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they will be spiritual, incorruptible, immortal, and like the angels of God in heaven, they can neither die, marry, nor generate; they neither can increase nor diminish in number, and they will have the promise of God, as all believers have, both in time, and eternity, "That they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of his hand." Now if Satan can deceive such people as these, and lead them on to destruction, then farewell world, farewell truth, farewell bible, and farewell every thing that is reasonable; and welcome chaos, welcome nonsense, welcome TOPSYTURVY, and every thing that looks like confusion.

Mr. Pyle thinks "There may remain in the farther, and more distant parts of the world, much people still persisting in ignorance and gross superstition. These

rude nations, prompted by envy at the plenty and happiness of the christian kingdom, and out of desire of riches, spoil, and plunder, will be permitted to invade the christian territories in vast bodies and armies." What a hardship, and how improper it is, for men of high standing for talents and literature, to impose on the world by handing out such whimsical and unscriptural reveries. Did Mr. Pyle ever study the prophecies respecting the vast extent, and universality of Christ's kingdom? To read the ingenius and learned theories of heathen philosophers relative to the future state of things, affords us some entertainment, to see how far they can go by the mere efforts of genius and study. But to see a man with the bible in his hand, a student in divinity, and a-professed teacher of theology, entertaining his readers with his own idle imaginations, and his learned lucubrations, and the oil of his lamp sparkling against the rays of God's word, is enough to provoke our indignation. When the whole earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord, and the very ends of the earth shall see his salvation; when the Jews shall be brought in with the fulness of the Gentiles, and when the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and all shall know him from the least to the greatest, where will Mr. Pyle, or Bishop Newton, even with all their supposed artifice of Satan, find their MUCH PEOPLE, persisting in ignorance and gross superstition, even in the wilds of America? I apprehend they will be as hard to find, at least on their principles, as Dr. Burnet's sons of

the earth, generated from slime, and the heat of the sun. The slime of learned brains, heated by a warm imagination, can generate ideal men, any time, and any where, and any how; but where Satan will find real men in order to besiege the camp of the saints, on the supposition of a literal resurrection, will require more than a warm imagination, or classical brains either, to tell.

But the most plausible opinion, and I believe the latest, and the most relied on, is, that at the close of the Millennium all the wicked will be raised from the dead, and Satan, loosed from his prison, will head them, and make his last effort to everthrow the kingdom of Christ. This theory at first sight looks plausible, if it were only true. But the only authority they have for the dead literally rising, I have already examined, and have shown, I think pretty clearly, that this resurrection is a mystical resurrection. The first question is who will raise them,-God, or the Devil? God, by all means, you will say. But what does the prophecy say? (Rev. xx. 7, 8.) "And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth Gog and Magog to gether themselves together to battle." It is plain then, that Gog and Magog, which are the mystical names that represent the enemies of Christ's kingdom, will be stirred up by the delusions of Satan, therefore, they must either be deceived by Satan after God has raised them from the dead, or Satan must raise them by his deception. But the evident idea of the text is, that Satan stirred them up to persecute the church; and all the resurrection that the text gives us any idea of is a resurrection of the persecuting spirit and temper of the old persecutors, which had lain dead during the thousand years. Such a resurrection as this we admit, and the text clearly proves. But Satan is the author of it, and not God; and when he will be loosed he is represented as going out into the nations of the earth, to do this very thing. So that this second resurrection is properly a diabolical resurrection, performed on the souls of men and not on their bodies, by Satan himself, and not by God. And there is no proof as I have already shown, in this whole passage for a literal resurrection of the bodies, either of the righteous, or the wicked.

But if the resurrection of the righteous be literal, then the resurrection of the wicked will be literal also. Let us now, for the sake of argument, admit both to be literal. And in the first place let us lay down certain premises authenticated by plain bible truth, and then draw our conclusions, and see where we will land in our demonstration. In the first place, we have already proved, by our Savior's and Paul's description of the state of believers, after the resurrection, that they will be spiritual, immortal, incorruptible; and cannot die, and are like the angels of God in heaven, and that they neither marry, nor generate, increase nor diminish, and consequently they are invulnerable and cannot receive any bodily injury. We now set this down as a fact established by the testimony of Christ, and his apostle Paul. Secondly, we are compelled by necessary consequence to take it for granted, that the wicked, after the resurrection, will, according to their circumstances, be in a similar state; there will be a moral difference, but yet a physical identity of state; that is, although they will be wicked, and perfectly devoid of all grace and goodness, yet they will be spiritual, immortal, and in a physical sense, incorruptible, they cannot die, but will be like the fallen angels in hell. I will take this for granted, as effectually proved by a plain and necessary application of the same texts to their case, as a counterpart. Therefore these two things being admitted, which none can deny, we argue, that when the righteous and the wicked are both risen from the dead, both in an immortal state, none of them can die, and none of them can be physically hurt or injured, and both living together in the world, both perfect enemies to each other, and neither can do either any injury or harm. What a miserable figure Satan will make with such an army, besieging the camp of the saints, and the beloved city. This war will not be an army of mortal men fighting against their fellow-mortals, but invulnerable, incarnate devils fighting against incarnate angels, and neither of them can hurt other. They need not attempt to kill or destroy one another, for they cannot die; and what is the use of attempting to starve them out in the siege? they do not eat, nor drink; and if they attempt to storm the beloved city, they cannot put the citizens to the sword or the bayonet; swords, pistols and pikes cannot hurt spirits. How ridiculous these

things look; but they are not a whit more ridiculous than the theory on which they are founded.

But bad as these things appear, we are not yet come to the worst. If the dead literally rise according to this theory, St. John has surely imposed a very erroneous idea upon us in the description he has given of the dangerous and pitiable state of the saints in the beloved city. No man can read the eighth and ninth verses of this chapter (Rev. xxth) without being impressed with a view of the saints being in most imminent danger. The armies of Gog and Magog are all round them as numerous as the sand of the sea, just ready to cut them up, and the camp invested, and the city hemmed up, and ready to be stormed, or, starved to death, and in fact, the danger so great and the beloved city reduced so low, that God had to relieve them by a sudden and miraculous dispensation of his providence, hurling down fire from heaven upon their enemies, as he did on Sodom and Gomorrah, to save his people from sudden and inevitable destruction. These are most certainly the ideas the apostle has given us, and intended to give us. But it is all a mere feint; a play upon the fancy, without any reality! What is the matter with the saints? Do they think they are mortal? and are they afraid the enemy will kill them, put them to the sword or starve them to death? Can saints die twice, once before the resurrection, and once before they get to heaven? Did the inspired John think them in danger, when he gave us such a moving account of the business? And will the Almighty think them in danger when he will send fire down from heaven on their enemies to burn them alive? For my part I cannot see any use in throwing fire on spirits that cannot be burnt, unless it were hell-fire. Sodom and Gomorrah could be burnt, Nadab and Abihu could be burnt, the captains and their fifties could be burnt; but those who are risen from the dead cannot be burnt; then why should fire come down from God out of heaven to devour spiritual, immortal men, who cannot die? But John says in the text, that the fire did devour them; and that proves that they were not immortal, nor risen from the dead; but just common men like we are.

All these miserable absurdities arise from this strange and unaccountable theory; and if the resurrection which

precedes, and immediately succeeds the Millennium be literal and not metaphorical, it will be impossible to preserve the doctrine of the Millennium from all these insurmountable difficulties. And, indeed, the reader will soon find that we have not yet said a word about the worst absurdities which attend this theory. We are

y to be under the necessity of exposing the sentiments of men of genius and good sense, who no doubt were well meaning men; but if we would only admit this passage of scripture to have a spiritual or figurative meaning, it would stand fair and respectable, disencumbered of all such absurdities and contradictions. But in order to show what the Millennium will be, I have to show what it is not, that the genuine doctrine may stand properly erect on the solid foundation of the word of God, free and properly disentangled from all such encumbrances.

SECTION V.

The most important and fatal objection which lies against this theory is, that it necessarily puts a stop to the progress of the gospel, terminates the race of mankind, winds up the scene of salvation, and consequently leaves Satan in the full possession of his kingdom; excepting a few, and comparatively very few, who have been rescued from eternal death by the Redeemer of sinners, and the whole work of redemption terminates in the eternal disgrace of the mediatorial kingdom of Christ, and in the hellish triumph of the old Serpent, in effecting the destruction of the human race. This diabolical scheme sends Satan to hell with his head unbruised, loaded with spoils and crowned with glory, and leading in triumph the great majority of the race of Adam to be shut up with him in his infernal kingdom of darkness, with only his heel bruised in the loss of a small remnant of the human race; and the head, instead of the heel of the woman's seed is completely bruised, his mediatorial plan, as revealed in his word, completely defeated,

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