nium. For then the third petition is limited to those who shall believe on Christ previously to the time of his second coming, and the great instrument of their conversion is distinctly specified; "Them which shall believe on me through their word" -through the preaching and inspired writings of the apostles and evangelists. When that number has been completed, and all believers under the dispensation of the first advent shall have been gathered unto Christ, then the great promise will be fulfilled: the heathen will be given to the Redeemer as his inheritance, and the uttermost part of the earth as his possession. Ps. 2: 8. Then "the world will believe," not through the word, or by the teaching of the Scriptures, but in consequence of the appearing of the great God and our Saviour with all his saints. While speaking of the Scriptures, I would mention what appears to me, of itself, a presumption in favour of the first resurrection, and the consequent participation of the saints, who shall have died before, in the blessings of the millennial kingdom. All believers in a millennium, however they may differ in their notions of it, equally agree that a large proportion of the prophetical writings have reference to that happy period. Now, on the supposition of what is termed the spiritual reign of Christ, of which the first resurrection forms no part, the children of God have been given in all past ages for their instruction, (for such, we are told, is the end of all Scripture,) the future history of a state of things on earth, with which they can have had no manner of concern. When their hearts have burned within them at the bright pictures in which the prophets paint the latter days, their affections have kindled towards an object, to them as unsubstantial as a dream. They have been amused with prospects which, fair and beautiful as they may be, never are to be realized to them. Now, allowing the arguments to be, in other respects, equally balanced on both sides, is there not, I say, something to favour the belief in the antimillennial resurrection of the just, in the consideration, that, on this principle, when believers have in every age meditated on these delightful portions of God's word, they have anticipated joys which they themselves shall taste-they have viewed in the distance a land of promise, which they, in God's good time, shall enter, repose upon its green pastures, and sit beside its still waters? Is it not, in a word, more reasonable to believe, that the Scriptures, which God has placed in the hands of his children, concern a state of things in which they shall have a share, than the history of remote generations, as foreign from them as the inhabitants of another planet? That there will be a vast outpouring of the Spirit in the latter days has been strongly insisted on by many, as if it tended to disprove the doctrine of a personal advent. But to me the former expectation seems not to oppose, but rather to imply, the latter. To judge by God's previous dealings, if the Holy Spirit is to act with powers unknown before, it will be in consequence of that Spirit's issuing from some new source. The Spirit has not hitherto acted, if I may so speak, absolutely, but as a procession or emanation; and has, in some mysterious manner, partaken of the nature of that fountain whence it has flowed. Thus, while the Holy Ghost proceeded from simple Deity, his rays had comparatively little power to renew and sanctify the nature of fallen man. We know that the Jews were visited and gifted by his inspirations. Nevertheless, when our Saviour invites all those, who thirsted after still higher influences, to come unto him and drink, the evangelist accompanies his words with this remarkable comment: "But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive; for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified." -John vii. 39. That is, the Spirit had not yet acted with evangelical power, because he had not yet proceeded from the God-man. He had not yet issued from that new source, and come forth from that being, who, taking the manhood into God, had power to touch the human soul with sympathetic influence, and to impregnate it with energies unfelt before. Heb. 2:10-4:15. It was on this account that our Saviour assured his disciples, that it was expedient for them that he should go away, for that otherwise the Comforter could not come unto them. It was thus that, when he ascended up on high, he gave gifts unto men. We see the first effects of this on the day of Pentecost, when human nature appeared suddenly animated by a principle, and furnished with powers, such as the world had never seen before. If, then, the first outpouring of the Spirit was not the simple product-so to speak of the sovereign will, but the consequence of that mighty change in the divine administration, which placed a crucified Saviour on the throne of heaven,may we not fairly argue, that the second outpouring of the same Spirit, in power to convert and regenerate the whole world, will not be a mere arbitrary movement on the part of God, but the result of new means, and new efficients, suited to so vast and so stupendous an operation? And what means can be conceived so fit and so proportionate, as the visible exhibition of that glory which is now invisible-as the immediate presence of that God, who now dwells in that inaccessible light which no man hath seen or can approach unto. The But, further, the mode of the Spirit's operation on the mind, is not, if I may so speak, by an efficacy which terminates in itself. It is not by breathing into it some vitalizing essence, or purifying element, that it animates or sanctifies the soul. It is by opening the eyes of the understanding to see, and disposing the will and the affections to embrace, the objects which the revelations of God successively present to man. Spirit's power increases, in exact proportion to the moral efficacy of the truths he has to open; and as his great office is to take of the things of Christ and show unto us, it follows that the Spirit's influence will rise precisely in the same degree as the manifestations of Jesus ascend from their early dawning to their meridian day. Under the Jewish dispensation, these influences were comparatively feeble; not only because, as I have said before, they flowed-if the expression be allowable— from simple Deity, but because Christ was then revealed in figures, and in distant prophecies alone. Under the present dispensation, the powers of the Spirit have increased; not merely from the cause assigned before, but because he can now place in the believer's view Christ come in the flesh, "evidently set forth crucified amongst us." And if the same Spirit is yet to act with energies so wholly new, as to change the entire course of things below, and place the church of Christ above that world which now enslaves it, does not this plead strongly for the expectation of some brighter and more glorious manifestation of the Saviour than we or our fathers have known? It may be objected to the doctrine of a first resurrection, that it would be inconsistent with impartial justice, to place the saints who have preceded the millennium in rank so far above the saints who may have been born during that reign of righteousness. Waiving, then, for a moment, the countervailing consideration that such is the final state of neither, and that an eternity of equal honour and glory awaits them both; and admitting an inequality of condition for that limited period, I cannot but observe a peculiar fitness in such a temporary allotment. Those who have lived before the millennium will have borne the burthen and heat of the day of trial. It was theirs to deny themselves, to take up the cross, "to confess the faith of Christ crucified, and manfully to fight under his banner against sin, the world, and the devil." It was theirs to "wrestle," not only "against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." And can any thing be more in harmony with the whole of God's administration, than that these should be rewarded according to their works-that they who have been more than conquerors, should receive the crown they have won? If in those happy days, when the warfare has been accomplished, and when they shall neither hurt nor destroy in all God's holy mountain, it should be necessary that some should hold pre-eminence, to whom can those distinctions be so fitly given, as to those who fought their way through hardships, to which succeeding generations will have been strangers altogether? Such is the principle emphatically recognised by our Saviour, in the 22nd chapter of Saint Luke: "Ye are they which have continued with me in my [trials] temptations. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." ESSAY II. Same Subject Continued. In addition to what I have urged in my former communication, I would now, as a further ground of presumption in favour of the personal advent, call your attention to the difficulties which attend the supposition of a millennium without it. Το meet these difficulties by saying, that all things are possible with God, is an argument which leaves us at liberty to frame a millennium out of whatever materials we please. If we resort at once to this sweeping principle, then no one system can bear the semblance of truth more than another. We might suppose infants or idiots to be the rulers of the millennial kingdoms: and if God is pleased to put forth his omnipotence, who can deny, that in their time peace may flourish in the earth, and righteousness look down from heaven? But, still, considering that the Almighty has hitherto thought fit to act by means, and, ordinarily, by means intelligible in some sort to his creatures, it appears to me, in balancing the claims of two systems, both of which propose the same end, that if one of these systems assigns adequate means for the furtherance of that end, and the other does not, much weight is thereby thrown into the scale of the former. Now, on the supposition that the millennium is to be a real and universal reign of righteousness upon earth, how, according to the spiritual notion of it, is that happy consummation to be effected? Without adverting to the civil or secular interests of the world, how, I would ask, is the Church of Christ to be governed? How are the people to be guided into wholesome pastures, without some infallible chief shepherd? How are the bishops, or pastors, or rulers to be appointed? Is it by the princes and cabinets of the several states, on the one hand, or by popular election, on the other? And how is the unity of faith to be preserved between distant and independent nations? To what tribunal are they, by common agreement, to submit? If it be the Scriptures; who is to fix the sense of Scripture, beyond the possibility of doubt, or of appeal? The author is speaking, be it remembered, of a spiritual millennium, as it is commonly understood. I know it will be said, that the increased influences of the Spirit will order all these things rightly. But I confess I cannot see this, unless indeed we resort to the sweeping principle before adverted to. I cannot conceive that princes, who govern extended empires, can select true pastors for the people, unless these princes are gifted with omniscience. Nor can I conceive the people, (the author is not speaking of the risen and glorified saints) unless brought to a much higher state than I believe the millennium will bring them to, choosing pastors for themselves according to the mind of God. Neither does it seem to me possible, that all nations, such as the millennial kingdoms will be, can walk in the same way, or by the same rule, unless there is some universal authority to which they all submit, and some accessible tribunal to which they can all appeal. It will then, perhaps, be said, that, on my principle, the millennium will be only the establishment and universal spread of popery. This would be deplorable indeed. Nevertheless, I can conceive no condition of the Church so fitted for the maintenance of universal order, and for the diffusion of universal righteousness, as that which would exhibit, in reality and truth, what the Church of Rome dishonestly pretends to. It was a thought of this kind, which first led me to reflect upon the subject on which I am now addressing you. Seeing that almost all the modern interpreters of prophecy agree in fixing the fall of popery at no distant period; and observing how many appearances seem to justify that expectation; I was led to ask myself the following questions. What is to succeed this vast and widely extended system? What is to come in place of this mighty colossus, when it falls, or to fill the void which its removal must occasion? If Protestantism, in any existing shape, is to rise upon its ruins, and to ascend its vacant throne, is it not reasonable to expect that preparations would be making; and that Providence would be hastening forward, to its maturity, a system which, in a few years, is to fill so high a destiny? But are there any appearances to justify such a |