rous affection; but that after I had tried all other things in vain, at length compelled by the clearness of the matter, I yielded to the paradox.' Indeed, with any simple reader of the text, the surprise must be, how the notion of the millennium being already arrived could have prevailed for so many ages in the Church. But the counsels of God are too vast, and their development too slow, for Christians to receive them readily, however plain the statement of them in His holy word.

To these arguments might be added further presumptions, from the moral and spiritual character of the hope which is thus revealed. It will illustrate brightly the goodness and wisdom of God, that this earth, once so fair and lovely, but for long ages a scene of corruption and death, shall witness a glorious triumph of redemption; and in the very place where sin hath abounded, grace and holiness should much more exceedingly abound. To conceive that, without any such victory of grace here below, the earth shall be burned up and perish for ever, does violence to the purest instincts of the spiritual mind. The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. And in like manner the children of God themselves, with the instinctive yearning of love, long earnestly for the time when the creature shall be redeemed from the bon

dage of corruption. The prospect of the millennium may have been clouded, in former ages, by sensual perversions, or the dreams of a fierce and fanatic zeal. But still, in its own nature, it is a pure and blessed hope, a truth in harmony with all the perfections of God, and full of joy and spiritual delight to the souls of His people.

The interest which this doctrine awakens becomes still more deep and powerful, when it is combined with the view of past history which these visions unfold. Babylon and Persia, Greece and Rome, have appeared in changeful succession. What scene is next to arise, after this shifting variety of eventful changes, and to close this long and solemn procession, of human great

ness? The truth which has now been unfolded, supplies the answer. A thousand years of blessedness and peace, a golden age of true holiness, has yet to appear; and light and beauty will dawn upon our earth out of the troubled waves of sin, ambition, and crime. How cheering to turn from annals where nothing meets our view but wars and rumours of wars, crime and treachery, violence and bloodshed, to gaze on this refreshing prospect of peace and holiness. The wilderness and the solitary place will then be glad, and the desert will rejoice and blossom as the rose. The pure affections of the heart, long buried and crushed beneath the load of corruption, or stifled in the chilling atmosphere of the world, shall then spring forth in all their hidden beauty, and reveal themselves in ten thousand forms of happiness and peace. The energies of the soul, wasted no longer in the bloody strife of ambition, shall mount as the eagle toward heaven; and all the sufferings of past ages seem unworthy to be compared with those immeasurable delights for which they have prepared the

way.

Every part, indeed, of history will assume a new aspect, when it is connected with this joyful prospect of the millennium yet to appear. A Divine and wonderful unity begins to appear in its whole course; and while the worldling gropes in darkness, the Christian sees the clear glimpses of God's supreme control and wise Providence, preparing the way, amidst clouds and tempest, for the blessedness that is to ensue. The dreams of infidel theorists are replaced by a hope, as far superior in excellence and glory, as the foundation on which it rests is more firm and solid, even the oath and covenant of the living God.

In this hope we may see also the corrective and safeguard against two opposite dangers, to which the Church is exposed. There are many who now dwell, with a wistful and idolatrous gaze, on earlier ages, and while they deplore the divisions that infest the visible church, turn back in their hearts to the times of superstitious

gloom and twilight reverence. The hope of the millennium serves to expose and detect their sin and folly. Why should the Christian long for times of darkness, when an age of Divine light and glory is ready to burst upon his view? The counsels of God never turn backward, however it may be with the unbelieving hearts of His people. All is one progress, a sure, constant, and unfailing progress, towards the final triumph of truth and righteousness throughout the whole earth.

But there is an opposite danger, no less to be avoided, and perhaps even more perilous, from its closer resemblance to the truth. There are theories of progress in which God is forgotten, and proud reasonings of the perfectibility of mankind, in which the fall is never mentioned, and the redemption of Christ set at nought and despised. Much of the philosophy of these days belongs to this spurious and deceptive school. Untaught by all the crimes and miseries of the past generation, there are those who are still intent on building the happiness of the world, but, as they think, more cautiously and wisely, on the same basis which was then tried and found utterly wanting. There are those who will profess to explain the philosophy of history, without one allusion to the sure word of prophecy; and lay down the laws and maxims of national regeneration, without one allusion to the will of the Supreme Lawgiver, or that depth of corruption, which needs the blood of the Son of God to atone for its guilt, and the gift of the Holy Spirit to prevail over its stubbornness and root it out from the soul. Even Christians themselves may be infected with these ungodly theories. Without renouncing entirely the lessons of Scripture, they may pare down its doctrine into a seeming harmony with the hope of infidel theorists; while they refuse to own those solemn declarations of the judgments which precede the blessing, and rob the hope itself of those elements which are most clearly supernatural and Divine.

A firm belief in the millennium, as revealed in God's word, will serve to deliver us from this fatal delusion of

infidel minds. The progress of the world, without Divine grace, is downward, not upward; a journey to misery and ruin, not a pilgrimage to glory. If the nations are to be redeemed to a higher and holier state than they have ever yet attained, it is neither human science, nor the inventions of modern art and learning, to which the triumph must belong. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts." A blessing so great and wonderful can never be drawn up from beneath by the boastful incantations and sorceries of human wisdom: it must descend from the throne of the Most High, in answer to the prayers of His believing people, and through the prevailing intercession of the Son of God.

CHAPTER XVI.

ON THE NEW HEAVENS AND EARTH.

THE future fulfilment of the millennial kingdom is so generally allowed by devout Christians, that it was less needful to expand the train of argument by which it is proved. Of the six opinions already defined, the two first are thus rejected, and a main step is gained in our inquiry into the hopes of the Church. But the nature of those events which follow the millennium is more difficult to unfold. A general view of their broad outline seems, however, the best preparation for a clear decision on the other questions which still remain. The advocates both of a figurative and a personal millennium are here divided in their judgment. The most general opinion, perhaps, among the advocates of either view, supposes the last judgment to issue in the annihilation of the visible universe; when heaven with its blessed inhabitants, and hell with its miserable inmates, will alone remain, and abide for ever. Some few there have been, who, by a still wider departure from the tone of Scripture, have supposed the earth itself to be converted into the place of final torment. But many have conceived that the earth, renewed and made glorious, will be the local and peculiar habitation of the risen saints for ever; and that the scene of the heavenly glory will be finally transferred to this planetary world. Perhaps it will be found that none of these views answers fully to the revealed statements of God's word. And since the subject is one of deep and eternal interest, and com