Now, then, my readers have the whole matter before them. Mr. Pym has obscured the fact that there are various kinds of visitations spoken of in Scripture in the same equivocal language. To all these visitations he implies the one personal, and therefore in many instances improper term, Advent ; and asserts of one kind of visitation the circumstances which belong to another. But the true result of the consideration of his main argument, that there is but one personal advent spoken of, should be, that as this is clearly defined by description to be the coming to judgment at the last day, no other visitation that happens to be spoken of under the same word, but is, by connexion of circumstances, determined not to mean this, can possibly be a personal advent, or else there should be more than one.

Who then, my readers, do you now think is apt to make the word of God bend to his own notions? Is the church apt to do so, because her teachers explain certain passages, which speak of the Lord's coming, as referring to the destruction of Jerusalem? Or do you now believe that those who do so, deny that the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God? No, my brethren. They resist the notion that our Saviour will come again to convert the Jews, and call the Gentiles again, because they read that in that day, when the Lord shall so come, "The heavens shall pass away with fervent heat; the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up."

CHAPTER II.

The Doctrine that the Second Coming of the Lord is Premillennial, how maintained.

WE are now come to the discussion of Mr. Pym's second chapter, and the doctrines which it contains. The title is, "An Endeavour to show that the Second Personal Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ is Premillennial." I should feel less difficulty, if upon this subject I had merely to refute Mr. Pym; but as it is a doctrine not peculiar to him, I shall have done but little if I should only show that Mr. Pym's reasonings are inconslusive, and his scheme untenable. I would, therefore, desire rather to abstract the questions, and treat them generally, trying the propriety of that system of interpretation in which the foundation of this doctrine is laid. But some one may then say, I have not disproved this or that particular part of Mr. Pym's book; so to avoid the charge of evasion, and because, I should suppose, that Mr. Pym supports his views in the same manner and by the same arguments as those who think with him, I judge it better to make a full examination in detail of some of the principal passages of Scripture which he puts forward in prominent places as decisive authority to his purpose.

I. At the same time it may assist my readers, and give more uniformity to my course of proceeding, if I offer some hints at the beginning, by which they may be prepared the better to estimate the integrity of those assertions of Mr. Pym, which will pass

under our notice. 1. He begins with the question, "What do you mean by the Millennium ?" And it is a very pertinent question. We should guard ourselves from the beginning with a caution, that we be not deceived by the use of any ambiguous term, such as we found in the last chapter, being made to conclude in the unity of its signification a diversity of ideas, and obscuring the true nature of a part of them by the prevalence of some one more proper notion, which the appropriated term conveys. So the word Advent was made to receive into its signification all the different senses of the scriptural expression come, and at the same time by the ideas which it properly conveys, imparted to all such actions a personal character. Something similar, I think, we shall find in the term Millennium, and a similarly improper association in the things which it is made to comprehend. First, we find a great many ancient prophecies which foretold the gospel kingdom, described by Mr. Pym as picturing a time of prosperity yet in reserve for the church of God. No great objection need be made to this; but proceeding, we find these prophecies applied not to the church, but to the Jewish nation, the Israel after the flesh. And then we have all this declared to relate to a time which is called the Millennium from a passage in the book of Revelations, which speaks of the souls of the saints living and reigning with Christ for a ́thousand years, before the rest of the dead are revivified; and this is called the first resurrection. Now in this scheme we again encounter the same difficulty and discordance which we have met with twice before. If the passage in the Revelations means a

reign of the departed saints with Christ upon the earth, it must by consistency of Scripture point to a time subsequent to the burning of the present world. And Mr. Pym, in a passage already quoted, affirms himself to mean the same. Then what connexion

has that prophecy, and the time it points to, with those ancient prophecies by which Mr. Pym associates it with the glorious times in reserve for the church? Do they point to a time beyond the grave, beyond the resurrection, beyond the burning of the world? Undoubtedly they do in a spiritual sense : but Mr. Pym would have it they do in a literal sense also. Read then the passages which he adduces, with this question in the mind, and try the result.

2. This is his answer to the question, "What do you mean by the Millennium?" "The Scriptures speak of glorious times in reserve for the church of God upon the earth, when there will be such a complete change in the state of things connected with the church and the world, that whereas the world, and the god of this world, have had, and still have the dominion, then the kingdom, and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High. To this glorious state, Moses in the law, David in the Psalms, and the Prophets refer; and their doctrine on this subject is re-echoed in the Gospels, (where?) the Epistles, and the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Some men, who profess to believe God's word, give no heed to these facts of holy writ, and teach men so. Some men give heed to them, but tell you and me that the whole thing is spiritual, cannot be literally

understood, and that the words of God, which speak concerning it, mean something very different from what they appear literally to express. Some again give heed to them, and are esteemed by the two former classes to be weak minded, foolish persons, because they believe that God's words upon this subject are to be taken literally, and just as literally where they will bear it as any other of his plain say→ ings. For example, that when the Lord says he will do this or that upon the earth, they believe him to mean the earth, and not heaven; and many instances of a like kind. Reader, I belong to the latter class, and bless God that his grace has disposed me to take the Lord at his word, and to believe that it shall be even as he has said.” (P. 11.) And I, reader, pray to God that he will give me grace, and open my eyes " to understand the Scriptures," and I bless God for the spiritual treasures which I find his word to contain. And I am sorry to find the same person, who in the last chapter wrongly charged "our spiritualizing interpreters of God's word" with an inclination not merely" to make it bend to their own notions," but further with a purpose to deny a fundamental article of the catholic faith, here insinuating again that they have not grace to take the Lord at his word. I merely answer, that I pray God that I may do so. But to the facts, if this be understood, with particular reference to the instance which he has given, I think it will appear that Mr. Pym has, in binding us down so expressly to the literal sense of the word earth, only spread a toil to his own inconvenience; for really, I know not how his opponents take any