? " 

The Messrs Bonar, indeed, seem to hold that it will, and 



THEIE VIEWS TRIED BY THE REDEEMER S WORDS. 297 

so to admit all we ask. But so far as I am able to under 
stand their language it is but a more subtle way of saying 
the same thing. 

" The Gospel," says Mr A. Bonar, " is the instrument in 
the Lord s hand for converting the world it will always be 
the one instrument in the Spirit s hand." But he does not 
design " so to use it at present " " in this dispensation that 
precedes the Lord s coming ;" and to look for it before Christ 
come is but " a visionary hope," which missionaries should not 
cherish. He has heard missionaries "regret deeply that the 
Church at home should be dazzled by the vain hope of conver 
sions on a grand scale." If the missionary would " see that 
the gathering out of the elect is his sole hope" he would be " far 
less disheartened by opposition than when he vainly expected 
every day to see symptoms of national and universal conversion." 
And if " it would be wrong, grievously wrong, to say that 
the Gospel is not the instrument in the Lord s hand for con 
verting the world, equally wrong is it to say that the Lord is 
so to use it at present/ * 

If ever a statement went directly in the face of the Re 
deemer s own words, this surely is one. 

" All power, said Jesus to his disciples and their successors in 
every age, " is glren unto me in heaven and in earth. Go YE 

THEREFORE, AND MAKE DISCIPLES OF ALL NATIONS, baptizing 

them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost ; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded 

you; AND, LO, I AM WITH YOU ALWAY, EVEN UNTO THE END OF 

THE WORLD." (Matt, xxviii. 18-20.) 

Happily, there is no dispute about the meaning of the 
phrase, " the end of the world," here. It is agreed on all 
hands, as I have had occasion to remark before, that the 
period or state of things denoted by it terminates with the 
second coming of Christ. So that the sense would have been 
quite the same if, instead of saying " unto the end of the 

* Redemption, &c., pp. 186, 187. 



298 ALL NATIONS BROUGHT IN BEFORE CHRIST COMES. 

world," the Lord had said, " until I come again." Thus, then, 
the disciples were commissioned to evangelize the world be 
fore Christ s second coming; not merely to preach the Gospel, 
" for a icitness," to a world that would not receive it till he 
came again " to gather out the few elect," as Mr Bonar 
expresses it, as contradistinguished from the world at large, 
to be brought in only after the second advent but to ac 
complish, instrumentally, the actual " discipleship of all na 
tions," to baptize them when gathered in, and to train them 
up as professed Christians in the knowledge and obedience of 
the truth, for glory all before his second coming. In the 
doing of this, He promises to be with them not merely to 
stand by them while preaching a rejected Gospel, and to note 
their fidelity, but clearly to prosper the work of their hands 
unto the actual evangelization of the world at large, before 
his coming. " Those," says Mr Bonar, " that deny the pre- 

millennial coming have led themselves and others to 

expect that at this present time, in this dispensation that 
precedes the Lord s coming, the preaching of the Gospel is 
to be followed up with national conversions, or at least con 
version and reformation in the dense masses of the world s 
population." No, brother, we have not " led ourselves;" but 
thy Master and ours who tremble, as we doubt not thou 
dost, at the word of the Lord hath constrained us to be 
lieve that not " the few elect," as contradistinguished from 
the world at large, but that very world at large, is to be 
gained over to Christ, in the only sense in which the world 
at large ever will be Christ s " in this dispensation that precedes 
the Lord s coming." 

But what I wish specially to note, is the connection be 
tween the present exercise of the work of the ministry at home 
by pastors, and abroad by missionaries and this evangeliza 
tion of all nations as the result. To expect this result, in the 
believing and prayerful use of the prescribed means, is no 
thing else but to rely on Christ s word of promise; and to ex- 



DR H. BOXAR AND DR BOGUE. 299 

pcct it in the "present " use of the means, or " in this dispen 
sation that precedes the Lord s coming," is merely to presume 
that the Lord means what he says. Yet this is what Mr 
Bonar ventures to call " a vain " and " visionary hope " " daz 
zling the Church at home," and fitted only to " dishearten " 
missionaries abroad. Say we not well, that the premillennial 
theory paralyses missionary effort by paralysing missionary 
expectation? 

To the same effect, Dr H. Bonar. " Do I paralyse effort," 
he asks, " when I say, Work while it is day, for the night 
cometh when no man can work?" No, I reply, not when 
you say " work;" but when you teach the workman not to 
expect the promised result, then you paralyse effort. 

I cannot illustrate this better, nor more effectually show 
the bearings of the premillennial theory upon missionary 
work, than by quoting a passage in which Dr Bonar ad 
ministers a lofty and imposing rebuke to the late excellent 
Dr Bogue of Gosport, one of the original founders of the 
London Missionary Society, the wonderful success of which 
in the South Seas and elsewhere filled his soul with burning 
desires for the universal triumph of the Gospel, and joyous 
anticipations of the near approach of that consummation. 
True, he lived not to see some things which we have wit 
nessed, and which would probably have modified his lan 
guage ; the revived missionary zeal, too, of the Church, then 
in the warmth of its first love, would naturally be esti 
mated at more than its real value. But for myself, I am 
willing to underlie the castigation administered to that 
venerated servant of Christ now indeed beyond its reach 
for what is extracted from his "Discourses on the Millen 
nium" 

" Of what use would it be," asks Dr Bonar, " to cheat or dazzle 
men by such rhetoric as the following [from Dr Bogue] ? Was 
there ever a period in the history of our world in which so 
many vistas of glorious hope opened to mankind as at the present 



300 MISSIONARY EFFORT PARALYSED. 

moment? Let the siege which has so auspiciously commenced 
upon the forces of the enemy, be kept up with evergrowing skill 
and determination; let existing advantages be seized upon with a 
resolution worthy of the cause ; let the armies of the living God 
muster their whole strength, and go forth to the help of the Lord 
against the mighty, and ere long the camp of the enemy shall bo 
seized with sudden overwhelming dread ; the legions of darkness 
shall flee apace, and the conquest of a world shall be given to the 
saints of the Most High. Well spoken ! But what if it be all a 
dream ! Go forth (fond theorist!) from the study or the pulpit, and 
look on Europe now. Is there aught in the turbid swell 
ing of the great deluge of European atheism on which to build 
such glorious hopes ? " &c. * 

Where, I desire to ask, is the " cheat" practised by Dr 
Bogue ? Is it in assuring his readers that " let the siege so 
auspiciously commenced upon the forces of the enemy, be 
kept up with evergrowing skill and determination" that 
" let existing advantages be seized upon with a resolution 
worthy of the cause" that " let the armies of the living 
God muster their whole strength, and go forth to the help 
of the Lord against the mighty;" and then, " ere long" Dr 
Bogue does not presume to say how long, but " ere long," 
or, as the apostle says about Christ s coming, " yet a little 
while" " the camp of the enemy shall tremble and flee, 
and the world be given to the saints of the Most High ? " 
Is this the " cheat?" For myself, I believe it most profoundly; 
and if, with such views, Mr Bonar asks, " Do I paralyse 
effort?" I answer Yes. Not only does the Lord s commis 
sion authorize the expectation that all nations shall be evan 
gelized " at the present time in this dispensation that 
precedes the Lord s coming" but the very expectation of this 
result from the preaching of the Gospel ivill be a prime element 
of success; f and therefore it is to paralyse effort to calumniate 

* Coming and Kingdom, &c., pp. 152, 153. 

t In the second edition, I said " prime and indispensable ; " but after 
Mr Wood s remarks, I am willing to erase the second word. I hope my 



JUDGMENTS EFFUSION OF THE SPIRIT. 301 

such expectations, and, let those who talk of " cheating and 
dazzling men" with " visionary hopes," have a care at whose 
door their charges ultimately lie. 

2. On the judgments which are to usher in the millennium 
I have nothing to say, except to notice the false position 
assigned to them in such statements as the following, already 
quoted: " The universal prevalence of true religion," says 
Mr Brooks, " hereafter to be enjoyed, is not to be effected 
by any increased impetus given to the present means of 
evangelizing the nations, "but by a stupendous display of the 
divine truth upon all the apostate and ungodly" as if judg 
ments would do what "the Gospel had failed to accomplish" 
" evangelize the nations." Let Dr H. Bonar rebuke this 
view of the judgments of God. " We look," says he, " upon 
the judgments, at the Lord s coming, in the same light 
(though differing in degree) as we do upon any judgment of 

God s hand He may use these awful calamities just 

as he now uses afflictions, but the power and the glory are 
his alone." * Mr Brooks, indeed, would not deny that the 
power and glory of conversion, in every case, belong to God; 
but by contrasting judgments with a preached Gospel, he 
makes the instrumentality that will be employed in convert 
ing " the nations," something different from what is now 
employed in every case of conversion. 

3. A word or two on the effusion of the Spirit, in virtue of 
which those extensive conquests of the nations to Christ are 
to be brought about. We should like to hear more about 
this. I do not for a moment doubt that those whose writ 
ings I am now examining are at one with me in expecting 
such effusion. But do they believe that it may come " at 
this present time in this dispensation that precedes the 

esteem for the brethren to -whom I am opposed on this subject, and my 
confidence in their personal interest in the missionary -work, may be 
allowed to consist with strenuous opposition to the system which they 
espouse. 
* Coming and Kingdom, pp. 51, 52. 



502 CHRIST S PERSONAL APPEARING MIRACLES. 

Lord s coming?" We believing that the " discipling of all 
nations" is to be effected, as the Lord himself assures us, 
before he comes of course look for those copious showers 
of the Spirit which alone can make the Word efficacious to 
do it. They believing that the conversion of the nations 
is not to be till after the Lord come of course do not look for 
the Spirit to effect it by any preaching of the Gospel that is, or 
can be now set on foot. And is not this to " paralyse effort ? " 

4. I will not dwell upon the converting efficacy ascribed 
to Christ s personal appearing ; because, though such passages 
as, " They shall look on me whom they have pierced" " Be 
hold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him," 
are frequently referred to in proof of this, there seems a 
general disposition to admit that it is the WORD and the 
SPIRIT to which even these men will owe their conversion, 
just as now; and, consequently, that the very sight of Christ 
in person will only be one of the means by which such con 
version will be aided, like other striking events, though none 
will be so striking as this. Strange, indeed, that when 
Christ " cometh in his own glory, and in the glory of the 
Father and of the holy angels" when he "cometh with clouds, 
and every eye shall see him" that the most stupendous, 
bright, and awful of all events should just rank amongst the 
means by which men at the millennium are to be converted! 

Some look to the revival of miracles as one great means of 
the rapid conversions which are to signalise the latter day. 
But in vain. As we do not need them, so the soul in a 
healthy state does not desire them. The Church is in its 
manhood, and miracles are for its infancy.* Souls that have 

* The Scripture doctrine of physical, as contrasted with moral miracles, 
deducible from such passages as John iv. 48, 49, compared with chapter 
xx. 29; Johnxiv. 12; i. 50, 51, and Luke xvi. 27-31, suggests a line of 
thought quite adverse to any expectation of physical manifestations, 
such as floats loosely in the minds of not a few whose apprehensions in. 
every other respect are thoroughly scriptural. The above passages indi 
cate that such manifestations are suited, as they were granted, to an z w. 



CHURCH S PRESENT RESOURCES ALL-SUFFICIENT. 303 

felt the Saviour s grace know right \vell its matchless power. 
After their own conversion, they can never doubt its con 
verting efficacy on any scale that may be required. The Spirit 
in the hand of Christ, and the Word in the hand of the Spirit, 
as they are the present agency for converting sinners, and per 
fecting saints, and advancing the Redeemer s kingdom in the 
world so they are all that we are taught to ascribe the 
glories of the latter day to. And quite enough. That these 
spiritual glories are not now irradiating the world that 
they have not long ago chased away the darkness with which 
the usurping " god of this world" has been permitted to cover 
it is owing to no defect in the present resources of the 
Church, and of the economy under which it is placed. That 
more fidelity on the Church s part would have hastened the 
predicted consummation, is language which we are fully war 
ranted in using. But He to whom " are known all his works 
from the beginning of the world," has ordered the " times 
and the seasons" in such mysterious correspondence with the 
faithlessness of his Church, as to bring out, in affecting relief, 
his own sole glory in the long-promised subjugation of the 
world to Christ, and the utter worthlessnoss of his people as 
the instruments of it. With a view to this, he suffers the 
Church to lie for ages in ignoble ease, in pitiful leanness, in 
a state of carnality which at once blights its fruits, poisons its 
streams, and rends it in pieces ; while the world, all unpitied, 
lies powerless in the enemy s hand, and its dark places are 
full of the habitations of cruelty. But when " the time to 
favour Zion comes, even the set time," it will be seen that it 
needed but the agencies of this present dispensation to be 
brought into full play to accomplish all that is promised; and 
then will it appear what a mine cf wealth, and what a maga 
zine of power for the spiritual recovery of a diseased world, 

ferior and infantile condition of the Church ; while the absence not only 
of the manifestations themselves, but of all desire for them, is character 
istic of the Church s manhood. 



304 CHURCH S PRESENT RESOURCES ALL-SUFFICIENT. 

were in possession of the Church s Head, and were all along 
the dowry of his people. The heart delights to dwell on 
this prospect. It desires to see what Christ can do by his 
Word and Spirit. When by these he does all they are com 
petent to when they have exhausted their ability, and the 
work stands still for want of something else then we may 
be reconciled to new methods, and may look out for a new 
dispensation. But while any such thought is infinitely dis 
paraging to the blessed Spirit, and to the word of his power, 
there is a satisfaction unspeakable in anticipating the endless 
ways in which the Spirit may get himself renown, by what 
he will yet do in and by the Church: how, under His mighty 
working, the instrumentalities for spreading the Gospel may 
be seen indefinitely multiplying ; all the missionary principle 
and energy of a Church, quickened from the base torpor of 
ages previous, evolving themselves even to their own asto 
nishment; majestic steps in Providence startling men from 
their stupid slumbers, awing their spirits, and constraining 
their attention to long-despised truths : these and other 
such things, in connection with direct and copious effusions 
of the Spirit, the heart delights to think of as destined to 
effect that universal submission to the sceptre of Christ which 
is to characterise the latter day. It feels this to be vastly 
more satisfactory and attractive as a prospect, and far more 
in accordance with the whole tenor of Scripture, than any 
rude interposition of visible manifestations-^any interruption 
of the magnificent operation of God s ordinary laws of work 
ing, by immediate and short-hand methods of obtaining the 
result. 



CHAPTER II. 

NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM NOT A STATE OF UNMIXED 
RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

IT may appear superfluous to devote a chapter to this point. 
But if I were asked on what head of our subject the confu 
sion and inconsistency of the premillennial scheme are most 
manifest in the writings of its advocates, and their confidence 
in it, at the same time, the most unbounded, I should not 
hesitate to reply, on this head. 

Their starting-point is usually from the Parable of the 
Tares. (Matt, xiii.) All modern premillennialists hold these 
parables conclusive in favour of their views. You can hardly 
open one of their volumes without finding some reference to 
it in this light. 

Let both tares and icheat grow together until the harvest " This," 
says Dr M Neile, " is characteristic of the whole period of the Lord s 
absence. Now, I ask, is this phrase, Let both grow together, 
equally characteristic of the millennium and of this dispensation ? 
If it be answered, Yes; I cannot for a moment dispute that such a 
millennium will precede the coming of the Lord we have it 
already. The millennium predicted by the Holy Ghost is not, 
however, so motley a concern as this would make it. Its charac 
teristics are, The people shall be ALL righteous;* they shall all 
know the Lord, from the least of them unto the greatest of them; 
they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; the earth 
shall be covered with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters 
cover the sea; from the rising of the sun, even unto the going down 

* The capitals are the author a 



306 A MILLENNIUM WITHOUT SIN 

of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in 
EVERT place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a PURE 
offering; for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the 
Lord of Hosts. These and similar predictions manifestly describe 
a state of things contrasted with the present. That state is the mil 
lennium. The tares must be remaned previous and preparatory to the 
millennium. The season of the removal of the tares is the harvest. 
The harvest is the period of the Lord s coming with the holy angels. 
Consequently, the Lord s coming must be previous and preparatory 
to the millennium. It may here be remarked how every sectarian 
effort to get what is called a pure Church, is a petty attempt to 
antedate the millennium, by the removal of the tares; Let both 
grow together until the harvest. Then, indeed, the ungodly shall 
not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the 
righteous. " * 

In a recent lecture, already referred to, the same author 
thus describes the millennial state : 

" THERE SHALL BE NO MORE SIN. All the then inhabitants of the earth 
shall be holy. All shall love God, and serve God, so that his will 
shall then be done on earth as it is in heaven." "f 1 

" On this parable of the tares," says the brother from whom I 
quoted in the foregoing chapter, " we would submit the following 
remarks: 1. It spans the whole economy under which we are now 
living. It commences with his personal ministry on earth ; it 
closes with his personal coming to judgment at the end of the 
world. It is therefore a brief extract, a kind of miniature view, 
of all that lies between these two extreme limits between the 
first and the second coining of our Lord. 2. Between these two 
extreme limits we find no trace nor hint of any millennium. After 
and beyond the second coming of the Son of Man, and his gather 
ing out of his kingdom all things that offend, and casting them 
into a furnace of fire, we do find some notice of that blessed state 
(the millennium) : Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun 

in the kingdom of their Father. Now, if a state of things 

so very peculiar and blessed in its nature as the millennium, and 
of such long duration, had been to occur between these two points, 

* Sermons on the Second Advent, note, pp. 41, 42. 
t Lent Lect. for 1819, p. 96. 



PICTURED BY PREMILLENNIALISTS. 307 

would it have been entirely omitted in the picture ? Suppose its 
place, in point of fact, to be there, would not its omission in this 
picture of the whole be somewhat like a history of our race with 
out the fall, and of our recovery without the cross the very capi 
tal feature omitted ? 3. The best of the dispensation is first, not 

last. It begins well, grows worse, and ends worst of all 

4. The dispensation thus becoming a mixture of good and evil, 
this mixture continues not for a while merely, but down to the 

very end It was to be a mixed economy down to its very 

close The rectifying which comes at last is not by mercy 

but by judgment not by the sowing of grace but the sickle of 
vengeance not by an extension of the gospel, the labours of ministers, 
or any gracious instrumentality whatsoever now at work, but by the angels 
of God, who are to accompany the Son of Man at his second ad 
vent It will consist, not in resowing, but in reaping the 

field 5. The termination of this economy, therefore, is in 

judgment, not mercy; mercy, however, not by an extension 

and enlargement of the economy of grace, but in a new economy alto 
gether; for in it the evil shall be purged out by consummate judg 
ment on the wicked. The present economy, according to this 
sketcli of its course, does not terminate by an enlarged exercise of 
grace, in the common meaning of the word, nor by the use and 
success of any agency now in operation the gospel the ministry the 
Spirit. It is ended by an agency, and an act entirely new and differ 
ent by the immediate intervention of the Son of Man, &c. 6. We 
may add, that the kingdom, in its PERFECT state the reign of UN 
MIXED GOOD, thus introduced by power and judgment has its seat 
in the very same world where the evil existed, and whence it is 

now cast out In this world is the kingdom, imperfect 

at first, and mixed with evil, afterwards made perfect by the Son 
of Man and his angels, and ENTIRELY UNJIIXED. And it is in this 

kingdom that the righteous, when the moral atmosphere 

has been cleared by the last act of judgment, shine out as the sun 
without a cloud." * 

" The tares and the wheat," says Mr Elliott, " were to grow 
together intermixed until the harvest (the end of the aia or age). 
Then at length (not before) the tares should be eradicated That 

* Present Dispensation Its Course. (No. 2. of a Series on Prophecy.) 
Kennedy, Edinburgh. 



308 A MILLENNIUM WITHOUT SIN 

there can have been no millennium previously, follows 

surely from Christ s statement of the mixture of tares and wheat 
continuing in the gospel field uninterruptedly to it. * 

Let us now look into this boasted argument. 

1. Nothing can be clearer than that the separation of the 
tares from the wheat is an absolute and final separation. 
Indeed the extracts given express the same thing. The 
tract calls the present a " mixed economy from first to last," 
a " mixture of good and evil." The one which succeeds it 
is represented as precisely the opposite of this. It is " the 
kingdom in its PERFECT state;" it is " the reign of UNMIXED 
GOOD ENTIRELY UNMIXED," where " the righteous shine out 
without a cloud." This being the undoubted sense of the 
parable, and expressed emphatically by those who adduce it, 
I have to ask, 

2. Do you believe your own representation? You do not. 
It will not do to say that the glorified portion of the Church 
will be perfect; for that is a truism. Your whole argument 
is, that there cannot be any millennial state amongst mortal 
men before Christ s second coming, because, according to the 
teaching of this parable, these wax worse and worse onwards 
till Christ s second coming, after which the evil will be 
purged out, and an unmixed millennium of men in the 
flesh, of course take place. This is your argument, if it be 
intelligible at all. Evidently, then, you must mean that 
after Christ s coming there will be no tares no " imperfec 
tion, mixture, evil" amongst mortal men, and in the Church 
below. The tract speaks of the " purifying of the moral 
atmosphere," and the establishing of " a new economy," 
which, of course, refers exclusively to the mortal state of 
mankind. Mr Elliott says, " Then the tares shall be eradi 
cated." And Dr M Neile, who will have no " motley concern " 
of a millennium, describes it in such Scripture language as 

* Hor Apoc., ut supra, iv. p. 180. 



PICTURED, BUT NOT BELIEVED IX. 309 

this: " From the rising of the sun, unto the going down of 
the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles, and 
in every place incense shall be offered." " The earth shall 
be covered with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters 
cover the sea," and so forth. No one can imagine this to be 
quoted as a description of the state of glory. You picture, 
then, a state of things upon earth which you do not your 
selves believe. Even Dr M Neile, despite the language we 
have found him using, had no faith, when he wrote his Lec 
tures on the Jews at least, in the sinlcssness or perfection of 
the millennial state. The tract above quoted, when it expa 
tiates on the sinless perfection of the millennial state, only 
expresses formally, and out and out, what in substance occurs 
in almost every production of modern premillennialists. But 
such absolute and unmixed good such perfect removal of evil 
hardly one of them is bold enough to say he expects to be 
the condition of mortal men during the millennium. 

The imperfection of the millennium is not, indeed, much 
dwelt on. It suits better their views of a Saviour personally 
present, and a new heaven and a new earth already realized, 
to talk of the blessed millennium, without going nicely into 
the question what that blessedness is to be. It is far more 
congenial to the feelings of good men, so to mix up the state 
of glory with the mortal state as to lose themselves in the 
general halo which thus is made to surround the subject in 
their eyes. " Sin and misery till He comes," exclaims Dr 
M Neile; "righteousness and happiness at His coming! Groan- 
ings and agony till He comes; songs of triumph at His coming! 
Faint glimmerings of hope amidst surrounding and prevailing 
darkness, and desolation, and despair, till He comes; ever 
lasting light, and life, and joy, and love, at his coming! 
These are the cadences which continually fall upon the ear 
from the sacred harp." * Now, it is a pity to spoil so pleasing 

* Serm. on the Second Advent. Serin, vi., Renovation of the whole 
Earth at the Second Advent, pp. 191, 192. 



310 TARES IN THE FIELD DURING THE MILLENNIUM 

a picture, but the fault lies with those who paint it. The 
colours are false; it is a dream; no such millennium is believed 
in. It is an earthly state, stripped of its earthliness. When 
premillennialists, however, are roused to draw a definite and 
clear line between the glorified and the mortal states of the 
Church, they describe the millennium just as other people do, 
and in so doing destroy their own argument. Take the fol 
lowing from the Presbyterian Review of Mr Scott s Out 
lines." Mr Scott had gone rather too far in the direction of 
a perfect millennium ; not so far, indeed, as to affirm that there 
would be absolutely no sin during the millennium, but farther 
than most premillennialists. And this provoked a good re 
futation of his peculiar opinions, from the pen of a brother 
premillennialist. " Sin," says the reviewer, " and as a con 
sequence, death, does exist during the millennium ; and we 
should like some distinct scriptural evidence to the contrary. 
The system would require to prove that there is to be absolutely 
no sin upon the earth during that period. Sin and death entered 
the world together, and in like manner will they depart to 
gether at the end of the millennium." * If this be a correct 
account of the millennium, it only proves that there will not 
be so many tares then as now: that is all. Mr Bickersteth also 
represents the millennial state as one of simply prevailing 
holiness a prevalency which, while it does not exclude the 
presence of the ungodly and wicked upon earth, will make 
them conceal their real character, and " feign submission." 
Are such characters tares, then, or are they wheat ? If they 
be tares, the millennium cannot be the state described by the 
separation of the tares from the ivhcat : The tares by your 
own admission are still among the wheat, and will not be 
separated till after the millennium.^ 

* Presbyterian Review, Jan. 1845, p. 470. 

f Mr Elliott s and Mr Wood s replies to these observations, only show 
how impossible it is to overthrow them. "Mr Brown," says Mr Elliott, 
" argues strongly that the millennial state is one of imperfection, and so 



NOT GATHERED OUT TILL END OF MILLENNIUM. 311 

Thus, this argument proves most satisfactorily the reverse 
of what it is brought to establish. But here it may natu 
rally be asked, how such a strange confusion of thought is to 

still of tares and wheat. But does prophecy so depict it ? We read, that 
then the people shall be all righteous all individually knowing the Lord, 
from the least to the greatest, as well as with the knowledge of God out 
wardly covering the earth as the waters cover the sea ; also, that there 
will be then no n>^; ( iniquity ), the wopes ( that wicked ), and the 
mystery of 0.10^0. ( iniquity ), have been destroyed with Antichrist; nor 
any scandals, for they shall not hurt in all my holy mountain. Can this 
suit the state of the intermixed tares and wheat, with an^/a and <nctw$x).s 
ever continued onward (Matt. xiii. 41) till the fire purges them out ? Ad 
mit that with earth s inhabitants, from the continued Adamic taint, holi 
ness will in one sense not be absolutely perfect. That will not constitute 
them tares. (Mr Brown seems to me to be mistaken in supposing the 
wheat and tares of the parable to signify the good and evil that there 
may be in the same person ; not the godly, as a class, and the ungodly). 
Christ s true servants now, though imperfect, and with the taint of na 
tural corruption remaining in them, are yet wheat, not tares. And so, 
I conceive, only with much less of imperfection, there will be only wheat 
then, according to the prophetic word, and no tares. How, indeed, could 
there well grow that which is the produce of the Wicked One s sowing, at 
a time when the Wicked One is shut up and sealed, as in Apoc. xx. 3, from 
deceiving and tempting men any more." (Ilorce, fourth edit., pp. 180,181). 

Mr Wood argues to the same effect, as to the mixture of sin with grace 
in believers not making them tares, and the design of the parable being 
to announce the separation of the good and evil classes at Christ s coming, 
not the separation of good and evil qualities in the same class. But lest 
this should not be deemed sufficient to meet my argument, he further 
says, that as to the saints who, at Christ s coming, are to be glorified, they 
at least will be untainted ; and as to the unglorified, who after that are to 
people the earth in the flesh, " there will be no false professors in the 
visible church during the millennium," and any tares then found on the 
lield of the world will not belong to the visible church at all. (Last 
Things, pp. 304-307.) 

The fallacy of all this is transparent. Doubtless, the object of the 
parable is to announce the separation of the two great classes godly and 
ungodly. But that the purging out or eradicating of the corrupt element 
from the church of God, when Christ comes, is intended to be conveyed, 
even they themselves express as strongly as I do. The extracts I have 
given say all that I have said, and say truly. And interpreters generally 
give this as the truth taught by the parable. " TUB SEPARATION OF GOOD 
AND EVIL SHALL THEN BE ABSOLUTE," says BEXGEL, for example. (See 



312 PARABLES ILLUSTRATING CHRIST S KINGDOM 

be accounted for ? How, it may be said, can so many sensible 
and excellent men confound the state of mortality with that 
of glory, and not only apply to the one what even themselves 
admit to be applicable only to the other, but on this vicious 
transference build one of their strongest arguments if their 
own estimate of its value is to be taken ? The question is an 
interesting one; and the answer to it is, that the system 
almost inevitably engenders such confusion. The funda 
mental principle of the system the contemporaneousness and 
coexistence of the state of grace and the state of glory of 
mortality and immortality of an upper and a lower a celes 
tial and a terrestrial department of one and the same king 
dom this principle destroys the real nature of both the 
things which it places in juxtaposition. The state of grace, 
on this principle, ceases to be the state of grace which it is 
represented to be in God s Word ; and the state of glory is in 
like manner perverted. It is not that each is raised and 
lowered to the measure of the other. But it is that we have, 
instead of them, something more or less different from both. 

Before leaving this parable of the tares, I cannot refrain 
from noticing the light thrown upon it by the other parables 
in the same chapter. (Matt, xiii.) Various features of his 
kingdom are there taught by the Saviour in seven parables. 
The parable of the Sower (v. 3-23) teaches who are the 
genuine subjects of the kingdom : The parables of the Trea 
sure and of the Pearl (v. 44-46) teach the priceless value 
of the blessings of the kingdom : The parables of the Mustard 
Seed and of the Leaven (v. 31-33) teach its progressive ad 
vancement in the world ; while the parables of the Tares 

note f, P- 286). Mr Wood s assertion, that all the unregenerate will be 
outside the visible church, not in the field of the parable, is utterly gra 
tuitous, at variance with express Scripture, and contradicted by most 
writers on his own side, Mr Bickersteth, for example, who speaks of their 
" feigned subjection to Christ " in that day. 



WHY THE MILLENNIUM NOT IN THEM. 313 

and of the Net (v. 24-30, 36-43, 47-50) teach the present 
mixture, and the future absolute separation, of righteous and 
wicked in the kingdom. Now, as the growing character 
of the kingdom, taught by the " mustard seed," and the 
penetrating and assimilating character, taught by the " leaven," 
go on till " the whole (earth) is leavened," and all the world 
have been brought to lodge in the branches of the mighty tree 
of life these parables must of course take in the millennium, 
if there is to be one at all ; for there is no millennium to come 
after the evangelization af the whole world. " Go," said Christ 
before he ascended, " and make disciples of all nations ; and, 
lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" 
(ffumXs/a r. aiuvog) when his second coming takes place. 
Accordingly, the same expression is used in these parables. 
The growing process, the leavening process, and the presence 
of tares with the wheat bad fish with the good all are con 
temporaneous, and all conterminous ; they begin and they 
end at " the end of the world," or when Christ comes again. 
The millennium, therefore, if there be one, precedes, and does 
not, cannot follow the second coming of Christ. 

Do you ask, then, why the millennium is not mentioned 
in the parable of the tares ? I answer, The object for which 
it was spoken not only did not demand it, but positively for 
bade it. It was to set forth the mixed character of the visible 
Church till Christ come : All are agreed in this. But the 
millennium is as truly, though not in the same degree, a 
mixed state of the visible Church as this is. Premillen- 
nialists themselves are compelled to admit this. There will 
be tares during the millennium in the field of the Church ; 
and the final apostasy, and the vast confederacy of daring 
enemies of Christ and his Church show that these will not 
be few. In contrasting, therefore, the mixed with the un 
mixed state of the Church, which our Lord does in this para 
ble of the tares, the millennium has no separate place no 
standing of its own at all. With reference to the unmixed 



314 MILLENNIUM BELONGS TO MIXED STATE OF CHURCH. 

state when " the righteous shine forth as the sun in the king 
dom of their Father" the millennium differs in nothing 
Avorthy of mention in the parable from the present state of 
the Church : it disappears in that mixed state of grace which 
goes down to the end of the world, and ends in the state of 
glory only by a final absolute separation of tares from wheat 
righteous from wicked. 

Thus, if there is one passage which more effectually than 
another negatives the premillennial scheme, it is the one 
which of all others, perhaps, is the most frequently and con 
fidently adduced in proof of it- 



CHAPTER III. 

NATURE OF THE MILLENNIUM JUST THE FULL DEVELOPMENT 
OF THE KINGDOM OF GRACE IN ITS EARTHLY STATE. 

THERE are two famous prophecies of Daniel, which are 
admitted on all hands to furnish a key to much of the 
language of Scripture on the subject of Christ s kingdom 
being the blossom, so to speak, of preceding, and the bud 
of succeeding revelations on this head. These two pregnant 
visions I propose here to examine, in so far as they bear 
upon our question. 

I. In Nebuchadnezzar s vision of the Image (chap, ii.) 
representing the kingdoms with which the Church of God 
has had successively to do, and by which it has suffered so 
much the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Grecian, and 
the Roman Daniel says 

" Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which 
smote the image upon his feet of iron and clay, and brake 
them to pieces. Then was the iron and clay, the brass, 
the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and 
became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors ; and 
the wind carried them away, that no place was found for 
them : and the stone that smote the image became a great moun 
tain, and filled the whole earth." " AND," says Daniel, in 
terpreting this part of the vision, " IN THE DAYS OP THESE 
KINGS (or kingdoms) SHALL THE GOD OF HEAVEN SET UP A 
KINGDOM, WHICH SHALL NEVER BE DESTROYED : and the king 
dom shall not be left to other people, but IT SHALL BREAK 



316 NEBUCHADNEZZAR S DREAM. 

IN PIECES AND CONSUME ALL THESE KINGDOMS, AND IT SHALL 

STAND FOR EVER." (Verses 34, 35, 44.) 

On these verses, the following remarks of JOSEPH MEDE, 
which display his usual penetration, will be read with in 
terest : 

" This prediction," says he, " points out two states of the king 
dom of Christ. The first to be while those times of the kingdoms 
of the Gentiles yet lasted, typified by a stone hewn out of a 
mountain without hands, the monarchical statue yet standing 
upon his feet ; the second, not to be until the utter destruction 
and dissipation of the image, when the stone, having smote it 
upon the feet, should grow into a great mountain which, should 
fill the whole earth. The first may be called, for distiuction s 
sake, Regnum Lajndis, the KINGDOM OF THE STONE, which is the 
state of Christ s kingdom which hitherto hath been ; the other, 
Regnum Montis, the KINGDOM OF THE MOUNTAIN, that is, of the 
stone grown into a mountain, &c., which is the state of his 
kingdom which hereafter shall be. The interval between these 
two from the time the stone was first hewn out, that is, the 
kingdom of Christ was first advanced, until the time it becomes 
a mountain, that is, when the mystery of God shall be finished 
(Rev. x. 7) is the subject of the Apocalyptical visions. Note here, 
first, That the stone is expounded by Daniel to be that lasting 
kingdom which the God of heaven should set up. Secondly, That 
the stone was hewn out of the mountain before it smote the image 
upon the feet, and, consequently, before the image teas dissipated; 
and, therefore, that the kingdom typified by the stone, ichile it re 
mained a stone, must needs be within the times of these monarchies, that 
is, before the last of them (viz., the Roman) should expire. Wherefore 
Daniel interprets, That in the days of these kingdoms (not after 
them, but ichile some of them were yet in being~) the God of heaven 
should set up a kingdom, " &c. * 

* Works, pp. 743, 744. 

The Grotian interpretation of Daniel s fourth kingdom has been re 
vived of late by Moses Stuart and others, as denoting, not the Roman 
kingdom, but " beyond all doubt the divided Grecian dominion which 
succeeded the reign of Alexander the Great." (Hints on the Inter 
pretation of Prophecy, p. 86, 2d edit., 1842 ; and Commentary on 



THE STONE BECOMING A MOUNTAIN. 317 

Now observe what comes out of this. 

1. The kingdom of Christ, instead of commencing with 
the millennium, will, it seems, have run one entire stage 
of its career before that era arrives. There are not two 
kingdoms one, " the means," the other, " the end ; " one, 
" the preparation for it," the other, " the establishment and 
manifestation of it ; " one, " the supreme kingdom of God," 
administered by Christ now "in another s right, and with 
another s power," the other, " his own kingdom, throne, 
and sceptre," to be assumed at the millennium. There is 
but one kingdom of Christ in " two states," commencing 
during the existence of the last of the four monarchies; 
that is, on the Eedeemer s exaltation to the right hand of 
power, stretching across the era of the latter day, and losing 
itself in the final state. However different its aspects as 
"the stone," and as "the mountain," it is the Stone that 
becomes the Mountain. 

2. The difference between the two states of the kingdom 
represented in the vision its state before and its state during 
the millennium is not, it seems, a difference of dispensation 
or organic form, but merely of prosperity and extent. " The 
image is broken in pfeces, and the stone becomes a great 
mountain, and fills the whole earth." * 

Daniel, pp. 188-194, 1850, by Professor Moses Stuart.) But agreeing, 
as I do, with my opponents here, I merely name llengstenberg, Haver- 
nick, and Hofmann names quite as great as Mr Stuart s on the other 
side. 

* " So say we," replies the Duke of Manchester ; " but a change from 
a stone to a mountain is more than a change of aspect. Had the pro 
phecy described the stone as growing till it filled the eaith, if it had 
btill been a detached stone, that would have answered Mr Brown s idea 
of a difference merely of prosperity and extent ; but it becomes a 
mountain." (Pp. 300, 301.) I never thought it could admit of a doubt, 
that the figure of a stone becoming a mountain and filling the whole 
earth, denoted the change, in point of extent, of the kingdom of Christ 
from its earlier to its later stages of development. It is enough to re 
fer generally to the commentators in support of this view of the figure. It 



318 OUR LORD S PARABLES. 

Now, this is just the view of the kingdom which the Saviour 
gives in the parables of the mustard seed and of the leaven, 
to which I adverted in the preceding chapter : . 

" The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, 
which a man took, and sowed in his field : which, indeed, 
is the least of all seeds ; but when it is grown, it is the 
greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the 
birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof 
Another parable spake he to them : The kingdom of 
heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid 
in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." 
(Matt. xiii. 31-33.) 

The only difference between these representations and that 
of Daniel is, that in tracing the fortunes of the kingdom in 
the world, the one takes no notice of what the other em 
phatically marks the fall of the antichristian powers, and 
the prodigious consequences of that event upon the subse 
quent condition of the kingdom. Had we no other repre 
sentations of this matter than those of the parables just 
quoted, we might be apt to conclude that the onward pro 
gress of the kingdom, if slow, would nevertheless be, from 
first to last, steady, equable, tranquil, and silent. Experience 
would indeed correct this view of the Saviour s words ; 
teaching us that progress on the ivhole, though chequered and 
variable, with ultimate universality, was all which he must 
have intended to convey, as it is certainly all that his 
language necessarily expresses. From Daniel, however, we 
learn something more definite; namely, that its advances 
from the beginning up to the millennial era, though real, 
will be relatively insignificant, in consequence of certain 
gigantic obstructions, whose malignant influence will keep 
it enslaved and corrupted, shrivelled and secularized, till 

matters nothing whether this change will be sudden or slow, after the 
stone shall have "smitten the image." All that I wished to mark is, 
that the change indicated by the figure is of this nature. 



THE KINGDOM WINS THE VICTORY. 310 

they be taken out of the way ; but that, having at length 
effected their complete overthrow, it shall then put forth all 
its vital and expansive power, and become commensurate 
with the world. This is manifestly the whole difference 
between the " two states " of the kingdom before and during 
the millennium according to Nebuchadnezzar s vision; its 
meanness now, and its magnitude then ; its comparative in 
significance, as a principle of power in the world, up to the 
millennium, and its glorious universality and all-commanding 
influence in the latter day. 

3. It is the kingdom of Christ, it seems, with its present 
resources and agencies, that is to " break in pieces and con 
sume all these kingdoms," whilst itself " stands for ever." In 
other words, Christ s presently existing kingdom has within it 
self the whole resources by which it is destined to crush the anti- 
christianism that obstructs its universal triumphs, and to win 
its ivay to the throne of the world. For observe, it was " THE 
STONE cut out of the mountain without hands" or, as Daniel 
interprets it, " the kingdom," which, in the days of these 
antichristian " kings" or kingdoms, " the God of heaven was 
to set up " that was seen " smiting the image and breaking 
it in pieces;" "and the stone that smote the image" or 
" the kingom which shall break in pieces all these" anti- 
Christian " kingdoms" this stone " became a great mountain, 
and filled the whole earth." 

Here let the reader carefully mark what kind of conflict this 
is between Christ s kingdom and the kingdoms of this world. 
It is in their antichristian character alone that the Church 
comes into collision with them. As kingdoms simply as a 
mere succession of civil monarchies the vision has nothing 
to do with them, and the kingdom of Christ has no quarrel 
with them; for civil government, as such, whatever be the 
form of it, is a divine ordinance. The mission of the Church 
is not to supplant, but to impregnate and pervade it with a 
religious character, and to render it subservient to the glory 



320 THE VICTORY ITS NATURE. 

of God. Christ s kingdom is not of this world. It has no 
form of civil polity to fight for. But in so far as the king 
doms of this world are hostile to the Church of the living 
God, it is and must be opposed to them. And it is in this, 
and this only light as conspirators against the interest and 
the people of God in this world that the antichristian king 
doms are seen, and that they are doomed in Nebuchadnez 
zar s vision. It is in this sphere of malignant influence and 
action, and this only, that the kingdom of Christ is destined 
to take their place. In short, the battle is between Christ s 
interest and that of the god of this world, in so far as the one 
is embodied in the Church or kingdom of Christ, and the 
other in the kingdoms mentioned in the vision. And if so, 
then the fall of them must be viewed in the same light. As 
the stone which smites the image is not physical or political, 
so neither is the blow inflicted by it. Nor does it light upon 
those antichristian kingdoms, save in their antichristian 
principles and character. And, consequently, their fall can 
only be considered as the fall of them in that hostile character, 
to be reconstructed upon Christian principles and for Chris 
tian objects. 

If these views of the triumphs of Christ s kingdom over 
the kingdoms mentioned in this vision be correct, it is just 
the triumph of Christianity not of Christian truth merely, 
and still less of a mere party, but of embodied, organic, and 
vital Christianity over an organized system of deadly oppo 
sition to it by the kingdoms of this world. The Church, 
says this vision, is destined to crush that gigantic, antichris 
tian confederacy, and thereafter to carry all before it. It is 
just a conflict of interests a life and death struggle between 
Christ and Belial on the theatre of this world, in which Christ 
is to carry the day, and his "kingdom to fill the whole 
earth." " If my kingdom were of this world, then would 
my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews : 
but now is my kingdom not from hence." (John xviii. 36.) 



THE VICTORY ITS NATURE. 321 

" We do not war after the flesh, for the weapons of our war 
fare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling 
down of strongholds." (2 Cor. x. 3, 4.) " Rejoice greatly, 
O daughter of Zion behold, thy King cometh unto thee ; 
just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, 
and upon a colt the foal of an ass. And I will cut off the 
chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the 
battle boio shall be cut off; AND HE SHALL SPEAK PEACE TO 
THE HEATHEN : and his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and 
from the river to the ends of the earth." (Zech. ix. 9, 10.) 

Now, this is but the issue in which our parables land us. 
They gave us the thing attained ; while here we have the 
arduousness with which it is reached that is all. The king 
dom shall GROW, says the parable of the mustard seed, till it 
overspread the earth : It shall WORK, into human society, says 
the parable of the leaven, till it penetrate with its blessed 
principles and character the whole mass. It shall fight, and 
win its way, says Nebuchadnezzar s vision, to the throne of 
the world, and having smitten down the most formidable of 
all the bulwarks which Satan ever threw up against its pro 
gress, shall thenceforward sit mistress of this world s affairs, 
pursuits, and enjoyments, bringing them all into captivity to 
the obedience of Christ ! * 

What, then, have we found in this vision? We have found 
that the kingdom of Christ is already in being, having been 

* "When the mountain," says Mr Wood, "fills the whole earth, there 
is no room in the earth for anything but itself. Now, this mountain 
signifies not the Christianized kingdoms of the earth, but another kingdom 
altogether, set up by the God of heaven. In it civil governments shall be 
exercised, for civil government is the ordinance of God; but it must be 
exercised within that kingdom, and not apart from it. In fact, there shall 
then be only one kingdom on the earth, even the kingdom of heaven, and but 
one source on earth of supreme authority andpower." 1 (Pp. 287, 288.) The 
meaning of this plainly is, that civil government shall cease altogether 
upon earth during the millennium, as anything distinct from the imme 
diate rule of Christ himself and his risen saints, flatly contrary to 
numerous Scriptures. 

Z 



322 DANIEL S VISION 

sot up by the God of heaven " in the days," or during the 
currency, of the four famous kingdoms not at, but long 
before, the millennium. We have found that the difference 
between its two principal " states," its premillennial and its 
millennial state is a difference not of administration, of con 
stitution, of dispensation or form, but of prosperity and ex 
tent. Its oppressors cease, its chains fall off, its vitality, 
elasticity, and force become signally manifest, its character is 
developed, its limits are extended, and it becomes at length 
all in all: And, to complete the representation, we have 
found that all this is just the triumph of the now existing Church 
the stone cut out of the mountain -without hands merely 
smiting the image. No new weapon does the Church get to 
fight her enemies withal. No change of dispensation does 
she undergo. She is already all that she needs to be. She 
is complete in her living and ever-present Head, having 
" all power in heaven and in earth " at her command, and 
getting it too at the destined period, when, " the time to 
favour her is come, even the set time." 

II. We have in Daniel (ch. vii.) another vision of the very 
same thing, with just enough of circumstantial variety to 
throw additional light upon the whole subject. Under the 
symbol of four rampant Wild Beasts, are set forth the oppres 
sions of the Church of God by the four great monarchies de 
scribed in the former vision the Babylonian, the Persian, 
the Grecian, and the Roman; the last perpetuated in its 
ecclesiastical head at Rome, denoted by the little horn " of 
the fourth beast rising after " the empire has been broken up 
into ten distinct and independent kingdoms, and altogether 
" diverse from them." (Verses 8, 24.) Under this ecclesi 
astical form of the Roman kingdom, the Church is repre 
sented as suffering more than from all the other kingdoms, 
or from itself under its Pagan form. This Roman head of 
apostate Christendom " speaks great words against the Most 
High, and wears out the saints of the Most High, and they 



THE TWO VISIONS COMPARED. 323 

are given into his hand until a time and times and the divid 
ing of time" (v. 25) the famous prophetic period of twelve 
hundred and sixty years,* at the end of which this wild beast 
of a tyrant, this antichristian oppressor of the Church of 
God, is judged, condemned, and executed: whereupon the 
saints are delivered, and henceforth have every thing their 
own way throughout the whole earth, the world being given 
into their hands. 

Such in substance is the celebrated vision, to whose iden 
tity in subject and scope, and yet remarkable diversity of 
representation from it, we now request the reader s atten 
tion. 

1. To Nebuchadnezzar, being a king, the four powers are 
represented as kingdoms: To Daniel, whose interests and 
affections as a man of God, were all bound up with the pro 
gress and prosperity of the Church of God, they are repre 
sented as nothing else than so many wild beasts, tearing and 
treading on the people and cause of God upon earth. To 
the monarch of Babylon the Church is represented in the 
only light in which it would be intelligible to him, or at least 
formidable as a kingdom which the God of heaven was to 
set up in the days of the four monarchies, of which his own 
was the first, a kingdom which, after existing for a long time 
without making much impression upon the world, would at 
length get the better of the other kingdoms, and become all 
in all. To the prophet, mourning over the desolations of 
Zion, this heavenly kingdom appears, in the first instance, 
simply as " the saints of the Most High," worn out, and 
given into the hand of the little horn of the fourth beast 

* Called in the last chapter of this book, "a time, times, and an half" 
(ch. xii. 7;) and in the Apocalypse, " forty and two months " (ch. xi. 2, and 
xiii. 5); "one thousand two hundred and threescore days" (ch. xi. 3, 
and xii. G) ; and " a time, times, and half a time " (ch. xii. 14). I must 
here take for granted, what I concur with most of my opponents in, that 
the prophetic days denote years. The discussion of that question would 
be out of place here. 



324 THE TWO VISIONS COMPARED. 

the ecclesiastical oppressor by -whom the sovereignty of the 
fourth or Roman kingdom, in its divided form, is so terribly 
wielded. And just as in the Apocalypse, " the woman" 
the true Church is fain to betake herself to " the wilder 
ness" for safety, while only certain " witnesses clothed in 
sackcloth" hold up any faithful testimony in that cloudy and 
dark day of rampant and antichristian domination; so here, 
we find only " the saints of the Most High" on the Lord s 
side, as if they could scarcely be called a " kingdom" just 
a noble band of faithful witnesses, worn out, and given into 
the hand of their oppressor for an appointed period, yet still 
keeping their ground, biding their time, and at length glori 
ously vindicated and all-victorious. Different, however, as 
these representations are, the difference will be seen to arise 
solely from the point of view. The thing represented is in 
both visions the same the Church of Christ. The first 
vision gives the date of its erection in the days of the Roman 
Caesars. The second gives us its proper character a king 
dom of " saints." In the first vision, Christ s " kingdom, 
instead of being left to other people, breaks in pieces and 
consumes all the other kingdoms, and stands for ever." In 
the second, the long oppressed " saints of the Most High 
take and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and 
ever." This "taking and possessing the kingdom" (vii. 18), 
evidently means the same thing with " the stone s smiting 
the image, and itself becoming a great mountain, and filling 
the whole earth," in the first vision. The former, being the 
more definite, explains the latter, which is the more general 
statement; showing it to mean just the triumph of Christ s 
cause, as embodied in the living Church, over the antichris- 
tianism of the kingdoms of men, and its consequent universal 
and blessed sway in the world. 

Turning to that part of the Apocalypse which (as Mede 
says in the extract given from him) relates to the same period 
and the same event namely, the sounding of the seventh 



JUDGMENT OP ANTICHRIST WHAT. 325 

trumpet we have a sublime confirmation of the view I have 
given, of these two visions. Nothing can be grander than 
the song in which the issue is there hymned by celestial 
voices (Kev. xi. 15) : " And the seventh angel sounded; and 
there were great voices in heaven, saying, THE SOVE 
REIGNTY OF THE WORLD HATH BECOME OUR LORD S AND HIS 

CHRIST S; AND HE SHALL REIGN FOR EVER AND EVER!" 

2. A very important feature in the case, wanting in the 
first vision, is supplied by the second. In the former, it is 
simply a trial of might : the blow struck by the stone breaks 
the image in pieces. In the latter, it is first and chiefly a 
trial of right : the beast is judged and condemned; his domi 
nion, found usurped and illegal, is taken away, and the king 
dom and dominion are given to the people " of the saints of 
the Most High," as to the rightful possessors. Let us look 
at this a little. A judicial assize is represented as being held 
vipon the antichristian oppressor of the saints of the Most 
High, or kingdom of Christ. And as the judgment to be 
held upon this wicked system is not a human but a Divine 
judgment or the view of it which GOD takes the symbols 
and circumstances of it are all borrowed from the character 
istics of the last judgment. " I beheld," says the prophet, 
" till the thrones were cast down," or rather " placed" for 
the Judge, with the assessors, to sit on.* This throne is 
seen occupied by the Eternal, arrayed in the symbols of 
awful purity and justice, and flaming with vengeance against 
his adversaries : " And the Ancient of days did sit, whose 
garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like 
the pure wool : his throne was like the fiery flame, and his 
wheels as burning fire : a fiery stream issued and came forth 
from before him." Then we have his attendant angelic mini 
sters: " Thousand thousands ministered unto him, ten thousand 

* T>tti_, irldfi> (Ixx.) Vet. Ital. et Vulg. positi sunt. This is plainly 
the sense, since it is immediately added, " And the Ancient of days did 
sit." 



326 JUDGMENT OF ANTICHRIST 

times ten thousand stood before him." Arrangements are now 
made for proceeding with the trial : " The judgment was 
set, and the books were opened ;" the book of the facts and 
the book of the principles of the case, the record, on the 
one hand, of the high misdemeanours of this antichristian 
system against the kingdom and cause of God, and, on the 
other hand, the grounds in law for its condemnation, as these 
are set forth in the written Word. And now the prophet 
hears the sentence, and witnesses its execution : " I beheld 
then because of the voice of the great words which the horn 
spake : I beheld till the beast was slain, and his body de 
stroyed, and given to the burning flame." (Verses 9-11.) In 
the Apocalypse, this is expressed by the beast s (this same 
usurping wild beast s) being cast, with his confederates, alive 
into a lake of fire burning with brimstone (chap. xix. 20.) 
As the imagery of the trial is that of the last judgment, it 
was fit that his end should be represented as a consignment 
of him to hell-fire. Bred of hell, the engine of hell to hell 
it is fit it should be seen to go. Systems, indeed kingdoms 
public parties cannot go to hell, strictly speaking. Yet 
as the trial of them is real, so the destruction of them is as 
truly judicial as ever the perdition of ungodly men will be at 
the great day. Only let it be carefully borne in mind, that 
the scene has nothing to do with individuals, as such. It is 
the trial and condemnation of a system a cause a kingdom 
a great public party, and of that alone.* Nor is any thing 

* How totally different this from " the judgment of the great day ! " 

"And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God and the 

dead were judged out of those things that were written in the books, 
according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it, 
and death and hades delivered up the dead that were in them ; and they 
were judged EVERY MAN according to their works." DURHAM mentions 
another all-important point of difference between the two judgments. 
"TiiE BOOK OF LIFE," he says, "is NOT MENTIONED IN DAN. TIL, to which 
there is an allusion in all this (description of the last judgment), because 
it is but A TEMPORAL JUDGMENT that is principally intended in that place."" 
By " principally," Durham means, that though it is but a temporal judg- 



"WHEREIN DIFFERENT FROM LAST JUDGMENT. 327 

more meant by these august formalities of a judgment upon 
the little horn, than merely to intimate to us how righteous 
will be the destruction of that wicked interest. Nebuchad 
nezzar s vision exhibits the fall of antichristianism, as result 
ing from a bloio given to it by the kingdom of Christ. Daniel 
sees that too, in the saints of the Most High taking the king 
dom and possessing it. But, in addition to this, he gets a 
view of the real secret of this triumph of the Church. It lies 
not so much in the might which she can command though 
that is boundless as in the right which is on her side. Her 
rival claimant for supremacy is a base usurper, and godless 
blasphemer, and tyrant oppressor of the saints of the Most 
High. He is on this account doomed as the enemy of 
Heaven, to be cast out as an abominable branch. When his 
day of visitation comes, those who are on the Lord s side will 
find him an easy prey, and may say one to another, as Caleb 
said to the Israelites concerning the people of the land, " They 
are bread for us : their defence is departed from them, and the 
Lord is ivith us : fear them not." (Xumb. xiv. 9.) 

It is surprising that a scene whose purport is so plain should 
have been so much mystified as this is by premillcnnialists. 
They confound it with the last judgment;* making this, at 
the beginning of the millennium, to be the first act, as they 
make the judgment of those who shall rise at the end of the 
millennium to be the last act of a great judgment-day which 
is to last a thousand years. This theory, as I have before 
remarked, we owe, I believe, to Joseph Mede, j whose theolo- 

ment that is predicted in Dan. vii., it is like all temporal judgments, an 
earnest and forerunner of the last judgment, and so couched in the language 
of it as all the great temporal judgments described in Scripture undeni 
ably are. 

* Mr Wood denies this (p. 290), but in the sense in which I affirm It, 
and which I explain in the very next clause, it is astonishing it should 
be denied. 

+ See his " Answer to Dr Meddus, touching the Day of Judgment." 
Yt orks, book iv. epist. xv. p. 762. 



328 UNIVERSAL DOMINION GIVEN TO CHRIST. 

gical capacity appears from his writings to have been as slen 
der as his skill in some other departments was unrivalled. 
I have already at some length investigated this theory ; but, 
independently of all that was said upon that subject, nothing 
can be more evident than that the judgment which Daniel 
saw in his vision, is not the judgment of persons at all (save 
as they may be connected with the system, and involved in its 
ruins), but purely the judgment of the system, party, or inte 
rest of the little horn, and is, in fact, but a sublime symbolical 
way of expressing the righteousness of antichrist s destruction.* 
These remarks will, if I mistake not, throw light upon the 
remainder of the vision, which is evidently to be interpreted 
upon the same principles. One claimant for the throne of 
the world has been disposed of. He had been in possession 
of the ground, indeed, long before his Rival, in some sense ; 
and might pretend to a de facto right to keep the ground. 
But right de jure he had none, and that is the only right 
recognised in heaven. He is accordingly, at the time ap 
pointed, swept away ; and the stage being now clear, the 
rival Claimant even the Son of Man, borne upon the clouds 
is seen advancing to the Eternal Arbiter, still sitting in his 
awful throne, and is introduced to him by the angelic officers 
of state : " I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like 
the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came 
to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before 
him." (Verse 13.) For what purpose is this? That he 
may be seen putting in his claim to the sovereignty of the 
world, and getting that claim recognised by Him that sitteth 
upon the throne. " ASK OF ME," says the Ancient of days, 
in effect, " and I WILL GIVE THEE the heathen for thine in 
heritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy pos 
session." (Psal. ii. 8.) The prophet sees this done. " And," 

* The part of this sentence which is enclosed in the parenthesis is 
a sufficient answer to all the cavils Avith \vhicli this argument has been 
met. 



UNIVERSAL DOMINION GIVEN TO CHRIST. 329 

he adds, " there was given him dominion, and glory, and a 
kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should 
serve him : his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which 
shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not 
be destroyed." (Verse 14.) 

Who does not see that this has nothing to do with the 
second personal advent of Christ? The coming of the Son 
of Man here is not, be it observed, a coming to men at all, 
but a coming to God; nor is it any local coming even to 
Him. It is simply the advancement and the recognition of his 
claim to rule the world, clothed in state forms, in the sym 
bolic drapery of an august installation or inauguration. 
From what locality his rule is to issue, the vision says not a 
word, nor gives a hint. It is just the rule itself " that all 
people, nations, and languages, should serve and obey" 
wrested out of the hand of a base usurper, and committed to 
" Him whose right it is to reign." It is just that in symbolic 
language which Zechariah expresses in naked terms, referring 
to the same period : " And the Lord shall be king over all 
the earth : in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name 
one." (Chap. xiv. 9.) It is the removal of all the Eedeemer s 
public rivals, in consequence of which " the Lord alone is 
exalted in that day." (Isaiah ii. 11, 17.) Enemies, we shall 
by and by find, will still exist; but they will not be exalted, 
or lift up the head. They will be still, and know that he is 
God. They will yield him feigned submission; but univer 
sal submission he shall have. The only difference, then, 
between his rule now and in the latter day, is in the presence 
now, and the extinction then, of a public party in opposition 
to him, together with the native consequences of these very 
different states of things. Noiv, it is said to him, " Rule 
thou in the midst of thine enemies." (Ps. ex. 2.) Then, it is 
said to him, " O Lord our Grod, other lords beside thee have 
had dominion over us; but by thee only will we make men 
tion of thy name. They are dead; they shall not live; they 



330 KINGDOM GIVEN TO THE SAINTS. 

are deceased; they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited 
and destroyed them, and made all memory of them to perish." 
(Isa. xxvi. 13, 14.) * 

Would you know in what sense " the kingdom is given to 
the people of the saints of the Most High?" You have but 
to consider in what sense they were deprived of it before. 
The vision has to do with them solely in the light of their 
principles, their " saintship" and devotedness to "the Most 
High." It is this which was kept down before. Living reli 
gion was not in favour, and did not rule the kingdoms of 
men. It had enough to do to keep its own ground, and 
often scarcely did that. It was voted out and expelled from 
the place which it claimed as its own, the place of supre 
macy in all the affairs of men. When Christians came down 
from these claims, or modified them, when they compro 
mised the rights of Him to whom they had sworn allegiance, 
and who had intrusted his interest and honour to their keep 
ing, they were tolerated, and at times, like an adulterous wife, 
caressed by the kings of the earth, or the ruling powers, 
and the whole dominant interest. Then they were not " the 

* In thus refusing to recognise here Christ s second coming from hea 
ven to earth, Dr H. Bonar and Mr Wood represent me as imposing some 
unheard of and violent sense upon the vision. But is it so ? " The pro 
phet," says Madaurw, quoted by Scott, " does not represent the Son of 
Man as coming in the clouds of heaven from heaven to earth, as at the gene 
ral judgment, but as coming with the clouds of heaven from his former 
residence [the earth] towards the throne of God, which, according to the 
Scripture style, is heaven. And this is confirmed by the words immedi 
ately following, that they brought him near before him, viz. before the 
Ancient of days." " This," says Scott in his Commentary, " must point 

out Christ to us ascending to heaven, the throne of God, to receive 

tlw kingdom covenanted to him." 1 (Ps. ii. 7-9.) I refer to these authors to 
show that the personal descent of Christ from heaven to earth, or his 
second coming, was not seen by them in this prophecy. While they, 
however, think the approach of Christ to the Father denotes his histo 
rical ascension to heaven, I regard the whole as a scenic exhibition of the 
right of Christ, and the sublime recognition of that right, to rule the 
vorld, which in the latter day will be gloriously realized. 



SUBSTANCE OF THE VISIONS. o31 

saints of the Most High." Their saintship and fealty to 
Heaven being in abeyance, they were not themselves, nor as 
themselves were entertained, by " the world who loves (only) 
its own." Whenever they stood forth in their real character, 
they were kept out and kept down. Such, at least, was the 
rule; and any brief intervals of a better state of things were 
the rare exceptions, with which the vision has nothing to do. 
Now, the tables are turned. Saintship and fealty to heaven s 
King are all in all, while irreligious opposition is more tho 
roughly put down than before it was rampant. N"ow ; " the 
heavens do rule" in the kingdoms of men; and saintly and 
leal-hearted men, Christians indeed, and living for Christ, 
bring all into captivity to the obedience of their Lord. Liv 
ing Christianity exercises the sovereignty of the world. 
Going forth in its life-giving, all-penetrating, all-trans 
forming virtue, it moulds the institutions and affairs of men 
to its own blessed character, making " God s will to be done 
on earth even as it is done in heaven." 

Having thus, at considerable length, examined and com 
pared these celebrated visions of the kingdom of Christ, I 
would appeal to the impartial judgment of the reader, whe 
ther they do not confirm and illustrate all that I have said 
of the time and the nature of Christ s kingdom that it was 
set up on his ascension to the right hand of power, or, as 
Daniel expresses it, " in the days" of the fourth or Eoman 
kingdom;* that the difference between the " two states " of 
the kingdom before the millennium and during that period 
is a difference merely of prosperity and extent the differ 
ence between the presence and the removal of certain gigantic 



* " He that shall here expound in the clays, to mean after the 
days, shall give me leave not to believe him, unless also he can persuade 
me that the Stone which smote the image "was hewed out of the moun 
tain after the image was dashed in pieces and vanished." (MEDE, p. 715, ) 

"In diebus regum illorum non po&tcaguam dekti erunt." (BjiNO, in 
Apoc. xi. 15.) 



332 DESTRUCTION OF ANTICHRIST GRADUAL. 

obstructions to its progress and supremacy in the world, and 
the removal of which, at the appointed time, \vill be attended 
with no change of constitution, form, or dispensation, but 
will merely set free its latent energies, and make way for the 
development of its internal resources to the benediction of a 
miserable world ? As the "birth of a man, all puny though he 
then be, is the manifestation of his life " in its primary 
sense," and the manhood to which he ultimately attains is 
but the same life developed and matured ; so the millennial 
state of the kingdom of Christ will be but the full expansion 
and bright development, the unrestrained and most benign 
rule of a kingdom, the Sovereign of which is already on his 
throne the statutes of which are already proclaimed the 
foundations of which are already laid and the conquests of 
which are proceeding apace. The little leaven may leaven 
the whole lump of humanity ; the grain of mustard seed may 
grow to be a tree sufficient to overshadow the whole earth ; 
but the mass is the same, and the tree is the same, at every 
stage. The whole is there from the first. Not a new ele 
ment is added. Expansion and development, growth and 
maturity, are all the difference. 

3. I had nearly omitted to notice an important particular 
in Daniel s vision, intimating the gradual nature of the de 
struction which is to come upon the Papal antichrist. " And 
the judgment," says the prophet, " shall sit, and they shall 
take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it UNTO THE 
END." (Ch. vii. 26).* When one reads of the Stone "smiting 

* " The phrase unto the end, " sro"? , says Mr Wood, " is a Chal- 
dee expression for everlasting, as may be seen from the use of it in 
ch. vi. 26. Thus the meaning of the passage is, They shall take away 
his dominion, to consume and destroy him everlastingly ; and Mr Brown s 
whole edifice crumbles into dust." (P. 298.) I hope it will survive 
this criticism at least. The word rendered "the end" is just the 
Chaldee form of a well-known word signifying " the end " of any thing. 
In the very next verse but one to that in which Mr Wood insists on un 
derstanding it of eternity, Daniel says, " Hitherto is the end of the mat- 



THE WARFARE NOT CARNAL. 333 

the image, and "breaking it to pieces," and of the beast " being 
slain, and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame ," 
and when this is compared with the words of Paul, that " the 
Lord shall consume" this power " by the spirit of his mouth, 
and destroy him with the brightness of his coming" (2 Thess. 
ii. 8) he is apt to think of some single act of vengeance 
some one act of destructive violence that will cause the in 
stantaneous extinction of the hated power. This may seem 
to be confirmed if we take " the Stone" to mean, not the king 
dom of Christ, but Christ himself. That, however, will not 
stand. I admit that able divines have adopted it ; but the 
sacred text is a better interpreter of itself than all commen 
tators, and it informs us that " the Stone" denotes the king 
dom of Christ. " In the days of these kings (or kingdoms) 
shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never 
be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other 
people, but it shall (that is, the kingdom shall) break in pieces 
and consume (HPCH Pl^) all these kingdoms, and itself ( K^HI ) 
shall stand for ever." (Dan. ii. 44.)* 

tcr " (Dan. vii. 28), applying the word, not to time at all, but to his subject. 
The very phrase before us, in its ordinary form, is used of the work of 
God : " No man can find out the work that God maketh from the begin 
ning to the end" (rpo ;j>, Eccl. iii. 11), which, I suppose, means to the 
bottom. 

* Prebendary Lowth says, " The Jews unanimously agree that by the 
Stone is here meant the Messiah." But by this he does not mean his 
Person as distinguished from his kingdom; for Lowth adduces this testi 
mony in support of his own application of the Stone to the kingdom of 
Christ. All he means is, that the Jews agree with the Christians in the 
Messianic application of this prediction. 

The Fathers were fond of illustrating the miraculous generation of 
Christ by the Stone s being " cut out of the mountain without hands ; " 
and thus the application of the words to Christ seem to have gained a 
footing. (The application of Ezek. xliv. 2, to the same circumstance, is 
scarcely so respectable.) The true but simple sense of the Stone s being 
" cut out of the mountain without hands," is given in the verse above 
quoted. " In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a king 
dom," as contrasted with the frail and perishable, because earthly, king- 



334 THE VICTORY - 

Now, the kingdom of Christ not being " of this world," 
and so not " bearing the sword," does not " break in pieces 
and consume all these kingdoms" in any such pitched battle 
as the armies of men contend for the mastery in, and such 
as many are wont to represent " the battle of that great day 
of God Almighty" at "Armageddon." I believe in no such 
way of deciding the question between Christ and antichrist 
between the " kingdom which the God of heaven has set up," 
and "all these kingdoms" which it is to " consume and de 
stroy." Believing that " the weapons of our warfare are not 
carnal," but, just for that reason, " mighty to the pulling down 
of strongholds," I believe the warfare itself to be not carnal. 
There may be much carnal warfare in connection with it: I 
do not deny that. But the conflict, as I have before re 
marked, is of another kind. And the apocalyptic description 
of Christ coming out of heaven on a war-horse, magnificently 
caparisoned attended by armies of celestial horsemen to 
fight the battle against " the beast and the kings of the earth 
and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him 
that sat on the horse and against his army," with the invoca 
tion addressed to " all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven 
to come and sup upon the flesh of kings, captains, and mighty 
men, of horses and their riders, and of all men, free and bond, 
small and great" (Rev. xix. 11, &c.) this symbolical descrip 
tion of the conflict that is to issue in the final destruction of 
antichrist and all his party, does not lead me the more to 
expect a " carnal warfare," but just the reverse. 

If this view of the conflict be correct, we shall be the less 
surprised to learn that the final issue is to be gradual rather 
than immediate the result of many blows rather than of one* 

doms set up by men," a kingdom which shall not be left to other 
people," &c. 

* Mr Wood thinks this " the most startling " of all the statements I 
make about this vision. (P. 2D5.) Of course it will not at all fit into the 
notiou that it is the second advent of Christ which is to give the blow to 



SLOW BUT SURE. 335 

A succession of weakening defeats and wasting visitations, 
the failure of the very schemes from which the enemies of 
Christ s kingdom expected the greatest success, and provi 
dential manifestations of Heaven s wrath against them such 
" untoward events" on the one side; and on the other, a suc 
cession of quickenings, enlargements, and triumphs Christ s 
cause growing in strength, and his friends " waxing much 
more confident by the very bonds" which oppress them 
such a species of antagonism we may figure to ourselves as 
consonant to the nature of the parties ; such a march of the 
children of light into the territories of darkness would be 
worthy of Him who delights to " spoil the Egyptians." It 
may be a protracted, complicated, and sometimes impercep 
tible process of " consumption and destruction" that is going 
on;* but one delights to think how the sapping and mining 

the antichristian image. But it is every way consonant to the Divine 
method, as indicated alike by Scripture and human history. 

* It is worthy of notice, that in all the three places -which describe the 
destruction of antichrist, two terms are employed: 
" It shall break in pieces and consume (~2n, make an end of) all these 

kingdoms." (Dan. ii. 44). 

" The judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to 
consume and to destroy (irairTJl r;~*: ir;V) it unto the end." (Dan. 
vii. 26.) 

" Whom the Lord shall consume (inaiurv) with the Spirit of his mouth, 
and destroy (xetrtteytm) with the brightness of his coming. 
(2 Thess. ii. 8.) 

The gradual nature of the destruction of antichrist the successive steps 
by which its extermination is to be effected seems clearly to be thus 
denoted. Mr Wood " could not have conceived that any one would have 
been rash enough " to make this statement. " In place of any such idea 
being suggested, a reduplication of the verbs adds to the intensity of the 
action expressed." (P. 297.) But intensity is not rapidity. The redupli 
cation doubtless denotes certainty and completeness; and just as in the 
heavens, what appears to be but one bright cloud of glory, is found to bo 
in reality a thick cluster of stars, whose separate outlines are lost to tho 
naked eye by their vast distance; so on the canvass of ancient prophecy, 
a numler of distinct events are crowded together, and indicated by a few 
voids, which history resolves into the work of protracted periods. 



336 THE EVENTUAL TRIUMPH. 

process may be slowly but surely advancing, and "the 
daughter of Babylon" be " near to destruction," at the very 
time when " she saith in her heart, I sit as a queen, and am 
no widow, and shall see no sorrow." (Rev. xviii. 7.) In 
finite complications there may be in the plot ; at times the 
enemies shall make themselves sure of victory, and prepare 
for the celebration of it. But " He that sitteth in the 
heavens shall laugh at them ; the Lord shall have them in 
derision." It is his way to take time to all his great works. 
" One day is with Him as a thousand years, and a thousand 
years as one day." It seems, indeed, to be a law of the 
moral kingdom, that all the great powers civil and ecclesi 
astical, of light and of darkness that have borne sway 
among men, shall both rise and fall by degrees. So was it 
with the mighty monarchies that have overshadowed the 
world. So has it been with the kingdom of the false prophet. 
From the first risings of ambition among Christ s ministers, 
to the time when all Christendom trembled at the grim 
tyrant of the seven hills how slow has been the progress ? 
For three hundred years from the time when that dark, and 
withering, and accursed power seemed to get its death-blow 
at the glorious Reformation, until now how often has the 
tide, to human appearance at least, rolled back, and how 
plausibly has it been asserted that not an inch of solid 
ground has since that day been gained ! Astounding, indeed, 
are the events of our day. We have seen Austria, so long 
the right arm of the Papacy, transformed out of an absolute 
and intolerant monarchy into a constitutional government, 
giving religious liberty to all its subjects, and no longer 
able, even were it disposed, to help the Papacy against the 
enemies of its temporal power. "\Ve have seen that tem 
poral power nearly all swept away, and Europe speculating 
whether, or how long after the fatal blow has been given to 
it, the spiritual power will survive. Still, the whole horizon 
of Christendom may yet be overcast, and the safety of the truth 



DR H. BONAR. 337 

and cause of God be brought into such peril, that " men s 
hearts may fail them for fear, and for looking after those 
things that are coming on the earth." But " when these 

o o 

things begin to come to pass," we are taught to look up and 
lift up our heads, for our " redemption draweth nigh." The 
ship of the Church shall outride the storm ; the gates of 
hell shall not prevail ; the cause of God, careering over the 
billows, shall reach the fair havens ; and " the kingdom 
and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the 
whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of 
the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, 
and all dominions shall serve and obey him." (Dan. vii. 
27.)* 

* Dr H. Bonar s elaborate reply to the view here given of Daniel s 
vision, seems to me a great deal more startling in its charges than solid 
and convincing in argument. I am classed with the Pantheistic Emerson 
(p. 159), with the Swedenborgian Bush (p. 229, &c., &c.), with the Ration 
alist Ilerike (p. 260), and I know not what all errorists, because I represent 
the judgment in Daniel as a judgment on the antichristian system, cause, 
interest, kingdom as contradistinguished from a trial of individual Ar 
sons " according to their works " as if I made it a judgment upon a mere 
abstraction. The shallowness of this is too palpable to require an answer. 
The destruction of the Papacy has hitherto been understood to mean 
something real, apart from what may happen to its individual adherents. 
As the great proportion of these will have gone the way of all the earth 
ere that event occur, they at least cannot share in the destruction of the 
Papacy, but will be rotting in their graves when its fall takes place. And 
even as to these who adhere to it at the time of its overthrow, surely it is 
the fall of that system of soul- destroying error, daring blasphemy, blind 
superstition, hypocritical priestcraft, and grinding tyranny the termina 
tion of such impositions upon men in the name of religion, " holy, catholic, 
and apostolic" this surely is the destruction predicted, the consum 
mation hymned in the prophetic Scriptures, the deliverance which an 
oppressed Church longs to witness, and not the individual calamities 
which no one denies will overtake those who are actively mixed up with 
the accursed thing, and which may indeed prove very terrible. 



CHAPTER IV. 

NO MILLENNIAL REVIVAL OF JEWISH PECULIAIUTIES. 

THAT the unbelieving Jews should look for a rebuilt temple, 
a re-established priesthood, the restoration of their bloody 
sacrifices, and an Israelitish supremacy at once religious and 
civil over all the natiotis of the earth, when their Messiah 
comes, is not to be wondered at. With these views of Old 
Testament prophecy, their fathers rejected Jesus and put 
him to death, as he neither realized their expectations, nor 
professed to do so ; but, on the contrary, directed his whole 
teaching to the uprooting of the prevalent conceptions of 
Messiah s character, work, and kingdom, and to the establish 
ing of views directly opposite. Unless they had been pre 
pared to abandon their whole scheme of Old Testament in 
terpretation, they could not consistently have acknowledged 
Jesus to be the Messiah. But that any Christians should be 
found. agreeing with the unbelieving Jews in their views of 
Old Testament prophecy that there should be a school of 
Christian interpreters, who, while recognising Jesus as the 
promised Messiah, and attached in all other respects to evan 
gelical truth, should nevertheless contend vehemently for 
Jewish literalism, and, as a necessary consequence, for Jewish 
altars, sacrifices, and supremacy is passing strange. It is 
true that this Judaistic element was not wholly expelled from 
the minds of the apostles before the day of Pentecost ; it is 
true that even after this it had its advocates in some of the 
infant Churches as the Gralatian and Colossian ; and it is 
true that, even when extruded thence by the zeal with which 



MR FRY. 339 

Paul attacked it, and the light which he poured upon the 
Old Testament by his rich expositions, it still lingered, and 
struggled for a footing, and succeeded in intrenching itself 
in a number of shallow minds, and forming small sects whose 
precise tenets are still matter of dispute among ecclesiastical 
historians. But characterised as they were by low views of 
the Person and Work of Christ, as well as of every thing else 
in religion, their existence was brief and outside the orthodox 
Church ; nor have such Judaizing opinions ever been able to 
raise their head, save in a few isolated cases, till the present 
day. The most remarkable fact of all is, that those who held 
the premillennial theory in the second and third centuries, 
seem not to have believed in any literal, territorial restora 
tion of the Jews at all, much less in their millennial supre 
macy over all nations, and the re- establishment of their reli 
gious peculiarities.* 

How strangely, in the light of these facts, do the following 
extracts from the premillennialists of our day strike the ear : 

"Zion and Jerusalem," says Mr Fry (Rector of Desford), "are 
to be the great ssurce of spiritual blessedness to the whole world. 
This city of Jehovah is represented as the grand centre and em 
porium of civil and religious power, whither all nations resort for their 
laws and government. He shall reign in Jerusalem unto the ends 
of the earth. .... But what most surprises us is, that a ritual of 
worship, so like the Mosaic ceremonial, should again be restored 
by Divine appointment, rather than institutions more analogous to 
those of the gospel Church; and especially, that the sacrifices of 
animal victims should be again enjoined ! For we read of all the 
various offerings of the Levitical economy, not only peace-offer 
ing and meat-offering, but burnt-offerings, trespass-offerings, 
and sin-offerings. We can only reply, such is the Divine plea 
sure. It is not for us to judge what would be best for Israel and 
for the world at large in this future age." " However averse to 
our preconceived notions may be the restitution of ceremonial 
sacrifices, that restitution exactly corresponds with the prediction 

* See " The Restoration of the Jews : The History, Principles, and 
Bearings of the Question" (Strahan, 18G1) ; in which, by a historical 
induction, I have fully established the above position. 



340 MR FREEMASTLE MR BROCK MR PYM. 

in the close of the fifty-first Psalm, where a reference is clear to 
Israel of the last times : Do good in thy good pleasure unto Ziori : 
build the walls of Jerusalem. Then wilt thou desire the right 
sacrifices, an offering and a holocaust; then shall they offer steers upon 
thine altars?"* 

"In Ezek. xliii. 26," says Mr Freemantle, "it is commanded that 
the priests shall purge the altar seven days. .... And upon the 
eighth day and so forward, the priest shall make the burnt-offer 
ings upon the altar, and the peace-offerings, and God will accept 
them. Thus the legal ceremonies will be celebrated upon the day of 
the resurrection of Christ. . . . . Then the song of thanksgiving 

in Ps. Ixvi. shall resound through the temple aisle We 

will go into thy house with burnt-offerings; I will offer unto thee 
burnt- sacrifices of failings, with the incense of rams; I will offer bul 
locks with goats? And this forms the fourth and last feature [of 
Israel s glory after the advent ] , viz., the renewal of sacrificial worship. 
.... But it may be asked, Is it commanded ? Assuredly. Turn 
to a prophecy relating to times subsequent to the restoration of the 
twelve tribes, and you have the answer (Jer. xxxiii. 17, 18), Thus 
saith the Lord, David shall never want a man to sit upon the 
throne of the house of Israel ; neither shall the priests the Levites 
want a man before me to offer burnt-offerings, and to kindle meat-offer 
ings, and to do sacrifice continually." And in Ezek. xlv., xlvi., the 
most minute directions as to the manner in which the sacrifices are 
to be offered, and which in some respects will be found to differ from 
the details under the law of Moses." -f- 

" At that [millennial] time," says Mr Brock, " the [civil or poli 
tical] ascendency of Israel will be paramount over the Gentiles. 

Clear to this effect are the predictions of the prophets The 

same ascendency shall also be exercised by Israel over the Gentiles 
in spiritual things. Jerusalem will be the metropolitan city of the 
converted nations. The mountain of the Lord s house shall be 
established in the top of the mountains; and all nations shall flow 
unto it," &c."J 

"Jerusalem," says Mr Pym, "shall be the METROPOLIS OF THE 
WORLD, from which the law shall go forth, and be the CENTRE OF WORSHIP 
FOR THE WHOLE EARTH That this shall then distinguish 

* The Second Advent, &c., by the Rev. John Fry, 1822, vol. i. pp. 120, 
583, 585, 586. 

f Lent Lect. for 1843, ut supra, pp. 276, 278, 279. 
I Lent Lect. for 1846 (" Israel s Sins and Israel s Hopes"), PP. 271-273. 



MESSRS BONAR. 341 

Jerusalem above every other city, is apparent from the words of 
the prophet (Isa. ii. 2, 3), The mountain of the Lord s house shall 
be established in the top of the mountains, &c. From one new 
moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh 
come to worship before me (Isa. Ixvi. 23). Every one that is 

left of all the nations shall go up from year to year to 

worship, .... and to keep the feast of tabernacles. His people 
shall be exalted above all others. And strangers shall stand and feed 
your flocks, and the sous of the alien shall be your ploughmen and 
your vine-dressers. But ye shall be named the priests of the Lord, 

ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, &c. When I read 

such passages as these, do I marvel that the heart of an Israelite 
according to the flesh should beat high in prospect of the future 
glories of his nation ? Why, the blood runs faster through my own 
veins when I consider the predictions of their national greatness 
upon earth in the ages to come; much more, then, must it kindle 
the affections of that people who are the subject of these promises. 
It would appear from this passage, that the ordinary avocations of 
life, such as the dressing of vines and the tending of flocks, will be 
performed for them by the Gentiles, whilst they are to be engaged 
in the higher offices of being the priests of the Lord. "* 

I regret that the Messrs Bonar must be added to the list 
of those who have adopted these views. As I shall have 
occasion to quote a few words from Mr A. Bonar s "Leviti 
cus" on this subject by and by, I merely refer here to his 
" Redemption," ch. vi. Dr H. Bonar, after endeavouring to 
show that the literal sense of these prophecies, and particu 
larly of the last eight chapters of Ezekiel, is the only practi 
cable one, exclaims 

"Why should not the temple, the worship, the rites, the sacrifices, 
be allowed to point to the Lamb that was slain in the millennial 
age, if such be the purpose of the Father ? . . . . How needful will 
[such] retrospection be then, especially to Israel ? How needful, 
when dwelling in the blaze of a triumphant Messiah s glory, to 
have ever before them some memorial of the cross, some palpable re 
cord of the humbled Jesus, some visible exposition of his sin-bearing 
u-ork [i.e., by the sacrificing of beasts, as of old !], in virtue of which 
they have been forgiven, and saved, and loved And if God 

* Lent Lect. for 1847 ("Good Things to Come"), PP- 165-167. 



342 MR MOLYNEUX REMARKS. 

should have yet a wider circle of truth to open up to us out of his 
Word concerning his Son, why should he not construct a new 
apparatus for the illustration of that truth ? " * 

In a recent work of Mr Molyneux, the same views are 
urged with at least equal boldness : 

" The temple-worship, with all its varied rites and ceremonies, 

will be restored, and sacrifices again prevail The law must not 

be in vain even to them ; it must yet, peradventure, point back to 
Christ, and teach them retrospectively what it was intended to teach 
them prospectively the sacrificial and expiatory nature of his 
work. They will see him in glory, in the heavenly city, on the 
throne [that is, in their mortal bodies, and with eyes of flesh !] and 
they themselves will be living in light and joy on the regene 
rated earth ; but they must learn [that is, by the spectacle of slain 
beasts as of old !] through what he passed to that throne, and through 
what they have been brought to so glorious an inheritance ; and the 
law will possibly be their schoolmaster to teach them this. Thus, 
the sacrifices themselves (presenting } however, the object in a stronger light) 
may virtually be to them what the sacrament of the supper is 
actually to us; and they in the former [the sacrifices] may conti 
nually show forth the Lord s death, when lie shall have come, as we 
continually in the latter do show forth the Lord s death till He come."-}- 

On reading these statements, a number of thoughts crowd 
into the mind, of which the following are a few. 

1. Such startling literalism goes a great deal farther than 
its advocates are willing, or indeed able to carry it. They 
are compelled to stop short ; arid, so doing, it becomes evi 
dent that their principles of interpretation are radically 
wrong. To show this, we have but to go through with the 
literal interpretation of their own passages. Thus, 

Isa. ii. 2, 3: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that 
the mountain of the Lord s house shall be established in the 
top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; 
and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall 
go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of 
the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will 

* Coming and Kingdom, &c., p. 222. 

t Israel s Future, &c., Fourth Thousand, 1853, pp. 252, 257, 253. 



LITERALISM AT A STAND. 343 

teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths : for out 
of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord 
from Jerusalem." 

Here, as in so many other cases, the unbelieving Jews and 
the premillennialists are substantially at one, and alike opposed 
to the overwhelming majority of Christians. Both maintain 
that the "Zion" of this prediction is the literal "mountain" 
on which stood "the Lord s house" of old; both hold that 
" the house of the God of Jacob," to which all nations are to 
flow, is a literal and material temple to be thereon erected ; 
both understand the "flowing" and "going up" to refer to 
a literal pilgrimage to this central and metropolitan seat of 
future worship ; and, finally, both interpret " the law" which 
is to " go forth out of Zion," and the " word of the Lord" to 
issue "from Jerusalem," of no revelation yet vouchsafed no 
"law" and "word" already in the Church s hands but of 
new revelations of the Divine will, to be made at Messiah s 
coming his second coming, say the one his first and only 
coming, say the other. 

Now, how is the thing here predicted to be literally done ? 
To talk of the Gentile nations going up to Jerusalem " from 
year to year" (Zech. xiv. 16), and " from one new moon to 
another," yea, "from one sabbath to another" (Isa. Ixvi. 23), 
by deputies, or in some such way, and to tell us of the in 
creased facilities of communication with the most distant 
localities which in our day have been opened up, and will, at 
the time here referred to, be vastly greater, will not do here. 
It does not meet the requirements of the prediction. The 
whole religious worship and obedience of the nations is made 
to radiate from, and to hold of, this metropolitan temple-ser 
vice at Mount Zion. They go up hither, "because out of Zion 
goes forth the law, and the ivord of the Lord from Jerusalem." 

Then, on the literal principle, where is Christianity, as it 
now exists ? Where its " law," its " word of the Lord," its 
New Testament? It is not here at all. Literalism refuses 
to acknowledge its presence, and in place of it holds forth a 



344 HANDLE GIVEN TO THE JEW. 

revelation issuing from the sacred centre of the world, at a 
period which the Jew and the premillennialist agree in believ 
ing to be still future. The prophecy does not say merely 
that there will be more revelation then than now, some 
additions to the stock already in our possession, as Mr 
Bickersteth, Dr M Neile, Mr Wood, the Duke of Manchester, 
&c., speak ; but that the kingdom is to be constituted, and all 
the religious service and obedience of the world to take law 
from what is there and thence to be proclaimed.* And, in 
this view of it, which is clearly what the prediction intimates, 
is there a Christian who does not see that the Jew has com 
pletely the better of us on premillennial principles ? Gentle 
men, he will tell us, you may speak of Messiah s second advent 
supplying what \\isjirst failed to bring ; you may tell me that 
the present state of things is " rather the preparation for the 
kingdom than the kingdom itself, which was not to be mani 
fested in its primary sense under this dispensation :" But put 
me through this prediction of Isaiah upon your principles. 
The ordinary interpretation of Christians one can under 
stand that it means your Christianity universally embraced, 
or the world baptized into, and cordial observers of, your 
New Testament law and worship. The Jewish view of it 
also is intelligible that the one revelation, after the times of 
the prophets, and in the days of Messiah, is yet to come. But 
two " laws going forth from Zion two words of the Lord 
from Jerusalem" one not here expressed at all, but, as you 
say, understood the other explicitly declared to be the very 
law of the kingdom and rule of the Church : this will not do. 
2. The literal interpretation of these prophecies brings out 
opposite and contradictory results, and so is demonstrably 
false. Thus, "In that day there shall no more be the 
Canaanite (or the uncircumcised) in the house of the Lord of 

* Mr Wood, in his recent answer to the above, seems to have over 
looked this obvious distinction between such additions as they expect 
during the millennium to the stock of revelation, and such a revelation 
as is here promised. 



LITERALISM SELF-CONTRADICTORY. 345 

hosts." (Zech. xiv. 21.) " Thus saith the Lord God, No 
stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, 
shall enter into my sanctuary, of any stranger that is among 
the children of Israel." (Ezek. xliv. 9.)* Perhaps it may be 
said, That merely intimates that the Israelites are to have 
ordinances of their own, with which the converted Gentiles, 
in their services at Mount Zion, are not permitted to inter 
meddle. I answer, no such distinction is drawn in Isaiah s 
prediction, already quoted ; nay, the reverse is studiously 
expressed. If his language means any thing literally, it 
means that the whole world is to become one great Israelitish 
nation and Church, with one temple, one worship, and one law 
in common. The nations not only go to Jerusalem, but they 
"go up to the mountain of the Lord s house, to the house 
(itself) of the God of Jacob," which in Jewish phrase means, 
beyond doubt, to do all that is competent to an Israelitish 
worshipper.f Either, then, all nations will submit to the 
literal rite of circumcision, in order to qualify themselves for 
entering the house of the Lord, forbidden to the uncircum 
cised which no premillennialist that we know holds or the 

* I have omitted Joel iii. 17, and the corresponding passage mentioned 
by Mr Wood (I&a. Iii. 1), being convinced by his arguments (pp. .329, 
330) against the use made of them in my second edition. But I retain 
the two above quoted, believing that the force of them is unbroken by 
my friend s reasoning. As to the sense of the latter passage (Ezek. xliv. 
9), -which Mr Wood thinks must puzzle me as much as him, I take it very 
much in the same sense as Isa. Ix. 21, " Thy people shall be all righteous," 
as denoting a high degree of purity such that righteousness, as the pre 
dominant feature of the times spoken of, shall seem to be the character 
of every one but not certainly of the saving conversion of every indivi 
dual. If, however, we understand the passage in Ezekiel to announce 
the exclusion from the sanctuary of all that are uncircumcised in flesh, I 
do not see how that can admit of any modified sense. 

t No, says Mr Wood, for the Gentile proselytes, while the temple 
stood, had surely access to the house of the Lord, and yet could not " do 
all that is competent to an Israelitish worshipper," being restricted to 
the outer court (p. 331). True, but this prediction of Isaiah manifestly 
goes far beyond that state of things, announcing the entire oneness in all 
the most solemn acts of public worship of Jew and Gentile, which certainly 
did not exist while the Jewish temple stood. 



346 LITERALISM SELF-CONTRADICTORY. 

prediction is not to be literally interpreted at all. Even the 
Jews do not look for the literal circumcision of all nations. 
In this, however, they only show how untenable is their 
ground, in attempting to justify their unbelief from their own 
prophets. When they point to such a prediction as this of 
Isaiah, to show that Christianity has not realized it in its 
literal sense, our reply is triumphant : " You do not expect 
it to be realized yourselves. You admit that Gentiles are 
not to be circumcised, and you talk of the precepts of Noah, 
as all they will be required to observe for salvation. But 
that is not the doctrine of this prediction. In its literal sense, 
it obviously announces the JUDAIZATION OP THE WHOLE 
WORLD ; and if even you think this too much to believe, you 
must fall back upon some other principle of interpretation 
than the literal. 

Or, try the effect of literalism upon 

Mai. i. 11 : "From the rising of the sun unto the going down of 
the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and 
in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a 
pure offering : for my name shall be great among the hea 
then, saith the Lord of hosts." 

Are there any except Romanists and Romanizers, ancient 
and modern who take " incense" here and the " pure offer 
ing" literally? Do not all understand the prediction to mean 
simply this, that not at Jerusalem only, but everywhere, and 
not by Jews only, but by all nations without distinction, from 
one end of the world to the other, acceptable ivorsliip shall 
ascend to God ? And how is it that all unite in so under 
standing it ? Clearly because " incense" and " offering," in the 
Jewish sense, having given place under the Gospel to " spiri 
tual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ," there is no 
other kind of worship of which we can understand the predic 
tion; and all that I insist on is, that this principle of prophetic 
interpretation be carried through all cases of like nature. 

But the Jewish idea, under which this prediction is couched, 
is not merely that "incense and a pure offering" shall be 



LITERALISM CONTRADICTS THE NEW TESTAMENT. 347 

offered to God by all nations, but " in every place" as if 
they would have the temple service at home, and not need 
to go to Jerusalem for it. NOAV we have seen, that in other 
places the reverse of this is expressly predicted. In Isaiah 
and Ezekiel, the catholicity of the Church s worship is ex 
pressed by all nations flowing to Jerusalem, and going up to 
the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; 
whereas in Malachi, instead of them going to the temple, the 
temple is represented as coming to them. If, then, we would 
not make the prophets contradict themselves, we must under 
stand both representations as designed to announce just the 
catholicity and spirituality of the Gospel worship.* 

3. The results of this literalism are in flat contradiction to 
the New Testament. If it is possible to gather any thing 
from the last and clearest revelation of God s mind and will, 
this is a New Testament truth, That THE WALL OF PARTITION 

BETWEEN JEW AND GENTILE HAS BEEN BROKEN DOWN, NEVER 

MORE TO BE REBUILT. 

" lie is our peace, who hath made both (Jew and Gentile) one, 
and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between 
us : having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law 
of commandments contained in ordinances. Now there 
fore ye (Gentiles) are no more strangers and foreigners, but 
fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God. 
(Eph. ii. 14, 15, 19.) 

It is impossible for language more clearly to intimate that 
Jews and Gentiles are placed, by the work of Christ, on a 
footing of perfect equality before God, not only in point of 
acceptance, but as members of the Church visible. Premillen- 
nialists make this to mean merely that Gentiles have now 
access to Christ and salvation, as well as Jews. But Christ 
and salvation were never inaccessible to Gentiles. The cere- 

* Mr "Wood s reply to this is, that in Malachi the thing predicted is 
simply the universality of Gospel worship, whereas Isaiah (ii ) speaks of 
millennial times, (p. 332.) But my position is, that these are one and the 
same, the latter day revealing only the meridian splendour of "the Day- 
spring from on high." 



348 JEWISH PECULIARITIES FOR EVER GONE. 

monial barriers placed them in a more disadvantageous posi 
tion, in this respect, than the Jews, but that was all. And it is 
just these ritual disadvantages which the apostle says have 
been taken out of the way, to make room for a new incorpo 
ration of both into one fellowship, having all things common, 
as pertaining to the "city" and "house" of God. The cere 
monial sacredness of places, persons, times, vessels all typi 
cal institutions and observances have yielded to the spiri 
tualities and simplicities of the New Testament, to the genius 
of which all such distinctions are utterly foreign. 

But our Lord s announcements to the woman of Samaria, 
when consulting him about the proper place of (central) 
worship, are, if possible, still more explicit : 

" Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in 
this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye 
worship ye know not what : we know what we worship : 
for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and 
now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father 
in spirit and in truth ; for the Father seeketh such to wor 
ship him." (John iv. 21-23.) 

Does this mean that, under the new economy, the worship 
of Gentiles out of Jerusalem would be as acceptable as the 
worship of the Jews in it that the central and sacred cha 
racter of Jerusalem w r ould continue unchanged ; but that be 
lieving Gentiles, though as much "strangers and foreigners" 
as ever, as truly "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel" 
as ever, in respect of ceremonies, and Church officers, and 
modes of worship, would nevertheless get access to Christ 
and salvation as truly as the Jews ? Could such a construc 
tion by possibility be put upon the Saviour s language, one 
could listen to the arguments for a millennial Judaism. But 
as, beyond all doubt, the Saviour meant to announce that 
Jerusalem was going to lose its peculiar character that it 
would cease to be, even to the Jews themselves, " the city of 
their solemnities, whither the tribes should go up" that, in 
fact, it would possess not a whit more of distinctive religious 



JEWISH CEREMONIES STILL EXPECTED. 3-19 

character than the mountain of Samaria, about -which the 
woman consulted him I cannot but wonder that Christian 
men, sitting at the Redeemer s feet to receive the law at his 
mouth, should dream of a revived Judaism, and picture to 
themselves "believing nations frequenting the" restored 
"temple, in order to get understanding in the types and 
shadows ; looking on the sons of Zadok ministering in that 
peculiar sanctuary, to learn portions of truth with new im- 
pressiveness and fulness."* Ah ! brother, never more shall 
Jerusalem be "the city of the great King" the place of 
Jehovah s special presence and power, grace and glory, in 
connection with a ceremonial worship. "-In Salem was his 
tabernacle, and his dwelling-place in Zion." (Ps. Ixxvi. 1.) 
But by the work of Christ these localities are stript for ever 
of their ceremonial sacredness. " Salem" and " Zion" are 
now in every place where "the Father is worshipped in 
spirit and in truth." It is this very change beyond all doubt 
which the apostle designed to express, when he said to the 
Hebrews, who were clinging to the local Jerusalem and the 
literal Zion, after all their glory had passed away, "But YE 

ARE COME UNTO MOUNT ZlON, AND UNTO THE CITY OP THE 
LIVING GOD, THE HEAVENLY JERUSALEM" (Heb. xii. 22) 

the Zion and Jerusalem of a catholic and spiritual and hea 
venly Israel the only Zion and Jerusalem that will ever, in 
any religious sense, exist upon earth. To say, in the face of 
such a statement, that the religious peculiarities of the local 
Jerusalem and the literal Mount Zion are either not abolished 
at all, or abolished only for a time, to be again restored, is, 
I must say, intolerable.! 

" The Church polity " says good INCREASE MATHER, 



* Bonar s (A.) "Leviticus." Preface, p. x. 

f- " I hold," says Mr Wood, " that it is at least most distinctly im 
plied, that the time during which no (Jewish) offering is made at Jeru 
salem, is but an interruption for a season of God s gracious purposes 
towards that city. Salem shall yet be his tabernacle, and his dwelling- 
place in Mount Zion." (P. 334.) 



350 INCREASE MATHER ON THE CEREMONIES. 

father of the well-known Cotton Mather, and a premillen- 
nialist "which Israel shall then [in their converted and 
restored state] be under, shall not be a carnal one, not as 
was from Moses unto Christ, but a very spiritual polity ; for 
they shall be no more under the Mosaical pedagogy no 
more under the ceremonial law. It hath been charged upon 
those who did in the primitive times assert the glorious reign 
of Christ upon earth, that they did also maintain that there 
would be sacrifices and other ceremonies of Moses law : So 
Jerome (on Jer. xix. 10, and on Zech. xiv. 10), saith that the 
ancient doctors held. I do believe that that is a very inju 
rious charge ; and that it never once entered into the heart of 
any of those godly and learned teachers in the Church to ima 
gine such a thing. However, sure I am, that the Word of the 
Lord is express to the contrary. Hence, the Jews, after 
their conversion, are said to be under, not the old, but the 
new covenant ; that is, not under the old but the new manner 
(for the covenant of grace, as to the substance of it, is for 
ever the same) of administration of the covenant. Hence, 
the Lord saith to Israel, " But not by thy covenant" (Ezek. 
xvi. 61). The truth is, that Christ by his coming abolished 
the ceremonial law and nailed it to his cross and buried it in 
his grave. AND A MOST LOATHSOME WORK DO THEY PERFORM, 

BOTH TO GOD AND MAN, THAT DIG UP THE CEREMONIES OUT 
OF THAT GRAVE WHERE JESUS CHRIST BURIED THEM ABOVE 
SIXTEEN HUNDRED YEARS AGO."* 

What would this worthy man have said, had he heard Mr 
A. Bonar expatiating on the lessons to be taught by the 
restored sacrifices had he heard Dr H. Bonar dwelling on 
the need of them amidst the blaze of Messiah s glory had he 

* " The Mystery of Israel s Salvation Explained and Applied ; or, a Dis 
course concerning the General Conversion of the Israelitish Xation. By 
Increase Mather, M. A., teacher of a Church in Boston, in New England." 
Printed in the year 1669. Pp. 113, 114. 

JOSEPH PERRY, too, in his comments on those passages in which tem 
ple-language is employed, never seems to imagine any but a figurative 
interpretation of them. 



EZEKIEL S TEMPLE. 351 

heard Mr Freemantle tolling a Christian audience, that in 
the restored temple "the burnt-offering will be discerned by 
an enlightened eye, and will call to mind the lost and ruined 
state of man in Adam wholly consumed. The sin-offering 
will set forth actual trespass, shortcoming. The peace-offer 
ing and thank-offering, the abounding and exceeding great 
love of God our Saviour : As the blood flows from the victim, 
the mind will trace the characters of death on account of sin, 
and in those very characters decipher life in atonement for 
sin. And as in vision John beheld a Lamb as it had been 
slain, so will the Israelite behold in reality the type (that is, 
beasts literally slain) and the Antitype face to face!" (Ut 
supra.} When the author of this Lecture adds, immediately 
after the words quoted, " O happy and blessed period ! In 
that day shall the flocks of Kedar be gathered together unto 
thee, the rams of Nebaioth minister unto thee," one feels dis 
posed to ask, Were the two men of the same religion ? But 
it is said, " The account of this (restored) temple, which 
occupies chapters xl. to xlvi. of Ezekiel, is imbedded in lite- 

ralities on either side Here, then, lies the difficulty. 

All seems literal on either side ; and is there to arise, in the 
midst of this, a great spiritual building, possessing nothing in 
common with the literalities around it ? The point of diffi 
culty lies there." * To this I unhesitatingly reply, Let the 
literalities go, if they cannot stand with the naked and unmis- 
takeable announcements of the Lord of the temple. I do not 
quite see, indeed, that we are shut up to the alternative of 
losing all literalities, or making every thing literal. But I 
am perfectly prepared to part with whatever may be demanded 
by a firm adherence to the announcements of Christ. True, 
"there are many dark things in the Word;"f but they will 
become darker still, if, instead of explaining the dark things 
by the clear, ice explain the clear things by the dark, making 
the Old Testament the key to the New. It is this unnatural 

* Bonar s "Redemption Drawing Xigb," p. 99. 
f " Redemption," p. 103. 



352 THE BEGGARLY ELEMENTS. 

method which lies at the foundation of all the Jewish expec 
tations of Christians; and never till we reverse the process 
are we safe from the danger to which JEROME alludes, of 
Judaizing our Christianity, instead of Christianizing the ad 
herents of Judaism. 

As a last refuge, we sometimes hear it said, that, though 
an Aaronic priesthood, and bloody sacrifices, and circumci 
sion, and a metropolitan ceremonial at Jerusalem, may be 
unsuitable to the genius of the present economy, they may, 
for aught that we know, be consistent enough with one to 
come. This surely is a desperate argument. Nor should I 
allude to it, but to ask the reader whether this be the im 
pression which he gathers from the apostle s reasonings on 
the subject of the ceremonies, in the epistles to the Galatiawf, 
Colossians, and Hebrews ? Was it only the abuse of them 
against which he wrote ? Or was it only their temporary re 
moval which he contemplated, in the view of their ultimate 
restoration ? Does he not characterise them as, in their own 
nature, " worldly rudiments," " beggarly elements," the mere 
discipline of minors, as a " bondage" unsuited to the liberty 
of Christ s freemen ? (Gal. iv.) Are they not represented 
as " a shadow," of which " the body is Christ," for the entire 
neglect and abandonment of which Christians ought not to 
allow themselves to be "judged" by Judaizing zealots, who 
were swarming in some of the infant Churches, and whose 
policy it was to sap and mine whatever was spiritual, and 
free, arid catholic in the new economy? (Col. ii.) Is not 
the priesthood said to be " changed," and the ceremonial 
institute to be " disannulled," expressly " because of the weak 
ness and unprofitableness thereof?" Now, to what order did 
those " sons of Zadok" belong, the "ministrations" of whose 
descendants in the restored temple are expected to give " new 
impressiveness and fulness to certain portions of truth?" 
They belonged, as every one knows, to that very Aaronic 
order which the apostle says has been swept off the stage of 



ANTIQUATED SHADOWS. 353 

the Church, with all that appertained to it, as a weak and 
useless thing after Christ s coming. Yet farther, is not the 
coexistence of two priesthoods regarded as a thing incongru 
ous; and does not the apostle represent the whole ritual 
system as in a "decaying, antiquated, and evanescent" state 
when he wrote ? (Chap, viii.) Now, is it conceivable that 
such language would have been used of a system only tem 
porarily set aside, to be brought back, with a few changes, to 
more than its pristine splendour ? If such expectations, or 
any thing like them, are not directly in the teeth of all that 
the apostle says on the subject of the temple service, he has 
used language which it was next to impossible not to misun 
derstand, and which the whole Church, with hardly an ex 
ception, has misunderstood. 

It gives me extreme pleasure to be able to enrich my pages 
with the following statement of the Duke of Manchester, which 
for acuteness and force of argument is all that I could desire on 
the subject of this chapter, and which, considering the quarter 
from which it comes, may have a weight with the brethren 
from whom I differ which my own statements may not possess. 
The intrinsic value of the extract will compensate for its length. 

" The sacrifices," says his Grace, " mentioned by Ezekiel, seem 
to me quite unsuitable to any period of the Church after the first 
adr.ent of Messiah; for, according to the epistle to the Hebrews them 
selves, the sacrifices mentioned by Ezekiel are those very ones 
which are done away by Christ. In Ezekiel there is provision for 

slaying the sin-offering and the trespass- offering (xl. 39) 

The apostle, quoting from the 40th Psalm, says, Sacrifice and offer 
ing thou wouldest not; in burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin thou 
hast had no pleasure : then, applying this quotation, he says 
(Heb. x. 5, 9), He taketh away the first that he may establish the 
second. The sacrifices that were by the law must be abolished, in 
order that the offering of Christ might be established. Would not, 
therefore, their re-establishment vitiate the one offering of Jesus I 
Would there not then be a remembrance of sin, in opposition to 
the blessing of the new covenant (Ileb. viii. 12), Their sins and 

2B 



354 ADMIRABLE VIEWS OF 

iniquities will I remember no more ? Again, there is mention 
made of the bullock whose body was to be burnt without the sanc 
tuary (xliii. 21); which the apostle applies to Christ suffering with 
out the gate, and to the necessity which there was, for those who 
would enjoy the benefits to be derived from Christ, of going with 
out the pale of Jewish ordinances; while those who continue in the 
use of the ceremonial law have l no right to partake of Christ 
(Heb. xiii. 10-13). Again, according to Ezekiel, circumcision was 
to be imperative not only amongst the Jews, but with strangers 
(xliv. 9); while the apostle tells us (Gal. v. 2-4), If ye be circum 
cised, Christ shall profit you nothing. And lastly, in Ezekiel s 
temple the passoverwas to have been regularly observed (xlv. 21); 
but [since] Christ our passover has been sacrificed for us/ are we 
to go back to what are now beggarly elements ? 

" Perhaps the advocates for the restoration of sacrifices would 
say they are to be commemorative or eucharistic; / say this view 
appears more objectionable than the spiritual hypothesis, because that only 
evades Scripture, this opposes it; for the object of these sacrifices is 
expressly declared they are for him that erreth, and they are to 
reconcile, to cleanse, and to purge (Ezek. xlv. 20; xliii. 20; xlvi. 20). 
If they were intended as eucharistic, they would not be called 
sins and trespasses; they would rather be called peace and 
thank-offerings; but we have these mentioned also (xlv. 17, margin), 
and distinct from the sin and burnt- offerings. *....! think it 
possible that the prophecy of Ezekiel may in part become the occa 
sion of those Jews who reject Messiah having recourse to those 
beggarly elements; AND I THINK IT ISA SUBJECT OF VERY GRAVE 

CONSIDERATION, WHETHER WE CHRISTIANS MAT NOT PUT A STUMBLING- 
BLOCK IN THE WAY OF THE JEWS, BY ADMITTING THAT THE RESTORA 
TION OF SACRIFICES, AFTER THEY HAVE BEEN DONE AWAY IN CHRIST, 
CAN BE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE WILL OF GOD To think HOW 

of re-establishing any sacrifices which must be done away in Christ, 
would be utterly unsuitable to the Church; it would be turning again to the 
weak and beggarly elements; therefore all that portion (if Ezekiel s vision which 
refers to them, to use the apostle s expression, must hate grown old 

* It is impossible, I think, that the Messrs Bonar, and those who with 
them look for the restoration of animal sin-offerings and burnt-offerings, 
as eucharistic memorials of Christ s death, should not feel the force of thig 
argument 



THE DUKE OF MANCHESTER. 355 

* I find in prophetic language sacrifices used figuratively, to 
denote prayer (Ps. cxli. 2); praise (Ps. liv. 6, Jer. xvii. 26, xxxiii. 
11); thanksgiving (Ps. cvii. 22, cxvi. 17); joy (Ps. xxvii. 6); right 
eousness (Ps. iv. 5, H. 19); confession (Ps.lxvi.13); contrition (Ps. 
li. 17); judgments (Isa. xxxiv. 6, xlvi. 10, Ezek. xxxix. 17-19, 
Zeph. i. 7, 8.) I find that some of the instances adduced by tlie ad 
vocates of literal sacrifices, if taken literally, would prone more than those 
advocates would admit, for they refer not to the Jews but to Gentiles, e. g., 
Isa. xix. 21; Ivi. 7; Mai. i. 11.* And when I find in the New 
Testament that believers are a royal priesthood (1 Pet. ii. 5, 9), 
and, as priests, partake of the altar (Heb. xiii. 10, 1 Cor. x. 16, 
21), as priests offer spiritual sacrifices, whether of praise (Heb. 
xiii. 15), and good works (Heb. xiii. 13, 16, Phil. iv. 18), or 
whether of themselves either in life or death (Rom. xii. 1, xv. 16, 
Phil. ii. 17, 2 Tim. iv. 6); I am induced to believe that the pro 
phets refer to the spiritual and reasonable services indicated by 
the typical ordinances, rather than the beggarly elements themselves. 
Nor do I think that this mode of interpretation can justly be 
charged with being a departure from the principle of literal inter- 
pretation.-f- Each of the sacrifices enigmatically signified certain 
determinate parts of spiritual worship; the prophets, who lived 
during the dispensation of shadows, used the language current at 
that time, and conveyed the ideas of the things symbolized, under 
the terms of the symbols themselves. In saying this, we do not 

* At pages 346, 347, I commented on the last of these examples for the 
purpose of showing that the altar of burnt " offering " and the altar of 
"incense " will be not at Jerusalem only, but " in every place," if it is to 
be taken literally. His Grace adduces it, and the other two passages, 
to show that the Gentiles will in that case offer Jewish sacrifices. Is not 
this what I have termed the JUDAIZATION OF THE WHOLE WOULD ? No 
thing can be clearer than that this is what all these prophecies announce, 
if they are to be interpreted literally; and if this is too much even for 
a Jeiv to take in, we must fall back upon the figurative sense as the only 
rational and self-consistent one. 

t One is almost amused at the jealousy with which his Grace anticipates 
and repels this objection. Undoubtedly, he " departs from the principle 
of literal interpretation " in the only sense in which its advocates contend 
for it; and the grounds on which he defends himself in the next sentence 
from the charge which his friends will, of course, and with justice, bring 
against him, are the very grounds on which I myself feel warranted and 
constrained to apply the figurative principle to these prophecies. 



3-5S DUKE OF MANCHESTER. 

admit any thing arbitrary in the principles of interpretation; the 
literal sacrifices were forms by which the spiritual worship of the 
enlightened Jew was expressed, and shadows of a time of reforma 
tion; the prophets conveyed by words what the ceremonial worship 
expressed by things; and it is no more arbitary in the one case than 
in the other, to say that they predicted not the shadow but the 
substance, not the form but the spirit of true worship. Nor is 
there any thing indeterminate admitted; for as the prophets take 
their language from the ceremonial appointments, and as each 
species of sacrifice symbolized a determinate idea, so the language, 
when used figuratively or symbolically, equally conveys a fixed 
find determinate idea.* Why may not the rams of Nebaioth 
(Isa. lx. 7), be understood symbolically, as well as the failings of 
Bashan (Ezek. xxxix. 18), or the kidneys of rams (Isa. xxxiv. 
6), or the calves of the lips (Hos. xiv. 2)? If it be said that 
the Egyptians shall do sacrifice and oblation (Isa. xix. 21), is 
it violent to look for the explanation in the following words, Yea, 
they shall vow a vow and perform it? Is it unreasonable to sup 
pose that the burnt- offerings and sacrifices of the Gentiles denote 
the prayer which all nations will offer in God s house, or even to 
understand the burnt-offerings and sacrifices of THE JEWS mentioned in 
connection with the sacrifices of praise, AS THEMSELVES INDICATIVE OF 

SPIRITUAL WORSHIP If 

* Nothing can be more admirable than these defences against the 
charge of arbitrary and indeterminate interpretation, which is continually 
made by the strict literalists. I only hope his Grace will allow me to 
take the benefit of it ; and, if I go beyond the legitimate application of 
it in any case, I shall gladly submit to his correction. I certainly need 
not. In the work already quoted (" Restoration of the Jews," &c.) it will 
be seen that I am quite as jealous as his Grace is of "arbitrary and 
indeterminate" interpretation. 

t Finished Mystery, pp. 253-257, 260-262. 

It may be asked how his Grace " thinks the latter chapters of Ezekiel 
can be understood according to the literal simplicity of the language, 
without being contrary to the analogy of faith." It is soon told. "The 
promise [of this whole temple-worship] was altogether conditional on 
their putting away their whoredoms, being ashamed of all they had 

done, &c. (Ezek. xliii. 9-11.) But they did not take advantage 

of the proffered mercy ; therefore the promise lapsed, and the Israelites 
have no warrant to expect that the offer, as there made to them, will 
ever again be proposed." (Pp. 256, 257.) I am afraid this will not do. 
It is the theory of those who deny the future restoration, and even 



SUMMARY. 357 

Thus have I shown that Scripture affords no warrant for 
expecting the restoration of Jewish peculiarities during the 
millennium ; that the literal way of interpreting those pro- 
national conversion of the Jews ; who, finding that a great many more 
promises than this one are connected with a certain preparation of the 
people for the reception of them which preparation was never realized 
by the ancient Israelites, to whom these promises were immediately 
addressed consider them all as lapsed, so far as the Israelites were 
distinctively concerned in them, and now outstanding only in so far as 
they involve evangelical ideas, applicable alike to Jew and Gentile. His 
Grace, though he thus easily gets rid of Ezekiel, seems to deduce from 
other prophecies, "that a literal temple will be erected, and literal 
sacrifices offered, although not the typical trespass-offerings and sin- 
offerings," which he says these other prophecies are careful not to men 
tion (p. 259) a difference this between Ezekiel and the other prophets 
" which Mr Brown," he says, " seems to have overlooked." I think this 
" important difference " could easily be shown to be imaginary ; but I 
cannot swell out farther this already too extended chapter.* 

I may be asked how I explain the last eight chapters of Ezekiel 
myself. That this is one of the dark and difficult parts of Scripture, is 
felt by all ; but though no clear light could be thrown upon it, it is 
something to be able to say what it does not and cannot mean. That it 
was meant for the second temple, or some other which might have been 
built if the Jews had possessed a character which they did not I cannot 
think, with any light which I at present possess. With still greater 
confidence do I reject all application of it to any literal third temple to 
be hereafter erected at Jerusalem. We seem, therefore, to be shut up 
to one general view of the prophecy. The beams of evangelical truth 
which shine through several of its directions, lead me to look for the 
explanation of the whole in that direction, and to believe that a sober 
and patient investigation of the typical and symbolical language of the 
Old Testament, in the light of the New, would disclose in this prophecy 
as Mr A. Bonar says, though not quite in his sense " treasures hid in 
the sand." All the pains which Dr H. Bonar has taken to expose the ab 
surdity and contradiction to which the figurative view of this prophecy has 
given rise, will never drive me into the literal ; nor is it fitted to have that 
effect upon any one who looks to the principles involved in the question. 

HAVERNICK S general conception of these last eight chapters of 
Ezekiel, as quoted by Dr Fairbairn in his " Exposition of Ezekiel " 
(pp. 402, 403), is beautiful : " 1. la the gospel times, there is to be on the 

* Compare, however, the sacrifices mentioned as abolished without respect to 
either Jew or Gentile in Hen. x. 8, and the corresponding words in Hebrew, with 
those mentioned in Isa. Ivi. 1, to which his Graoe himself refers. 



358 SUMMARY. 

phecies -which are thought to express this, is not, cannot be, 
gone through with by either Christians or unbelieving 
Jews ; that it brrhgs out opposite and contradictory results, 
and so must be a false principle of interpretation; that such 
expectations are in flat contradiction to the most emphatic 
declarations both of our Lord and his apostles ; that it is to 
retrograde from manhood to childhood to look for a conver 
sion of the present catholic and spiritual economy into a vast, 
world-wide, baptised Judaism, having its head quarters on 
the literal Mount Zion ; and that the eucharistic theory, 
by which it is attempted to graft this doctrine, of animal 
sacrifices restored in the millennium, upon the faith of the 
Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world, is, by 
the admirable showing of one .of themselves, as untenable as 
it is repulsive to the best feelings of the Christian. 

part of Jehovah a solemn occupation anew of his sanctuary, in which the 
entire fulness of the Divine glory shall dwell and manifest itself. At 
the last, there is to rise a new temple, diverse from the old, to be made 
every way suitable to that grand and lofty intention, and worthy of it ; 
in particular, of vast compass for the new community, and with a holiness 
stretching over the entire extent of the temple, so that in this respect 
there should no longer be any distinction between the different parts. 
Throughout, every thing is subjected to the most exact and particular 
appointments ; individual parts, and especially such as had formerly re 
mained indeterminate, obtain now an immediate Divine sanction ; so that 
every idea of any kind of arbitrariness must be altogether excluded from 
tiiis temple. Accordingly, this sanctuary is the thoroughly sufficient, 
perfect manifestation of God for the salvation of his people (ch. xl.-xiiii. 
12.) 2. From this sanctuary, as from the new centre of all religious life, 
there gushes forth an unbounded fulness of blessings upon the people, 
who in consequence attain to a new condition. There come also into 
being a new glorious worship, a truly acceptable priesthood and theocra- 
tical ruler, and equity and righteousness reign among the entire com 
munity, who being purified from all stains, rise indeed to possess the 
life that is in God, (ch. xliii. 13, xlvii. 12.) 3. To the people who have 
become renewed by such blessings, the Lord gives the land of promise ; 
Canaan is a second time divided among them, where, in perfect harmony 
and blessed fellowship, they serve the living God, who abides and niani- 
i ests himself among them." (ch. xlvii. 13, xlviii.)* 
* Havernick, Comm., p. 623. 



CHAPTER V. 

NO MILLENNIAL MIXTURE OF FAITH AND 

WE have seen that the premillennial theory begets some 
startling expectations. But I doubt whether any of them 
will surprise the simple reader of his Bible more than what 
Is put forth upon the vision of Christ in glory by mortal men 
during the millennium. That I may not be charged with 
misrepresenting their sentiments, I will give them in their 
own words, and I shall quote from a variety of authors, that 
no one may say I palm upon them as a body the peculiar 
opinions of one or two individuals. 

" In the millennial state," says Mr Brooks, " there will be THE 
OPEN VISION OF CHRIST." " The whole nature of a dispensation in 
which the saints [in the flesh] WILL CONTINUALLY HAVE PERSONAL 
ACCESS TO CHRIST, must necessarily be one of increasing knowledge 
and illumination." " Some are of opinion that the saints will not 
be mingled at all with men in the flesh, in the resurrection ; or, at 
least, that they will only be occasionally manifested to them. I 
know of no decided Scripture authority for the opinion; whilst yet 
I confess, that, judging by the reason of the thing, there appears some 
degree of plausibility in it. In the meanwhile, it is evident that 
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, are again to dwell in the renewed 
earth [during the millennium] ; and as they will be of the resurrec 
tion, there seems no just reason why the rest of those who sleep in 
Jesus should not dwell on it likewise I conclude, there 
fore, that the resurrection-saints will undoubtedly dwell on earth, 
and have power over the nations, though they will probably be 



360 MR ELLIOTT MR LORD MR BIRKS. 

nearer to God, and continually behold his glory, in a manner that 
will not be enjoyed to THE SAME EXTENT by men of flesh and blood. * 

" There must," says Mr Elliott, " be supposed, I conceive, a most 
intimate connection of the earthly Jerusalem with the heavenly; 
the earthly Jerusalem being that upon, or over which, the glory of 
the new Jerusalem is to rest ; like as Jehovah s pillar of fire on 
the tabernacle in the wilderness, or the more awful glory on the 
top of Sinai. Here, I say, it would seem that there is to be the 
meeting point of earth and heaven ; and that same conjunction to 
be VISIBLY MANIFESTED of the ultimate blessedness of the spiritual 
[then in glory] and of the natural seed of Abraham [continuing a 
nation in the flesh] : a conjunction and blending together of the 
two so intimate, that it is often difficult, if not impossible, to dis 
cern in prophecy where the one ends and the other begins." f 

" The gates," says Mr Lord, [of the New Jerusalem] " symbolize 
the access to the glorified which the nations are to enjoy. That they 
[the gates] are distributed equally to the several sides, indicates 
that they are to be accessible alike to the nations wherever they 
may reside; that there is to be no night there, that they [the 
nations in the flesh] ARE NEVER TO BE WITHOUT THE VISIBLE PRE 
SENCE OF GOD; that its gates are never shut, that the nations are to 

enjoy uninterrupted access to the glorified In the temple in 

Jerusalem, the mercy-seat the symbol of the throne of God in 
the scene of the visible displays of his presence was in the holy of 
holies wholly withdrawn from the sight of the worshippers, and beheld 
only by the high priest once a-year. That there is no temple in the 
New Jerusalem, denotes therefore that the presence of the Redeemer 
is to be VISIBLE TO THE WORSHIPPERS AT LARGE not, as under the 
Mosaic dispensation, veiled from their sight. ! 

" The manhood," says Mr Birks, " the mystic heel of Emma 
nuel, which here below, on the cross, was buried by the malice of 
Satan SHALL BE VISIBLY REVEALED HERE ox EARTH IN THE BEAUTY 
OF THE RESURRECTION, shall be the source of a world s blessedness, 
and the centre of its holy adoration." " The nations who walk 

* Abdiel s Essays: Investigator, vol. ii. p. 271. Elein. of Proph. In 
terp-, pp. 33, 301. 
f Hor. Apoc. ut supra, iv. 209, 210- 
t Expos, of Apoc., p. 531. 
I Lent Lect, for 1843, ut supra, pp. 208, 209. 



DR M NEILE MR MAITLAND MR WOOD. 361 

In the light of the New Jerusalem must imply others who are dis 
tinct from its citizens, and who icalk in the light Hint beams forth from 

that -city of God The prophet adds, further, that the gates 

of it shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night 
there. This must surely refer to some who are not dwellers in the 

city, but for whom a free access is thus provided The nations 

here mentioned ( They shall bring the glory and honour of the 
nations into it ), are evidently distinct from the bride of the lamb, 
or from the mystical city, WITHIN WHOSE GATES they will bring their 
glory and honour."* 

" All" [mankind], says Dr M Neile, " shall go up to Jerusalem, 
to the feas^ of tabernacles, and SEE [with the eyes of flesh] THE 
LORD OF HOSTS MANIFESTED IN THE HUMAN NATURE of Jesus reign 
ing in Mount Zion." f 

" To sum all up in one word, . says Mr Maitland of Brighton, 
" ike coming dispensation will not, I contend, be a dispensation of faith, 
in the present acceptation of the term. It will be of grace, but not of 
faith. The Jew will not live upon promises, but hold the actual 
blessing in his hand. In that day THEY WILL WALK BY SIGHT. Thus, 
there will be a radical difference between their state and ours. Now, 
our whole economy is purely an economy of faith, and all that is written 
in our Scriptures is adapted to the furtherance of a life of faith. 
"We walk by faith, not by sight. But it is said concerning that 
day, When the Lord shall bring again Zion, that then they shall 
see eye to eye. It shall not be faith, but eyesight with them a visible glory 
which shall take up its abode on earth. (Isa. xxiv. 25 ; Ezek. xliii. 
2-5.) "J 

" Christ s glory," says Mr Wood," visible to all men when he comes, 
shall continue visible to all men while that bright effulgence overshadows the 
earthly Jerusalem. And not only so, but there shall be, as I think, 
PERSONAL INTERCOURSE between the redeemed in glory the Church of 
the first-born dwelling with Christ and the mortal inhabitants <f 
earth, even Israel and the converted nations." 

Later still, Mr Molyneux, who besides holding that " the 
Lord and his Church in glory" shall be exposed to the per- 

* Four Proph. Emp. ut supra, p. 309. 
f Serm. on Sec. Adv. ut supra, p. 116. 

i Nine Discourses on the Parable of the Ten Virgins, note, p- 178. 
By the Rev. C. D. Maitland. Second edition, 1831. 
I Last Things, p. 347. 



362 FAITH AND SIGHT GRACE AND GLORY. 

petual and rapturous gaze of the nations of the earth, con 
tends that these " nations, converted, shall be all holy, hea 
venly, spiritual" "perfect even as in Eden, perfect as originally 
made, perfect in flesh and blood."* 

On these strange representations of the millennial state, it 
will not be necessary to say much. Truly, as Mr Maitland 
says, " there will be a radical difference between their state 
and ours." It is not our Christianity at all. It puts not only 
the New Testament out of date, but the religion of mortal 
men which it describes. Every where in Scripture, faith 
and sight, grace and glory, are contrasted; and the one is 
represented as the consummation, and consequently as the 
termination of the other. Here, however, they are brought 
together, not as two coexistent and contemporaneous but 
perfectly distinct and separated, states that is at least intel 
ligible but as in open and visible communication with each 
other; all the nations of the earth walking in celestial light, 
and their kings bringing to the heavenly city their miserable 
" glory and honour;" " holding intercourse" with the glori 
fied; nay, " having continual personal access" to the very 
Object of all saving faith, and seeing his human nature 
reigning in Mount Zion; " walking not by faith but by 
sight; seeing literally eye to eye; a visible glory taking up 
its abode on earth." 

"What a mongrel state of things is this! What an abhorred 
mixture of things totally inconsistent with each other ! It will 
not do here to refer, as several do, to the angelic visits with 
which individuals under the Old Testament were occasion 
ally favoured; to the Saviour s transfiguration, and the 
appearance of Moses and Elias in glory to the three disciples 
on the holy mount; to the many bodies of sleeping saints 
which arose, and after Christ s resurrection went into the 
holy city, and appeared unto many; and to Christ himself 
eating and drinking with his disciples after his resurrection, 

* See "World to Come" (1853), pp. 276, 280, 289; and "Israel s Fu 
ture " (fourth thousand, 1853), pp. 249, 250, 257. 



INCONGRUITY OF THIS, AS EXPRESSED BY PERRY. 363 

Tie that does not see the difference between the two cases 
between such brief, rare, and exceedingly partial glimpses of 
the world of glory vouchsafed to a few, and a thousand years 
constant personal access to the glorified Saviour, and open vision 
of the new Jerusalem in all its effulgence he that sees no dif 
ference between these two cases, or so little that the truth 
of the one perfectly reconciles him to the belief of the 
other is not likely to be convinced by any thing I could 
say on the subject. Ordinary readers of the Bible, however, 
will probably be of opinion, that if the millennial state be 
one of sight, it is no more of faith, otherwise sight is no more 
sight Mr Maitland, indeed, seems to go the whole length 
of that conclusion and if it be of grace, it is no more of 
glory, otherwise grace is no more grace. And if some should 
be disposed to waive this consideration, and say, that any 
thing looking like probable Scripture evidence in favour of 
such mixture of faith and sight would go a great way with 
them, in spite of all their ideas to the contrary, he would 
find himself miserably put off on referring to their texts. 
More slender evidence, to use no stronger term, never was 
advanced in favour of a view of things which nothing but 
the most explicit testimony could render credible. 

Admirable here are the words of JOSEPH PERRY, whose 
sweet humility in referring to his brother premillennialists, 
who held the very views expressed in the foregoing extracts, 
will not give him a lower place in the estimation of the Chris 
tian reader: 

" Again," says he, "here is another thing looks very inconsistent, 
for converting work to go forward in this perfect state ; and that 
is, for the saints to lite and converse together, while some are in a perfect, 
and others in an imperfect condition. For if the great apostle John, 
so much endued with the Spirit of God as he was, could not bear 
the visionary sight of Christ in the first of Revelations, but fell down 
as one dead at his feet ; how is it possible, then, that any of the 
saints should behold the glory of Christ s Person in that day, who icilt 
ten thousand times exceed the glory of all created beings, whilst they are MM- 



364 DE H. BONAR THE PAVILION CLOUD. 

glorified; and therefore this cannot be so, for how can mortal and immor 
tal, glorified and unglorified, perfect and imperfect, persons converse to 
gether ? This seems to me to be impossible. I know I am a poor, 
weak, nothing creature, and not worthy to carry some of these men s 
books; yet I cannot in this matter but think that my dear brethren 
must be mistaken concerning these things, and that THE MISTAKE 

LIES IN HOLDING THE GRACIOUS AND GLORIOUS CHURCH TO BE TOGETHER 

AT ONE AND THE SAME TIME, which I cannot see nor believe that it 
will ; but that the gracious Church will be first, upon the wonder 
ful pouring out of the Spirit, and that the glorious Church will not 
be till after Christ s reign by his Spirit in the saints hath been ful 
filled, and that then, upon Christ s personal coming from heaven 
with all the saints, when his wife, the bride, or whole elect, shall be 
ready, by having all of them the garments or robes of glory and 
immortality on, will the glorious Church commence, and appear 
visible in the personal reign and kingdom of Christ." * 

Dr H. Bonar leaves this part of our subject untouched, so 
far as I have observed; unless the following paragraph be 
considered as his reply to what I have said : 

" "We do not hold that Christ and his risen saints are to dwell in 
actual houses of lime and stone, such as we dwell in.f Their 
dwelling is in THE PAVILION CLOUD, or residence provided for them 
in the New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from 
God, and which rests over the earth just as the pillar of cloud did 
of old. From that, as the palace of the king in which they abide, 
they go forth continually, as vice-royal potentates, to rule the na 
tions of the earth. Their position, office, and procedure, will be 
something similar to angels in the present age, who are ministering 
spirits sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation. 
Where is the degradation here? Where is the abhorred mixture 
of which Mr Brown speaks ? " J 

I am afraid this statement of what " we hold" will scarcely 
be accepted by those, at least, who penned the foregoing 
extracts if I understand it aright. If " Christ and his risen 
saints" are to be shrouded up in this "pavilion cloud" from 

* Glory of Christ s Visible Kingdom in this World, pp. 227, 228. 
f I was not aware that any had charged them with coining quite so 
low as this. 
t Corning, &c., pp. 59, 60. 



EITHER WAY ALIKE OBJECTIONABLE. 365 

the view of the mortal inhabitants of the earth, his brethren, 
in these extracts, have very much misrepresented the pre- 
millennial expectation. The Duke of Manchester compares 
the view that men in the flesh are to have of our Lord, to 
that which the disciples had of him in the days of his flesh, 
and which he says has been happily expressed, as faith 
icrapped up in sight." * I am not sure that I comprehend 
this; but one thing is clear it does not mean the " pavilion 
cloud." The late excellent Mr Hewitson said to myself that 
he believed Christ would be as visible to men in the flesh as 
I was then to him, or as the Saviour himself was to the dis 
ciples in the days of his flesh ; nor did he see where the diffi 
culty lay. 

A word, now, to both at once. " He shall come (we are 

told) IN HIS OWN GLORY, AND IN THE GLORY OF THE FATHER 

AND OF THE HOLY ANGELS." (Luke ix. 26.) Who will ven 
ture to say that this will not be a glory visible to all men? If 
it be, what room is there for any rational comparison between 
such a glorious display, and that to which the disciples were 
accustomed in the days of his flesh ? But if Christ is not to 
be visible to men in the flesh, we must suppose him first to 
shine forth before them, when he comes in all his bright 
effulgence, and then to shut himself in within the " pavilion 
cloud," and be seen of them no more in their fleshly state. 
And what vestige of authority is there for that ? None what 
ever. 

I might ask, further, if Christ is to be out of sight of those 
who people the earth during the millennium, what do they 
mean by the Personal Reign, and the visible kingdom on the 
earth ? What will it matter to its mortal inhabitants, if their 
King is invisible to them, whether he hover immediately over 
the earth, or remain ichere he now is ? Thus, shape this theory 
how we will, it seems equally unmanageable. 

* Finished Mystery, p. 338. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE WAY OF SALVATION NO LESS NARROW DURING THE 
MILLENNIUM THAN NOW. 

VERT loose is the language indulged in upon this point, 
language which, though repudiated by some, is nevertheless 
the prevailing strain in the contrasts which are drawn "be 
tween the present and the expected millennial dispensation. 

" Concerning the number of true believers under this dispensa 
tion," says Dr M Neile, " we read, Many are called, but few are 
chosen. Enter ye in at the strait gait, for wide is the gate and 
broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be 
which go in thereat ; because strait is the gate and narrow is the way 
which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Many will say to 
me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, 
&c.; and then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart 
from me, ye that work iniquity. Concerning the character of true 
believers, we read, Love not the icorld, neither the things of the 
world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not 
in him. The friendship of the world is enmity with God ; whoso 
ever, therefore, will be a friend of the world, is the enemy of God. 
Therefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith 
the Lord. These passages of Scripture avowedly belong to this dis- 
2)ensation. They have applied in every age, and do still apply to 
the true disciples of the Lord Jesus: But if the world become 
Christian, the world will no longer persecute Christians. If all the 
families of the earth be blessed with eternal life, THK WAY OF LIFE 
WILL BE NO LONGER NARROW. If the world become Christian, then 
Christians cannot separate from the world. It is obvious, that in the 
passage from our present state to a state of universal holiness, these 



DR M NEILE, MR MAITLAND, MR WOOD, MR BROOKS. 3G7 
characteristic sayings of the New Testament MUST CEASE TO HAVE 

ANT APPLICATION, AND BECOME OBSOLETE, NOT TO SAY FALSE." * 

"The least consideration," says Mr Maitland, in the note already 
quoted, " will serve to show that the New Testament supposed a 
suffering kingdom, and that its encouragements, exhortations, warn 
ings, were addressed to a people conflicting with the world, the flesh, and 
the devil. The Master, as he delivered it, said, I am come to send 
fire on earth, not peace, but a sword; and on this supposition is the 
whole revelation founded. Now, if we turn to the promises of 
God concerning the state of the world, after his ancient people 
shall have been brought in and made the light of the nations (as 
given in Isa. xi.,xxv., lx., and elsewhere), and carry the exhortations 
and warnings of our dispensation to a people conditioned as they shall 
be, we shall at once see how ill adapted they would be to their times 
and circumstances. Christ says to his Gospel-church in every line, 
if not in word yet in spirit, Watch and pray lest ye enter into tempta 
tion : Behold I come as a thief a snare : be ye therefore like ser 
vants which wait for their Lord. Take this thought with you to 
the sixtieth of Isaiah, and mark the incongruity. If such precepts 
as these are still needed, the condition there described could not 
exist. Holy fear and jealousy, from the sense of surrounding dan 
gers, would effectually check the tide which we see flowing there. 
Their condition is evidently one not militant but triumphant." 

" When," says Mr Wood, " the nations say, Come and let us go 
up to the house of the Lord, shall it be true, THEN, that strait is 
the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there 
be that find it ? "+ Once more, 

" Surely," says Mr Brooks, "the kingdom will be already come, 
when all the kingdoms of this world shall have become the king 
dom of our Lord and of his Christ. With what propriety, then, could 
men any longer be exhorted to seek and to- lay vp treasure, and hope fur 
that which they will already be in possession o//"J 

The confusion of thought which all these passages mani 
fest, is such as can only be accounted for by the difficulty 
of denning a state which is made up of the most incongruous 
elements. Let us try to bring order out of it. 

* Lect. on the Jews, ut supra, pp. 78-80. 

t Affirmative Answer, p. 32. Abdiel s Essays, ut tupra. 



368 REMARKS MILLENNIAL REST. 

1. When the world ceases to persecute Christians, it will 
only be that on a great scale, which on a small one has been 
seen hundreds of times in the past history of the Church, 
and, on a scale smaller still, occurs in the domestic circle 
every day. " Then had the churches rest" says the historian 
of the Acts, after Saul of Tarsus had been transformed out of 
a bloody persecutor into a glowing Christian, and " walking 
in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, 
were multiplied." (Acts ix. 31.) Such rest, and such blessed 
consequences of it, have been more or less experienced in the 
Church from age to age since that time. And what will the 
millennium be, in one blessed feature of it, but this same rest, 
and these same consequences of it, over the whole earth ? But 
what in this case, it will be said, becomes of such passages 
as these, " In the world ye shall have tribulation ;" " I am 
not come to send peace on earth, but a sword ;" " The father 
shall be divided against the son, and the son against the 
father," &c. ? Why, just what becomes of them when " one 
of a family," after having been the object of incessant and 
virulent opposition from an ungodly household, is blessed to 
the gaining of every one of them when " those who spake 
against him as an evil-doer, do, by his good works which they 
behold, glorify God in the day of visitation." Of course the 
father is not now " divided against the son," &c. They are 
" all of one mind ; they live in peace, and the God of love 
and peace is with them." There is manifestly no difference 
at all between this case and that which we expect during the 
millennium over the whole earth. The extent is nothing. 
The principle is the only thing of consequence, and who does 
not see that that is the same in both cases ? Yet they build 
out of this an argument for a new dispensation ! As well 
might one say, that the change which came over the Church 
when Constantine extended to it the protection of the empire, 
was a new dispensation. (Compare Isa. xi. 9 ; ii. 3, 4 ; 
xxxii. 15-18.) 



ST11AIT GATE NARROW WAY. SCO 

2. The argument for an entirely new state of things during 
the millennium, from the words, " Strait is the gate and nar 
row is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that 
find it," while it resembles the former one in shallowness, 
grates more upon the ear, and is more vicious in its tendency. 
It proceeds on a misapprehension of the real point of our 
Lord s statement, and unduly magnifies what is the least 
important part of it. What makes " the narrow way" to be 
narrow, is not that " few find it," but it is "because of its nar 
rowness that it is found by few. It is not because " many 
there be that go in thereat," that the way they take is called 
" the broad way," but it is because of its breadth that so 
many frequent it. The one way means just the course which 
pleases the flesh, is congenial to the carnal taste of every 
natural man, and consists in following the bent of corrupt 
nature ; therefore it is called " broad" easily trodden, as its 
" gate" is said to be wide" easily got in at. The oilier w ay 
means just the opposite of this resistance to all the desires 
of the natural man, the mortification of the flesh, obedience 
to the promptings of the opposite principle the new, spi 
ritual, heaven-born nature. If this be correct, it follows, not 
only that men during the millennium, just as much as now, 
will naturally prefer the "broad" to the "narrow" way, if 
they be born in sin as we are, but that, left to themselves, 
every one in all time will walk in the former, and none at all 
in the latter ; that the wonder is, not that " few," but that 
any find it, and that these few find it purely in virtue of a 
supernatural principle, emancipating them from the "earthly, 
sensual, devilish" desires to which, in common with all other 
men, they are naturally in bondage. Now, as this is the 
secret of any man s finding the narrow way, so is it the secret 
of every man s finding it who is ever conducted to "life" 
upon it. What, then, is the difference between the present 
and the millennial state, in respect of this way ? Just the 
difference between grace plucking more brands out of the fire than 

2c 



370 FEW FIND IT. 

now beticeen a less and a greaier number of converted and holy 
persons : that is all. 

Will it be said, The way will no longer be narrow, when, 
instead of few, many find it ? That, as I have said, is to 
make its narrowness to arise from its imfrequentedness. And 
by so saying, you do something far worse than make the 
cause the effect, and the effect the cause ; you put the real 
narrowness of the one way and breadth of the other out of 
sight altogether, and represent the millennial state as one in 
which men toill not find the way of life to be what it is to us 
a state in which they will not have to struggle against the 
corrupt tendencies of the natural man a state in which the 
corruption of nature cither will not exist at all, or will not 
have those characteristics which make it what it is, and which 
have been always the same since the fall. If this is not what 
you mean, your argument is inept, and your language fitted 
only to deceive. 

But surely it will not then be said, " Few there be that find 
it," and if not, will not this statement be then inapplicable ? 
The answer, if answer the question needs or merits, has been 
furnished already. "The father is" no longer "divided 
against the son," when the father joins the son in the bonds 
of the gospel. When the sword of persecution is sheathed in 
any land, the Saviour s words, " I am not come to send peace 
on earth, but a sword," before realized there, cease of course 
to be descriptive of the actual state of things in that land. 
In these and similar statements of Scripture, it is the principle 
of eternal hostility between him that is born after the flesh 
and him that is born after the Spirit which is to be seized 
upon. In this originates all the actual opposition to the 
cause of Christ and the members of his body which is dis 
played. It varies, of course, in the forms which it takes, in 
the places where it occurs, and in the extent to which it is 
permitted to go: sometimes the worse triumphs over the 
better, and puts it down; at other times it is the reverse; and 



MILLENNIAL WARFARE. 371 

the time is coming when those that are born after the flesh 
shall be the tail and not the head, all the world over. But 
who would ever speak of such statements as the above being 
superseded, either now wherever true religion triumphs, in 
families, cities, or countries or hereafter over the whole 
earth? So with the "few" that now find the narrow way, 
compared with what will be witnessed during the millennium. 
As the way will be the same then and narrow then in the 
same sense and for precisely the same reasons as now so it 
will be nothing else than grace triumphing then over nature in 
more persons, and to a greater extent, than now. 

3. " If the world," says Dr M Xeile, " become Christian, 
then Christians cannot separate from the world." Is it pos 
sible that such a fallacy should stumble any one acquainted 
with Scripture language? What definition of " the world" 
from which Christians are commanded to separate, is given 
in the very passage which he quotes ? " Love not the world," 
says the beloved disciple, " neither the things that are in the 
world. For all that is in the world, THE LUST OF THE FLESH, 

AND THE LUST OF THE EYE, AND THE PRIDE OF LIFE, IS not of 

the Father, but is of the icorld." Will none of these exist 
during the millennium, or require to be separated from? 
Take riches one of " the things (now) in the world," and 
the love of whk h must be in this passage foi bidden, seeing 
it is said to be " the root of all evil." Will this not be " in 
the world" during the millennium ? or will money be any thing 
else then th^n what it is now, or will the " love of money" 
be more lav/ful ? " THE LUST OF THE FLESH" will that be 
extinct during the millennium, or may it be then cherished ? 
" THE LUST OF THE EYE" will that also be gone? And 
" THE PK J>E OF LIFE ?" Or will they be any thing else then 
than novf ? The question, it will be observed, is not, Will 
men tlvjn rise superior to those things ? but, Will they have 
them to resist ? Dr M Meile s argument, if good for any thing, 
is thi?, that men during the millennium will not need to be 



572 MILLENNIAL WARFARE. 

warned against the love of the world not because they will 
have so much of the Spirit that the Avorld will make no im 
pression upon them, though even that were no reason why 
they shoiild never be warned but because there will then 
be no icorld to love, no lust of the flesh, lust of the eye, and 
pride of life, to require warnings against. And when we have 
got this length we are still not far enough ; for unless it will 
then be lawful to " love" the creature more than the Creator, 
who is blessed for ever, since the " creature " will exist during 
the millennium, and be quite as attractive, I should suppose, 
as ever it has been since the fall, there will be the very same 
reason then as now for the apostle s counsel, " Love not the 
world, neither the things that are in the world." 

The reader will now know what to gather from Mr Brooks 
question, " With what propriety could men any longer be 
exhorted to seek, and to lay up treasure, and to hope for 
that which they will be in possession of?" As this is spoken 
of the millennial condition of mortal men, it either means that 
they will, in the state of mortality, be in possession of heaven, 
and heaven s treasures, so as no longer to need hoping for 
them, as poor mortal men now have, who, with all " the first- 
fruits of the Spirit" they enjoy, are forced to "groan within 
themselves, waiting" for a very different state; or else it has 
no meaning. I am inclined to think, that neither solution 
is perfectly correct. All the meaning which the statement 
has, is to the effect just expressed ; but as I feel persuaded 
the author does not and cannot go that length, the rest must 
be set down to the nature of the expectation actually enter 
tained, which in vain will any one attempt intelligibly to 
express. 

Jn fine, the millennial state, according to the foregoing 
representations of it, will not be our Christianity at all. It 
has none of the characteristics of a state of grace; or, if this 
should be protested against as an unfair inference from their 
statements, let them give up contrasting the present with 



SUMMARY. 373 

what they call the millennial dispensation. As well, I repeat, 
may they term the change from the persecuted to the peace 
ful state of the Church before and after Constantino, a change 
of dispensation; as well may they call the change from the 
Bloody Mary to Elizabeth of England, and similar changes 
in Scotland, and all the other kingdoms of Protestant Chris 
tendom, new dispensations. True, the change will be vastly 
more extensive, permanent, and glorious, that is to characterise 
the millennial period. But will there be one element in it 
that has not been already realized, and is not from time to 
time witnessed, on a smaller scale ? Not one. When " the 
sovereignty of the world has become our Lord s and his 
Christ s" (Eev. xi. 15) ; when the kingdom and the dominion, 
and the greatness of the kingdom, under the whole heaven, 
is given to the people of the saints of the Most High ; when 
Christ s dominion is from sea to sea, and from the river to the 
ends of the earth; when men are blessed in him, and all na 
tions call him blessed; when they have beaten their swords 
into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks 
nation not lifting up sword against nation, and none learning 
war any more : then, of course, all the earth will be at rest 
and be still, save in the unwearied activities of welldoing. 
But even then, as the flesh will lust against the spirit, and 
the spirit against the flesh, so salvation in every case will then 
be as much a triumph of grace over nature as now. 



CHAPTER VII. 

MILLENNIAL BINDING OF SATAN WHAT IT IS NOT, AND 
WHAT IT IS. 

THIS is the last feature of the millennial period on which 
the simple truth of God s Word has been obscured by un 
authorised expositions. Premillennialists maintain, nor are 
they quite alone in this instance, that A TOTAL CESSATION 
OP SATANIC INFLUENCE during the millennium is predicted in 
the following passage of Scripture : 

Rev. xx. 1-3, 7 : " And I saw an angel come down from heaven, 
having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 
And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the 
Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him 
into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, 
that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand 
years should be fulfilled ; and after that he must be loosed a little 

season And when the thousand years are expired, Satan 

shall be loosed out of his prison," &c. 

Before examining this passage, let me put this question 
to the humble and dispassionate inquirer: If the expecta 
tion of an entire cessation of Satanic influence be indeed 
scriptural, how comes it to pass that no mention is made 
of it, nor so much as a hint given of it in all Scripture, 
but in this solitary passage, in a book the import of whose 
symbols has divided the Church to this day ? * 

* They must be sadly at a loss who send us for additional evidence to 



HE THAT COMMITTETII SIN IS OF THE DEVIL. 375 

What candid person can refuse to admit that this is suspi 
cious? 

But this is not all. Not only is the thing nowhere else, 
but the expectation is contradicted by the whole teaching of 
Scripture elsewhere. There are three passages which ex 
press very clearly the mind of God upon this subject. The 
first is, 

1 John iii. 8-10: "He that committeth sin is of the devil; for 
the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son 
of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the 
devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin ; for his 
seed remaineth in him : and he cannot sin, because he is born of 
God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children 
of the devil : whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, &c- 

This passage divides men into two great classes those 
who sin, and those who sin not styling the one class " the 
children of the devil," or those who are " of the devil ;" and 
the other class " the children of God," those who are " born 
of God, or who are " of God." Further, when the apostle 
says, " He that committeth sin is of the devil, for the devil 
sinneth from the beginning," the meaning plainly is, that 
every sinning child of Adam is riot only the seed of the old 
serpent, but is actuated by him in all the sin which he cherishes 
and commits. The same tiling is manifest from the words 
that follow: "For this purpose the Son of God was mani 
fested, that he might destroy the works of the devil," or 
despoil him of his children and of their services; till which time 
every son of A.dam, in whatever age and under whatever dis 
pensation he may live, is possessed and actuated by the 

Isa. xxiv. 21, 22. That the general idea expressed in that passage is 
symbolically developed in this of Revelation, is perfectly possible. But 
to adduce it as another proof of the total cessation of Satanic influence, 
only shows to what shifts they are reduced. The Duke of Manchester 
sees in " Rom. xvi. 20," a direct reference to this millennial binding of 
Satan! (P. 243.) 



376 POWER OF DEATH IS SATAN S STILL, SAVE TO BELIEVERS. 

wicked one. In short, nothing can be more evident than 
that the apostle, in this passage, makes the devil an inseparable 
part of the fallen system and reign of sin, the parent of all its 
hateful brood, and the life of all its black fruits; that he is 
dispossessed only in the persons of those who are "born of 
God ;" that such regenerate souls, and their escape from the 
devil s family and service, are the spoils of Christ s conquest 
over Satan in the days of his flesh ; and that all who are not 
vitally connected with this victorious Saviour are still the 
devil s children and servants, and all the sin they cherish and 
practise just the service they render him, " the works of their 
father which they do." 

So much for men as living under a fallen system. The 
next passage views them as victims of death under that system, 
by virtue of their connection with the first Adam, but eman 
cipated through vital connection with the second Adam : 

Ileb. ii. 14, 15: "That through death he might destroy HIM 

THAT HAD THE POWER OF DEATH, THAT IS, THE DEVIL ; and deliver 

them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to 
bondage." 

What " the power of death " is which the devil " had " till 
Christ stripped him of it on the cross, I have already endea 
voured to express (pp. 147-149). But his actual triumph 
over the enemy, in any given case, is never till the prey be 
taken from the terrible, till " the brand be plucked from the 
fire," in the day of converting grace. All the power which 
the old serpent acquired over men, in righteous retribution 
for hearkening to his will and, in particular, the " power of 
death " he unquestionably retains still over all who do not 
savingly believe on him, and over believers themselves till 
they are in Christ ; for it is of them only that the apostle 
says, and of them only is it true, that they are " delivered 
who were all their lifetime subject to bondage." In that 
" bondage to the fear of death," then, over which the devil 



SATAN BRUISED UNDER BELIEVERS ONLY. 377 

presides, all are held who believe not : over them he still has 
" the power of death." 

This is brought clearly out by the third and last passage: 

Horn. xvi. 20: " THE GOD OP PEACE SHALL BRUISE SATAN UNDER 
TOUR FEET shortly." 

This is spoken for the comfort of struggling Christians 
announcing the speedy termination of all their troubles and 
annoyances, by the bruising under their feet of their grand 
adversary. This way of speaking clearly supposes that all 
that is hostile to the Christian, of whatever sort, is under the 
active presidency of Satan, and 50 holding of him, that the 
bruising of Mm under our feet getting our feet upon the 
neck of Satan is equivalent to the complete destruction of 
all that stands in the way of our salvation. If, then, there 
be a total cessation of Satanic power during the millennium, 
it must imply that, along with him, every thing that stands 
in the way of a sinners salvation has been taken out of the ivay. 
But as few are prepared to go this length, the millennial 
" binding " of Satan must mean something short of this. 

Taking these three passages together, then, they show 
clearly the connection of Satan with man in his fallen state. 
With that state he is bound up. As it came in by him, so 
it holds of him, and is never parted from him. We are in 
bondage to sin and him at once we shake off both together. 
Sin and he are inseparable companions on earth and in hell. 
The tyranny of both is destroyed in regeneration ; the partial 
power of both remains till death, in the regenerate but that 
of the one never more, and never less, than that of the other ; 
and at death, the believer sees the backs of both together. 

"Death," says HENGSTENBERG, "reigns still during the 
thousand years. But death is inseparably connected with all 
besides that renders our earth a valley of trouble and distress; 
in particular with sin, through which it came into the world, 
and whose wages it is. But sin is inseparably connected with 



378 BINDING OP SATAN WHAT IT IS. 

tJie working of Satan; it was through that at first, and through 
that also in later times, that his working proceeds." * 

If this, now, be Scripture doctrine, the question of a total 
cessation of Satanic influence during the millennium is settled. 
If mankind during that period will get above the law and con 
ditions of the fall, then may Satan have no power over them, 
and nothing to do with them. If mankind will not be 
divided, as now, into the two great classes of regenerate and 
imregenerate ; if all will be of one class " born of God ; " if 
there will be none who " commit sin " and " do not righte 
ousness," none who either die out of Christ, or, though not 
dying at all, are not vitally united to the Resurrection and 
the Life then, but only then, will the devil have no " chil 
dren," none who are " of him," doing his work, yielding him 
service, and, "for fear of death," kept " all their lifetime sub 
ject to bondage." In a word, if the unregenerate be gone ; if 
sin in the regenerate, with all its inseparable evils, be gone ; if 
the fall itself be gone, during the millennium then, un 
doubtedly, will it be distinguished by a total cessation of 
Satanic influence. But as this is not alleged as no premil- 
lennialist has got this length the doctrine which is built 
upon this one text of Scripture must be erroneous, f 

Having now seen what the predicted " binding" of Satan 
is not, let us now inquire what it is. Happily we possess a 
key to such language which all must admit to be unexcep 
tionable. The Apocalypse is the best interpreter of itself; 
and a very little attention to its way of representing Satan s 
power, and loss of power, will make all plain. 

* On the Revelation, vol. ii. p. 276 (Fairbairn s Translation). 

Attempts have been made to fasten on me, in consequence of what I 
Lave advanced on this subject, a denial of the personality of Satan ; a 
denial of the possibility of sin existing without the agency of Satan ; and 
fo a denial of the total depravity of human nature. I have never given 
a shadow of ground for such charges. It is the revealed connection between 
sin and Satan with which alone I have to do. 

f Mr Birks replies to this argument (pp. 97-99) seem to me super 
ficial and fallacious. 



SATAN CAST OUT FALL OF PAGANISM. 379 

In chap. ii. it is said of Pergamos, that " Satan s seat," or 
" throne (Sg ovoi) was there," and that " there Satan dwelt" 
(Verse ]3.) This certainly refers to the powerful party which 
Satan had in that place, and the dominant influence which 
through them he exercised in opposition to the gospel a 
party made up of persecutors on the one hand, and licentious 
corrupters of the truth on the other.* If this be correct, 
the unseating or dethroning of Satan in Pergamos his banish 
ment from " where he dwelt" would not mean the total ces 
sation of his influence in that city, but just the destruction of 
the party which represented him, and did his work in oppos 
ing the gospel there. 

In chap. xii. we read: 

" And there was war in heaven : Michael and his angels fought 
against the dragon ; and the dragon fought and his angels, 
and prevailed not ; neither was their place found any more in 
heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, 
called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole 
world : he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast 
out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, 
Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of 
our God, and the power of his Christ : for the accuser of 
our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our 
God day and night. And they overcame him because of the 
blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testi- 
inony (Six TO alpx. $/<* rov x oyov} ; and they loved not their 
lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and 
ye that dwell in them. Woe to [the inhabiters of] the 
earth and [of] the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, 
having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a 
short time." (Verses 7-12.) 

The general voice of Protestant interpreters pronounces 
this to be a symbolic prediction of the fall of Paganism, and 
the Christianization of the Koman empire the prophetic 
" earth" under Constantine. The "heaven" of the vision 

* So Durham, Marckius, Vitringa, Hengstenberg, Scott, &c. 



380 FALL OF PAGANISM. 

the high places of the empire is the disputed field, whose 
it shall be; whether the dragon who had it shall keep it, or 
Christ, who had it not, shall get it. The empire was Pagan, 
idolatrous, "bloody. There " Satan s throne was there he 
dwelt." Possessing it as the very life of it, influencing and 
directing all its movements, he used it as a dread engine of 
hell to crush the gospel and extirpate the Christians. This 
is the view of it given in the opening verses of the chapter, 
where the Church is represented as ready to give birth to 
her offspring a race of Christians who were ultimately to 
rule all nations with a rod of iron, or, in other words, to 
crush all her enemies, and rule the world. To prevent this 
destruction of his kingdom, Satan is seen as " a red dragon" 
a bloody persecutor having " seven heads and ten horns, 
and crowns upon the heads;" which just means the empire, 
as is known to all familiar with the symbols of this book. In 
this character, then as the very life and moving spring of 
the empire, " he stood before the woman who was ready to 
be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born" 
in plain terms, to exterminate the Christians. Now, Christ 
is resolved he shall not only fail in this, but lose even the 
ground he had. The empire shall no longer be wielded by 
him as a terrible engine against the Church, and its power 
shall change hands. Its high places shall be occupied by the 
very party, and for the very interest, which he was deter 
mined to crush. The heaven of the vision is lost the high 
places of the empire are wrenched away from his grasp. 
The Christians supplant the Pagans in the throne, and all 
spheres of authority and influence under it. The empire, in 
this sense, is Christianised. What now becomes of him? He 
is " cast out into the earth, and his angels" his minions in 
the war for Paganism " are cast out with him ; " and while 
rejoicings are held over his expulsion from the one sphere, a 
wo is pronounced over the other, because the devil has come 
down to it, all the more enraged since this first victory warns 



THE VICTORY HOW OBTAINED. .381 

him to set his house in order, and be ready to quit that too. 
In other -words, being expelled from power in the higher 
places of the empire, he is driven to try what he can do to 
keep possession in the lower to preserve the Paganism of 
the masses, and the remote parts of the empire, and turn it 
still against the Church, in the way either of opposition to 
it, or corruption of it. (See the commentators.) 
Now, here I would ask a question or two : 

1. When the "dragon was cast out of the heaven" of this 
vision " neither was his place found any more in heaven" 
was there a total cessation of Satanic influence in those 
high places? Nothing of the sort is intended, and no such 
thing came to pass. He lost his party. He had no more a 
friend in these high places. And even this means, not that 
there were no children of the devil there, but only that he got 
nobody in those places to sustain his Pagan cause from that 
time. 

2. When upon this " a loud voice was heard in heaven, 
saying, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom 
of our God, and the power of his Christ; FOR the accuser of 
our brethren is cast down," &c. are we to understand that 
up to this time there had been no salvation, no strength, no 
manifestation at all of the kingdom of our God and the 
power of his Christ? Certainly not. It means that the sav 
ing truths of the Gospel before struggling for preservation 
in the earth had become triumphant; that a hitherto weak 
cause and party had won its way to " strength," or a strong 
position; that "the kingdom of our God, and the power of 
his Christ" had, in these events, taken a glorious start ear 
nest of universal sway. All relates, not to the coming in 
of any thing new, but to the progress of what had been for 
centuries finding it hard, in the heat of continual persecu 
tion, to keep its ground. 

3. When, in connection with Satan s expulsion, we read 
the following description of his trade, which was thus, in a 



382 THE VICTORY HOW OBTAINED. 

sense, ended " And the great dragon -was cast out, that old 
serpent, called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the 
whole world he was cast out" it irresistibly suggests the 
description of the 20th chapter, which it is our object to 
illustrate, as in all respects parallel with it, though far infe 
rior in grandeur and comprehensiveness of symbol. The 
names given to the devil are in both places the same ; and so 
is the description of his business deceiving the world. And 
as this leads us to believe that the " deception" in both cases 
is similar not of course by means of the same things, but of 
the same public character, with the view of keeping his ground 
in both cases in the same sense so it suggests the same 
effect as following that expulsion in both cases. In both 
cases he is driven out from his former standing and power 
against the Cliurch and cause of Christ; in the latter case 
more universally and more thoroughly than in the former; but 
that seems all the difference. 

4. When it is said that " the devil was cast out into the 
earth," does that mean that Satanic influence was for the first 
time brought then to bear upon the persons included under 
that term? Undoubtedly riot; but only that, having lost his 
hold of the high places, he sought to create a party amongst 
those represented by this symbol. He did not " come down 
to them" in their individual capacity, or with the view of 
ruining their own souls the vision has nothing to do with 
that but he came down to get them stirred up against the 
Gospel. But, most important of all 

5. How was the expulsion of Satan out of the heaven of 
the vision brought about? " They" the Christians " over 
came him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of 
the word of their testimony ; and they loved not their lives 
unto the death." Two things, it seems, did it. They " be 
lieved in their hearts, and they confessed with their mouths 
the Lord Jesus." By the one, in the privacy of their own 
conscience, they got cleansing and holy courage to do the 



SYMBOLIC LANGUAGE OF THE APOCALYPSE. 383 

other before men ; and in doing it, " they counted not their 
own lives dear unto them," so that the savour of that blessed 
name might be spread abroad. This carried, at length, all be 
fore it. The Pagans were unable to stand before the heroic 
testimony of pardoned men ; they were beaten, routed, and 
fain to quit the field. The Gospel, in the persons of its living 
adherents or rather Christ in his people triumphed over 
Paganism, in the persons of its blinded votaries, or rather 
over Satan in his heathen tools. 

And yet, while the defeat on the one hand and the victory 
on the other, were just error flying before truth true religion 
triumphing over and expelling false and, in consequence of 
this, the votaries of each changing places in the empire this is 
represented as an expulsion of the unseen^ head of the defeated 
interest, leaving the battle-Jield in exclusive possession of the 
victorious Redeemer. " THE GREAT DRAGON WAS CAST OUT " 
that is the SYMBOL : " THEY (the Christians) overcame him 
by the blood of the Lamb" that is the plain, the divinely 
authorized EXPLANATION OF THE SYMBOL. 

It is impossible not to see the bearing of all this upon the 
explanation of the opening vision of the 20th chapter. 

As we proceed in tracing the style of this symbolic book 
regarding Satan, we find the same empire again in possession 
of the dragon, in another form. The seven heads and the 
ten horns are there as before ; but the crowns are now on the 
horns (chap. xiii. 1). This refers to the empire after it fell 
before its Gothic invaders, and was broken up, and at length 
consolidated into ten independent kingdoms. The engine 
he now wields, by means of the empire, is ecclesiastical. He 
has turned Christian in order to destroy Christianity. He 
betrays it with a kiss. He first heathenizes Christianity and 
the Church, and then he wages war with all the strength 
of the empire, in connection with its ecclesiastical chief of 
the seven hill s against " the saints of the Most High " who 
will not submit to, and fall in with his heaven-blasphem- 



384 SATAN DEFEATED IN ANTICHRIST S DESTRUCTION. 

ing, Christ-dishonouring, soul-destroying system. It is 
Popery* 

But in this last and most formidable character he is des 
tined to be " cast out/ as before. The battle here also is of 
the same character, and won in the very same way. " These 
(ten horns, or kingdoms of the Papal dragon) shall make war 
with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them " in the 
same sense as we saw he did in the days of Paganism " for 
he is Lord of lords, and King of kings ; and they that are 
with him are called, and chosen, and faithful." (Chap. 
xvii. 14.) To make this army of " called, chosen, faithful 
soldiers of Jesus Christ," to be the glorified saints who will 
come with him at his second appearing, is every way extra 
vagant. It is manifestly the same company of faithful ones 
mentioned in the 14th chapter, and described as " the unde- 
filed " party, who, amidst the almost universal unfaithfulness 
to Christ s truth and cause, " follow the Lamb whithersoever 
he goeth." (Ver. 4.) It is a battle, just as before, between 
Christ s truth and the devil s lies, in the persons of their respec 
tive adherents among men. The lies are different, but the lying 
character of both systems, and their enmity against all that 
stood in their way, is the same. Christ is represented as 
coming out of heaven on a war-horse, as the captain of a 
band of celestial horsemen, and with ail the insignia of his 
trampled rights, as the prophet, the priest, and the king of 
his Church, to give battle to the confederate enemies of his 
blessed sway. The battle is fought and won. " The beast" 
antichrist " is taken," and goes whence it came to hell. 
* The remnant are slain" the adherents of the defeated in 
terest are crushed and all remaining appearance in behalf 
of it vanishes. (Chap. xix. 11 to end.) 

* Hengstenberg has tried hard to dislodge this great Protestant 
stronghold, but I think without success. My argument, however, is 
founded on the meaning of the symboh, which Hengstenberg interprets 
just as I do. 



NO PARTY FOB SATAN IN MILLENNIUM. 385 

The capture of the beast, and the consignment of it to hell, 
having reference to a public body, a vast organised confede 
racy, must be interpreted according to the only way in which 
retribution can light upon such bodies. And how little in 
dividuals, as such, have to do with the whole subject, appears 
from the songs of triumph which here, as before, are sung 
over the glorious issue: " Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and 
ye saints and apostles and prophets, for God hath avenged you 
on her" (xviii.) Now, the Papal system denoted by "her" 
was not in existence for ages after " the apostles and prophets" 
had, as individuals, gone the way of all the earth. Yet they 
are said to be avenged on Babylon. What can this mean, 
save as the victory of their doctrine or principles, which the 
Papal system sought to destroy ? In the same sense we are 
to interpret every similar statement in this book. So, like 
wise, are we to understand such sayings as these, " Alleluia, 
for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." It is just the cause 
of the Lord which has become triumphant over the dragon s 
Antichristian, as before over his Pagan, party. 

Well, we have found one party of the dragon falling after 
another ; and we naturally look to be told ivhat party he is to 
be alloiced to form next. The answer of the 20th chapter is 
None at all. He is removed from the earth, and chained up 
for a thousand years, during all which period he shall no 
more deceive the nations. After what we have found to be 
the style of this book, on the subject of Satan s "deceptions" 
after the key with which the preceding part of it has fur 
nished us, for opening these perfectly similar representations 
can the meaning remain doubtful? It is just this: That, 
during that happy period, the cause of Christ should carry it 
every where, and Satan be allowed no lodgement in any 
spot on the globe to form a public party in opposition to Christ ; 
that in this sense, his trade ivill be at an end; that represen 
tatives and tools for the doing of such work, he will have 
none as if men should wonder where he was, and go in 

2D 



386 nOW EFFECTED. 

search of him, but find him nowhere he has been swept off the 
stage. 

But are we not warranted to go a step farther? This sym 
bolical seizure and chaining of the enemy is it the effect of 
mere sovereign power carrying off the field a troublesome 
foe, out of pity to a Church unable to cope with and cast 
him out? Is it something done for the Church s relief, and 
altogether without the Church s instrumentality? Has the 
Church, in all time before, " come to the help of the Lord 
against the mighty;" and has the Lord, reversing all his 
former methods, now come to the help of the Church against 
the mighty? I think not. It is Christ s doing, doubtless; 
but it is his doing, I think, in and by his Church. " The 
strong man armed long kept his palace, and his goods were 
in peace ; but now, a Stronger than he cometh upon him" in 
his living Church, " and takethfrom him all his armour wherein 
he trusted, and divideth his spoils." There is ground, I think, 
to believe that the " dragon is laid hold on," in the same sense 
precisely as " the beast was taken," (xix. 20), and that THE 
CHURCH WILL DO BOTH; not only defeating Antichrist, but 
thereafter, for a thousand years, never permitting the devil to 
gain an inch of ground to plant his foot on over the wide, world* 

Let the reader now say whether this interpretation does 
not perfectly correspond with all that we have found to be 
the undisputed dominion and spiritual glory of the Church 
in the latter day. If it does, then observe what follows from 
it. There is in this celebrated passage no new revelation 

* " Do the tares (allowed by Mr Brown during the millennium) not 
require one inch of ground to grow upon?" (Dr II. Sonar, p. 46.) If 
there be any thing in this, Dr Bonar will have to answer it himself, as 
he also allows sin (which certainly is not wheat) during the millennium. 
But there is nothing in it. I speak of a public party espousing error and 
evil. But, replies Mr Wood, " sin and tares are not identical." I will 
not discuss that again, but refer him to Mr Bickersteth, who, with many 
others, admits that " during the millennium the faithful will be mingled 
with those who yield only a feigned obedience." These at least are 
tares; t>ut they are faiu to conceal their real character during that era. 



EXTENT OF SATANIC RESTRAINT. 387 

made at all, but only, as the manner of the Apocalypse is 
known to be, a concentrated representation of all that is else- 
^chcre said, in a way, and with a charm, quite its own. On 
the other hand, supposing this not to be the true sense of the 
vision, but that the premillennialists are right in holding that 
it means the total cessation of Satanic influence on the earth, 
then it is not only a revelation made here alone when, if 
true, it might have been looked for, and could scarce fail to 
have dropt in numberless other places but it is a revelation in 
direct opposition to the whole teaching of Scripture elsewhere. 

SUPPLEMENTARY REMARKS. 

In case the cry of rationalism, which has been raised 
against this chapter by Dr H. Bonar, Mr Wood, and others, 
should lead any reader to think that I have put forth something 
novel, rash, and dangerous, I add a few paragraphs on the 
subject, and the rather, as it is one of some interest in itself. 

1. As to the extent to which Satan is to be restrained in 
the latter day, I have expressed only the view of the majo 
rity of expositors, in rejecting the notion of a total cessation 
of Satanic influence. Up to the middle of the seventeenth 
century, nearly all divines thought that this " binding of 
Satan" began either with the gospel itself, or with Constan- 
tine. Did such think that the influence of Satan had totally 
ceased upon earth, or that any such thing was the sense of 
this prophecy? Of course not. Then, as to subsequent ex 
positors, who take the fulfilment of the prophecy to be future, 
I need do no more than name such as Durham, Vitringa, 
Daubuz, Lowman, President Edwards, and Faber, who, with 
many others, understand the prophecy as I do, not of an 
entire cessation of Satanic influence, but relatively to his 
former permitted power to corrupt, divide, persecute, and 
waste the kingdom of Christ. 

" He is bound," says DURHAM, " that he should deceive the 
nations no more; that is, kept from having such influence to de 
lude the world, as he had done before, who first made them all 



388 EXTENT OF SATANIC RESTRAINT DURHAM VITRINGA. 

heathens and idolaters generally, then after that made them all to 
worship the beast, and himself in him, so that there was scarce the 
face of a visible Church. Now, he shall not get that liberty so uni 
versally to delude nations and eclipse the face of Christ s Church, 
as he had done. Nor ever after that shall he get the world so 
generally to ignorance, superstition, idolatry, and persecution against 
the godly, as formerly he had done. Thus deceiving no more is 
not to be understood simply [absolutely], but with respect to such extent 
and success, and is here added to signify a new restraint put upon him 
beyond what is in his casting to the earth," chap. xii. 9 ; where, 
though he was put from open persecution, yet did he follow, and 
that not without success, a new way by deceit, chap. xiii. ; but 
now is he restrained, in a great measure, from that also, so 

THAT HIS EIXDING IS NOT ABSOLUTE more than his loosing is, BUT COM 
PARATIVELY." * 

" The sense of the emblem," says VITEIXGA, " of seizing, bind 
ing, casting into prison, shutting up and setting a seal upon Satan, 
that he should deceive the nations no more is, that Satan, during 
this time of the thousand years, should be so powerfully and effec 
tually bridled, and by the Divine hand restrained, that he would 
seem to be confined within the well-secured and closely-shut bar 
riers of the abyss, and there by a mighty power kept prisoner, 
that he might not seduce the nations. Which what it means, 
can there be room for doubt? Satan seduces the nations when he 
inspires them with designs hurtful to the Church of Christ; that is, 
when he excites in them the love of superstition, idolatry, and 
false religion, and hatred of the true; and when, under the influ 
ence of this base affection, he instigates and drives them on to rage 
against the Church, the true people of God. For though there are 
various other kinds of Satanic seductions, this is the specific kind of 
seduction intended here, as is clear from this vision (v. 8), and from 
the parallel visions (chap. xii. 9), and as may easily be gathered 
from the very word xXa.w.v ( seduce, ) which has respect to religious 
doctrine (Matt. xxiv. 5, 11) This, then, is the first charac 
ter of this time : Satan bound and imprisoned not seducing the 
nations to false religion, and to the persecution of the saints. During this 
period there shall be no public persecution of the Church. No 
new and false religion adverse to that of Christ shall arise; no 

* Expos, of Book of Rev., adloc. 



HEXGSTENBERG REMARKS. 389 

idolatry or superstition which, in nations instigated by the devil, 

might lead to the persecution of the Church If, however, 

any nations in the corners of the earth (verse 8) should persist 
in the erroneous views of their ancestors on religion, Satan should 
not succeed in getting them to undertake the vindication and pro 
pagation of that religion of theirs, so as to disturb the peace and 

happiness of the Church When it is said that Satan is to 

be loosed again at the end of this millennium, it is just as if the 
prophecy had said, that God would permit Satan again to disturb 
the state of the Church by a new and last effort." * 

" It is not," says HENGSTEXBERG, " the deceiving of individuals, 

but the deceiving of the peojrfes as such The not-deceiving of 

the heathen during the thousand years forms the contrast to the 
deceiving of them before and after, and from this, therefore, it 
receives its more precise and definite meaning. The deceiving 
also in ch. xii. 9 is used of provocation to open battle against the 
kingdom of God, the devil being there represented as he who de- 
ceiveth the whole world." f 

Let me request the reader s attention to the distinction 
which Yitringa and Hengstenberg here draw between the 
ordinary temptations of Satan, and those specific efforts against 
the Church and cause and truth of God, to which alone this 
prophecy has respect. Not only do they not hold any total 
cessation of Satan s influence during the millennium, but 
they carefully confine the predicted restraint to those specific 
operations of his which AFFECT THE CHURCH. The same 
does Durham; and although I am far from denying that there 
are those who take the restraint to be absolute, I will venture 
to afiirm that, with the exception of premillennialists, it is 
just in proportion to their general acuteness and accuracy as 
interpreters, that we shall find expositors agreeing with or 
differing from Vitringa, and Durham, and Hengstenberg, on 
this point. Let the reader mark, too, in what way these in 
terpreters arrive at this sense of the prophecy. They all 

* Anakris. Apocalyps. ad. cap. xx. 3, 8. 
f On the Revelation, ii. 275, 270, ut supra. 



390 HOW SATAN WILL BE RESTRAINED. 

three refer us to the parallel visions in this same book, parti 
cularly that in chap. xii. 9. Now, this is the very ground 
which I had independently taken. I considered the Apoca 
lypse the best interpreter of itself, and traced its manner of 
representing the agency of Satan down to the millennial 
" binding." Who will deny that this is the natural and pro 
per way of settling the point ? Yet not a word do I find on 
this in all that Dr Bonar has written. He is abundant enough 
on the symbolic language employed in the passage itself, en 
deavouring to show that it can mean nothing else than such 

o o 

a local incarceration as is incompatible with the least exercise 
of power beyond the precincts of his prison. One thing, 
however, is certain, that the fallen angels are expressly said 
to be not only " cast down to hell," but to be " in chains," 
there "reserved unto judgment" (2 Pet. ii. 4), from which 
expressions we should certainly draw the very same conclusion 
as Dr Bonar does regarding the chaining of Satan in the 
abyss, were we to insist on taking the language by itself. 
But as we know by sad experience how compatible the incar 
ceration and enchainment of Satan in hell is with the exercise 
of large power among men on the earth, we should be ex 
tremely careful not to expound such symbolic language with 
out the aid of other and clearer representations of the same 
thing, lest we should put upon it a sense which was never 
intended, not to say a sense directly opposite to the teach 
ing of Scripture in its most naked and unfigurative pas 
sages.* 

* Homer represents the cessation of war for thirteen months as a chain. 
ing down of Mars with strong fetters, in a prison of brass, for that period : 



11 ztftzpu iiTo iQtrz.a.tt)ixx, f^ fox;, 

II. E. 385-387. 
Similarly Virgil : 

Dirse ferro et compagibus arctis 
Claudentur Belli portce ; Furor impius intus, 



APOCALYPTIC PHRASEOLOGY. 391 

2. A few words now on the ivay in which this restraint on 
Satan is to be effected. I said, that instead of its being done 
merely for the Church, it would be brought about by the in 
strumentality of the Church itself. This is but an opinion, 
however : It is an opinion for which I think there are good 
grounds, but it may or may not be held without affecting 
one s general view of this millennial vision. 

The first thing which guided me to this conclusion was the 

o o 

undoubted sense of the parallel vision in chapter xii., which 
represents the devil as cast out of the Pagan world by the 
instrumentality of believing men. Still more to our purpose 
is the vision of chap, ix., where we find " the key of the bot 
tomless pit" given to a man, who opens the pit. This man 
is symbolized by "a star" which was seen to "fall from hea 
ven," that is, as is generally held, an apostate minister.* " To 
him," says the vision, " was given the key of the bottomless 
pit; and he opened the bottomless pit." Are we to take these 
symbols in a material and local sense ? If so, they will be 
somewhat difficult to manage. But if we take the meaning 
to be, that this man, " giving place to the devil," and proving 
faithless to Christ, was permitted to act as a great engine of 
hell over a wide territory, till then nominally Christian, but 
yielding little fruit unto God all is clear and consistent. 
Farther, on the opening of the pit we are told there issued 
so dense a " smoke " (fumes of error), " that the air was dark 
ened by reason of the smoke of the pit." If you take this in 
a local sense, you must suppose that these errors were till 
then shut up in the abyss while " the Prince of darkness" was 
not there, and not to be there till the millennium; that they 
issued forth not under his presiding influence at all ; and 

Sseva sedens super arma, ct centum vinctus ahenis 
Post tergura nodis, fremet liorridus ore cruento. 

jEn. i. 293-296. 

* Hengstenberg s view is different, but as it is the meaning of the 
symbols which alone I wish to mark, my conclusions will not be greatly 
affected by this difference. 



392 HUMAN INSTRUMENTALITY. 

that they darkened the religious atmosphere simply and solely 
by the agency of this apostate " star." See what comes of 
taking these symbols in so crass a sense as Dr H. Bonar 
would seem to contend for. But if we take them to denote 
spiritual truth, and the sense here to be simply, that hellish 
error was permitted to overspread a nominally Christian 
territory through the instrumentality of a fallen minister of 
Christ, we have a consistent and worthy sense, the sense 
almost universally put upon the language. Well, if an apos 
tate minister may open the pit, and darken the air with the 
smoke of it, may not Christ s faithful servants, acting in his 
name, do the reverse ? May not the Sun of Righteousness 
arising on the Church, and shedding his warm bright beams 
of truth and grace over its obscured territories, chase back 
the darkness whence it came, and the Prince of darkness 
himself, shutting the pit upon them both ? If it be not too 
much for men, when " the key is given to them," to open the 
pit and let out its baleful contents, is it too much for the 
friends of Him to whom the key is not said to be given, but 
who is said to " have the key of the bottomless pit" (Rev. 
xx. 1, compare ch. i. 18), in right of conquest, not only to 
" overcome the dragon by the blood of the Lamb," &c., but 
to chase him back to the abyss, to shut in the tyrant, and keep 
him close prisoner, thereby merely undoing, as instruments 
of Christ, what the instruments of the devil confessedly did ? 
" That the angel here," says HENGSTENBERG (as at ch. vii. 
2 ; x. 1 ; xiv. 17 ; xviii. 1), " is CHRIST, is evident from this, 
that he has the key of the abyss, which is declared in ch. i. 

18 (to which allusion is here made), to belong to Christ 

It is Christ, according to ch. xii. 9, who overcomes the great 
dragon, the old serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, 
who deceives the whole world, and casts him down from 
heaven upon the earth. ..... He who throws Satan into 

hell can be no other than he who threw him on the earth ; 
the more especially as the latter victory is grounded on the 



THIS VIEW SUSTAINED BY CHRIST HIMSELF. 393 

earlier one. In Matt. xii. 29, it is represented as the pecu 
liar -work of Christ to bind Satan : compare Heb. ii. 14 ; 

1 John iii. 8 ; Col. ii. 15 What is said here of the 

operations of Christ even now repeats itself anew in the case 
of every individual who stands in faith, watches and prays. 
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James iv. 7). 
If the earth icere to watch and pray for a thousand years, Satan 
should have nothing on it." [The italics are the author s own].* 

What says the Redeemer himself, when the seventy re 
turned to him with joy from " healing the sick, casting out 
devils, and preaching the kingdom of God," as he commanded 
them? "Lord," said they, " even the devils are subject unto 
us through thy name. And he said unto them, I BEHELD 
SATAN AS LIGHTNING FALL FROM HEAVEN" (Luke x. 17, 18). 
Was this a local fall ? Nay, but a fall from power. And 
was it merely so much of his power as he lost by the brief 
labours of these seventy disciples that the Redeemer " saw ?" 
No, certainly ; it was a prospective view of the whole conquests 
of Ids people over the enemy, " through his name ;" and if so, 
it will not be easy to show that the millennial seizure, bind 
ing, and imprisonment of the dragon, are any thing else but 
one great act of this drama performed by the same parties 
" the devils subject unto us though His name." 

But what says the Redeemer again ? " When a strong 
man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace ; but 
when a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome 
him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusteth, 
and divideth his spoils." (Luke xi. 21, 22.) " How can one 
enter a strong man s house and spoil his goods, except he 
first BIND the strong man, and then he will spoil his house ?" 
(Matt. xii. 29.) Now, every one admits that this " coming 
upon," " overcoming," and " binding" of Satan, is not pro 
perly a struggle between the persons of Christ and Satan 
(whatever may pass between them in the unseen world, of 
* On the Revelation, ut supra, ii., pp. 273, 21-L 



394 CONFIRMATORY EXTRACTS ANDREAS PAR.EUS 

which we know nothing). It is a conflict of interests upon 
earth. And as it is by the instrumentality of the truth, and 
of living Christians, that all the triumphs of Christ over 
Satan are achieved upon earth, and this is styled by the 
Lord himself the seizure and binding of Satan, why may not 
the same symbols, as employed with a little greater fulness 
by his beloved disciple, signify the same thing ? Of course 
I do not exclude those providential restraints which have 
in every age concurred with the truth in the triumphs of the 
cause of God. So far from excluding these, I think it likely 
that the whole moral, social, and political arrangements by 
which, under the overmastering influence of religious principle, 
the millennial era icill be distinguished, will present one vast 
breastwork of providential restraints upon evil, proclaiming to 
the enemy of souls the utter hopelessness of raising up his fallen 
Idngdom during all that period. All I mean to convey is, that 
I see no reason to think the restraining power will be put 
forth miraculously, immediately, or altogether apart from those 
instrumentalities which God has, in every previous age, em 
ployed in " destroying the works of the devil." 

" This binding of Satan," says ANDREAS, one of the earliest com 
mentators, quoted by Parocus, " is the overthrow of the devil, which 
is accomplished by the power of the Lord s passion; for by this is 
the strength of Satan bound." 

" The sum of it," says PAR^US, " is the victory of Christ over 
Satan, of which it is said, Now is the Prince of this world judged; 
I sate Satan fall as lightning from heaven; The Prince of this world 
shall be cast out. "* 

" Nothing, therefore," says MARCKIUS, " is denoted by the angel s 
having a great chain in his hand, but the all-sufficient power of 
Christ to bridle Satan, and at his pleasure to keep him in, like a 
captive whom he suffers not to escape or to stir. With this power, 
if you choose to join the word and Spirit of Christ, by which he works, wt 
agree; and we think this better than introducing here 

* In Apoc. Comment, ad loc. 1612. 



MARCKITJS EDWARDS FABER. 395 

[with Parseus and others] the whole passion of Christ, by which 
he obtained authority over Satan." * 

I. think it worthy of notice, that President EDWARDS 
whose excellent " History of the Work of Redemption," 
when it " comes to show how the success of Christ s re 
demption Avill be carried on from the present time till 
Antichrist is fallen and Satan s visible kingdom on earth 
is destroyed," is minute, interesting, and scriptural takes 
no notice of the millennial binding and incarceration of Satan, 
as a distinct and separate exercise of Christ s power, from those 
other strokes by which his kingdom is to be overthrown. 

" This," says lie, " is a work which will be accomplished by 
weans, by tlie preaching of the gospel, and the use of the ordinary means 

of grace, and so shall be gradually brought to pass The 

Spirit of God shall be gloriously poured out for the wonderful 

revival and propagation of religion This pouring out of 

the Spirit of God will not effect the overthrow of Satan s kingdom, 
till there has first been a violent and mighty opposition made. 
.... Christ and his Church shall, in the battle of that great 
day of God Almighty, obtain a complete and entire victory over 

their enemies Consequent on this victory, Satan s visible 

kingdom on earth shall be destroyed. When Satan is conquered in this 

last battle, the Church of Christ will have easy work of it 

When the devil was cast out of the Roman empire, it 

was represented as Satan s being cast out of heaven to the earth 
(Rev. xii. 9); but it is represented that he shall be cast out of the 
earth too, and shut up in hell (Rev. xx. 1-3). This is the greatest 

revolution by far that ever came to pass This shall put 

an end to the Church s suffering state," &c.f 

Once more : 

"With respect," says Mr FABER, "to that binding of Satan 
which immediately precedes the millennium, it must plainly be 

* In Apoc. Comment, ad loc. 1689. 

The historical application which these authors make of the prophecy is 
of no consequence : it is their view of the symbols, and their recognition 
of the instrumentality of the truth, in the binding of Satan, which I quote 
them for. 

t History of Redemption, Period III., Part 2, Sect. 1. 



396 CONFIRMATORY TESTIMONIES NOT URGED CONFIDENTLY. 

considered as a transaction not visible to human eyes. The power 
of the evil spirit being effectually restrained through {he wellit tgh 
universal prevalence of true religion, perhaps also his seductive in 
fluence being specially coerced by the direct, though unseen inter 
ference of the Almighty, he is said, by an easy and natural image, 
to be chained fast," &c.* 

Such are the grounds on which I conceive that this mil 
lennial " binding of Satan " is not to be viewed as a mira 
culous physical removal from the earth of our spiritual adver 
sary, apart altogether from the ordinary instrumentality by 
which all previous victories over him have been achieved ; 
but, on the contrary, just by a more signal forth-putting of all 
these instrumentalities than lias ever yet been witnessed. And 
I have added a few extracts that go to show that this con 
ception of the matter is far from being a novelty of my own, 
as has been represented. 

Nevertheless, it may be without sufficient foundation ; 
and I am far from wishing to dogmatize upon it. I leave 
it for the consideration of those whose familiarity with the 
symbolic language of prophecy, soundness of judgment, 
and general accuracy in conceiving of divine things, may 
enable them to throw further light upon the subject. In 
sketching the leading features of the millennial period, 
the practical bearings of this point will come before us in 
the following chapter, and supersede the necessity of any 
summary here. 

* Sacred Calendar of Prophecy, vol. iii. p. 463. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

LEADING FEATURES OF THE LATTER DAY ITS CLOSE, AND THE 
" LITTLE SEASON" TO SUCCEED IT, UP TO THE LORD S 
PERSONAL APPEARING. 

As each of these topics has received more or less illustration 
in the foregoing chapters, it is but a brief concluding sketch 
that I intend here. 

The burden of Old Testament prophecy is " THE SUFFER 
INGS OF CHRIST AND THE FOLLOWING GLORIES" (rag /tzra 
TUAira. &6%ue, 1 Peter i. 11), or the glorious results of these 
sufferings. Under this comprehensive title may be embraced 
all the prophetic announcements of Messiah s kingdom, as a 
kingdom of truth, righteousness, peace, glory. It is seldom 
lined off into stages of advancement ; and only in the chro 
nological prophecies have we any thing like distinct periods 
in the new economy, marked eras in Christianity, indicated. 
Messiah s reign is for the most part held forth as one magni 
ficent whole; and though resistance, warfare, corruption, 
defection, revival, victory, do at times chequer the scene, yet 
the prevailing aspect in which the kingdom of Christ is 
hymned in the prophetic scriptures is its fullest state of 
development upon earth, losing itself in the superior glories 
of the celestial and eternal state. 

This remark will enable us to correct two opposite mis 
takes. One class of interpreters see scarcely any thing but 
the millennium in prophecy ; another will hardly allow that 
it is there at all. Professor Alexander, for example, in his 
admirable critical work on the Prophecies of Isaiah, anxious 



398 LEADING PRINCIPLES OF LATTER DAY 

that we should look on all the great evangelical prophecies 
as a whole, is jealous of the least attempt to connect them 
with particular periods or specific events in the economy of 
grace ; while Fry, and even Fraser, say of almost every 
prophecy, " The whole of this refers to the millennium." 
There is, I think, a right and a wrong element in both these 
views. These prophecies undoubtedly announce the king 
dom of Christ as a whole ; and, as the essential features of 
that kingdom are never wholly wanting at any period under 
the gospel, so there is no age at which the fulfilment of these 
evangelical predictions is not more or less realized, and no 
Christian who may not himself become a living monument 
of the truth of them. In this respect, therefore, to say 
nakedly, and without very careful explanation, that this or 
that prediction refers wholly to the millennium, is fitted to 
mislead. At the same time, since it is impossible to deny 
that the kingdom of Christ is to a great extent held forth 
under a degree of expansion and development which it has not 
yet reached, but is surely destined to attain ; and since this 
future stage of the kingdom of Christ this era of Christi 
anity, currently styled the latter day answers to no period in 
the history of the world but that which in Apocalyptic phrase 
we call the millennium, we are warranted in saying that such 
prophecies, in their full earthly sense, point to that wished-for 
day, and, in the loftiest sense of all, stretch beyond it. 

Keeping this remark in view, I proceed to notice the dis 
tinguishing features of this period. 

FIRST. It will be characterised by THE UNIVERSAL DIFFU 
SION OF REVEALED TRUTH. 

" The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the 
waters cover the [bed, or channel of the] sea." (Isa. xi. 9.) 

" A very expressive figure," says Dr Henderson, " denot 
ing that no portion of the inhabited globe shall be destitute 
of the true knowledge of God." " As much," says Presi- 



UNLIMITED SUBJECTION TO CHRIST. 399 

dent Edwards, " as to say, as there is no part of the channel 
or cavity of the sea any where but what is covered with 
water, so there shall be no part of the world of mankind but 
what shall be covered with the knowledge of God." What 
a change from the present state of the world! the darkness 
that covers large and densely peopled portions of the earth, 
and gross darkness the peoples, to fly before the light of re 
vealed truth ! the dark places of the earth to be irradiated 
by the beams of the Sun of Eightcousness, and have " light 
in all their dwellings!" 

" And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering 
that covereth all peoples, and the web that is woven over 
all the nations." (Isa. xxv. 7.) 

This manifestly contemplates an illumination of the world, 
which, though in progress of fulfilment ever since the Gospel 
the rod of Christ s strength went forth out of Zion, will 
have its full accomplishment only when the darkness which 
every where broods over the world is dispersed, and the day- 
spring from on high shall pour its noontide splendour over 
this AT retched world. 

SECOND. It will be marked by THE UNIVERSAL RECEPTION 
OF THE TRUE RELIGION, AND UNLIMITED SUBJECTION TO THE 
SCEPTRE OF CHRIST. 

" Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheri 
tance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy posses 
sion." (Ps. ii. 8.) " He shall have dominion from sea to 
sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. They 
that dwell in the wilderness [probably the wild, untamed, 
savage tribes] shall bow before him, and his enemies shall 
lick the dust [in abject submission]. The kings of Tarshish 
and of the isles shall bring presents : the kings of Shebaand 
Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before 
him: all nations shall serve him." (Ps. Ixxii. 8-11; Zech. ix. 
10.) " All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn 
unto the Lord ; and all the kingdoms of the nations shall 
worship before thee. For THE KIXGDOM is THE LORD S, and 



400 LEADING FEATURES OF LATTER DAT- 

he is the Ruler* among the nations. All the fat ones of the 
earth shall eat and worship : T" all they that go down to the 
dnst [every mortal] shall bow before him." (Ps. xxii. 27-29.) 
" And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the moun 
tain of the Lord s house shall be established in the top of 
the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills ; and all 
nations shall flow unto it. And many peoples shall go and 
say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, 
to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of 
his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion 
shall go forth the Law, and the Word of the Lord from 
Jerusalem. 1 (Isa. ii. 2, 3.) " And it shall come to pass, 
that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath 
to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith 
the Lord." (Isa. Ixvi. 23.) " And the LORD SHALL BE KINO 
OVER ALL THE EARTH : in that day shall there be ONE LORD, 

AND HIS NAME ONE." (Zecll. xiv. 9.) 

" Gro, make disciples of all nations; baptizing them," &c. (Matt, 
xxviii. 19.) " The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of 
mustard-seed, which indeed is the least of all seeds; but 
when it is grown it is the greatest among herbs, and be- 
cometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge 
in the branches thereof." (Matt. xiii. 31, 32.) " And the 
seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in 
heaven, saying, THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE WORLD HATH BE 
COME OUR LORD S, AND HIS CHRIST S, AND HE SHALL REIGN FOR 

EVER AND EVER." (ReV. XI. 15.) 

"What prospects for the world are these ! All the poly- 

* Vi TEl, " and He ruleth." The participle, ruling, may be intended 
(says Alexander, ) to suggest that, as he has always been their Governor 
de jure, so now he begins to govern them de facto; not with a providen 
tial sway, which is invariable as well as universal, but with a spiritual 
sway, which is hereafter to be coextensive with the earth itself. Com 
pare Obad. 21 ; Zech. xiv. 9 ; and the still closer parallels, Ps. xcvi. 10 ; 
xcvii. 1; xcix. 1. 

t The allusion here, and in verse 26, is to the feast upon the sacrifice 
under the law. The sacrifice here is Christ crucified, and the prediction 
is, that the greatest upon earth shall enrol themselves members, and 
celebrate the rites, of the Christian Church, professing to derive from 
Christ all they desire to enjoy. 



UNIVERSAL PEACE. 401 

theism of the Pcigan nations, with its cruel, licentious, and 
degrading rites, and its myriads of " lying vanities," utterly 
abolished; the Mohammedan imposture, by which millions 
are held enslaved, brought to an end; the obstinate unbelief 
of the Jews, with the curse of God upon them, gloriously 
removed; the soul-destroying errors, blasphemous supersti 
tions, idolatrous rites, and cruel despotism of Popery, which 
have sat like an incubus upon Christendom for ages, together 
with all deadly heresies, and professed infidelity, swept away ! 
" ONE LORD, ONE FAITH, ONE BAPTISM," for the whole world! 
Not that we are warranted to look for a universality of vital 
religion, or the saving conversion of all mankind. The re 
verse is evident from many passages, and will be made mani 
fest enough when the " little season " which follows the mil 
lennial period shall arrive. But the outward reception of 
the truth, and professed subjection to Christ, will be univer 
sal. " The kingdom of Christ," to use the words of Presi 
dent Edwards, " shall, in the most strict and literal sense, be 
extended to all nations and the whole earth." 
THIRD. It shall be a time of UNIVERSAL PEACE. 

" He shall judge between (T S) the nations, and decide for many 
peoples ; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, 
and their spears into priming-hooks : nation shall not lift 
up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any 
more." (Isa. ii. 4 ; Mic. iv. 3.) 

" The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie 
down with the kid ; and the calf and the young lion and the 
failing together ; and a little child shall lead them. And 
the cow and the bear shall feed ; their young ones shall lie 
down together : and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 
And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, 
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the serpent s 
den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy moun 
tain : for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the 
Lord, as the waters cover the sea." (Isa. xi. 6-9.) 

In the first of these passages, the universal peace predicted 

2E 



402 LEADING FEATURES OP LATTER DAT 

is announced as flowing directly from the universal reception 
of the truth. " God," says Eraser, paraphrasing the verse, 
" shall set up the government of his grace over the nations : 
He shall by it correct their fierce passions; so that those who 
lived in mutual and continual enmity shall mutually embrace, 
and eagerly promote the blessings of peace." Calvin notices 
the emphasis that lies in the " learning war no more " not 
only shall they cease to practise it, but even outlive the use of 
arms. The second of the above passages is taken in the same 
general sense by the overwhelming majority of expositors. 

" These words," says Prebendary Lowtb " For the earth shall 
be full of knowledge of the Lord are a proof that the expres 
sions used in the foregoing verses are metaphorical. 1 " What was 
obviously implied," says Dr Henderson, "in the preceding descrip 
tion is now expressly stated, and the cause of the wonderful change 
specified the extension of the knowledge of Jehovah. This latter 
circumstance further shows that the language of the description is 
figurative." " The selfish," says Scott, " the penurious, the rapa 
cious, the contentious, the ambitious, the savage, the subtile, and 
the malicious, would lose their peculiar base dispositions, and be 
come harmless, sincere, peaceable, benevolent, and affectionate ; 
they would live together in harmony, hearken to instruction, and 
be guided by gentle persuasions and entreaties. So that the change 
would be as evident and surprising, as if the wolf, the tiger, the 
lion, the bear, and other fierce carnivorous animals, should learn 
to be gentle and harmless as the lamb, the kid, the calf, or the 
cow ; to associate with them, to graze the pasture as they do, or to 
feed on hay and straw ; and should be so tractable that a little child 
could lead them," &c. " Vitringa gives," says Professor Alexander, 

" a specific meaning to each figure in the landscape This 

kind of exposition not only mars the beauty, but obscures the real 
meaning of the prophecy." * 

* I commend this remark of Professor Alexander to Dr H. Bonar. 
Though he exposes, not without success, some attempts to assign a dis 
tinct spiritual idea to each of these figures, he does not thereby over 
throw the figurative sense of the prophecy. Calvin and Hengstenberg 
think there is in the prophecy an ultimate reference to the deliverance of 
a groaning creation from the bondage of corruption into the glorious 



SPIRITUAL POWER AND GLORY. 403 

Before leaving this last passage, lot the reader observe the 
absurdity of taking " God s holy mountain " (Zion) literally 
here. To say that they should " not hurt nor destroy in 
all" that insignificant elevation called Zion, in the city of 
Jerusalem, and especially to say that the quiet of this potty 
rising ground would be owing to " the earth being filled with 
the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea," is 
so exceedingly puerile, that one can only stand amazed at 
the tenacious consistency of the literalists in going through 
with their principle of interpretation in this instance. But 
if we take " God s holy mountain" which at that time was 
the centre of the true religion, the meeting-place of Jehovah 
and his reconciled people, where he " communed with them 
from above the mercy-seat and from between the cherubim," 
through the sprinkling of blood as a familiar and endeared 
name for the Church or kingdom of Messiah, yet to be co 
extensive with the earth itself, all is plain. When the know 
ledge of the Lord shall settle down upon every region, every 
spot of the earth, as the bed of the ocean is occupied and 
overspread by its mighty waters, when it shall work itself 
into the texture of human society all over the world, univer 
sal peace shall come in its train. 

FOURTH. It will be distinguished by MUCH SPIRITUAL 

POWER AND GLORY. 

Under this general expression I include copious effusions 
of the Spirit, saving conversion on a scale hitherto unparal 
leled, ecclesiastical unity and peace, spiritual prosperity, 
shining ordinances, bright tokens of the Lord s presence with 
his people, as well in their secular as sacred occupations. 

liberty of the children of God. "Possibly there is," says Alexander; 
while Henderson considers it "in the last degree improbable." For 
myself, observing how the Lord and his apostles stretch their views of 
the prophecies over the head of all the changing conditions of the earth 
and of the Church into the final, everlasting state, I should be disposed 
to say with Professor Alexander, provided it be allowed that the peace 
ful character of Messiahs reign is the direct subject of the prophecy. 



404 LEADING FEATURES OF LATTER DAY 

On this head I refrain from quoting passages, just because 
every description of the fruit of Christ s sufferings, of the 
gift of the Spirit, of the conquests of grace, of the Lord s 
presence with his people, and the light, life, freedom, purity, 
and joy, resulting from it, will then be realized to an extent 
before unknown. 

Let us suppose what President Edwards describes as the 
state of the little town of Northampton, in New England, 
during the revival which visited it under his ministry, to 
spread from town to town, from country to country, from 
continent to continent place after place catching the blessed 
gales of the Spirit, and " the spices " of a universal " garden 
of the Lord " " flowing out." 

" Presently upon this," says that distinguished man, " a great and 
earnest concern about the great things of religion and the eternal world 
became universal in all parts of the town, and among persons of all degrees 
and ages; the noise among the dry bones waxed louder and louder; all 
other talk but about spiritual and eternal things was soon thrown by; all 
the conversation in all companies, and upon all occasions, was about these 
things only, unless what was necessary for carrying on their ordinary 
secular business. They seemed to follow their worldly business more as a 
part of their duty, than from any disposition they had to it. The only 
thing in their view was to get the Jringdom of heaven, and every one ap 
peared pressing into it: the engagedness of their hearts in this great con 
cern could not be hid; it appeared in their -very countenances. The work of 
conversion was carried on in a most astonishing manner, and increased 
more and more; SOULS DID, AS IT WERE, COME BY FLOCKS TO JESTS 
CHRIST. From day to day, for many months together, might be seen 
evident instances of sinners brought out of darkness into marvellous light, 
and delivered out of a horrible pit and from the miry clay, and set upon 
a rock, with a new song of praise to God in their mouths. This work 
of God, as it was carried on, and the number of true saints multiplied, 
soon made a glorious alteration in tlie town; so that in the spring and 
summer following, in the year 1745, THE TOWN SEEMED TO BE FULL 
OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD : it never was so full of love and joy, 
and yet so full of distress, as it was then. THERE WERE REMARKABLE 

TOKEXS OF GOD S PRESENCE IN ALMOST EVERY HOUSE. IT WAS A TIME 



SPIRITUAL POWER AND GLORY. 405 

OF JOY IN FAMILIES, ON ACCOUNT OF SALVATION BF.ING BROUGHT TO 
THEM; PARENTS EEJOICINQ OVER THEIR. CHILDREN AS NEW-BORN, AND 
HUSBANDS OVER THEIR WIVES, AND WIVES OVER THEIR HUSBANDS. 
The goings of God were then seen in Ids sanctuary; God s day was a 
delight, and his tabernacles were amiable. Our public assemblies were then 
beautiful; the congregation was alive in God s service. In all companies, 
on other days, on whatever occasions persons met, Christ was to be heard 
and seen in the midst of them. Our young people, when they met, were 
wont to spend the time in talking of the excellency and dying love of Jesus 
Christ, the gloriousncss of the way of salvation, the wonderful, free, and 
sovereign grace of God, his glorious work in the conversion of a soul, the 
truth and certainty of the great things of God s Word, fyc. THOSE 

AMONGST US THAT HAD BEEN FORMERLY CONVERTED WERE GREATLY 
ENLIVENED AND RENEWED, WITH FRESH AND EXTRAORDINARY VISITA 
TIONS OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD. Strangers were generally surprised to 
find things so much beyond what they had Jieard, and were wont to tell 
others that the state of the town could not be conceived of by those that had 
not seen it. This seems to have been a very extraordinary dispensation of 
Providence. God has in many respects gone out of, and much beyond, his 
usual and ordinary way. The work in this town, and some others about 
us, has been extraordinary on account of the UNIVERSALITY of it, affecting 
all sorts of persons, sober and vicious, high and low, rich and poor, wise 
and unwise. A loose, careless person could scarcely find another in the 
while neighbourhood; and if there ivas any one that seemed to remain sense 
less or unconcerned, it would be spoken of as a strange thing." * 

The worthy author calls this, as he might well do, " a 
very extraordinary dispensation of Providence." But what 
if it should yet become "a very ordinary dispensation of 
Providence ? " " God," says he, " went in many respects 
out of, and much beyond, his usual and ordinary way." But if 
this very thing should become, in the latter day, " his usual 
and ordinary way," what will his "very extraordinary 
dispensations of Providence " be those exceedings of his 
ordinary Self, when he goes, as we have no reason to think 
but he will go, " out of and much beyond " this ? And 

* Narrative of the Revival of Religion in New England, pp. 65-68, 74. 
Collins Edit. 1329. 



406 LEADING FEATURES OF LATTER DAY 

how else can it well be imagined that those glorious results 
are to come to pass, which we are taught te look for in such 
texts as the following : " Who hath heard such a thing ? 
who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to 
bring forth in one day ? or shall a nation be born at once ? 
For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her chil 
dren." "A little one shall become a thousand, and a small 
one a strong nation ; I the Lord will hasten it in its time." 
(Isa. Ixvi. 8 ; Ix. 22.) 

FIFTH. THE IN-BRIXGIXG OF "ALL ISRAEL" will sig 
nalize that day. 

The Old Testament evidence on this subject has been 
much controverted, but it is sufficiently evident even from 
the New. Without quoting those passages which in my 
judgment imply, though they do not explicitly announce, 
a general conversion of the natural Israel, * I rest on the 
following passage : 

Rom. xi. 26-29 : " And so all Israel shall be saved : as it is 
written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and 
shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob ; and, f This is my 
covenant with them, when I shall take away their sins. 
As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes : 
but as touching the election, they are beloved for the 
fathers sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are with 
out repentance." 

In this chapter the apostle teaches that the rejection of 
God s ancient people under the gospel is to be taken with 
two limitations : first, that " even at this present time (the 
period of rejection) there is a remnant according to the 
election of grace ; " and next, that the people at large the 
bulk and body of the nation as contradistinguished from 
this elect remnant, shall yet be brought in. In proof of 

* I refer to Matthew xxiii. 39; Luke xxL 24; Acts i. 6, 7; (iii. 19 ?); 
2 Cor. iii. 15,16. 
t K*} introducing a second quotation. 



IN-BRINGING OF ALL ISRAEL. 407 

this, the apostle carries us back not only to the prophets 
to Isaiah (lix. 20), and Jeremiah (xxxi. 31-34) but to 
the Abrahamic covenant itself. " As touching the election 
(of Abraham and his seed), they are beloved for the fathers 
sake " dear to God because of their ancestral connections, 
their lineal descent from and oneness in covenant with 
those " fathers " with whom God originally established his 
covenant. " For," adds the apostle, " the gifts and callings 
of God (referring to the covenant with Abraham) are with 
out repentance." * 

Let the reader but try to realize ivliat their conversion will 
lie, as held forth to us in the sure word of prophecy. Take, 
for example, Zechariah s well-known description of it : 

11 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants 
of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: AND THEY 

SHALL LOOK UPON ME WHOM THEY HAVE PIERCED, AND THEY 

SHALL MOURN FOR HIM, as one mourneth for his only son, and 
shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his 
first-born. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jeru 
salem, as the mourning of Iladadrimmon in the valky of Megiddon. 
IN THAT DAY THERE SHALL BE A FOUNTAIN OPENED TO THE 
HOUSE OF DAVID AND TO THE INHABITANTS OF JERUSALEM FOR 
SIN AND FOR UNCLEANNESS." (Zech. xii. 10; xiii: 1.) 

The first step in the wondrous process here described is 
the descent of the Spirit upon them nationally, and in his 
proper relation to Jesus, whom it is his office and delight to 
" glorify" in the souls of men. And first he comes upon 

* If this perpetuity of the Abrahamic covenant, as respects the 
natural seed, be admitted on the authority of the apostle, it -will be 
difficult, I think, to avoid admitting their territorial restoration; the 
PEOPLE and the LAND of Israel being so connected in numerous pro 
phecies of the Old Testament, that whatever literality and perpetuity are 
ascribed to the one, must, one would think, on all strict principles of 
interpretation, be attributed to the other also. Without entering, how 
ever, on that question here, I beg to refer to the British and Foreign 
Evangelical Review for March 1855, in which I have handled this question 
somewhat elaborately. 



408 LEADING FEATURES OF LATTER DAY 

them as a " spirit of grace" to which they are "twice dead" 
devoid of it, as all are by nature, but over and above this 
judicially graceless, if I may so express it. This will bring 
them into a convinced, humbled, anxious state a state of 
gracious broken-heartedness, prompting them to " confess 
their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, and that they 
have walked contrary to the Lord, and that he also hath 
walked contrary to them, and hath brought them into the 
land of their enemies. Their uncircumcised hearts shall thus 
be humbled, and they shall accept the punishment of their 
iniquity." But along with this he shall come as a " spirit of 
supplications," leading them " out of the depths to cry unto 
God" for mercy and light. In this frame, " their heart now 
turned to the Lord, the vail drops from their eyes" (2 Cor. iii. 
14-18), and an Object of surpassing glory, yet to them of 
startling and heart-breaking aspect, stands confessed before 
their view. It is JESUS. " They look" (by faith) "on Him 
whom they had pierced" pierced as no others had ever pierced 
him ; and discerning now in that bleeding Saviour, under the 
overpowering teaching and grace of the Spirit, their own 
very Messiah, their hearts melt within them, their repentings 
are kindled together, and they mourn for him as one mourn- 
eth for an only son, and are in bitterness as for a first-born. 
Once he came to his own, and his own received him not. 
But " at the second time, Joseph shall be made known to his 
brethren; and the house of Pharaoh shall hear the weeping," 
as one has touchingly said. O what an unexampled mourn 
ing will that be ! for its intensity " as the mourning of 
Hadadrimmon ; " for its universality " the land shall mourn;" 
for its individuality " all the families that remain, every 
family apart, and their wives apart!" But the most glorious 
feature of it will be its evangelical character. It will be the 
pure fruit of a believing " look upon Him whom they have 
pierced." As when the Lord turned and looked upon Peter, 
he went out and wept bitterly; so that look on a bleeding 



ASCENDENCY OF TRUTH AND RIGHTEOUSNESS. 409 

Saviour, pierced by their own hands, wounded thus in the 
house of his friends, will open the sluices of their heart s 
deepest and purest emotions. Their head will be waters, and 
their eyes a fountain of tears. And 0, when they see that 
blood which as a nation they murderously shed, turned into 
a fountain open to themselves for sin and for uncleanness 
when they find their robes washed and made white in that 
very blood of the Lamb how will they water a free pardon 
with their tears, how generously will they detest forgiven sin 
(to use Dr Owen s words), how will they be disposed to ex 
claim to their Gentile brethren everywhere, " Come, hear, all 
ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for 
my soul?" O for the apostle s spirit of great sorrow and 
continual heaviness of heart for them, " of whom, as concern 
ing the flesh, Christ came," and for his glowing expectations 
of the benefit which ourselves as Gentiles arc to experience 
from their conversion ! And the drops of that spirit are 
certainly falling upon the Churches. But showers are needed. 
" Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers 
UNTIL the Spirit be poured upon us from on high !" But " I 
the Lord will hasten it in its time." 

SIXTH. THE ASCENDENCY OP TRUTH AND RIGHTEOUSNESS 
IN HUMAN AFFAIRS will distinguish that day. 

This has been so frequently and fully adverted to in the 
foregoing chapters, that any thing said on it here would bo 
but repetition. Let it suffice to refer to the following among 
the multitude of passages which express this : 

" There was given to the Son of Man dominion, and glory, and 
a kingdom, that all people, and nations, and languages, should serve 

him Judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; 

and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom 

And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom 
under the whole heaven, should be given to the people of the saints 
of the Most High." (Dan. vii. 14, 22, 27.) " I saw thrones, and 
they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them : and I saw 



410 LEADING FEATURES OF LATTER DAY 

the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and 
for the word of God, and such as had not worshipped the beast, 
neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their fore 
heads and on their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ 

a thousand years They shall be priests of God and of Christ, 

and shall reign with him a thousand years." (Rev. xx. 4, 6.) " We 
shall reign on the earth (chap. v. 10.)* "All kings shall fall 

down before him; all nations shall serve him Men shall be 

blessed in him; all nations shall call him blessed. (Ps. Ixxii. 11, 
17.) " The Lord shall be king over all the earth." (Zech. xiv. 9.) 
"The nation and kingdom that will not serve theef shall perish; 
yea, those nations shall utterly perish." (Isa. Ix. 12.) " All the 
ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto the Lord; and all 
the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. All the fat 
ones of the earth shall eat and worship," &c. (Ps. xxii. 27, 29.) 
" Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom tliou mayst make 
princes in all the earth." (Ps. xlv. 16.) 

*"Nentiquam intelligenda est [hasc pericopa] de tempore Judicium 
sccutoro, cum seternitas lacta incoelis turn sit agenda ; neque de regno 

mundano et corporal! sed de communis fidelibus omnibus regni 

spirituaiis exercito in omnium possessione, sui gubernatione juxta Dei 
legem bello gesto contra hostes cum successu Iseto, judicio denique de iis; 
quse, omnia in hac terra obtinent, et obtinebunt illustrius in Isetiori quern 
expectamus Ecclesife statu, illustrissime autem in novissimo Christi ad- 
ventu." (MAKCKIUS, adloc.) 

" Quce pericopa necessario intelligenda est de illo statu, quo judicium 

tradendum erat sanctis, de quo Daniel (vii. 27) Prseviderunt 

sancti, et ex Oraculis pcrspexerunt, aliquando eventurum esse, ut Chris 
tiana Religio in orbe caput extolleret et suppressis religionibus falsis et 
superstitiosis, in ipso Romano imperio summam obtineret auctoritatem. 
Quse res, si tenuissima Christianismi initia contemplemur, et illorurn 
conditionem temporum, plane videbatur incredibilis, et omni spe major 
Sancti tamen, verbo Dei eruditi, magnam hanc rerum catastrophen, quse 
tandem effectum sortiri coepit sub Constantino, praavidcrunt, et spe sua 
auticiparunt; et id ipsum vel maxime et hac Revelatione discere cupi- 
vcrunt. Unde itaque clarissime liquet scenam ccekstam quse hie exhibe- 
tur, exponendam csse de statu Ecclesice ut se habet in his terns." (VITRI.NGA, 
adloc.) 

t That is, the Church of God, consisting of the natural Israel under 
Christ, and the believing Gentiles, " grafted into " their good " olive- 
tree:" not to " serve," or refuse to join themselves to it, and conduct all 
their affairs on its principles, will be their destruction. 



TEMPORAL PROSPERITY. 411 

By this last prediction I understand the same thing as in 
Daniel, " the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the 
kingdom under the whole heaven," being given to the people of 
the saints of the Most High." In that golden psalm, the Bride 
of Christ was exhorted, on her union to " the King," to " for 
get her own people and her father s house," and assured she 
shall have rich compensation for all the natural delights which 
she abandons; for she shall have a glorious progeny of her 
own, who shall yet rule the tvorld. 

" It shall be," says Edwards, " a time wherein religion shall in 
every respect be uppermost in the world. It shall be had in great 
esteem and honour. The saints have hitherto for the most part 
been kept under, and wicked men have governed. But now they 
will be uppermost. The kingdom shall be given into the hands of 
the saints of the Host High God (Dan. vii. 27), and they shall 
reign on earth. (Rev. v. 10.) They shall live and reign with 
Christ a thousand years. (Rev. xx. 4.) In that day such persons 
us are eminent for piety and religion shall be chiefly promoted to 
places of trust and authority. Vital religion shall then take pos 
session of king s palaces and thrones, and those who are in highest 
advancement shall be holy men. (Isa. xlix. 23.) And kings shall 
be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers. 
Kings shall employ all their power and glory and riches for the 
advancement of the honour and glory of Christ, and the good of his 
Church : Isa. lx. 16, Thou shalt suck the milk of the Gentiles, and 
shalt suck the breast of kings. And the great men of the world, 
and the rich merchants, and others who have great wealth and in 
fluence, shall devote all to Christ and his Church: Ps. xlv. 12, 
The daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift; even the rich 
among the people shall entreat thy favour. "* 

A prospect this, so different from any thing hitherto seen, 
that one would gladly expatiate upon it. But I must hasten 
to notice one other distinguishing feature of the latter day. 

SEVENTH. It will be characterised by GREAT TEMPORAL 
PROSPERITY. 

Here also it is unnecessary to quote passages. For if " god- 

* History of Redemption, period iii., part 2, sect. 1. 



412 LEADING FEATURES OF LATTER DAT. 

liness be profitable for all things, having promise of the life 
that now is" as well as " of that which is to come" (1 Tim. 
iv. 8) ; if "all these things shall be added unto" those who 
" seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness" (Matt. 
vi. 33) ; if all temporal blessings, in short, are expressly and 
in numerous prophecies represented as coming in the train of 
the new covenant blessings can it for a moment be doubted 
that when the six foregoing characteristics of the latter day 
shall be realized, this seventh one will find its place ? " Then 
shall the earth yield her increase, and God, even our own 
God, shall bless us." (Ps. Ixvii. 6.)* " We need not," says 
Fraser, " have recourse to that miraculous fruitfulness of the 
earth which Papias feigned, in order to fulfil this prophecy. 
Plenty is the natural consequence of the moral change which 
takes place in the world at the millennium. The universal 
righteousness of that happy period will prevent despotism in 
government, anarchy in the people, as well as the devasta 
tions of war, by which the earth is left uncultivated, or its 
produce is destroyed. The religion of that period will 
civilize savages, and destroy among civilized nations the 
numerous occupations that minister to the lawless passions 
of men ; thus directing a great multitude of the human race 
to the useful arts of agriculture, who had been formerly idle, 
and a burden upon the labours of others. The love univer 
sally felt and practised in that period, will lead those who 
have abundance to distribute cheerfully and freely to the 
necessities of those who may be in need."f Millions upon 

* See for example, Isa, xxx. 23, 24; Jer. xxxi. 12; Ezek. xxxiv. 26, 
27; xxxvi. 29, 30-38; Amos ix. 13; Zech. viii. 12. It is of little conse 
quence whether we refer these prophecies to a past time, to a future time, 
or to no particular time, considering them as fulfilled u-henever the 
spiritual state to which these blessings are tied in the prophecies is rea 
lized, and just in proportion as it is realized. For even on this last view 
they must have an ample fulfilment in the latter day, because then the 
necessary conditions will be to a very large extent realized. 

+ Key to the Prophecies, p. 429. 



SETTING OF THE MILLENNIAL SUN. 413 

millions are now annually squandered upon intemperance 
and its kindred vices. When this shall be directed exclu 
sively into virtuous channels ; when science, enterprise, and 
wealth combined shall develop with evergrowing success the 
exhaustless resources of the earth ; when the most remote 
parts of the world shall be reached with such ease and rapidity 
as to seem but the suburbs of one vast city ; when the varied 
activities of a teeming population shall, under the benign 
influence of religion, be directed only to laudable ends; 
when peace and love, and purity and grace, shall be the reign 
ing characteristics, and " wisdom and knowledge are the sta 
bility of the times, and strength of salvation ;" what a con 
trast will be presented to all that this world of ours had 
ever been before, from the fall downwards ! 



But the sun of this bright day is destined to set gradu 
ally, doubtless, as gradually it shall rise. That it will fol 
low the usual laws of spiritual decline, there is every reason 
to believe. The Church of Ephesus seems to have retained 
for thirty years every external mark of prosperity. " I know 
thy works," said Christ to that Church from the skies 
" and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not 
bear them which are evil : and thou hast tried them which 
say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars : 
and thou hast patience, and hast borne, for my name s sake, 
and hast not been weary."* (Rev. ii. 2, 3.) What more 
could have been said to the commendation of a Church than 
this ? Nothing, one should think. Yet was there a worm 
at the root of all : " Nevertheless I have this against thee, 
that thou hast left thy first love" (verse 4). How deep a de 
scent was implied in this, is but too evident from what fol 
lows : " Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen 
and repent, and do the first ivories" (verse 5). The "works" 

* KtxoKiaxas, or *<w/W<* f , for xixuvxtis. The best MSS. reverse the 
order of the two preceding verbs. 



414 THE DECLINE GRADUAL. 

seem to be all there, but, not done under the promptings of 
their " first love," they were not " the first works ;" and the 
threatening, " I will come unto thee quickly, and remove thy 
candlestick, except thou repent," shows how near they were, 
amidst all their seeming prosperity, to a fatal decline, when 
the animated principle of love was at so low an ebb. May 
we not then suppose, that towards the close of the latter day 
an Epliesine spirit shall steal over the Church ; her activities 
in well-doing not sensibly diminished, her universal consist 
ency much as it was, but springing now not so much from 
the warmth of present affection as from the mechanism of 
habit, and lingering recollections of the past? By this the 
jealous Lord of the Church will be touched, and his Spirit 
grieved, the withdrawal of whose sensible presence in divine 
ordinances, and gracious operations in the whole circle of 
Christian duties, will of course accelerate the decline. " Our 
Beloved has withdrawn himself and is gone." No more will 
he " commune with them," as he was wont, " from above the 
mercy-seat, and from between the cherubim ;" for " the glory 
of the Lord has gone up from the cherub." " The founda 
tion of God, indeed, standeth sure; having this seal, The 
Lord knoweth them that are his." But " they are not all 
Israel that are of Israel," even during the millennium ; and 
this will now be sadly seen. Settling upon her lees, her ex 
ternal prosperity proving a snare to her secularity in the 
Church takes the place of spirituality, inconsistencies increas 
ingly appear, and her influence for good upon the world at 
large grows less and less. And just as on a small scale, in 
some little community like that of Northampton, as described 
by Edwards, after the remarkable sense of God s presence 
over the whole town had begun to wax feeble, the still un 
converted portion of it, though subdued and seemingly won 
over to Christ, would, by little and little, recover themselves, 
and at length venture forth in their true character so will 
it be, in all probability, on a vast scale at the close of the 



SATAN AT LENGTH LET LOOSE. 415 

latter clay. The unconverted portion of the world long 
constrained by the religious influences every where surround 
ing them to fall in with the spirit of the clay, catching appa 
rently its holy impulses, but never coming savingly under its 
power this portion of mankind, which we have reason to 
fear will not be small, will now be freed from these irksome 
restraints, no longer obliged to breathe an atmosphere un 
congenial to their nature, and "feign submission." Now, 
"the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of 
life," never slain, will reassert their claims with an urgency 
proportioned to the restraints till now placed upon them by 
victorious spirituality, and with a success proportioned to the 
diminished power and inclination to resist them.* And then 
will the Lord be provoked to let loose upon them " the roar 
ing lion." Though, of themselves, they have already "given 
place to the devil," yet his every motion is, and ever has been, 
under higher control. Now, he is at once morally and judi 
cially free. " The house from whence he went out (or was 
put out) is empty, swept, and garnished" unoccupied by his 
Rival, and ready waiting his return. 

" When the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed 
out of his prison for a little season and shall go out to 
deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the 
earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them to go to battle : the 
number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went 
up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of 

* Mr Wood, and those who with him regard the millennium as a state 
of things so unique as to have no analogy, in its commencement, its con 
tinuance, or its close, to any thing ever seen on earth before, may lie ex 
pected to disparage all such tracings of the probable course of events, 
however general, as may serve to bring within the circle of ordinary 
laws the brief hints given in Scripture regarding this concluding period 
of the world s history. (Last Things, p. 372.) No thoughtful student, 
however, who believes that human corruption will operate at this period, 
as it has ever done in the kingdom of God, and who has watched its 
manifestations when periods of high spirituality are on the wane, will 
deem the above hints either extravagant or misplaced. 



4-16 THE " LITTLE SEASON." 

the saints about, and the beloved city : and fire came down 
out of heaven from God, and devoured them. (Rev. xx. 7, 
3, 8, 9.) 

Many writers seem to think, that the whole of what is here 
described will be accomplished with such rapidity as not to 
deserve the name of a period in Church history. For this, 
however, there is no ground, either in the passage itself, or 
in any analogy from past experience. The " little season " 
expressly assigned to these movements plainly shows it to be 
a distinct period ; and as it is mentioned in immediate con 
nection with the thousand years, and as following directly 
on it, we must take its littleness," in point of duration, rela 
tively to that long period. Were it to extend through one, 
two, or three centuries, it would still be comparatively 
" little," if we take the other period for a literal millennium. 
" Since it cannot be imagined," says Faber, " that the whole 
world will plunge at once from piety to impiety, both com 
mon sense and general experience may teach us that a con 
siderable time will elapse ere the children of men will become 
so thoroughly depraved as to enter into a regular combina 
tion for the purpose of extirpating the small remnant of God s 
faithful people." * 

" To deceive the nations " here, as we have seen, does not 
mean every kind of deception. Shut up " that he should 
deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be 
fulfilled," and now loosed and going forth " to deceive " them 
once more, the deception must be of the same character in 

* Sacred Calendar, iii. 478. 

Bengel, as I have already stated, takes it to be a period exceeding a 
century ; while Faber, in the sentence immediately following that above 
quoted, reckons it at three hundred and thirty-five years, taking the 
words, " Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three 
hundred and five-and-thirty days" (Dan. xii. 12), to refer to the thousand 
years of the millennium, and the " little season" to succeed it. Some 
even extend it farther ; but where there is no light, as I believe, our 
^ isdom is to be sileut. 



NATURE AND EXTENT OF THE " DECEPTION." 417 

both cases to organise a new apostasy, and through them 
to make a fresh attempt against the Church of God upon 
earth. There is no sufficient reason for taking " the nations 
that are in the four quarters (or corners) of the earth, " to mean 
some particular nations at its remote extremities, so to speak. 
Under this impression, coupled with the mystic names " Gog 
and Magog," some have given lists of uncivilized nations 
answering, in their opinion, to the description. The expres 
sion is clearly employed to correspond with the figurative 
description of the Church, as " the camp of the saints and 
the beloved city" " images (says Scott) borrowed from the 
affairs of Israel in the icilderness and in Canaan" * The 
Church being represented under this figure, as occupying one 
central sacred spot once a reality, but now, under the gospel, 
only a figure her enemies are described as sweeping from 
the ends of the earth towards this spot ; and of course, in 
order to this, Satan is described as going out thither to col 
lect his forces. Thus understood, the expression denotes 
the nations universally, or over the whole extent of the earth, f 
The names " Gog and Magog " carry us back to the ac 
count which Ezekiel gives (xxxviii., xxxix.) of an unprovoked, 
formidable, but abortive attack on the people of Israel peace 
fully settled in their own land, by some power or powers 
called by these same names. Eraser, Faber, and others, take 
both attacks to relate to the same event ; but looking, not only 
at the passages themselves, but at the usual way in which 
Old Testament events are referred to in the Apocalypse, we 
are led, with the majority of commentators, to an opposite 
conclusion that the events are in character analogous, rather 
than in fact the same. 

The object of Satan is very explicitly stated " to gather 
them together to battle." The temptations from which he 
was restrained being strictly of this nature, he is now loosed 

* See also Vitringa, ad loc. 

t Compare Job i. 19; Isa. xi. 12; Ezek. xliii. 20 ; xlv. 19 ; Rev. vii. 1. 

2 F 



418 THE ASSAULT ITS OBJECT. 

just to organise a confederacy against the Church again. By 
what steps he will proceed, and on what precise questions 
the quarrel will ostensibly be raised whether he will set up 
a new religion, or whether, as seems more probable, he will 
breathe into them an anti-religious spirit, that cannot rest so 
long as God has any open friends, and Christ any witnesses, 
and the Church exists as a visible body we cannot tell, and 
shall in vain attempt to determine. One thing only is cer 
tain he will succeed in raising a mighty party, " the num 
ber of whom is as the sand of the sea " (an expression, how 
ever, not to be pressed too far; see Gen. xli. 49; Judges vii. 
12; and 2 Sam. xvii. 11). One may wonder at such suc 
cess; but the past history of the struggles of the serpent s 
seed against Christ and his people, teach us to wonder at 
nothing which he gets liberty to do. The bright latter-day 
has set; the generations that adorned it have died; and other 
generations have arisen that " know not Joseph." In process 
of time they may come to deny that matters were ever much 
better than they are, and laugh at every assertion of the sort. 
Impatience of the yoke of religion will in all probability come 
to be the uniting principle and animating motive of this vast 
party. " No oppression," says Fraser, " is so grievous to an 
unsanctified heart as that which arises from the purity of 
Christianity. A desire to shake off this yoke is the true 
cause of that opposition Christianity has met with from the 
world in every period, and will, it is most likely, be the chief 
motive to influence the followers of Gog in his time." * 
Their " going up f on the breadth of the earth," denotes 
their sweeping all before them in their advances against the 
Church ; while their " compassing the camp of the saints and 
the beloved city," seems to be an allusion to the close invest 
ment of Jerusalem by Sennacherib, king of Assyria. The 

* Key, ut supra, p. 455. 

T (jirotius notices the military character of this phrase, referring to 
1 Sam. xi. 1; 1 Kings xx. 1; and Isa. xxxvi. 1, as parallels. 



VASTNESS AND CONFIDENCE OP THE ENEMY. 419 

daring and blasphemous assumptions of that heathen monarch 
and his men of war, their undoubting confidence of success, 
and their profound and godless security, up to the moment 
when the angel of the Lord smote the host will doubtless 
find their like at this final investment of " the beloved city." 

" As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of 
the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married 
wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe 
entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed 
them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot ; they 
did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, 
they builded ; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom 
it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed 
them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son 
of man is revealed." (Luke xvii. 26-30.) 

* Yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh 
as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace 
and safety ; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, 
as travail upon a woman with child ; and they shall not 
escape." (1 Thess. v. 2, 3.) 

" There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their 
own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his com 
ing ? "(2 Peter iii. 3, 4.) 
u When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the 

earth ?" (Luke xviii. 8.) 

And just as faithful Hezekiah and his people, shut in by 
an enemy sufficient to overwhelm them, could only " lift up 
their prayer for the remnant that was left," saying, " This 
day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy ; 
for the children are come to the birth, and there is not 
strength to bring forth : incline thine ear, Lord, and hear ; 
open thine eyes, O Lord, and see ; and hear all the words 
of Sennacherib, which hath sent to reproach the living God," 
(Isa. xxxvii. 3, 17) so will the faithful in this final struggle 
feel their case utterly hopeless but for some signal inter 
position from on high. Accordingly, they are represented 
as " crying to him day and night," and because he " bears 



420 THE LAST CRISIS. 

long with them " (Luke xviii. 7), some will give it up in 
despair, while the hearts of others will fail them for fear of 
being left to the will of their enemies. 

In these circumstances, of confidence on the one side and 
fear on the other, when the enemy is saying, " I will pur 
sue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil," the tremulous 
cries of the remnant that is left enter into the ears of the 
Lord of Sabaoth. " Shall not God avenge his own elect, 
that cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with 
them ? I tell you, he will avenge them speedily." No mani 
fest sign of interposition, it would seem, will be given. As 
" the sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into 
Zoar," and " then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon 
Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven " 
(Gen. xix. 23, 24), so when the last enemy of the Church 
shall be ready to swallow up the camp of " the saints and 
the beloved city," then " fire shall come down from God 
out of heaven, and devour them." 

Whether there will be any interval, or of what length, 
between this act of signal vengeance and the Personal Ap 
pearing of Christ, we have not sufficient ground to deter 
mine. Eraser, Faber, and those who take their views of 
" Gog," suppose that the * seven months " which Ezekiel 
speaks of, as spent burying the carcasses of these victims of 
justice, are an indication that " the last clay will not quite 
immediately follow " this judgment. Their grounds, how 
ever, are not convincing, and the probability is that this 
will be the immediate precursor of "the last trumpet;" 
for the final judgment of the devil himself is recorded in 
the very next verse, and just before the account of the last 
judgment. 

Be this as it may, we are now brought as far as the 
light of revelation goes to the concluding scene. " Cor 
ruption," says Fraser, " following after the purity and 
happiness of the millennium, serves to prove fully what 



CHRIST COMES TO JUDGMENT. 421 

had been shown partly before, that unsanctified human 
nature cannot bear prosperity, because it leads men to resist 
God s authority, to gratify their own lusts at the expense 
of violating his laws, and defacing the beauty and order of 
his creation ; that all the ordinary means of grace, that all 
the common and extraordinary dispensations of Divine pro 
vidence, which the wisdom of God devised, and his long- 
suffering patience exercised for the reformation of the haman 
race, are ineffectual to reform the whole, and that the 
malignant distemper of sin requires a more violent remedy. 
Accordingly, the world now ripe for destruction, and the 
Church for eternal salvation, God sets his throne for the 
last judgment." * " Then," says Edwards, " will come 
the time when all the elect shall be gathered in. That 
work of conversion which has been carried on from the 
beginning of the Church, after the fall, through all those 
ages, shall be carried on no more. There never shall 
another soul be converted. Every one of those many 
millions whose names were written in the book of life be 
fore the foundation of the world, shall be brought in : not 
one soul shall be lost. And the mystical body of Christ, 
which has been growing since it first began in the days of 
Adam, will be complete as to number of parts, having every 
one of its members. In this respect, the work of redemption 
will now be finished. And now the end, for which the 
means of grace have been instituted, shall be obtained. All 
the effect which was intended to be accomplished by them 
ihall now be accomplished. All the great wheels of Pro 
vidence have gone round all things are ripe for Christ s 
coming to judgment." f 

" EVEN so, COME, LORD JESUS ! " 

* Key, ut supra, pp. 462, 463. 
t Hist, of Red., ut supra. 



PART III. 

OBJECTIONS, 



OBJECTIONS. 

A NUMBER, of objections to the doctrine of the foregoing 
pages have already been noticed, and sufficiently replied to, 
in the progress of our argument. Some, however, I have 
reserved for separate consideration here. And I begin with 
the strongest of all, the only one, indeed, which appears to 
me to have much force. 

OBJECTION FIRST: The coming of Christ is expressly said 
to be for the destruction of Antichrist ; and, as that is con 
fessedly premillennial, so must the coming of Christ be. 

The passage on which this argument is founded I shall 
give in full. 

2 Thess. ii. 1-8: " We beseech you, brethren, concerning* the 
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering toge 
ther unto him, that ye be not soon moved from [the steadi 
ness of] your mind.f or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor 
by word, nor by letter, as from us, as if the day of Christ 
\vere imminent. Let no man deceive you by any means ; 
for [that day shall not come] unless there come the apos 
tasy first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdi 
tion, who opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is 
called God, or that is worshipped ; so that he [as God]Jsitteth 
in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Re 
member ye not that, when I was with you, I told you these 

* See note, page 43. f 2xsw9-?; JT *. $*. 

t fit Ssoy, omitted by nearly all modem editors. 



426 OBJECTION FIRST. 

things. And now ye know what withholdetli that he might 
be revealed in his own time.* For the mystery of iniquity 
is already working : Only [there is] onewho now withholdeth,+ 
until he be taken out of the way. And then shall the law 
less one be revealed, whom the Lord fhatt destroy icith the spirit 
of his mouth, and shall abolish tcith the brightness of his coming. 

On this passage, I can say with the venerable and acute Mr 
Faber (now removed from this scene below), that it is " the 
only apparent evidence for the premillennial advent which, 
after long thought upon the subject, I have been able to dis 
cover." In stating the argument, however, from this passage, 
in his " Sacred Calendar " (iii. 437), Mr Faber scarcely did 
it justice. To me it seems manifest that the time of Christ s 
second personal advent was what excited and unsettled the 
Thessalonians ; and that the apostle brings in the apostasy 
and the Man of Sin quite incidentally, to show how mistaken 
was the notion that all things were already ripe for Christ s 
second coming. In this view of the passage, the argument for 
the premillennial advent from it will stand thus : Here is a 
passage in which the express subject of discourse is the second 
personal " coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering 
together unto him," (v. 1) ; and it is to guard against the 
notion that this " day of Christ " his personal coming was 
"at hand" or "imminent," (v. 2), that we are informed a 
great apostasy will have to be consummated in the Christian 
Church, and the Man of Sin to be revealed, ere Christ come 
(v. 3-8) : when, therefore, the apostle adds, of this antichris- 
tian power, " whom the Lord shall destroy with the spirit of 
his mouth, and shall abolish with the brightness of his coming," 
is it not most natural to take this " coming " to destroy the 
Man of Sin to be the same personal coming of which the 

* " The time appointed for him. The loose rendering of \<antu is far 
from assisting the clearness of the passage." Scholefield, in the little 
Work referred to, p. 43, note. 

f Mwm *r!X* x (TI iat X.T.\. J O ateu,i. 



OBJECTION FIRST. 427 

apostle was discoursing, and that having told them before 
what events Christ could not come, he now tells them for 
what purpose he would come, namely, to destroy Antichrist, 
and consequently before the millennium? 

I think I have put this argument fairly, and with all its 
force; and I am happy to find that Mr Faber, in his recent 
work, entitled, " The Many Mansions in the Father s 
House" in " replacing his former solution of the difficulty" 
from this passage " by what he believes to be the true one" 
now puts it just as I have done above, and meets it in a 
way perfectly harmonious with mine, though somewhat dif 
ferent. * Let us then endeavour to weigh it dispassionately. 

1. There can be no doubt, that the whole passage admits 
of a consistent and good explanation on the view of it above 
given. Nor is this view confined to premillennialists. Those 
of our elder divines who looked upon the millennium as past 
already, and considered the destruction of Antichrist as the 
immediate precursor of the eternal state, understood this 
" coming of the Lord" to destroy Antichrist, of his second 
personal advent. There are other opponents of the premil- 
lennial theory, who explain this coming to destroy the Man 
of Sin, of Christ s second coming. They make " the apos 
tasy," " the Man of Sin," " the lawless one" here spoken of, 
to embrace all the evil, apostasy, and opposition to Christ, 
which are to exist till the consummation of all things; in 
which case, the destruction of it will of course not be till 
the second advent. In neither of these views, however, can 
I concur. As I do not believe that the millennium is past 
already, I do not think the destruction of Antichrist will be 

* Many Mansions, &c., pp. 189-196. Mr Faber does me the honour to 
eay, " The line of argument which I have here followed differs consider 
ably, though it has the same object, from that employed by Mr Brown, 
in his first-rate work, entitled, Christ s Second Coming, &c. This masterly 
performance I deem final on the question; nevertheless, the ground on 
which we both agree may be strengthened, at least, by every independent 
collateral argument." (P. ]89.) 



428 OBJECTION FIRST. 

immediately followed by the eternal state. And as I think 
it manifest that the apostle is describing, not apostasy in 
general, and all the opposition to Christ which is to arise in 
the world, but a specific apostasy, out of which was to spring 
a specific enemy of Christ and his Church, I am constrained, 
by all the laws of exact interpretation, to apply the destruc 
tion here predicted to that specific enemy so minutely described, 
and the " coming of the Lord" here announced, whether it 
be personal or figurative, to a premittennial coming. But, 

2. It is beyond all reasonable dispute, that the temporal 
judgment of any wicked community whether political or 
ecclesiastical by the agency of second causes, is in prophetic 
language described as " THE COMING OF THE LORD," and 
" THE DAY OF JUDGMENT" to that community. Hear how 
Isaiah foretells the destruction of Babylon by the instrumen 
tality of the Medes and Persians. 

" The day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction 

from the Almighty Behold the day of the Lord cometh, 

cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land deso 
late, and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For 
the stars of heaven, and the constellations thereof, shall not give 
their light ; the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the 

moon shall not cause her light to shine / mil shake the 

heacens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath 
of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger. 

And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of 

the Chaldee s excellency, shall be as when God overthrew 
Sodom and Gomorrah." (Isa. xiii. 6, 9, 10, 13, 19.) 

Similar language is used with respect to Egypt: 

" Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt : 
and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and 
the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it." (Isa. 
xix. 1.) 

So of Assyria: 
$< Behold, the name of the Lord cometh from far, burning with his anger, 



OBJECTION FIRST. 429 

and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indig 
nation, and his tongue as a devouring fire: and his breath, 
as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the 

neck.* And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice 

to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of his glorious 
arm, with the indignation of his anger, and the flame of a 
devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones. 

For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it, 

is prepared; he hath made it deep and large : the pile thereof 
is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream 
of brimstone, shall kindle it." (Isa. xxx. 27, 28, 30, 33.) 

So of Jerusalem, through the instrumentality of the Chal 
deans: 

" Behold, the Lord cometh forth out of his place, and will come doicn, 
and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains 
shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax 
before the fire, and as waters that are poured down a steep 
place. For the transgression of Jacob is all this," &c. 
(Mic. i. 3-5.) 

So of Jerusalem, through the instrumentality of the Ro 
mans : 

" And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood 
and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned 
into darkness, and the moon into blood, before THE GREAT 

AND THE TERRIBLE DAY OF THE Lord COme." (Joel ti. 30, 31; 

compare Acts ii. 16, 19, 20.) " Verily I say unto you, Ye 
shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, TILL THE SON 

OF MAN BE COME." (Matt. X. 23.) 

So, in a word, of the Church of Sardis : 

" If therefore thou shalt not watch, / will come on thee as a thief, 
and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. 
(Rev. iii. 3.) 

* Compare chap. xi. 4 : "He (Messiah) shall smite the earth with the 
rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked 
person " These are the words which the apostle employs in the passage 
before us " Whom the Lord Jesus shall destroy with the spirit of his 
mouth, and abolish with the brightness of his coming." 



430 OBJECTION FIRST. 

It will be of no avail to allege that some or all of these 
passages point ultimately to the Personal Advent of Christ, 
and that Babylon, Egypt, Jerusalem, Sardis, are in that case 
to be viewed as typical of powers and parties then existing.* 
It is enough if it be admitted and who can dispute it ? that 
" the Lord" is in all these passages represented as " coming" 
for the destruction of the communities just mentioned, and 
that in those cases the coming could only \>Q figurative. From 
these examples it is evident, that a figurative coming of the 
Lord for such purposes was quite familiar in prophetic phra 
seology ; that the mere occurrence of such language in a pro 
phecy would not necessarily suggest to any one well versed in 
its language the personal advent of Christ, but rather the 
reverse; that, as the Apostle Paul was profoundly read in the 
Scriptures, and deeply imbued with their spirit and style, it 
cannot be thought strange that he should fall in with it in 
this respect, by speaking of a bright coming of Christ to de 
stroy the Antichristian power, meaning a figurative advent, and 
not his second personal coming. This being the case since 
such a sense of the apostle s phraseology, taken by itself, is 
perfectly familiar in prophetic language the only question 
is, Does the whole passage forbid such a sense ? is there any 
thing in the subject and context to make such a sense harsh 
and unnatural ? If so, I for one would not adopt it. For in 
most cases, the scope of an author is a far better clue to his 
meaning than any criticism on particular words. Let us try 
the passage, then, by this test. 

The precise object of the apostle, be it observed, was not 
to tell the Thessalonians when, or even in connection with ivhat 
events, Christ would come. His one object is expressed by 
himself as plainly as possible, namely, to dissipate the notion 
" that the day of Christ was at hand," or " imminent." This 
object is sufficiently gained by the announcement of an apos- 

* This is -what Mr Wood presses (p. 189), but to no purpose. I quite 
agree with him. 



OBJECTION FIRST. 431 

tasy yet to be consummated, and the Man of Sin yet to be 
revealed, in the Christian Church. By this they would be 
taught that matters were very far from being ripe for the 
immediate coming of Christ. But our apostle is not accus 
tomed to dismiss great topics, even though only incidentally 
noticed, with the topic which occasioned the mention of them ; 
and often the digression occupies more space than the sub 
ject which drew it forth. So it is here. The subject is the 
second coming of Christ; the digression relates to the apos 
tasy and the Man of Sin. Having disposed of the primary 
subject, he expatiates on the incidental one, going into very 
interesting details regarding the antichristian character and 
blasphemous pretensions of this ecclesiastical power ; the pre 
parations already in being for his manifestation ; the unnamed 
obstacle still existing to his formal development, and the 
revelation, on the removal of this obstacle, of the dreaded 
enemy, destined nevertheless to perish by the spirit of the 
Lord s mouth, and the brightness of his coming; his Satanic 
origin and diabolical arts for decoying men; the mischief he 
was to be permitted to work; the causes of his success, and 
the class of persons whom he would find prepared to swallow 
his lies to their souls destruction. These details extend over 
ten verses, while the intimation of the destruction of this power 
by the brightness of the Lord s coming occupies the half of 
one verse in the very centre of these details, and is introduced 
quite parenthetically, even in the middle of a, sentence the 
detail being continued through four subsequent verses. 

Looking on the whole passage in this light, I can see no 
thing requiring us to take this incidental " brightness of his 
coming " to be the same with that personal " coming of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering unto him," the error 
about which had been already corrected. I do not say it 
cannot be. All I say is, I see nothing which imperatively 
requires us so to understand it. In answer to the question, 
Which is the more probable sense of the phrase, " brightness 



432 OBJECTION FIRST. 

of his coming," here? I would remind the reader how all 
great judicial visitations all inflictions of public vengeance 
on a great scale, whether in political or ecclesiastical bodies 
are described in language drawn from the final and personal 
coming of the Lord to judgment, and how, for the judgment of 
Antichrist especially, the Lord is uniformly represented as 
" coming " in the awful pomp of retributive justice with all 
the solemnities in which he will ever appear at the great day 
which day, however, we have seen that it is not ; and then 
ask, Whether Paul, familiar with such language, and copying 
not only the general style, but the precise phraseology of the pro 
phets, when describing the Man of Sin s destruction in the very 
language in which his doom had been written already to his 
hand, is not to be interpreted according to the uniform sense of 
Scripture prophecy, on the subject of which he professedly treats? 

3. What is here ascribed to " the brightness of Christ s 
coming," is in Daniel ascribed to the Church itself, as the 
instrument of Antichrist s destruction,* and elsewhere to the 
truth casting down what stands in its way, in connection with 
ordinary providential interposition. A careful attention to 
this fact will show the extreme improbability of the " com 
ing" here being Christ s second personal advent. 

4. When the Socinians quote with an air of triumph such 
passages as these, " My Father is greater than I" (Johnxiv. 
28) ; " Then shall the Son also himself be subject unto Him 
that put all things under him, that God may be all in all" 
(1 Cor. xv. 28) in proof of the personal inferiority of the 
Son, it would be uncandid to deny that these and like pas 
sages, taken by themselves, and without the light thrown upon 
them by other portions of revelation, do seem to teach this infe 
riority; and that, when we nevertheless assert the absolute 
personal equality of the Son to the Father, we seem to vio 
late the natural sense of those passages. It is only by a 
careful comparison of Scripture with Scripture, that the per- 

* See Part II. chapter iii., particularly pp. 332-337. 



OBJECTION SECOND. 433 

feet consistency of such statements with the supreme deity 
of Christ is made to appear. 

In like manner, though it would be uncandid to deny that 
" the brightness of Christ s coming," to destroy Antichrist, 
may explain perfectly well of his second personal coming, 
and that if we take this passage by itself, and without the light 
thrown on it l>y oilier portions of Scripture, that does seem to 
be the coming intended; I have no hesitation in affirming, 
that if we will but deal with this passage as we do with those 
which seem to favour the Socinian scheme, we shall soon be 
convinced that the second personal advent is not the coming 
of Christ here intended. Some insist that the " coming" 
here must be personal, because the word (*afoutf/a) rendered 
" coming," is never used but of a personal coming.* Were 
I disposed to trust to such materials, I might argue the oppo 
site of this from the very next verse, where the same word 
is employed to denote the " coming of the Man of Sin" 
which is described as being " after the working of Satan," 
&c., meaning, that the rise of this antichristian power would 
be gradual, stealthy, artful, devilish. The application of the 
word in question to such a coming shows with what latitude 
it can be used. It is admitted that the Lord is said to 
" come " figuratively in many places of Scripture ; and if so, 
since the figure to be a good one must be taken from his 
personal coming, of course any word expressive of a personal 
coming must, just on that account, be suitable for expressing 
his figurative coming, f 

OBJECTION SECOND : The coming of the Lord announced 
in the following passage can be no other than his personal 
coming ; and as the time of this coming is when " the times 
of the Gentiles have been fulfilled," that is, at the fall of 



* Brooks, Elem., pp. 185-187. Wood, Affirm. Answ., p. 63. 
t As to tit^a.n ta. here, see Grotius on this verse. 

2 G 



434 OBJECTION SECOND. 

Antichrist and immediately before the millennium, it follows 
that this is the time of the second advent/* 

Matt. xxiv. 29-31 : " Immediately after the tribulation of those 
days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give 
her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the 
powers of the heaven shall be shaken : and then shall 
appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven: and then 
shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see 
the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power 
and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great 
sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect 
from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." 
(Compare Luke xxi. 24-27.) 

That these words point ultimately to the personal advent 
of Christ and the final judgment, I have not the least doubt. 
But the first question ought to be, What is the direct and 
primary sense of the prophecy ? Those who have not directed 
their attention to prophetic language will be startled if I 
answer, The coming of the Lord here announced is his com 
ing in judgment against Jerusalem to destroy itself and its 
temple, and with them the peculiar standing and privileges 
of the Jews as the visible Church of God, and set up " the 
kingdom of heaven" (or gospel kingdom) in a manner more 
palpable and free than could be done while Jerusalem was 
yet standing. I say this application of the words, as their 
direct and primary sense, will probably startle those unac 
quainted with the prophetic style. But all hesitation on the 
subject will cease if we will but allow the Scripture to be its 
own interpreter. And, 

1. Our Lord decides the sense of his own words, when he 
says of this entire prophecy, almost immediately after the 
words quoted, " Verily I say unto you, THIS GENERATION 

SHALL NOT PASS AWAY TILL ALL THESE THINGS BE FULFILLED." 

* It is unnecessary to give references here, as every defence of the 
premilleunial theory contains this argument. 



OBJECTION SECOND. 435 

(Matt. xxiv. 34.) Does not this tell us as plainly as words 
could do it, that the whole prophecy was meant to apply to 
the destruction of Jerusalem? There is but one way of set 
ting this aside, but how forced it is, must, I think, appear to 
every unbiased mind. It is by translating, not " this gene 
ration" ( /] yivia avrrf), but "this nation shall not pass away ;" 
in other words, the Jewish nation shall survive all the things 
here predicted ! Nothing but some fancied necessity, arising 
out of their view of the prophecy, could have led so many 
sensible men to put this gloss upon our Lord s words. Only 
try the effect of it upon the perfectly parallel announcement 
in the previous chapter : " Fill ye up then the measure of 
your fathers Wherefore, behold, I send you pro 
phets and wise men and scribes: and some of them ye shall 
kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your 
synagogues, and persecute from city to city: that upon you 
may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from 
the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, 
whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily 1 
say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation " 
(Ixi rr t j yevzav ra-jrr^v, Matt, xxiii. 32, 34-36.) Does not 
the Lord here mean the then existing generation of the Israel 
ites? Beyond all question he does; and if so, what can be 
plainer than that this is his meaning in the passage before 
us?* In this case, the coming of the Lord here announced 
is just his figurative coming to "judge" and destroy Jeru 
salem, with all the judicial consequences of that coming. 

2. Language equally strong with that of this prophecy is 
not only used in a figurative sense, and in a great variety of 
cases showing that the figurative sense is a fixed and recog 
nised sense in prophetic style but it is expressly applied to 

* " The word yin*, " says OLSIIAUSEN, whoso testimony in such a 
case has peculiar weight, "is not used in the sense of nation in any one 
passage, either of the New Testament or of profane writers." (Comm. 
ad loc.) Nor is ALFOK.D successful in vindicating this sense of it. (Gr, 
Test, in loc.) 



430 OBJECTION SECOND. 

this very event of the destruction of Jerusalem, where we 
have inspired authority for so understanding it. I have 
already shown that the judgments of the Lord on Babylon, 
Egypt, Jerusalem, at the time of the captivity, and the Sar- 
dian church, are announced in language quite as strong as 
tli at of the passage before us. I here add one other example : 

llev. vi. 12-17 : " And the sun became black as sackcloth of 
hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of hea 
ven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her un 
timely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the 
heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and 
every mountain and sland were moved out of their places. 
And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the 
rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and 
every bond man, and every free man, hid themselves in the 
dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the moun 
tains and rocks, Fall on us, and HIDE us FROM THE FACE OP 

HlM THAT SITTETII ON THE THRONE, AND FROM THE WRATH 

OF THE LAMB : FOR THE GREAT DAY OF HIS WRATH is COME; 

AND WHO SHALL BE ABLE TO STAND ?" 

Who that is ignorant of the prophetic style would not be 
startled to learn that the personal advent of Christ, and the 
last judgment, is not the primary and proper subject of this 
sublime prophecy, and that ihefall of Paganism in the fourth 
century of the Christian era is the historical event here sym 
bolically announced ? Yet the great majority of commenta 
tors, including some of the staunchest premillennialists, so 
expound this prophecy. I am not here contending that this 
is the event predicted. All I say is, that, strong as the 
language is as strong as that of the prophecy we are exa 
mining some of the ablest and most judicious commentators 
understand by it a figurative coming of Christ, and a figura 
tive " day of wrath" against the Pagan world.* 

* Ex. Gr., Durham, Vitringa, Wore, Daubuz, Lowman, Newton (Bp.), 
Faber, Elliott. " The general intent of this vision," says Mr Elliott, for 
example, " does not seem to me to have been difficult to understand, It 



OBJECTION SECOND. 437 

All the commentators I refer to admit that this and similar 
comings to judgment are but preludes to the personal advent 
and the personal judgment : and such, I freely admit, is the 
prophecy before us. But I think it must now be allowed, 
that if it can be shown that our Lord meant nothing else 
primarily or immediately but the judicial ovcrthroiv of Jeru 
salem, there is nothing in the mere grandeur and strength of 
his language to prevent us taking that view of it. Now, I 
have shown, from our Lord s own solemn declaration, that 
the generation then existing were to witness the fulfilment 
of the whole ; and I have only now further to show that in 
other prophecies, which we have inspired authority for apply 
ing to the destruction of Jerusalem, the same prophetic style 
is employed as in this prophecy. 

"And it shall come to pass afterwards," says Joel or "in the 
last days," as Peter renders the phrase " that I will pour 

out my Spirit upon all flesh And I will show wonders 

in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars 
of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the 
moon into blood, before THE GREAT AND THE TERRIBLE DAY OF 
THE LORD COME. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever 
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered," &o. 
(Joel ii. 28-32.) 

surely betokened some sudden and extraordinary revolution in the Roman 
empire, which would follow chronologically after the era of martyrdoms 
depicted under the seal preceding a revolution arising from tli triumph 
of the Christian cause over its enemies, and in degree complete and uni 
versal." After quoting, as illustrations of such symbolic phraseology, 
several of the passages which I gave under the former Objection, and 
some others, he adds, " In which passages, it will be well, I think, to 
observe what is said of ihe presence of the Lord as manifested, though act 
ing by human agency; and again, of the day of the Lord and Ins fierce anger 
being shown in the subversion of the former political government, &c. 

All which being put together, there will not, I believe, remain a 

single symbolic phrase in this prophecy of the sixth seal unillustrated, or 
with the interpretation referring it to a particular revolution such as has 
been given unconfirmed by similar figures in other prophecies, to which 
the scriptural context has itself already furnished a similar interpreta 
tion." (Hor. Apoc., ut supra, i. pp. 223, 232, 233.) 



438 OBJECTION SECOND. 

The Apostle Peter, quoting the whole of this passage, ex 
pressly declares that the first and the last parts of it were 
fulfilled at the Pentecostal effusion of the Spirit, and the con 
versions immediately following it. Evident therefore it is, 
that the " great and terrible day of the Lord" bound up with 
these events as part of one and the same great chapter of 
church history is no other, according to inspiration itself, 
than the day of Jerusalem s judicial destruction* 

Again, 

" Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the 
way before me : and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly 
come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, 
whom ye delight in : behold he shall come, saith the Lord 
of hosts. BUT WHO MAY ABIDE THE DAY OF HIS COMING ? AND 
WHO SHALL STAND WHEN HE APPEARETii ? for he is like a re- 
finer s fire, and like fuller s soap, &c. (Mai. iii. 1, 2.) 

" Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of 
the great and dreadful day rf the Lord : and he shall turn the 
heart of the fathers to the children," &c. (Chap. iv. 5, 6.) 

Taking the questions contained in the first of these passages 
by themselves, who would ever doubt that they refer to the 
second coming of Christ and the last judgment ? And yet it 
is absolutely certain that they do not.f He whom Messiah 

* " In connection," says Dr Henderson, " with this period of the rich 
enjoyment of divine influence, Joel introduces one of awful judgment, 
called as usual, JTTP cii, the day of Jehovah, the precursors of which lie 
describes in very alarming language. That the destruction of Jerusalem 

and the Jewish polity is intended, most interpreters are agreed 

To render more prominent the tremendous nature of the final judgment 
of the Jews, when their city and polity were destroyed, it is not merely 
called firr a r, but N-i:rn biian tv.rp nii, the great and fearful day of Je 
hovah terms which are employed by the prophet Malachi, iv. 5 (.Hebrew 
iii. 23) in reference to the same event." (On the Minor Prophets, ad 
toe.) 

t " Surely Mr Brown has forgotten that he is not infallible." (Mr 
Wood, p. 191.) Whether there be not infallible authority for my state 
ment, let the very next sentence decide. 



OBJECTION SECOND. 439 

calls in this prophecy, "my messenger" afterwards called 
"Elijah the prophet" is so expressly declared to be John 
the Baptist, both by the angel who announced his birth 
(Luke i. 17), and by our Lord himself once and again (Matt, 
xi. 13, 14; xvii. 10-13), that no doubt of this being the 
right application of the words can remain on the mind of 
any who bow to such authority.* Of course, in that case, 
"the great and dreadful day of the Lord" can be no other 
than what Joel describes in identical terms the day of 
Jerusalem s judicial destruction. When it is said, " The 

Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple 

but who may abide the day of his coming?" the prophet 
refers indeed to Christ s first coming, but stretches it onwards 
till after his ascension, and the awful reckoning which he 
made with the Jewish nation and Church for rejecting him, 
by the destruction of their whole state through the instru< 
mentality of the Romans. 

I might add the following : " Verily I say unto you, 
Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till THE 
Sox OF MAX BE COME" (Matt. x. 23) which Mr Birks 
actually stretches out to the second advent ! f " Verily I 

* " Upon the circumstance that our Lord uses the future tense 
(i ?x trxi) shall come, some Christian interpreters have attempted to es 
tablish the hypothesis, that the prophecy is still to be fulfilled before 
his second advent; but he is obviously speaking in the style of language 
employed by the prophet, to whom the event was future, and in adapta 
tion to the opinion of the scribes, though he immediately corrects what 
was erroneous in their notion, declaring that the event was no longer 
future, but had actually taken place in the person and ministry of John. 
It is truly surprising that any one should still persist in giving to the 
prophecy an aspect still future, in the very face of an exposition at once 
positive and infallible." (Henderson, Min. Proph. adloc.) Olshausen s 
effort to re-establish the expectation of a personal return of Elias is, I 
think, a decided failure. 

f " Se venturum Christus promittit, priusquam totam Judoeam pera- 
graverint : nempe qnia per Spiritus sui potentiam regnum suum illus- 
trabit, ut vere apostolis affulgeat gloria ilia et majestas, quce adhuc cos 
latebat." (CALV., adloc.) 



440 OBJECTION SECOND. 

say unto you, There ~be some standing here, which shall not 
taste of death till they SEE THE SON OF MAN COMING in his 
kingdom " (Matt. xvi. 28) ; or as Mark expresses this coming 
of the Son of man, " Till they have seen the kingdom of 
God come with power " (Mark ix. 1) ; or more simply still, 
according to Luke, " Till they see the kingdom of God " 
(Luke ix. 27). * 

We have thus seen that a figurative advent of the Lord 
to the judgment of any wicked community, is a familiar idea 
in prophetic style ; and that this very event, of the destruc 
tion of Jerusalem, is so described in several prophecies, for 
the application of which we have inspired authority : so that 
when our Lord assures us that that coming of his, and the 
judgments announced by him, would be witnessed by the 
generation then living, we are prepared by Scripture itself 
to acquiesce in this as just one of the many examples of a 
figurative advent of Christ to judgment, expressed in all the 
grandeur usually employed to describe his personal advent 
and the ji lal judgment, f 

* The plain meaning of this announcement, in all its varying forms, 
is, that the establishment of "the kingdom" sometimes called "the 
kingdom of God," sometimes "the kingdom of heaven," but meaning 
the Gospel kingdom would be witnessed by those of his auditors who 
should survive the overthrow of Jerusalem at that time the chief ob 
stacle to its manifestation. The connection between this coming and 
the personal advent, mentioned in immediate connection with it (Matt. 
xvi. 27), will be presently adverted to. But compare what is said of the 
spiritual and bodily resurrections in John v. 24-29. 

f " Many attempts," says JDr Urwick, " have been made to anatomize 
this prophecy, and exhibit separately the parts which relate to the in 
vasion*)! Jerusalem by Titus, and the parts which regard the judgment 
of the world at the last day. I have not met with any thing satisfac 
tory in this way. If any man could have done it well, Bishop Horsley 
was the man : he had learning, ingenuity, power, and determination 
enough for it. Yet one cannot read the sermon in which he attempts 
to separate the prophecy of the coming from the prophecy of the 
destruction of Jerusalem, without feeling that a giant is grappling with 
a difficulty he cannot master. The statement of our Lord, Verily I 
gay unto you, This generation shall not pass till these tilings be ful- 



OBJECTION SECOND. 441 

On this prophetic phraseology, no one has written with 
such clearness and force as Mr Faber. The following pas 
sage is well worthy of the reader s attention : 

" The judicial punishment or destruction of a nation is to that nation 
the day of judgment, or the great day of the Lord s controversy, or the day 
of the Lord s judicial advent: for in the very nature of things, to no other 
judgment can a nation, as a nation, be sulyected. This circumstance has in 
troduced a syst/m of very peculiar phraseology into the writings of the Hebrew 
prophets. Wicked nations have their day of judgment in this world ; 
when, in their national capacity, they are arraigned, and convicted, and 
temporarily punifhed. Wicked individuals hare their day of judgment 
at the end of this world; when Christ, at the time of his second advent 
to judge both, the quick and the dead, will finally pronounce upon each 
person his irrevocable sentence of happiness or of misery. The similarity 
of these two judgments, in regard to principle, could not be overlooked: 
hence in a mode of composition which specially affects hieroglyphical 
grandiloquence, we shall not wonder to find that alt the solemnities of the 
future literal day of judgment, such as the second advent of the Messiah, 
the erection of his dread tribunal, his awful session as an universal Judge, 
his infliction of punishment upon the impious, and his award of retribution 
to the pious, should be employed, symbolically, to represent the temporal 
judgment of a wicked nation, and the temporal deliverance of God s faith 
ful people, on this present sublunary globe. In short, the literal future 
judgment both of the quick and of the dead, and the literal second advent 
of Christ with the clouds (f heaven, are poetically, though appropriately, 
used as a type, or symbol, or hieroglyphic, o/any eminent judgment in 
flicted here below upon any impious nation or community, through the 
instrumentality of those secondary causes which God may be pleased to call 
into effective action" * 

From the distinction here so clearly drawn between public 
bodies or communities whether timl or ecclesiastical and 
individual persons, Mr Faber deduces the following canon for 
determining whether the advent and judgment announced in 

filled, puts it, I think, beyond question, that the whole range of the 
prediction was to have an accomplishment before the then race of 
human beings should all have died from the face of the earth." (Second 
Advent, p. 5, note.) 
* Sacred Calendar, i. 225-227. 



442 OBJECTION THIRD. 

any prophecy is to be understood LITERALLY or FIGURATIVELY: 
" When the judgment of some distinctly specified, or plainly 
insinuated, ^viclced empire or community is described, as being 
effected by the coming of the great day of retribution, and by the 
advent of the Lord icith the clouds of heaven, then the temporal 
judgment of that particular empire or community is alone in 
tended, and the language in ichich it is set forth must be under 
stood FIGURATIVELY, not LITERALLY. But when the judgment of 
no distinctly specified, or plainly insinuated, empire or community 
is thus described, then the coming of the great day of retribution, 
and the advent of the Lord with the clouds of heaven being 
mentioned generally with reference to the whole world, and not 
particularly with reference to some special body politic must 
be understood LITERALLY, not FIGURATIVELY." * 

This canon, founded upon a distinction which pervades 
the whole language of Scripture, will commend itself, I be 
lieve, to the judgment of every dispassionate student of the 
Bible, in proportion as it is closely tested, f 

OBJECTION THIRD : A full and distinct narrative of the 
Lord s appearing from heaven is detailed by the prophet [in 
the Apocalypse] just before the millennium, and forms its 
immediate introduction. (Eev. xix. 11.) On the other 
hand, after the millennium, there is not found one syllable 
in the prophecy expressive of such an advent. The testi 
mony of this fundamental vision [to the premillennial advent] 
is decisive and complete. | 

" It may be affirmed, no doubt," adds the acute author just 
quoted, " that the advent in chap. xix. is figurative only, and that 
a real advent occurs after the millennium, when Satan has been 

* Sac. Cal., iii. 466. 

f On our Lord s prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, and espe 
cially its alleged reference to the personal advent of Christ, and the final 
judgment, I have read nothing more satisfactory than a paper of Dr 
HOBINSON S in the Bibliotheca. Sacra, for 1843, pp. 531-557. 

Birks Four Prophetic Empires, ut supra, pp. 329, 330. 



OBJECTION THIRD. 443 

loosed, and the fire descends from heaven. But the stubborn fact 
remains unaltered, that the vision expressly reveals an advent in 
the former place, and in the latter passes it by in silence. To 
maintain the theory, we have to commit a double violence : we 
have to explain away the advent where it appears openly and in 
plain terms, in the prophecy ; and we have to introduce it where 
the Holy Spirit gives no token of its occurrence. It is difficult to 
see how any interpretation could be censured with more justice, 
as both adding to and taking away from the words of the prophecy. 
Let any Christian read the two chapters in question (Rev. xix., 
xx.), laying aside every previous notion, and with a simple desire 
to hear the voice of God s Spirit, and I see not how he can escape 
from the evident conclusion. The second advent of our Lord, as 
described in the latest prophecy of Scripture, does not follow, but 
precedes, the millennial kingdom." 

This is strong language certainly, and it will be admitted 
that the objection is put as forcibly as possible. Let us exa 
mine it then. 

What is this " full and distinct narrative of the Lord s 
appearing from heaven," which is " detailed " in Rev. xix. ? 
It is as follows : 

"And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he 
that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in 
righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were 
as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and 
he had a name written, that no man knew but himself. And 
he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood : and his name 
is called the Word of God. And the armies which were in 
heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, 
white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, 
that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule 
them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of 
the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath 
on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of 

kings, and Lord of lords And I saw the beast, and 

the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together 
to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against 
his army. And the beast was taken, aud with him the false 



444 OBJECTION THIRD. 

prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which Ii9 
deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and 
them that worshipped his image. These both were cast 
alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the 
remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the 
horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth : and all 
the fowls were filled with their flesh. (Rev. xix. 11-16, 
19-21.) 

Truly, there is " detail " here ; but this is the very thing 
which shows it not to be the personal coming of Christ. For 
where, let me ask, is there one undisputed, unequivocal an 
nouncement of Christ s second personal coming in which such 
details occur, or any details at all ? All we read is just the 
fact of his coming. And no wonder ; for as it will be sudden, 
so it will be instantaneous and universally visible. " The Son 
of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels;" 
" To them that look for him shall he appear, without sin, unto 
salvation;" "He shall come to be glorified in his saints, and 
admired in all them that believe ; " " Looking for the blessed 
hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our 
Saviour Jesus Christ;" "When Christ, who is our life, shall 
appear, then shall ye also," &c. ; and even in the Apocalypse 
itself, " Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall 
see him," &c. 

Is there aught of " detail " here ? Why, the absence of all 
detail is just the most sublime feature of each of these an 
nouncements of Christ s second coming. Only think how it 
would do to prefix to any one of them what Mr Birks says of 
Jiev. xix. 11, &c. "A full and distinct narrative of the 
Lord s appearing is here detailed by the prophet." The in 
congruity is apparent. 1 draw, therefore, just the opposite 
inference from Mr Birks. The narrative and detailed cha 
racter of this vision convinces him it is a vision of the second 
advent; and that is just the thing that convinces me it is not 
the second advent. 



OBJECTION THIRD. 445 

But further, what can you possibly make of this as a vision 
of the second advent? Will Christ personally and visibly 
fight against " the beast and the kings of the earth, and their 
armies," personally and visibly gathered together against 
him? "We know," says Mr Gipps, "the overwhelming 
effects produced by the manifestation of Christ s glory, or of 
portions as it were of that glory, upon those who beheld such 
manifestation, some of whom were his own saints, such as in 
Dan. x. 6-9; and at his transfiguration, Mark ix. 6, Luke ix. 
32-34. We are informed of the appearance of one of his 
angels at his resurrection, and of its effect upon the guard of 
Roman soldiers (Matt, xxviii. 3, 4); of the effect of his ap 
pearance to Paul and his companions (Acts ix. 3-7, xxii. 
9-1]); and lastly, of his appearance to John himself (Rev. i. 
17), the glory of which was so overwhelming to him, although 
he was the beloved disciple, and leaned upon Jesus breast 
when manifest in his humiliation as man, that John fell at his 
feet as dead. Can we, I would ask, when we read these 
accounts, conceive, that when Jesus comes in person in his 
own glory, and that of his Father, with all his holy angels, 
any created being, any worm of the earth, any sinful child of 
man, will either dare or be able to make war against him in 
his person ? The very absurdity involved in this idea would 
of itself prove to my mind that the event foretold in chap. 
xix. 11, &c., cannot be the second or any personal coming of 
Christ." * 

But it may be said, if this be not the second advent, where 
does it occur in the Apocalypse after this ? " After the mil 
lennium," says Mr Birks, " there is not found one syllable in 
the prophecy expressive of such an advent." True, for this 
is symbolical and figurative ; and it would be somewhat diffi 
cult to conceive how the personal descent of Christ from earth 
to heaven could be symbolically represented. But when I 
read thus, " And I saw [after the millennium] a great white 
* First Resurrection, ut supra, pp. 6, 7, note D. 



446 OBJECTION FOURTH. 

throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face (or presence, 
Kfoffuixov) the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was 
found no place for them," and connect this with Peter s an 
nouncement, " The day of the Lord will come as a thief, in 
the ivhich the heavens shall pass away, and the earth and its 
works be burnt up" (2 Pet. iii. 10), I see the Lord personally 
present in the one passage, while the other informs me he 
has only then come. Thus no attempt is made in the Apoca 
lypse to picture by symbols the personal advent, but in place 
of it he is beheld in his great white throne -just come; with 
which agree the words of Jesus himself, " When the Son of 
man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, 
then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory." (Matt. xxv. 31.) 

OBJECTION FOURTH : When the beloved disciple beheld 
the redeemed in vision, sitting on thrones, with golden crowns 
upon their heads, and heard the halleluiahs which they poured 
into the ear of the Lamb, the last note, it seems, of their 
song of praise was, "WE SHALL REIGN ON THE EARTH." 
(Piev. v. 10.) 

This passage is quoted in almost every defence of the pre- 
millennial theory, but without an attempt to show that it 
proves any thing which we deny as if the sound of it were 
quite enough to convince the reader that it belonged exclu 
sively to that scheme. Now, in order to make this out, two 
things must be proved. First, That the reign here anticipated 
means the personal reign of those who sang this song of praise 
to the Lamb; and secondly, That it means their reign during 
the thousand years, and not in the eternal state. Many, who 
reject the premillennial theory as wholly unscriptural, under 
stand the words, " We shall reign on the earth," to refer to 
the glory of the redeemed in " the new heavens and the new 
earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." In this case, the 
passage proves nothing in favour of the premillennial scheme. 
But I am not satisfied with this view of the passage. I agree 



OBJECTION FOURTH. 447 

with Durham, Marck, Vitringa, Lowman, and the majority (I 
take it) of exact expositors, who take this to be a vision of 
the Church, not in its disembodied state, but as it now is, 
upon earth, with the Lamb slain enthroned in the midst of it, 
and " inhabiting its praises " (Ps. xxii. 3), " sending forth 
into all the earth" those mystic " horns and eyes" of his that 
sevenfold plenitude of power and wisdom, for the ingathering 
of his elect " out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, 
and nation," and for the protecting, ruling, and perfecting of 
the gathered Church " unto the day of redemption." In this 
case, the anticipations of the Church, in the words we are 
considering, relate more to the ultimate triumphs of Christ s 
cause upon earth during the present state, than to the glorified 
condition of the saints. It is not " the spirits of just men 
made perfect," anticipating this resumption of their bodies 
in the resurrection-state, and their reign with Christ in glory 
on the earth when that state arrives; but it is the infant 
Church of Christ in flesh and blood, struggling against tri 
bulation, and persecution, and peril, and sword, for Christ s 
sake, killed all the day long, and accounted as sheep for the 
slaughter, unable, without miracles of divine interposition and 
relief, to survive the combined and protracted assaults of her 
enemies, much less to overpower them, to carry all before 
her, to subdue the world under her religion and her Lord, 
and reign with undisputed sway over the whole earth. Yet 
this is anticipated as certain, and joyously sung by the choir 
of throned elders bright earnest of the reign for ever and 
ever, when that which is perfect being come, that which is 
in part shall be done away.* 

* See the extracts from Marckius and Vitringa on this sense of the pas 
sage, pp. 437, 438, note. "The fundamental passage," says Hengstenberg 
(after quoting the words of Vitringa with approbation), "is in Dan. vii. 
27, And the kingdom, and the dominion, and the power over the king 
dom under the whole heavens, is given to the people of the saints of the 
Most High. " (Exposition of Revelation, ad loc.) 



448 OBJECTION FIFTH. 

OBJECTION FIFTH : Christ assures the twelve, that " in 
the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne 
of his glory, they also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging 
the twelve tribes cf Israel." (Matt. xix. 28; Luke xxii. 
30.) Now, "What," asks Mr Elliott, "is the regeneration 
(craX/yysvsfr/a) spoken of, but the state when Christ shall 
make all things new (Rev. xxi. 5), and this earth be restored 
to paradisiacal blessedness? In which state, however, and 
over which renovated earth, Christ here declares that the 
apostles shall, together with their Lord, have the authority 
and government. * 

Expressed in this general form, there is nothing here which 
I am disposed to object to. But the passage is adduced to 
show that the state of glory will be coexistent with the re 
stored nationality of the Israelites ; and that, while inhabit 
ing Palestine in flesh and blood, they will be under the rule 
of the twelve glorified apostles. To such an interpretation I 
demur. Not a single commentator that I can find takes this 
view of it, or seems to have imagined that such a construc 
tion might be put upon it.t ISTor do I find premillennialists 
themselves making any use of it in their scheme. Several of 
them draw out the details of the millennial kingdom, as they 
expect it to be, with considerable minuteness. Mr Elliott, 
for example, does so.J But though he opens up a vision of 
earth and heaven mortal and immortal meeting together, 
blending seemingly into one, or interlacing each other so 
that the mind is bewildered as it tries to fix the fleeting 
shadows of his half-poetic, half-mystic, half-expository re 
presentation this feature of twelve thrones, one for each of 
the apostles, from which to exercise rule over the twelve 

* Hor. Apoc., ut supra, iv. 167. See also Birks, ut supra,}). 333. 

T" This remark applies even to Bengel, who of all expositors of note was 
the most likely, from his prophetical opinions, to take some such view. 
Olshausen alone, though in a very cautious and distant way, expresses 
something like it. 

J Hor. Apoc., vol. iv. ut supra. 



OBJECTION FIFTH. 449 

tribes of the reconstituted Israel in Palestine, forms no part 
of it. He speaks of " the perfected company of the re 
deemed, the general assembly, the glorified sons of God," 
being " intrusted with the new earth s government, subordi- 
nately to Christ himself." But nothing of these " apostolic 
thrones " appears in his description. Even Mr Birks, though 
he deduces an argument from this passage, seems not to rely 
greatly on it, but merely says it points, not obscurely, to the 
truth he is contending for (that the advent will precede the 
millennium). 

" Lest, 5 soys CALVIN, " the disciples should think they had lost 
their pains, and repent of the course they had entered on, Christ 
reminds them that the glory of his kingdom, which as yet lay hid 
den, would come into manifestation, as if he had said, There is no 
reason why this mean condition should discourage you ; for I, who 
scarcely have a place among the basest, shall yet mount the throne 
of majesty. Wait, then, for a little while, till the time for the 
manifestation of my glory shall arrive. What, then, does he pro 
mise them ? Why, that they should be partakers of the same glory. 
For by assigning them thrones, from which they should judge the 
twelve tribes of Israel, he compares them to ambassadors or prime 
ministers, who in a royal council occupy the first seats. We know 
that the apostles were chosen twelve in number, that thereby it 
might be seen that God designed by Christ to gather together the 
scattered remnant of his people. This was the highest dignity ; 
but it lay as yet concealed. Christ therefore suspends their ex 
pectations till the final manifestation of his kingdom, when they 
should at length reap the fruit of their election. For though 
by the preaching of the gospel the kingdom of Christ shone par 
tially forth, there can be no doubt that Christ here speaks of the 

last day In order to prevent mistake, Christ distinguishes 

between the commencement and the consummation of his king 
dom." * 

So the commentators generally. 

* In Nov. Test. Comm., ad loc. See also Marckii Expect. Glor. Fut. 
J. Chr., 1. iii. c. xvi. xii. xiv. 

2n 



450 OBJECTION SIXTH. 

OBJECTION SIXTH: In 1 Cor. xv. 23, 24, "three events 
are specified, separated by two marks of sequence in time. 
There is the resurrection of Christ, the first-fruits an event 
prior by at least 1800 years to the second advent. There is 
afterward, at the coming of Christ, the resurrection of them 
that are his. Afterward there cometh the end, at the final 
resurrection. "Christ the first-fruits; afterward (tmira} 
they that are Christ s at his coming ; then (tiro) cometh the 
end,"&c. The terms of order naturally imply an interval 
like that between the resurrection of Christ and his advent, 
to ensue between the advent itself and that end in which 
death is to be destroyed." * 

This argument, though found in almost every defence of 
the premillennial theory, is of the slenderest possible descrip 
tion. The terms referred to are indeed marks of sequence 
in time, but of any sequence, whether long or short. All 
that this passage says is granted by every body, namely, that 
" the end " will be after the second, advent and the resurrec 
tion of Christ s people. 

OBJECTION SEVENTH : * The " rest," or sabbatism (<ra- 
ricplg), which the apostle says " remaineth for the people of 
God" (Heb. iv. 9) meaning " the departed saints seems to 
indicate some septenary of time, the which could scarce be any 
other than the seventh millennium of the world. ISTow, with 
out entering at all minutely into chronological details, it is 
evident from our present actual position near the end, on the 
lowest computation, of the world s sixth millenary, that were 
\ve to postpone its commencement yet a thousand years in 
other words, were we to admit of a millennium of earthly 
bliss still intervening before the departed saints entrance on 
their promised blessedness then their rest, even though this 
millennium were to begin instantly, would be postponed long 
after the opening of the seventh millenary; and consequently 
* Birks Proph. Emp., ut supra, pp. 339, 340. 



OBJECTION SEVENTH. 451 

be, in the then generally understood sense of the term, no 
sabbatism. "* 

I should not have noticed this objection, but for the quar 
ter from which it comes. The following is, I think, more 
than sufficient reply: 

1. It is incredible to me that the blessedness of departed 
saints should be expressed by any term denoting a limited 
period of time, and expressly intended to be understood of 
that definite period. Even premillennialists themselves, 
when asked how it could be said of the risen and glorified 
saints that " they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand 
years," are wont to reply that this period has no reference 
to them and their glory, but only to the mortal and terrestrial 
department of the kingdom under their rule ; and though 
this looks too like a door by which to escape from a difficulty, 
seeing it is expressly said that it is the living and reigning 
of these saints themselves which is to last thus long, still it 
shows that the difficulty is felt, and must somehow be got 
over. But here Mr Elliott will have us to take this "sab 
batism" though "applied (he says) to the departed saints 
expected rest " to express a septenary of time, and founds 
on this supposed sense an argument for its reference to the 
seventh millennium of the world ! 

2. Independently of this, the argument is without a shadow 
of foundation. For God s holy day, as every one knows, is 
called the Sabbath, not from its being a septenary of time, 
but from the rest enjoined and enjoyed on it (from J"Qw>, to 
resf).\ From this came the Greek word to sabbatise, or 
keep sabbath (<raar/w, Exod. xvi. 30, Ixx.), and our word 

* Elliott s Hor. Apoc., ut supra, iv. 182. 

t " But," replies Mr Elliott to the above, " was not the Jewish holy 
day of rest, or Sabbath, so fixed to the seventh day as to convey the 
idea of a septenary almost necessarily to a Jewish mind ? " True, but 
the resting, in a passage like that in the Hebrews, is all that would natu 
rally occur to any mind. 



4oU OTHER OBJECTIONS GENERAL REPLY. 

here, sabbatism, or sabbath-keeping, meaning, as many think, 
the celestial and eternal repose of the saints with God, but, 
as I rather think with Calvin and others the present rest 
which is the portion of believers in Jesus, of which it is said 
in the same chapter (ver. 3), " We who have believed do enter 
into rest" (iisso^6/^6a 0} KiGrtleavrtg), and of which Jesus 
himself says, " Come unto me all ye that labour and are 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Of this rest, heaven is 
indeed the consummation ; but so far from its being untasted 
here, it is a repose to which (as Calvin says on the passage) 
God invites us every day. 



These, I think, are all the objections to the doctrine of 
this volume deserving of notice, which have not been anti 
cipated and replied to in the two foregoing parts. One or 
two more, which Mr Birks urges, might have been taken 
up. But they all resolve themselves into one, already exa 
mined pretty fully in the first part of this volume namely, 
that the New Testament affords no ground for expecting 
" universal holiness to last for a long time before the Lord 
shall come," and gives " no intimation that the corn-field of 
the Church will be cleansed or purified long before the 
separation in judgment." * In this I perfectly agree. I ex 
pect no period long or short of " universal holiness" 
before Christ come. Does Mr Birks himself expect it during 
the millennium ? I do not expect the corn-field of the Church 
to be " cleansed or purified " before Christ comes, in the only 
sense in which the parable referred to by Mr Birks (of the 
wheat and tares) announces a purification, namely, that all 
the tares, or children of the wicked one, will be purified out 
of " the world, which is the field." Does Mr Birks himself 
believe that not one child of the wicked one, one unregene- 
* Four Propli. Emp., ut supra, p. 333. 



MILLENNIUM ABSORBED IN THE KINGDOM OF GRACE. 4i>3 

rate professing Christian, Avill be found on the earth during 
the millennium? If not, his argument is inept. 

All such arguments proceed, as I have shown, upon exagge 
rated views of the difference between the present and the millen 
nial era. Premillennialists themselves are forced to admit 
that there will be tares among the wheat bad as well as 
good a mixture on the earth during the millennium. 
They may " feign submission," but of the root of the matter, 
many, according to their own admission, will be destitute. 
And what is this but to allow that the only difference between 
that time and this will be one of DEGREE. Now, the New 
Testament brings out into bold relief, not differences of de 
gree, but of kind. The grand distinctions held forth and dwelt 
on in the New Testament are two the distinction between what 
we familiarly call NATURE and GRACE on the one hand, and 
between GRACE and GLORY on the other. Corresponding 
with these subjective distinctions in the successive conditions 
of THE CHURCH, is the sublime objective distinction between 
the FIRST and the SECOND comings of THE CHURCH S LORD 
the first in humiliation, to redeem her unto God by his blood, 
and translate her out of nature into grace; the second, in 
majesty, to " perfect that which concerneth her," and exalt 
her from grace unto glory. What has the millennium to do 
with such magnificent distinctions as these? Nothing. It 
is just the state of grace developed more widely and fully 
than in the early stages of the gospel. As such, it would 
never fall to be mentioned at all, save where it was the express 
object of the inspiring Spirit to hold forth prophetically the 
fortunes of the Church upon earth, and show it passing into 
the perfect and eternal state. In the Apocalypse, for exam 
ple, we have a right, so to speak, to look for the millennium, 
if there is to be one at all. And there, accordingly, we do 
find it, but nowhere else. 

I have had occasion to observe, too, that the commencement 
and the close of this latter day will, in all likelihood, follow 



454 "SOONS" AND "QUICKLIES" OF SCRIPTURE CONCLUSION. 

the law of all the other great periods in the history of the 
Church, being gradual and uncertain; so cutting off every 
plea for slothful security, and keeping the Church in its fit 
ting attitude of expectancy. " Ethiopia (or Gush) shall 
soon stretch out," or "hasten her hands unto God" (Pin, 
Ps. Ixviii. 31), said the Psalmist between two and three 
thousand years ago. But is it done yet? " Behold, I come 
quickly," said the Redeemer himself, nearly two millenniums 
since ; but still " the heavens retain him," for " the times of 
restitution of all things spoken of by the prophets" have not 
arrived. These " soons" and " quicJclies " of Scripture are 
not, it seems, to be measured by our impatient arithmetic. 
Events should have taught us this, but they have not ; and 
those who are trying to learn the lesson, because they trem 
ble at the word of the Lord, are charged with lulling the 

7 O O 

Church and the world to sleep as if their motto were, 
" The Lord delayeth his coming." But " let God be true 
and every man a liar." " The grass withereth, the flower 
facleth; but the word of our God shall stand for ever." 



CONCLUSION. 

Here I close this investigation. I have shown, I think, 
under a number of heads, that the premillennial scheme is at 
variance with the Word of Gcd; that it proceeds upon crude 
and arbitrary principles of interpretation, while it shrinks 
from carrying out even these to their legitimate results ; that 
as a system it wants coherence, and is palpably defective, 
making no provision for some of the most important events 
which are to occur in the history of our race; and that its 
bearing on some of the most precious doctrines of God s 
Word are painful and perilous. 

These are strong things to say. Could I have taken the 



CONCLUSION. 455 

view of this system which many do who never examined it 
that it is a harmless one, which it matters little whether we 
embrace or reject I have too much dislike to oppose breth 
ren in the common salvation to have sent forth such a volume 
as this. It is because I saw in it elements ivhich at once fasci 
nate the carnal and attract tlie spiritual, that I thought it of 
consequence to sift it. And none of the least of my motives 
in undertaking this inquiry, was the desire to rescue " THE 
BLESSED HOPE" of the Saviour s appearing from the erroneous 
and repulsive circumstances with which this doctrine invests 
it, and which have had the effect of frightening away the 
Church from an expectation which nothing else can compen 
sate the loss of. " Behold, I come quickly, and my reward 
is with me," is a sound dear to all that love his name. They 
" love his appearing," because they love himself. To put 
any thing in the place of it, is not good. Nor will it succeed; 
for those who preach him bringing his reward with him will 
prevail, as indeed they ought. 

Nor is it in regard to the Personal appearing of the Sa 
viour only that premillennialists will and ought to prevail 
against all who keep it out of sight. There is a range of 
truth connected with it, which necessarily sinks out of its 
scriptural position and influence, whenever the coming of 
Christ is put out of its due place. I refer to the RESURREC 
TION as a co-ordinate object of the Church s hope, and to all 
the truths which circle around it, in which there is a power 
to stir and to elevate, which nothing else, substituted for it, 
can ever possess. The resurrection-life of the Head, as now 
animating all his members, and at length quickening them 
from the tomb, to be for ever with Him these, and such 
like, are truths, in the presentation of which premillennialists 
are cast in the mould of Scripture, from which it is as vain 
as it were undesirable to dislodge them. Pity only that they 
mar their own work. Many of them are dear to me in the 
Lord, and all the more for their warm affection to the appear- 



456 CONCLUSION. 

ing of his Person, and the truths therewith connected. And, 
oh ! will it not be gladsome when those who " have fallen 
out by the way " about his coming, shall be found together 
" walking with Him in white," their questions ended and their 
jarrings drowned in their common hallelujahs " unto Him 
that loved them ? " 

And it will soon be. " A little while, and ye shall not see 
me ; and again, a little while, and ye shall see me." " Though 
he tarry, WAIT FOR HIM." " Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly." 
Meanwhile, " until the day break, and the shadows flee away, 
I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of 
frankincense." (Cant. iv. 6.) 



GENEKAL INDEX, 



Adam, first and second, p. 5355. 

Adamic theory, p. 67, 68, 78, 80. 

Adrian, Pope, his brief, 1523, p. 236, 237. 

Advent, second, personal, expected on both sides, p. 11 ; commendable prominence 
given to, by premillennialists, p. 14, 455 ; its place in the Bible and the system 
of divine truth, p. 15, 24, 25, 455, 456 ; relation to first advent, p. 2026, 97, 98, 
453 ; uncertainty of time of, p. 27, 28, 419421 ; alleged impossibility of looking 
for, save on premillennial theory, p. 27 ; examination of this, p. 29 51 ; alleged 
converting efficacy of, p. 302. 
figurative, to judge public bodies, civil and ecclesiastical, p. 428442. 

Agencies, saving, all terminate at second advent, p. 95 113. 

Alexander, Dr A., p. 176, 397, 398, 402, 403. 

Aljnrd, Rev. H., p. 145, 248,435. 

Alsted, Professor J. II., p. 209, 210. 

Andreas, C sesariens., p. 394. 

Antichrist, fall of, in relation to second advent, p. 31, 32, 167, 425 133. 

Ash, Dr, p. 216. 

Augustin, St, title-page, and p. 5, 6, 20, 62, 84, 85, 189, 202, 204. 

Auriol, Rev. E., p. 75. 

Austria, revolution in, p. 336. 

Baptism, with all the training connected with it, terminates at second advent, p. 

100102. 

Barker, Rev. W. G., p. 117. 
Barnes, Rev. A., p. 215. 
Bengel, 3. A., p. 17, 18, 20, 21, 25, 40, 42, 54, 55, 60, 138, 131, 182, 183, 184, 189, 202, 

212, 216, 224, 231, 259, 2C5, 266, 267, 268, 288, S]l, 331, 416, 448. 
Begg, Mr J. A., p. 188. 
Bernard, St, p. 19, 31. 
Bcza, Theod., p. 137. 
Bickerstetn, Rev. E., p. 27, 56, 7375, 7880, 8487, 99, 102, 106, 107, 108, 156158, 161 

163, 190, 198, 250253, 257, 284, 287, 295, 310, 312, 344, 386. 
Birks, Rev. T. R., p. 80, 85, 99, 102, 117, 134, 140, 145, 158, 159, 161163, 106, 179, ISC, 

182185, 188, 190, 192, 196, 197, 207, 223, 226, 237, 245, 250, 252, 253, 255, 236, 

257, 269, 278, 287, 289, 360, 361, 378, 442-446, 449, 450, 452, 453. 
Bloomjleld, Rev. Dr S. P., p. 129, 137. 
Bogue, Rev. Dr, 2fl9, 300. 
Bonar, Rev. A., p. 29, 79, 81, 82, 8794, 99, 108, 188/216248, 278, 279, 282, 297, 298, 

2t9, 341, 342, 349, 350, 351, 354, 357. 



458 GENERAL IXDEX. 

Sonar, Rev. Dr H-, p. 27, 45, 108, 167, 170, 175, 176, 246-248, 252, 257, 293-301, 330, 

337, 341, S42, 350, 354, 357, 364, 386, 387, 390, 402. 
Brock, Rev. M., p. 75, 76, 159, 340, 341. 

Brooks, Rev. J. W., p. 65, 104^-106, 128, 198, 244246, 285, 294, 359, 360, 367, 372, 433. 
Brown, Rev. J., (of Wamphray), p. 284. 
Burchell, Rev. J., p. 7, 6870. 

Burgh, Rev. W., p. 7, 93, 202, 204, 208, 211, 212, 269, 275, 270. 
Burnet, Dr T., p. 65, 66, 70, 71. 
Bush, Rev. Dr, p. 208, 337. 

Calvin, John, p. 54, 55, 84, 114, 137, 143, 144, 172174, 176, 185, 187, 189, 402, 439, 443, 
449. 

Chrysostom, St, p. 40, 41, 256. 

Church, or mystical body, or bride, of Christ, complete at his second coming, p. 
5394; distinction between bride of Christ and the whole company of his re 
deemed, unscriptural, p. 71 94. 

Clarius, Isid., p. 189. 

Cocceius, Joh., p. 189, 190. 

Conflagration, final, as represented by premillennialists, p. 275-279; all-involving, 
all-reducing, p. 280 J84. 

Consummation of all sublunary things, p. 420, 421. 

Cyprian, St, p. 47. 

Dallas, Rev. A., p. 195, 196, 250, 257. 

JDalton,- Rev. TV., p. 27. 

David, house, key, throne of, p. 120122, 129 ISO. 

Daubuz, Rev. C., p. 217, 387, 436. 

Death, its relation to second advent, p. 2025 ; the last enemy, p. 146149 ; second 

death, p. 217221 ; power of death wrested from Satan only in believers, p. 376 

378. 

Deception of the nations, meaning of, 387393 ; the final, p. 415417. 
Dibdin, Rev. R. W., p. 76, 77. 
Dods, Rev. M., p. 48. 
Dodwell, Rev. H., p. 211. 
Durant, Rev. Joh. p. 9, 72, 73. 
Durham, Rev. Ja. p. 60, 61, 62, 201, 283, 326, 327, 379, 387, 388, 389, 436, 447. 

Earth, and works therein, burnt up, and new earth created, at second advent, p. 

273289. 

Edwards, President, p. 387, 395, K98, 399, 401, 404406, 411, 414, 421. 
Elliott, Rev. E. B., p. 47, 137, 166, 167, 176, 177, 186, 188, 190, 198, 208, 209, 215, 216, 

223, 229, 230, 236, 237, 241, 246249, 255, 257, 278 2S2, 284, 287, 307312, 360, 436, 

437, 448, 449, 450-452. 
Emerson, R. "W., p. 337. 

Events, alleged distinction between, and periods, p. 45 47. 
Excitement about Christ s coming, p. 4, 42, 43, 4851. 

Fairbairn, Rev. Dr P., p. 11, 357. 

Faber, Rev. G. S., p. 208, 387, 395, 396, 416, 417, 420, 426, 427, 436, 441, 442. 

Faith, mixture of, with sight, on premillennial theory, p. 359361 ; remarks on this, 

361365. 
Fleshly state, alleged everlasting continuance of, p. 156161 ; remarks on this, p. 

160164. 



GENERAL INDEX. 459 

Fraser, Rev. A., p. 218, 398, 402, 412, 41T, 418, 420, 421. 
Freemantle, Rev. W. R., p. 340, 350, 351. 
Fry, Rev. John, p. 339, 340, 398. 

Gate, strait, in what sense during millennium, p. 36G 373. 

Gipps, Rev. H., p. 20S, 216, 226228, 2S9, 445. 

Gog and Magog, p. 64 71, 415421. 

Grace, mixture of, with glory, on premillennial theory, p. 359 361 ; remarks on this, 

p. 361365 ; contrasted with glory, p. 23 25, 453 ; contrasted with nature, p. 

453. 

Griesbach, Jo. Ja., p. 129, 273. 

GrimsUawe, Rev. T. S., p. 76. 

Grotius, II., p. 201, 202, 208, 2SO, 281, 316, 418, 433. 

Havernick, Dr II. A. C., p. 317, 357, 358. 

Hamilton, Rev. Dr (Strathblane), p. 215. 

Hammond, Bishop, p. 208. 

Hare, Rev. A/chcleacon, p. 83, 84. 

Heavens and Earth, that are now : their destiny, p. 1113, 273, 279289. 

, the new : as represented by premillennialists, p. 285 287 ; cha 
racterised by unmixed righteousness, p. 286, 287. 
Henderson, Rev. Dr E., p. 398, 402, 438, 439. 

He.ngstenbe.rg, Dr E. W., p. 198, 317, 377, 378, 379, 384, 3S9, 391, 392, 393, 402, 447. 
Henlce, II. P. C., p. 337. 
Hill, Rev. Thos., p. 197200. 
Hofmann, Dr J. C. K., p. 317. 
Homer, p. 360. 

Homes, Dr N., p. 39, 64, 70, 71. 
Hope, the patience of, p. 51. 
Horsleij, Bishop, p. 44, 45. 
Huss, John ; his dream, p. 235 ; his death, p. 236, 237. 

Intercession of Christ, for saving purposes, terminates at second advent, p. 110114. 
Irenseus, St, p. 211. 
Jaspis, G. S., p. 175. 
Jerome, St, p. 6. 

, of Prague, p. 236, 237. 

Jews, inbringing of, p. 406409 ; territorial restoration of, 356, 407. 

Journal, Quarterly, of Prophecy, p. 132 ; of Sacred Literature (Kitto s) p. 220222. 

Judaizing character of premillennialism, p. 7, 42, 127, 128, 338353. 

Judgment, Last, p. 24, 97100, 194, 195, 199204 ; views of, taken by premillennial. 

ists, with remarks on, p. 243253; righteous and wicked judged together, p. 

254-272. 
Judgments, temporal, connected with introduction of millennium, p. 301 ; on public 

bodies, and Antichrist in particular See Advent, figurative ; confounding of 

with Last Judgment, p. 243253. 
Justin Martyr, p. 211. 



Keble, Rev. Job., p. 93. 



Ke.il, Dr 0. F., p. 249. 

Kingdom of Christ, premillennial theory of, p. 119 124 ; explanations regarding, p. 

124, 125 ; apostolic views of, p. 125 149 ; delivering up of what it is, p. 149 151 ; 

what it is not, p. 151155. 



400 GENERAL INDEX. 

Kitto see Journal. 
Knapp, G. C., p. 129. 

Lachmann, C., p. 129, 231, 254, 273. 

Lactantius, L. C., p. 47, 48, 64. 

Lamb, in midst of throne, p. 133, 151 154. 

Leaven, parable of, p. 35, 318. 

Levi, D., p. 128. 

Liddell and Scott s Greek Lexicon, p. 187. 

Life, Prince of, p. 136, 137 ; book of, 195198, 201203. 

Lightfoot, Di Job., p. 137. 

Lisco, F. G., p. 39. 

Literalism, p. 342-353. 

Lord, Kev. D. N., p. 85, 159163, 106, 360. 

Lord s Supper, ceases at second advent, p. 102, 103. 

Lawman, Eev. M., p. 387, 4G6. 

Lowth, Dr W., p. 171, 176, 333, 334, 402. 

Luther, M. p. 54. 59. 

Madaurin, Kev. Dr Job., p. 330. 

M NeOe, Rev. Dr, p. 68, 80, 107, 108, 120, 144, 1-16, 147, 107, 203, 294, 305310, 344, 

361, 366, 367, 371, 372. 
Magazine, Free Church, p. 132, 133, 241. 
Maitland, Kev. 0. D., p. 279, 361363, 367. 
Manchester, Duke of, p. 27, 46, 79, 81 84, 98, 99, 109, 117, 120, 144, 145, 197, 317, 318, 

344, 353357, 364, 365, 375. 

MarcUus, Professor Job., p. 62, 181, 182, 189, 202, 379, 394, 395, 410, 447, 449. 
Mather, Kev. L, p. 349, 350. 

Means of grace, terminate at second advent, p. 95 118. 
Jtlede, Rev. Jos., p. 44, 208, 209, 210, 241, 250253, 257, 285, 316, 327, 328, 331. 
Merle D Aubigne , Rev. Dr, p. 235. 
Millennium, whether a definite thousand years, p. 27, 28; how brought about, r. 

293304; character of, p. 89, 90, 9294, 146, 362413. 

Miracles, expectation of, in connection with introduction of millennium, p. 302304. 
Missionary effort, bearing of premillennial theory on, p. 2C6 301. 
Molyneux, Rev. C., p. 212, 233, 242, 342, 361, 362. " 
Moor, Professor B. de, p. 11, 114. 
More, Dr H., p. 216, 436. 
Munster, Seb., p. 189. 

Newton, Bishop, p. 208, 210, 211, 212, 217, 436. 

Ogilvy, G., p. 275, 295. 

Olshausen, Dr II., p. 34, 83, 169, 249, 250, 257, 435, 439, 443. 

Owen, Dr Jon., p. 24, 25, 64, 112, 114, 409. 

1 arseus, D., p. 394. 

Peculiarities, Jewish, expected revival of during millennium, p. 338358. 

Perry, Jos., p. 6668, 70, 71, 116, 139, 350, 363, 364. 

Paganism, fall of, p. 4, 231233, 379383. 

Paijacy, the, p. 231, 233, 238, 239, 277280, 332337, 379-387. 

PaviUon-c\o\\A, p. 364, 365. 

Premillennial controversy, in what circumstances it agitates the Church, p. 3 ; 



GENERAL INDEX. 4G1 

danger of hasty conclusions on, p. 4 ; precise nature of question and premillen- 
nial theory stated, p. 5, 6 ; diversities, p. 6, 7; prejudices for and against, p. 8 
10 ; irrelevances, p. 1013 ; elements in it which at once fascinate the spiritual 
and attract the carnal, p. 455. 

Premillennialism a Delusion, author of, p. 21. 

Piscator, Joh., p. 65, 216. 

Priest upon his throne, p. 132. 

Prince of life, p. 136, 137 ; and Saviour, p. 142. 

Prophecy, Tracts on, No. 2, p. 306, 307. 

Pym, Rev. W., p. 340, 341. 

Quicklies of Scripture, p. 454. 

Regeneration, the, p. 448, 449. 

Reign on the earth, p. 446, 447. 

Remonstrants, the Dutch, p. 181. 

Restitution of all things, p. 37, 38, 137139. 

Resurrection, the corporeal, views of premillennialists on, p. 155160 ; remarks on 
these, p. 160164 ; whole Church quickened at once, p. 164166 ; alleged coex 
istence of mortal with glorified state, p. 167 177 ; wicked all raised at second ad 
vent, p. 178204. 
, the first, or millennial, figurative, p. 206242. 

Review, British and Foreign Evangelical, p. 356, 407. 

, British Quarterly, p. 223. 

-, Presbyterian, p. 121, 310. 

Righteousness, unmixed, characteristic not of millennium but of new heavens and 
new earth, p. 2S6, 287, 305314, 399413, 452, 453. 

Robinson, llev. Dr, p. 187, 442. 

Rollock, Principal, p. 29. 

Rutherford, Rev. S., p. 2931. 

Sdbbatism, remaining for people of God, p. 450 452. 

Satan, millennial binding of, what it is not, what it is, and how effected, p. 374 396. 

Scholefield, Rev. Professor Ja., p. 43, 137, 426. 

Scholz, Dr J. M. A., p. 231, 254, 273, 426. 

Scott, Rev. J., p. 68, 121, 146, 310. 

, Rev. T., p. 171, 172, 176, 330, 379, 402. 

Scottish Church, fathers of, their views of second advent, p. 29, 30. 

Scriptures, object of, exhausted by second advent, p. 96100. 

Sealing ordinances, disappear at second advent, p. 100 104. 

Season, the little, after millennium, p. 415 420. 

Sight. See Faith. 

Sixtus Senensis, p. 64. 

Sleep, of believers, as contrasted with death of Christ, p. 182. 

Soons of Scripture see Quicklies. 

Spirit, saving work of, terminates at second advent, p. 110, 114118; effusion of in 

connection with opening of millennium, p. 301, 302. 
Stone becoming a mountain, p. 315322. 
Stuart, Rev. Professor M., p. 185, 212, 216, 230, 317. 
Sicedenborg, E., p. 175. 
Symington, Rev. Dr W., p. 114. 

Tares, parable of, p. 34, 35, 194, 258, 2-59, 305 Gil 



462 GENERAL INDEX. 

Temple, Ezekiel s, p. 338358. 
Tertullian, Q. S. F., p. 192, 209, 211. 
Tischendorf, Dr C., p. 129, 226, 231, 254, 27a 
Tregelles, Dr S. P., p. 205, 231, 254. 
Trump, last, p. 193, 194. 
Turretin, Professor I., p. 114. 
Twiss, Dr, p. 64. 
Tyso, Jos., p. 11, 275, 295. 

Urwick, Rev. Dr, p. 11, 25, 41, 440. 

Venema, Professor H., p. 190. 

Virgil, p. 390, 391. 

Vitringa, Professor C., p. 2, 62, 137, 208, 216, 224, 379, 3S7 389, 402, 410, 417, 436, 447. 

Way, narrow, p. 366373. 

Whitby, Dr D., p. 208. 

Wicked, resurrection of, with righteous see Resurrection. 

Widow, importunate, parable of, p. 41, 42. 

Widowed state of Church, in Christ s absence, p. 18, 19. 

Winer, Dr G. B., p. 183, 184, 230. 

Wodrow, R., p. 31-33. 

Wolfius, J. C., p. 231. 

Wood, Kev. VV., p. 6, 27, 31, 34, 47, 48, 58, 60, 62, 82, 91, 92, 99, 103, 113, 121124, 129 
132, 134, 138, 141, 144, 145, 147, 169, 185, 186, 188, 190, 192194, 220222, 224, 
237, 246, 253, 255257, 259, 261, 265, 286, 300, 310, 312, 321, 327, 330, 332335, 339, 
343345, 347, 349, 361, 367, 386, 357, 415, 430, 433, 438. 

Woodward, Rev. Dr, p. 106, 107. 

Wordsworth, Rev. Dr, p. 254. 

World, evangelization of, before second advent, p. 33 35, 297 30L 



ODES OF TESTS, 

ILLUSTRATED, QUOTED, OR REFERRED TO. 



Genesis xix. 23, 24, p. 420. 


Psalms xcvii. 1, p. 400. 


xli. 49, p. 418. 


xcviii. 9, p. 261. 


Exodus xv. 9, p. 420. 


xcix. 1, p. 400. 


xvi. 30, p. 451. 


cii. 26, p. 2S3. 


xx. 11, p. 453. 


cvii. 22, p. 355. 


xxxii. 32, p. 203. 


ex. 1, p. 142-147; 


Numbers xiv. 9, p. 327. 


2, p. 329. 


Deuteronomy xxxiii. 2, p. 58. 


cxvi. 17, p. 355. 


Joshua ii. 14, p. 137. 


cxli. 2, p. 355. 


Judges v. 28, p. 8. 


Ecclesiastes iii. 11, p. 333. 


vii. 12, p. 418. 


Canticles ii. 5, p. 18. 


1 Samuel xi. 1, p. 418. 


iv. 6, p. 40G. 


2 Samuel xvii. 11, p. 418. 


viii. 14, p. 8, 51. 


1 Kings xx. 1, p. 418. 


Isaiah i. 25, p. 281. 


Job i. 19, p. 417. 


ii. 2, 3, p. 342-346, 400; 


Psalms ii. p. 139-141; 


3, 4, p. 368 ; 


7-9, p. 330; 


4, p. 401. 


8, p. 328, 399-401. 


11, 17, p. 329. 


iv. 5, p. 355. 


iv. 3, p. 202. 


xii. 7, p. 281, 355. 


v. 19, p. 2. 


xxii. 3, p. 447; 


viii. 18, p. 150. 


27-29, p. 399, 400, 410. 


ix. 7, p. 135, 136; 


xxvii. 6, p. 355. 


xi. 2, p. 133. 


xli. p. 375, 176. 


4, p. 429. 


xlv. p. 60, 61; 


6-9, p. 401; 


12, p. 411; 


9, p. o6iS, 398, 399; 


16, p. 410. 


12, p. 417. 


Ii. 17, 19, p. 310, 355. 


xiii. 6, 9, 10, 13, 19, p. 423. 


liv. 6, p. 355. 


xix. 1, p. 428; 


Ixvi. 13, p. 355; 


21, p. 355. 


13-15, p. 340. 


xxii. 22, p. 133. 


Ixvii. 6, p. 412. 


xxiv. 21, 22, p. 375; 


Ixviii. 31, p. 454. 


25, p. 361. 


Ixix. 29, p. 202. 


xxv. 7, p. 168, 399; 


Ixxii. 8,11, p. 399; 


6-8, p. 169-177. 


11, 17, p. 410. 


xxvi. 13, 14, p. 235, S29, 330; 


Ixxvi. 1, p. 349. 


14, p. 225. 


Ixxxix. 28-37, p. 154. 


xxviii. 16, p. 2. 


xcvi. 10, p. 400. 


xxx. 23,24, p. 412; 



464 



INDEX OF TEXTS. 



Isaiah xxx. 27, 28, 30, 33, p. 428, 429. 


Ezekiel xliv. 2, p. 333; 


xxxii. 13, 15, p. 409; 


9, p. 344, 354. 


15-18, p. 368. 


xlv. xlvi. p. 340. 


xxxiv. 6, p. 355, 356. 


xlv. 17, p. 354; 


xxxvi. 1, p. 418. 


19, p. 417; 


xxxvii. 3, 17, p. 419. 


20, 21, p. 354. 


xl. 8, p. 454. 


xlvi. 20, p. 354. 


xlvi. 10, p. 355. 


xlvii. p. 274. 


xlix. 23, p. 411. 


Daniel ii. 34, 35, 44, p. 315, 316, 333, 335. 


li. 15, 1C, p. 287. 


vi. 26, p. 332. 


lii. 1, p. 344. 


Vii. p. 278, 322-337; 


liii. 11, p. 149, 154; 11, p. 278 ; 


12, p. 148. 


14, 22, 27, p. 409-411 ; 


Ivi. 7, p. 355, 357. 


18, p. 222; 


Ivii. 2, p. 23. 


26, p. 322 ; 


lix, 20, p. 407. 


27, p. 216,337, 447; 


Ix. p. 367; 


28. p. 333. 


1, p. 219; 


viii. 13, p. 58. 


7, p. 356; 


X. 6-9, p. 445. 


12, p. 410; 


xii. 1, p. 202 ; 


20, p. 146; 


2, p. 187-189 ; 


21, p. 157, 345; 


3, p. 194 ; 


22, p. 406. 


7, p. 281 ; 


Ixv. 15, p. 99; 


8, p. 4 ; 


17, 18, p. 167-177, 277, 279. 


12, p. 219, 416. 


Ixvi. 2, p. 171; 


Hosea vi. 2, p. 234. 


8, p. 406; 


xiii. 14, p. 167-177. 


22, p. 184, 277; 


xiv. 2, p. 356. 


23, p. 341, 343, 400. 


Joel ii. 28-32, p. 437, 438 ; 


Jeremiah xvii. 26, p. 355. 


31, 32, p. 429. 


xix. 10, p. 350. 


iii. 2-14, p. 247; 


xxxi. 12, p. 412; 


17, p. 344. 


31-34, p. 407. 


Amos ix. 13, p. 412. 


34, p. 305. 


Obadiah 21, p. 400. 


xxxiii. 11, p. 355; 


Micah i. 3-5, p. 429. 


17, 18, p. 340. 


iv. 3. p. 401, 402. 


Ezekiel i. 18, p. 150. 


Habakkuk i. 5, p. 2. 


xiii. 9, p. 202. 


ii. 2, p. 456; 


xvi. Gl, p. 350. 


3, 4, p. 2 


xxxiv. 26, 27, p. 412. 


Zephaniah i. 7, 8, p. 355. 


xxxvi. 29, 30-38, p. 412. 


Zechariah iii. 9, p. 133. 


xxxvii. 12-14, p. 234. 


vi. 12, 13, p. 132, 142. 


xxxvii. 25, p. 157. 


viii. 12, p. 412. 


xxxviii. xxxix. p. 417; 


ix. 9, 10, p. 321 ; 


17-19, p. 355. 


10, p. 399. 


18, p. 356. 


xii. 9, p. 2S1 ; 


xl.-xlviii. p. 358, 353. 


10, p. 407. 


xl. 39, p. 353. 


xiii. 1, p. 407. 


xliii. 2-5, p. 361; 


xiv. 5, p. 58, 59 ; 


9-11, p. 306; 


9, p. 329, 400, 410 ; 


20, p. 354, 417; 


10, p. 350 ; 


21, p. 354; 


16, p. 343 ; 


26, p. 340. 


17-19, p. 145 / 



INDEX OF TEXTS. 



4G5 



Zechariah xiv. 17, 18, p 274 ; 


Luke ii. 3, p. 20], 


21, p. 344. 


v. S i-39, p. 18, 19i 


Malachi i. 11, p. 305, 306, 346, 347, 355. 


ix. 26, p. 365; 


iii. 1, 2, p. 438, 439. 


27, p. 440 ; 


iv. 5, 6, p. 438, 439. 


32-34, p. 445. 


Matthew vi. 33, p. 412. 


x. 17, 18, IP. 393 ; 


vii. 13, 14, p. 107, 366, 367 ; 


20, p. 202. 


21-23, p. 255, oG6. 


xi. 21, 22, p. 148, 3C3. 


viii. 11, p. S4; 


xii. 8, p. 16 ; 


38, p. 254. 


35-37, p. 16 ; 


x. 23, p. 429, 439 ; 


3d, 40, p. 98. 


32, 33, p. 254. 


xiii. 24, p. 184. 


xi. 6, p. 203; 


xiv. 14, 19, p. 180, 1S1. 


13, 14, p. 439. 


xv. 24, p. 235. 


xii 29, p. 393. 


xvi. 27-31, p. 302, S03. 


xiii. 24-33, 37-43, p. 34, 35, 258, 


xvii. 26-30, p. 98, 99, 419. 


259, 268, 305-321! ; 


xviii. 1-8, p. 41, 42 ; 


31, 32, p. 318, 400 ; 


7, p. 419,420; 


43, p. 194, 266. 


8, p. 419. 


xvi. 24-27, p. 2o5 ; 


xix. 11-27, p. 39-41 ; 


26, 27, p. 15 ; 


13, p. 18, 96. 


27, p. 256 ; 


xx. 35, p. 186; 


28, p. 440. 


35-37, p. 181. 


xvii. 10-13, p. 439. 


xxi. 24-27, p. 434-142 ; 


xix. 27, p. 448. 


24, p. 36, 40(3 ; 


xxi. 43, p. 36. 


20, 28, p. 337. 


xxii. 31, p. 186 ; 


xxii. 30, p. 448. 


14, p. 3C6-373. 


John i. 50, 51, p. 302, 303. 


xxiii. 32, 34-36, p. 435 ; 


iii. 4, p. 218 ; 


39, p. 406. 


29, p. 80 ; 


xxiv. 6, p. 49; 


36, p. 180. 


5, 11, p. 388 ; 


iv. 21-23, p. 348, 349 ; 


29-01, p. 434-442 ; 


48, 49, p. 302, 303 ; 


3o, p. 5 ; 


54, p. 214. 


34, p. 434 ; 


v. 14, p. 61 ; 


48, p. 454. 


17, p. 153, 154 ; 


xxv. 1-13, p. 40, 41,80; 


24, p. 235 ; 


5, p. 31, 40 ; 


25-29, p. 220; 


10, p. 99, 255 ; 


26, p. 190 ; 


14-30, p. 256 ; 


28, 29, p. 180-191, 213, 2.39, 230. 


19, p. 40 ; 


vi. 39, 40, p. 160 ; 


31, p. 446; 


39. p. 1S1 ; 


31-46, p. 213, 227, 256-258. 


39, 44, 54, 56, p. 88, 89, 94. 


xxviii. 3, 4, p. 445 ; 


vii. 37, 39, p. 114-116, 124. 


18-20, p. 33, 34, 100-102, 


xiv. 1-3, p. 21 ; 


151, 297, 298 ; 


9, p. 153 ; 


19, p. 256. 


12, p. 302, 303 ; 


Mark vii. 37, p. 2. 


16, 17, 20, p. 114-116 ; 


viii. 38, p. 254. 


19, p. 181 ; 


ix. 1, p. 440. 


28, p. 432. 


xiii. 3j, p. 27. 


xv. 26, p. 114-116. 


xvi. 15, p. 256. 


xvi. 7, 14, p. 114-116; 


Luke i. 17, p. 439. 


16, p. 4a6 ; 


2i 



466 



INDEX OF TEXTS. 



John xvi. 19-22, p. 19. 

xvii. 2, 24, p. 88-94 ; 
9, 24, p. 166 ; 
22, p. 89, 150. 
xx. 20, p. 302, 303. 
Acts i. G, 7, p. 406 ; 
6-S, p. 36 ; 
10, 11, p. 22. 
ii. 8, p. 231 ; 

16, 19, 20, p. 429 ; 
16-21, p. 437, 438 ; 
29-36, p. 129-132 ; 
33, p. 114-116 ; 
34-36, p. 142-147. 
iii. 13-15, p. 136, 137 ; 
19-21, p. 137, 13$ ; 
19 (?), 406 ; 

20, 21, p. 37, 38 ; 

21, p 283. 
iv. 2, p. 186 ; 

26-28, p. 140, 141. 
v. 29-31, p. 142. 
ix. 3-7, p. 445 ; 

31, p. 368. 
I. 42, p. 266. 
xvii. 31, p. -.60, 261 ; 

31, 32, p. 186, 1ST. 
xxii. 9-11, p. 445. 
xxiii. 6, p. 186. 
xxiv. 21, p. 186. 
xxvi. 13, p. 194; 
23, p. 186. 
Romans i. 4, p. 186. 

ii. 5-11, p. 257 ; 
5-16, p. 261 ; 
7, p. 213, 214 ; 
16, p. 99. 
iii. 4, p. 454. 
viii. 1, p. 90 ; 

9, 11, 29, 30, p. SO ; 
17, p. 24, 89, 90 ; 
19, 22, p. 283,284; 
19, 23, p. 227; 
19-23, p. 12. 
x. 27, p. 43. 
xi. 15, p. 222 ; 
25, 26, p. 36 ; 
26-29, p. 406, 407. 
xii. 1, p. 355 ; 
2, p. 107. 
xiv. 9, p. 149 ; 

10, 12, ji. 267. 
xv. 16, p. 355 ; 



Uomana xv. 24, p. 137. 

xvi. 20, p. 375, 377. 

1 Corinthians i. 7, 8, p. 17. 

ii. 2, p. 26. 

iii. 12-15, p. 264; 

13, p. 15. 
IT. 5, p. 262. 
vi. 2, p. 249. 
vii. 31, p. 283. 
x. 16, 21, p. 355. 
xi. 26, p. 18, 102, 103 ; 

34, p. 137. 
xv. p. 180 ; 

3, 6, 18, 20, 51, p. 182 ; 

12, 13, 21, 42, p. 186 ; 

20, 21, 23, p. 133, 165 ; 

22, 23, p. 12 ; 

23, p. 53-55, 213 ; 
23, 24, p. 450 ; 
24-26, p. 143-154 ; 
28, p. 432 ; 

44, p. 12. 

51, 52, p. 193, 194 ; 

54, 55, p. 167-177. 

2 Corinthians iii. 14-18, p. 403 ; 

15, 16, p. 406. 
v. 9-11, p. 261, 262 ; 

17, p. 172. 
vi. 2, p. 191 ; 

17, p. 107, :i6t> ; 
xi. 2. p. 56, 6U. 
Galatians iv. p. 352. 

v. 2-4, p. 354. 
Ephesians i. 10, p. 154. 
ii. 1, p. 235 ; 

14, 15, 19, p. 347, 348. 
iii. 21, p. 158, 161. 
v. 5, p. 152, 268 ; 
14, p. 219 ; 
25-27, p. 55,56, 75; 
30, p. 80. 
33, p. 231. 
Philippians i. 6, p. 18 ; 

9, 10, p. 18. 
ii. 17, p. 355; 
23, p. 137. 

iii. 11, p. 182-185, 186 ; 
20, p. 17, 97 ; 
20, 21, p. 12, 183, 214. 
iv. 3, p. 202 ; 
18, p. 355. 
Colossians i. 18, p. 12 ; 
20, p. 154 ; 



INDEX OF TEXTS. 



467 



Colossiaus i. 21, 22, p. ;">6, 57 ; 

28, p. 205. 
ii. p. 352; 

15, p. 148, 393. 
iii. 4, 5, p. 16. 

1 Thessakmians i. 3, p. 51 ; 

9, 10, p. 17. 
ii. 12, p. 267 ; 

19, 20, p. 266. 
iii. 13, p. 57. 
iv. p. 180 ; 

13, 14, p. 182; 

14, p. 181 ; 

15, p. 18 ; 

16, p. 54, 193 ; 
16, 17, p. 54, 117 ; 

17, p. 222. 
v. 2, 3, p. 410 ; 

9, 10, p. 18 ; 
23, p. 18. 

2 Thessalonians i. 6-10, p. 262-264 ; 

7-10, p. 98 ; 

9, p. 268 ; 

10, p. 56, 94, 214. 

ii. 1, p. 41-51, 63, 214; 

1, &c., p. 42-51 ; 

2, p. 4, 5 ; 

3, p. 5 ; 

1-8, p. 335, 425-433. 

1 Timothy iv. 1-3, p. 36, 37 ; 

8, p. 412 ; 
v. 24, 25, p. 267. 

2 Timothy i. 10, p. 148 ; 

18, p. 2. 

ii. 12, p. 89, 90. 

iii. 1-5, p. 36, 37. 

iv. 1, p. 154, 266; 

6, p. 335 ; 

8, p. 2, 5, 17, 26, 30, 96, 97. 
Titus ii. 11-14, p. 23-25. 
iii. 5, 6, p. 114, 115. 
Hebrews i. 3, p. 153; 

10, 12, p. 283. 

ii. 9, p. 150, 182 ; 

10, 12, p. 283 ; 

13, p. 150 ; 

14, p. 148, 393 ; 
14, 15, p. 376-378. 

iv. 3, p. 452 ; 

9, p. 450-452 
vi. 2, p. 186. 
vii. 25, p. 112, 117. 
viii. p. 353 ; 



Hebrews viii. 12, p. 353. 

ix. 12, 24-28, p. 110, 111 ; 

27, 28, p. 24, 26 ; 

28, p. 214. 
x. 5, 9, p. 353 ; 

8, p. 357 ; 
12, 13, p. 143-147 ; 
37, p. 31. 
xi. 40, p. 84. 
xii. 22, p. 349 ; 

23, p. 63, 158, 161, 202 ; 
26, p. 278. 
xiii. 10-13, 15, p. 354, 355 ; 

17, p. 265, 266. 
James i. 18, p. 158, 161. 
iv. 4, p. 367 ; 
7, p. 393. 
v. 7, p. 16, 96 ; 
9, p. 27. 

1 Peter i. 3, p. 186 ; 

4, 5, 13, p. 214 ; 

11, p. 397 ; 

13, p. 16, 96. 
ii. 5, 9, p. 355. 
iv. 5, p. 266 ; 

12, 13, p. 16. 

2 Peter i. 11, p. 152, 266 ; 

19, p. 41, 96, 98. 
ii. 4, p. 390. 
iii. p. 289 ; 

3, 4, p. 37, 419 ; 

7, p. 99; 

7-10, p. 273-289; 

7, 10, 12, p. 267, *63 ; 

7, 10-13, p. 12, 27, 267-277, 283; 

8, p. 61; 

9, 10, p. 15; 
10-13, p. 12; 
10, p. 27, 59, 98, 446; 
13, p. 167-177. 
Uohnii. 18, 191; 

15, p. 366-373; 
28, p. 16, 267 ; 
28, 29, p. 214, 215. 
iii. 2, p. 214, 215 ; 
2, 3, p. 16 ; 
8-10, p. 375, 376, 3% 
iv. 17, p. 267. 
v. 12, p. 180. 
JudeS, p. 89; 

14, 15, p. 15 ; 
24, p. 56. 
Revelation i. 5, 6, p. 152: 



468 



INDEX OP TEXTS. 



Revelation i. 7, p. 15 ; 

17, p. 445; 

18, p. 135, 136, 149, 392. 
ii. 2, 3, p. 413,414; 

10,11, p. 218, 219; 
13, p. 379; 
23, p. 231; 
25, p. 17. 
iii. 1, p. 115; 

3, p. 429; 

4, p. 456; 

5, p. 202, 267 ; 

7, 8, 12, p 1S3, 134. 
v. 6, p. 115, 133; 

10, p. 199, 216, 411, 446, 447 
vi. 1,3, p. 226; 

9-11, p. 199, 231,232; 

12-17, p 436, 437. 
vii. 1, p. 417; 

2, p. 392; 

3, 4, 15, p. 199. 
x. 1, p. 392; 

2, 7, p. 199; 
xi. 2, 3, p. 323; 

2,3, (15-) 17, p 199; 

3, p. 343; 

11, p. 234; 

15, 17, p. 199, 226, 331, 373, 

40U; 

18, p. 200, 221 
xii. 6, 14, p. 199, 323; 

7, p. 59, 323; 

7-12, p. 379-383, 388-390, 

395. 

xiii. 1, p 3S3; 
6, p. 199,323; 

8, p. 198, 202, 227; 
11,15, p. 233; 

16, p. 200. 

Xiv. 1,11, p. 59,199; 
4, p. 3S4; 
11, p. 199; 

17, p. 392. 
XT. 2, p. 199. 
xvil. 4, p. 59, aS4; 



Revelation xvii. 8, p. 198, 202; 
11, p. 384 ; 
14, p 59, 334. 
xviii. p. 278; 

1, p. 392; 

2, 6, 20, p. 240; 

7, p. 336; 

8, p. 202; 

9, p. 278; 

20, p. 241, 3S5. 
xix. 2, 3, 6,20, p. 199; 

5, p. 200; 

6, p. 199, 385; 
6-9, p. 60, 01 ; 

11-21, p. 334, 334, 442-440; 
18, p. 200; 

20, p. 326, 3S6; 

21, p. 225. 
xx. 1, p. 392; 

1-3,7, p. 374-396; 

3, p. 192, 199; 

4, p. 4, 199; 

4-6, p. 205-242, 410; 

5, p. 196 ; 

7-9, p. 64-71, 145, 146, 415, 

416; 
11-15, p. 194-204, 214, 24S, 

26S, 269, 273, 274, 288, 

289. 
xxi.l, p. 273-289; 

1, 2, p. 171 ; 

2, 9, p 60 ; 

3, 4, p. 199; 

4, p. 167-177; 

5, p. 448; 

7, p. 202; 
7, 8, p. 254; 
24, p. 61, 62; 
27, p. 202. 

xxii. 1,3, p. 152; 

7, 12, 20, p. 27; 
12, p. 455 ; 
12-15, p. 254, 2f>">; 

19, p. 202; 

20, p. 51, 94, 456. 



THE EXI). 



T. and T. Clark s Publications. 



In two volumes demy 8vo, price 21s., 

GROWTH OF THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY, 

FROM THE FIRST CENTURY TO THE DAWN OF 
THE LUTHERAN ERA. 



BY THE 



REV. GEORGE MATHESON, M.A., B.D., 

AUTHOR OF AIDS TO THE STUDY OF GERMAN THEOLOGY. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAP. 

1. The Originality and Oldness of 

the Christian Religion. 

2. Preparation for the Cross. 

3. The Ingathering. 

4. Birthplace of the Spirit of Chris 

tianity. 

5. Transition from Infancy into 

Childhood. 

6. The Hopes of Childhood. 

7. Breaking up of Home Associa 

tions. 

8. Extinction of Home Associations. 

9. Independent Speculations of the 

Child-Life. 

10. Influence of Worldly Contact. 

11. Moral Struggles of the Child-Life. 

12. Fluctuations of the Struggle. 

13. Decline of the Ideal. 

14. The Child-Life under the World s 

Tuition. 

15. Last Efforts of the Self-Will. 

16. The Eeconciliation completed. 

17. Close of the Child-Life. 

18. Characteristics of the New Period. 

19. First Practical Influences of the 

Christian Spirit. 

20. First Intellectual Stage of the 

School-Life. 



CHAP. 

21. Protestant Influence of Moham 

medanism. 

22. First Revolt of the School-Life. 

23. The Church under New Guar 

dianship. 

24. The Church become the World. 

25. Revival of Aspiration. 

26. First Glimmerings of the Ro 

mantic Age. 

27. Expanding of Christian Intelli 

gence. 

28. Second Revolt of the School-Life. 

29. Last Triumph of the Temporal 

Papacy. 

30. Search for a Rule of Conduct. 

31. Discovery of a New Well-Spring. 

32. Decline of the Temporal Papacy. 

33. Third Revolt of the School-Life. 

34. Close of the School-Life; the 

Negative Reformation com 
pleted. 

35. The Independence of Youth. 

36. The Moral Preparation of Youth. 

37. The Intellectual Preparation of 

Youth in its relation to Art 
and the Reformation. 

38. The Dawn of a New Day. 



This work is thoroughly original in the highest sense. The main thought 
of the book is at once simple and profound. . . . To say that the work is 
fascinating, high in its literary merit, beautiful in its condensed descriptive 
power, strong in its sure grasp of principles, striking in its extensive and 
profound historical knowledge, is to say but little of what we feel to be due 
to the writer and his work. He has the vivid historical imagination which 
enables him to live in the past, and he has the artistic power of reproducing 
the thought and life of former generations. Daily Review. 



T. and T. Clark s Publications. 



. In crown 8vo, price 5s., 

THE LEVITICAL PRIESTS. 

A CONTRIBUTION TO THE CRITICISM OF 
THE PENTATEUCH. 

BY SAMUEL IVES CURTISS, JR., 

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY, LEIPZIG. 



EXTRACT FROM PREFACE BY DR. DELITZSCH. 

The Author of the following work has made himself thoroughly acquainted 
with the writings of the chief representatives of this theory, and seeks by 
means of sober arguments to prove his positions. 



In crown 8vo, Third Edition, price 4s. 6tf., 

AIDS 

TO THE 

STUDY OF GERMAN THEOLOGY. 

By REV. GEOEGE MATHESON, M.A., B.D., 

AUTHOR OF THE GROWTH OF THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 

In crown 8;o, price 5s., 

FAITH IN GOD: 

SERMONS 

BY 

THE LATE REV. JAMES HAMILTON, M.A., 

C C K P E N. 



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Just published, in demy 8vo, price 6s., 
A TREATISE ON THE 

INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 

BT 

CHAELES ELLIOTT, D.D., 

Professor of Biblical Literature and Exegesis in the Presbyterian Theological 
Seminary of the North- West, Chicago, Illinois. 

Just published, in one large 8vo volume, Eighth English Edition, 
price 15s., 

A TREATISE ON THE 

GRAMMAR OF NEW TESTAMENT GREEK, 

$Ugarh& as the $asis of $frfo (JHesianwni (Exegesis. 
Translated from the German [of Dr. G. B. Winer]. 

With large additions and full Indices. Second Edition. Edited by 
Rev. W. F. MOULTON, D.D., one of the New Testament Translation 
Revisers. 

The additions by the Editor are very large, and will tend to make 
this great work far more useful and available for English students 
than it has hitherto been. The Indices have been greatly enlarged, 
but with discrimination, so as to be easily used. Altogether, the 
Publishers do not doubt that this will be the Standard Grammar of 
New Testament Greek. 

We gladly welcome the appearance of Winer s great work in an English 
translation, and must strongly recommend it to all who wish to attain to a 
sound and accurate knowledge of the language of the New Testament. We 
need not say it is the Grammar of the New Testament. It is not only superior 
to all others, but so superior as to be by common consent the one work of 
reference on the subject. No other could be mentioned with it. Literary 
Churchman. 



T. and T. Clark s Publications. 



Just published, price 7s. 6d., 

ON CHRISTIAN COMMONWEALTH. 

Translated and Adapted (with the Revision of the Author) 

Jrum tfje rnnan of 
DR. HENRY J. W. THIERSCH. 



The work is thoughtful, earnest, and moderate in tone. Scotsman. 

In a rather thin octavo are discussed seventeen subjects, each one enough 
for a volume, yet the essays are neither shallow nor evasive ; the writer is in 
earnest, and goes at once to the root of the matter. The style is singularly 
clear, and the language is concise, quite unlike what is often the German 
manner. A hundred quotations might be made, leaving a hundred bits 
equally good. This book deserves to reach a tenth edition. Record. 



Just published, in demy 8vo, Third Edition, price 10s. 6d., 

MODERN DOUBT & CHRISTIAN BELIEF. 

A SEKIES OF APOLOGETIC LECTURES ADDRESSED TO 
EARNEST SEEKERS AFTER TRUTH. 

BY THEODOEE CHRISTLIEB, D.D., 

UNIVERSITY PREACHER AND PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY AT BONX. 



Translated, with the Author s sanction, chiefly by the Rev. H. U. 
WEITBRECHT, Ph.D., and Edited by the Rev. T. L. KINGSBURY, 
M.A., Vicar of Easton Royal, and Rural Deau. 

We recommend the volume as one of the most valuable and important 
among recent contributions to our apologetic literature. . . . We are heartily 
thankful both to the learned author and to his translators. Guardian. 

All the fundamental questions connected with revealed religion are handled 
more or less fully. The volume shows throughout intellectual force and 
earnestness. A thenKum. 

We express our unfeigned admiration of the ability displayed in this work, 
and of the spirit of deep piety which pervades it ; and whilst we commend it 
to the careful perusal of our readers, we heartily rejoice that in those days of 
reproach and blasphemy, so able a champion has come forward to contend 
earnestly for the faith which was once delivered to the saints. Christian 
Observer. 



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DR. LUTHARDT S WORKS. 



In three handsome crown 8vo volumes, price Gs. each. 

We do not know any volumes so suitable in these times for young 
men entering on life, or, let us say, even for the library of a pastor called 
to deal with such, than the three volumes of this series. We commend 
the whole of them with the utmost cordial satisfaction. They are alto 
gether quite a specialty in our literature. Weekly Review. 

Apologetic Lectures on the Funda 
mental Truths of Christianity. Fourth Edition. By C. E. 
LUTHARDT, D.D., Leipzig. 



Apologetic Lectures on the Saving 

Truths of Christianity. Third Edition. 



Apologetic Lectures on the Moral 

Truths of Christianity. Second Edition. 



Just published, in demy 8vo, price 9s., 

St. John the Author of the Fourth 

Gospel. By Professor C. E. LUTHARDT, Author of Fundamental 
Truths of Christianity, etc. Translated and the Literature en 
larged by C. R. GREGORY, Leipzig. 

A work of thoroughness and value. The translator has added a lengthy 
appendix, containing a very complete account of the literature bearing on the 
controversy respecting this Gospel. The indices which close the volume are 
well ordered, and add greatly to its value. Guardian. 



Crown 8vo, 5s., 

Luthardt, Kahnis, and Bruckner. 

The Church : Its Origin, its History, and its Present Position. 

A comprehensive review of this sort, done by able hands, is both in 
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T. and T. Clark s Publications. 



Just published, in crown 8vo, price 6s., 

SERMONS 

FOR THE 

CHRISTIAN YEAR. 

ADVENT-TRINITY. 
By PROFESSOR ROTHE. 

TRANSLATED BY WILLIAM R. CLARK, M.A. OXON., 

PREBENDARY OF WELLS AND VICAR OF TAUNTON. 



The volume is rich in noble thoughts and wholesome lessons. Watchman. 
Just published, in two vols. large crown 8vo, price 7s. 6d. each, 

THE YEAR OF SALVATION. 

WORDS OF LIFE FOR EVERY DAY. 
A BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD DEVOTION. 

BY J. J. VAN OOSTERZEE, D.D. 



A work of great value and interest. To the clergy these readings will be 
found full of suggestive hints for sermons and lectures; while for family 
reading or for private meditation they are most excellent. The whole tone 
of the work is thoroughly practical, and never becomes controversial Church 
Bells. 

The very best religious exposition for everyday use that Las ever fallen in 
our way. BvlCs Weekly Messenger. 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
Just published, in crown 8vo, price 6s., 

MOSES: 

A BIBLICAL STUDY. 



Our author has seized, as with the instinct of a master, the great salient 
points in the life and work of Moses, and portrayed the various elements of 
his character with vividness and skill. . . . The work will at once take its 
place among our ablest and most valuable expository and practical discourses. 
Baptist Magazine. 

A volume full of valuable and suggestive thought, which well deserves 
and will amply repay careful perusal. We have read it with real pleasure. 
Christian Observer. 



T. and T. Claries Publications. 



Just published, in demy 8vo, price 12s., 

THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE 
; OF SACRIFICE, 

BY ALFRED CAVE, B.A. 



BOOK I. PREPARATORY. 

PART I. THE PATRIARCHAL DOCTRINE OF SACRIFICE. 
PART II. THE MOSAIC DOCTRINE OF SACRIFICE. 
PART III. THE POST-MOSAIC DOCTRINE OF SACRIFICE.] 

BOOK II. PLEROMATIC. 



We have nothing but praise for its clearness, its method, its thoroughness 
and its tolerance. We most warmly commend Mr. Cave s book to the study 
of the clergy, who will find it full of suggest! veness and instruction. English 
Churchman. 

A thoroughly able and erudite book, from almost every page of which 
something may be learned. The author s method is exact and logical, the 
style perspicuous and forcible sometimes, indeed, almost epigrammatic ; and 
as a careful attempt to ascertain the teaching of the Scripture on an important 
subject, it cannot fail to be interesting even to those whom it does not con 
vince. Watchman. 

We wish to draw particular attention to this new work on the deeply-im 
portant subject of sacrifice. ... If we can induce our readers not only to 
glance through the book, but to read every line with thoughtful care, as we 
have done, we shall have earned their gratitude. Church Hells. 

It would be difficult to point to any modern theological work in English 
which reveals more abundant and patient scholarship, a more vigorous and 
comprehensive view of a great question. The subject is large and the litera 
ture enormous, the lines of investigation are numerous and intricate; but tho 
author of the volume before us has displayed a fine mastery of voluminous 
material, and, after examining the scriptural phraseology in its historical de 
velopment, positive declarations, and immediate inferences therefrom, ho 
draws out his conclusions with great care, and contrasts them with views 
of a more speculative kind which have been advanced by distinguished 
scholars in Germany and England. The argument of the volume is sustained 
by logical compactness, lucidity of style, and considerable learning ; it is a 
guide to the opinions of the principal writers on every part of the subject, 
and is pervaded by a fine spiritual tone. Evangelical Review. 



T. and T. Clark s Publications. 



Just published, Second Edition, demy 8vo, 10s. 6d., 

THE TRAINING OF THE TWELVE; 

OR, 

EXPOSITION OF PASSAGES IN THE GOSPELS EXHIBITING 

THE TWELVE DISCIPLES OF JESUS UNDER 

DISCIPLINE FOR THE APOSTLESHIP. 

BY 

A. B. BRUCE, D.D., 

PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY, FREE CHURCH COLLEGE, GLASGOW. 



Here we have a really great book on an important, large, and attractive 
subject a book full of loving, wholesome, profound thoughts about the 
fundamentals of Christian faith and practice. British and Foreign Evangel 
ical Review. 

It is some five or six years since this work first made its appearance, and 
now that a second edition has been called for, the author has taken the oppor 
tunity to make some alterations which are likely to render it still more accept 
able. Substantially, however, the book remains the same, and the hearty 
commendation with which we noted its first issue applies to it at least as much 
now. Hock. 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 



In one volume 8vo, price 12s., 

THE HUMILIATION OF CHRIST 

IN ITS PHYSICAL, ETHICAL, AND OFFICIAL ASPECTS. 



(SIXTH SERIES OF CUNNINGHAM LECTURES.) 



These lectures are able and deep-reaching to a degree not often found in 
the religious literature of the day; withal, they are fresh and suggestive. . . . 
The learning and the deep and sweet spirituality of this discussion will com 
mend it to many faithful students of the truth as it is in Jesus. Congrega- 
tionalist. 

We have not for a long time met with a work so fresh and suggestive as 
this of Professor Bruce. . . . We do not know where to look at our English 
Universities for a treatise so calm, logical, and scholarly. English Independent. 



T. and T. Clark s Publications. 



In three volumes 8vo, price 31s. 6d., 

A COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF 
ST. JOHN. 

BY F. GODET, D.D., 

Professor of Theology, Neuchatol. 

This work forms one of the battlefields of modern inquiry, and is itself 
so rich in spiritual truth, that it is impossible to examine it too closely ; and 
we welcome this treatise from the pen of Dr. Godet. We have no more com 
petent exegeto ; and this new volume shows all the learning and vivacity for 
which the author is distinguished. Freeman. 

Just published, in two volumes 8vo, price 21s., 

A COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF 
ST. LUKE. 

BY F. GODET, 

Doctor and Professor of Theology, Neuchatel. 
TRANSLATED FROM THE SECOND FRENCH EDITION. 

Marked by clearness and good sense, it will be found to possess value and 
interest as one of the most recent and copious works specially designed to 
illustrate this Gospel. Guardian. 

KEIL AND DELITZSCH S COMMENTARIES 
ON THE OLD TESTAMENT. 

10s. Qd. each volume. 

PENTATEUCH, 3 VOLS (/&&) 

JOSHUA, JUDGES, AND RUTH, 1 VOL. . . (Keil.) 

SAMUEL, 1 VOL (Keil.) 

KINGS, 1 VOL., AND CHRONICLES, 1 VOL. . (Keil.) 

EZRA, NEHEMIAH, AND ESTHER, 1 VOL. . (Keil.) 

JOB, 2 VOLS (Delitzsch.) 

PSALMS, 3 VOLS (DeKtoeft.) 

PROVERBS, 2 VOLS (Delitzsch.) 

ECCLESIASTES AND SONG OF SOLOMON, 1 VOL. (Delitzsch.) 

ISAIAH, 2 VOLS (Delitzsch.) 

JEREMIAH AND LAMENTATIONS, 2 VOLS. . . (Keil.) 

EZEKIEL, 2 VOLS (A 7.) 

DANIEL, 1 VOL fffi&l 

MINOR PROPHETS, 2 VOLS (Keil.) 

This series is one of great importance to the Biblical scholar; and as regards 
its general execution, it leaves little or nothing to be desired. Edinburgh 
Review. 



10 T. and T. Clark s Publications. 

Just published, in demy 8vo, price 9s., 

- HIPPOLYTU8 AND CALLI8TU8; 

OK, 

THE CHURCH OF ROME IN THE FIRST HALF OF 
THE THIRD CENTURY. 

BY J. J. IGN. VON DftLLINGER. 

JEransIatetr, fcritfj Introduction, flotes, anU "Sppenotccs, 
BY ALFRED PLUMMER, M.A., 

MASTEB OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, DURHAM. 



That this learned and laborious work is a valuable contribution to eccle 
siastical history, is a fact of which we need hardly assure our readers. The 
name of the writer is a sufficient guarantee of this. It bears in all its pages 
the mark of that acuteness which, even more than the unwearied industry^of 
its venerated author, is a distinguishing feature of whatever proceeds from 
the pen of Dr. Dollinger. John Bull. 

We are impressed with profound respect for the learning and ingenuity 
displayed in this work. The book deserves perusal by all students in eccle 
siastical history. It clears up many points hitherto obscure, and reveals 
features in the Eoman Church at the beginning of the third century which 
are highly instructive. Athenxum. 

Just published, in two volumes demy 8vo, price 12s. each, 

A HISTORY OF THE COUNCILS OF THE CHURCH. 

JJtom tfje rujmal BoaimEnts. 

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF 

C. J. HEFELE, D.D., BISHOP OF EOTTENBURG. 



VOL. I. (Second Edition} TO A.D. 325. 
By Rev. PREBENDARY CLARK. 

VOL. II. A.D. 326 TO 429. 
By H. N. OXEN HAM, M.A. 



1 This careful translation of Hefele s Councils. Dr. PUSEY. 

A thorough and fair compendium, put in a most accessible and intelligent 
form. Guardian. 

A work of profound erudition, and written in a most candid spirit. The 
book will be a standard work on the subject. Spectator. 

The most learned historian of the Councils. Pert, Gratry. 

We cordially commend Hefele s Councils to the English student. John 
Bull. 



T. and T. Clark s Publications. 1 1 

WORKS BY THE LATE 
PATRICK FAIRBAIRN, D.D., 

PRINCIPAL AND PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY IN THE FREE CHURCH 
COLLEGE, GLASGOW. 



In crown 8vo, price 6s., 

PASTORAL THEOLOGY : A Treatise on the Office and 

Duties of the Christian Pastor. AVith a Biographical Sketch 
of the Author. 



In crown 8vo, price 7s. 6d., 

THE PASTORAL EPISTLES. The Greek Text and 

Translation. With Introduction, Expository Notes, and Dis 
sertations. 

We cordially recommend this work to ministers and theological students. 
Methodist Magazine. 

We have read no book of his with a keener appreciation and enjoyment 
than that just published on the Pastoral Epistles. Nonconfoi-mist. 



In two volumes demy 8vo, price 21s., Sixth Edition, 

THE TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE, viewed in con- 

nection with the whole Series of the Divine Dispensations. 



In demy 8vo, price 10s. 6d., Fourth Edition, 

EZEKIEL, AND THE BOOK OF HIS PROPHECY: 

An Exposition. With a new Translation. 



In demy 8vo, price 10s. 6d., Second Edition, 

PROPHECY, viewed in its Distinctive Nature, its 

Special Functions, and Proper Interpretation. 



In demy 8vo, price 10s. 6d., 

HERMENEUTICAL MANUAL; or, Introduction to 

the Exegetical Study of the Scriptures of the New Testament. 



In demy 8vo, price 10s. 6d., 

THE REVELATION OF LAW IN SCRIPTURE, con- 

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Place in Successive Dispensations. (The Third Series of the 
Cunningham Lectures. ) 



12 T. and T. Clark s Publications. 

In two vols. demy 8t ? o, price 21s., 

0f 

PARTICULARLY IN GERMANY, 

Viewed according to its Fundamental Movement, and in connec 
tion with the Religious, Moral, and Intellectual Life. 

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF 

DR. J. A. DORNER, PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY, BERLIN, 

With a Preface to the Translation by the Author. 

This masterly work of Dr. Dorner, so successfully rendered into English 
by the present translators, will more than sustain the reputation he has already 
achieved by his exhaustive, and, as it seems to us, conclusive History of the 
Development of Doctrine respecting the Person of Christ. Spectator. 

In demy Svo, 700 pages, price 12s., 

A CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL COMMENTARY 

ON THE 

. BOOK OF PSALMS, 

WITH A NEW TRANSLATION. 

BY JAMES GL MURPHY, LL.D., T.C.D., 

AUTHOR OF COMMENTARIES ON THE BOOKS OF GENESIS, EXODUS, ETC. 



T. and T. Clark s Publications. 1 3 

Just published, price 5s., 

MESSIANIC PROPHECY: 

ITS ORIGIN, HISTORICAL CHARACTER, AND RELATION TO 
NEW TESTAMENT FULFILMENT. 

BY DR. EDWARD RIEHM, 

PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY, HALLE. 

Translated from the German, with the approbation of the Author, 
BY THE REV. JOHN JEFFERSON. 

1 Undoubtedly original and suggestive, and deserving careful consideration. 
Literary Churchman. 

Its intrinsic excellence makes it a valuable contribution to our biblical 
literature. British and Foreign Evangelical Review. 

The product of a well-balanced mind, which is able to weigh conflicting 
theories and to assign them their due proportion. English Independent. 

In demy 8vo, price 7s. 6d., 

SERMONS TO THE NATURAL MAN. 

BY WILLIAM G. T. SHEDD, D.D., 

AUTHOR OF A HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE, ETC. 

These sermons are admirably suited to their purpose. Characterized by 
profound knowledge of divine truth, and presenting the truth in a chaste and 
attractive style, the sermons carry in their tone the accents of the solemn 
feeling of responsibility to which they owe their origin. Weekly Review. 

In demy 8vo, price 12s., 

INTEODUCTION 

TO 

THE PAULINE EPISTLES. 

BY PATON J. GLOAG, D.D., 

AUTHOR OF A CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL COMMENTARY ON THE 
ACTS OF THE APOSTLE8. 

A work of uncommon merit. He must be a singularly accomplished divino 
to whoso library this book is not a welcome and valuable addition. Watchman. 

It will be found of considerable value as a handbook to St. Paul s Epistles. 
The dissertations display great thought as well as research. The author ia 
fair, learned, and calm, and his book is one of worth. Church Bells. 



14 T. and T. Clark s Publications. 

In crown 8vo, Second Edition, price 4s., 

PRINCIPLES 

OF 

NEW TESTAMENT QUOTATION 

ESTABLISHED AND APPLIED TO BIBLICAL CEITICISM, 
AND SPECIALLY TO THE GOSPELS AND PENTATEUCH. 

BY REV. JAMES SCOTT, M.A., B.D. 

This admirable treatise does not traverse in detail the forms and formulae 
of New Testament quotation from the Old, nor enter with minuteness into 
the philological and theological discussion arising around many groups of 
these quotations the author confines his attention to the principles involved 
in them. . . . An interesting discussion, vindicating the method thus analyzed, 
is followed by a very valuable summation of the argument in its bearing on 
the canon, the originality of the Gospels, the internal unity of Scripture, and 
the permanence of revelation. British Quarterly Review. 

Recently published, in demy 8vo, price 9s., 

A CHRONOLOGICAL AND GEOGEAPHICAL 
INTRODUCTION TO 

THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 

BY C. E. CAS PAR I. 

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN, WITH ADDITIONAL NOTES, BY 

M. J. EVANS, B.A. 
Revised by the Author. 

The work is handy and well suited for the use of the student. It gives 
him, in very reasonable compass and in well-digested forms, a great deal of 
information respecting the dates and outward circumstances of our Lord s 
life, and materials for forming a judgment upon the various disputed points 
arising out of them. Guardian. 

An excellent and devout work. We can strongly recommend it. Church 
Quarterly Review. 



T. and T. Clark s Publications. 1 5 

Just published, price 9s., 

SAINT AUGUST/HE. 

A POEM IN EIGHT BOOKS. 

BY THE LATE HENRY WARWICK COLE, Q.C. 
With Prefatory Note by the Bishop-Suffragan of Nottingham. 



Written in sonorous and well-sustained verse. The testimony borne to 
the dignity and the value of the two sacraments and to the authority of the 
Scriptures, as the revelation of God, is, we consider, of special value, as coming 
from a learned and cultivated layman, of considerable repute at the bar, in an 
age of prevalent scepticism. Church Hells. 

Recently published, in demy 8vo, price 7s. 6d., 

THE MIRACLES OF OUR LORD 

IN RELATION TO MODERN CRITICISM. 

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF 

F. L. STEINMEYER, D.D., 

Ordinary Professor of Theology in the University of Berlin. 



This work vindicates in a vigorous and scholarly style the sound view of 
miracles against the sceptical assaults of the time. Princeton Review. 

In demy 8vo, price 6s., 

THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH. 

A Commentary, Grammatical and Critical, upon 
Isaiah lii. 13-liii. 12. 

WITH DISSERTATIONS UPON THE AUTHORSHIP OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI., 
AND UPON THE MEANING OF EBED JEHOVAH. 

BY WILLIAM URWICK, M. A., 

Of Trinity College, Dublin; Tutor in Hebrew, New College, London. 



This is a very able and seasonable contribution to biblical literature. 
Watchman. 

The commentary evinces the great ability, accurate and extensive scholar 
ship, and admirable judgment of the author. Weekly Review. 



16 T. and T. Clark s Publications. 

Just published, in crown 8vo, price 5s., 

THE SYMBOLIC PARABLES 

OF 

THE CHURCH, THE WORLD, AND THE ANTICHRIST; 

Being tfje Separate predictions of tfje ^pocalgpse, 

VIEWED IN THEIK KELATION TO THE GENERAL TRUTHS OF SCRIPTURE. 

BY MRS. STEVENSON. 



An excellent treatise, containing much clear thought, and written as 
intelligibly as the subject would permit. To students of prophecy the book 
onght to be an attractive one; and to every one who desires to have a clearer 
understanding of his Bible, it will give much valuable assistance. Glasgow 
Herald. 

This is a sober, well-written, and instructive treatise on the Apocalypse. 
It is exceedingly suggestive, and the theory the author expounds holds well 
together. The key seems to fit every ward of the lock. This volume is 
worthy of the most serious consideration of all who take an interest in pro 
phecy. Daily Review. 

It is quite refreshing to meet with a treatise on the Book of Eevelation 
like this, marked by good sense and reverence. Brief as it is, it throws more 
light on a difficult subject than many laboured tomes. Methodist Recorder. 



Just published, in crown 8vo, price 4s., 

OUTLINES OF BIBLICAL PSYCHOLOGY. 

BY J. T. BECK, D.D., 

PROF. ORD. THEOL., TUBINGEN. 

Cranslateto from tfje tEfjtrn Enlarged ani Corrected (Kertnan CHiition, 1877. 



In this little vohime Dr. Beck has given us a valuable contribution to the 
study of this science. Homilelic Quarterly. 

The smallness of the work should not lead to its being undervalued ; it 
well deserves a place side by side with Delitzsch and Heard. . . . We do 
warmly recommend this volume as one of the most fresh and valuable contri 
butions to theological literature of recent date. Wesley an Methodist Maga 
zine. 

We quite endorse Bishop Ellicott s statement that, for many reader?, Beck s 
will be found to be the most handy manual on the subject. Church Bells. 



n 
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