righteous, they teach with equal clearness the actual resurrection of a part of the wicked, which contradicts another feature of their scheme, viz. that it is only the saints and martyrs who rise at the commencement of the millennium, while the rest of the dead live not again till the thousand years are finished. And here it is not to be disguised, that the literal hypothesis labours, in fairly meeting and removing this objection. Those who hold it do indeed reply, that John's exposition, (Rev. xx. 5.) informs us that the first and second resurrection are separated by an interval of a thousand years, and accordingly, although the two classes are mentioned in the same verse by Daniel, as if they were to rise together, yet with the clue from the Revelations we are otherwise instructed: the one does not rise for less than ten centuries after the other. We must deem this a forced construction, notwithstanding the powerful support of Mede, and were we ourselves pledged to the patronage of the millennian cause, we should be at a loss for any other reply, than that our incompetency to settle the order of the resurrection, or to dispose of the risen bodies, could not annul the evidence of the fact of the resurrection.

3. Paul, in his first epistle to the Thessalonians, ch. iv. speaks thus of the second coming of Christ: "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we be ever with the Lord." From the tenor of the second epistle to the same church it would appear, that some of the readers of the first, probably from the apostle's employing the expression, "we which are alive &c." received the impression, that that day was near at hand, and would occur in their own life time. A special design, therefore, of the apostle's writing the second was, to correct this error, and do away their ill-founded expectations. "Now we beseech you, brethren, as it respects (g) the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exal

teth himself above all that is called God, or is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God-whom the Lord shall consume by the spirit of his mouth, and destroy by the brightness of his coming." Now it is granted on all sides that the "man of sin" predicted by Paul, is the same antichristian power, under another name, as that symbolized by the "little horn" of Daniel's beast, which was to be destroyed at the commencement of the millennium, and synchronical with whose destruction, the Son of Man was to be seen coming in glory from heaven. Let the identity of the two predicted powers be kept in mind, and the coincidence between the Old and New Testament prophets will be singularly striking. Paul assures the Thessalonians that the arrival of the day of Christ, which he had described in the former epistle, is to be deferred till the antichristian apostacy has taken place, or till the "man of sin" has arisen and run his predestined career, when at length that great day should be ushered in with his entire destruction. The same train of events we have already seen to be predicted by Daniel. From both writers the inference flows without constraint, that the second advent occurs at the beginning of the millennium, and not at the end. Let us suppose now, on the other hand, according to the common opinion, that the day of Christ, mentioned in Paul's first epistle, is not to arrive till the end of the seventh millennary, and we have an entire thousand years of which no account is made in the apostle's reckoning. How can this omission be explained? If, indeed, this extended tract of time were to elapse, in addition to the period of the apostacy, why did not the apostle plainly tell the Thessalonians that the day of Christ would not come till after the expiration of the reign of the man of sin, and of the thousand years of the millennium?

The spiritualists are here ready to concede, that if it can be shown that Paul is speaking in both epistles of one and the same advent, the argument is conclusive. But here, it is contended, the evidence is defective. It is by no means clear, they affirm, that the writer had his eye in each upon the same identical day, and that it is probable the error in question had been occasioned by some forged letter, purporting to have come from Paul, but which he, in his second and genuine epistle, takes the opportunity to disavow. This they suppose is intimated in the very words of the apostle :

"neither by letter as from us." That is to say, "Be not troubled by such an epistle, as if it had come from us; for, in truth, no such epistle did we ever write." Still, the advocates of the pre-millennian advent, are not convinced that the error of the Thessalonians arose from any thing but the peculiar style of the first epistle. To a plain, unlettered understanding, what inference would be more natural, when an inspired teacher was heard to say, "We which are alive and remain, shall be caught up to meet the Lord," than that the event mentioned should take place within the ordinary life of man? It is maintained, moreover, that the expression in the second epistle, "As it respects our gathering together unto him," alludes to the very same " gathering," or rapture into the air, of which he had spoken in the first. After all, the reader must balance the probabilities for himself; for in reference to this whole controversy, it will be found, that precisely in the point where he perceives the greatest pinch, and where he is most anxious for light and assistance from expositors, there they fail him, and he is left to decide for himself.

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4. Peter, in his address to the Jewish priests and people, not long after the day of Pentecost, says, (Acts iii. 19, 21,) Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord, and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you; whom the heavens 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." By the "restitution of all things which God hath spoken," the literalists understand that glorious and happy change, that renovated state of the moral and physical world, which is to be ushered in with the opening of the millennial age. This is maintained to be the genuine sense of the original (Toxтαστás), which denotes the restoring of any thing disordered or out of place to its primitive state and design; and that this is to be the effect of the millennium, to bring back the golden age to the world. Consequently, if the heavens are to receive and retain Christ until that time, then, as soon as the time of the restitution arrives, or, in other words, as soon as the millennium is about to commence, the Saviour, by the very necessity of the passage, will personally appear from heaven. Of course, the true date of the second advent is established as before.

The force of this argument of the literalists, their opponents endeavour to rebut by denying the correctness of their interpretation, that is, of the present English translation. The original for "restitution," they render "accomplishment," and translate the latter clause thus: "Whom heaven must receive until the times of the accomplishment of all the things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began." Now as the ancient prophecies are very full respecting the millennial period of blessedness on earth, they must receive their "accomplishment" before Christ can be manifested from heaven, which makes it necessary that the second advent should be delayed till after that period.

A reply to this, entirely satisfactory, is supposed to be afforded in the following passage from the Revelations, relative to the period of the seventh trumpet, which confessedly brings on, not closes, the millennium: (ch. x. 6, 7.) " And the angel lifted his hand to heaven and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, that there should be time no longer: but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets." Here, certainly, is a grand winding up and a completion of the ancient oracles, preparatory to the incipient flux of the millennial age, confirming the statement of Peter, that this "restitution," or "accomplishment," it is immaterial which, has been the constant theme of every prophet since the world began.

5. Paul, in treating of the resurrection of the righteous, (1 Cor. xv. 52,) has this language: "Behold I show you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed; in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the sound of the last trumpet, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." The mention of the "trumpet," in this connexion, is supposed to afford a chronological clue to the whole passage. As the resurrection alluded to is to occur at the sound of the last trumpet, and as this ordinal epithet carries in it an allusion to some preceding trumpets, it is surely important to know whereabouts, in the great chain of events, to locate this ominous signal. Of what other trumpets have we an account in the sacred writings? Of none, it is affirmed, except the series of Apocalyptic trumpets

mentioned by John, (Rev. viii. and xi.) of which the seventh and last clearly announces the millennium, and which will probably be distinguished from the foregoing by a literal sounding, whereas the others were figurative, and signified, without sounding. Now let the concomitants of the seventh and last Apocalyptic trumpet be compared with those of the last trumpet of Paul. "And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great." The accompaniments of the last trumpet of each writer are so similar, that it is difficult to suppose them to refer to any but the same grand epoch. What can be intended by "the time of the dead," but the time of their rising from the dead, in order to enter upon their reward? Both apostles, therefore, make the sound of the trumpet the signal of resurrection; and as the seventh trumpet of the Apocalypse cannot be referred to the close of the millennium without dislocating the whole system of prophetic chronology, the inference seems inevitable, that the resurrection spoken of is to occur at the beginning of that period. But the second advent synchronizes with the resurrection of the righteous, therefore the second advent is to occur also at the commencement of this period.

The position assumed in this argument is met by the spiritualists by saying, that, as far as the mention of the trumpet goes to fix the chronology of the resurrection, it determines it to the end of the world, according to the interpretation of Christ himself, who introduces the mention of it in connexion with the final consummation of all things. (Mat. xxiv. 31.) "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 the heaven to the other." This leads to the discussion respecting the time of the day of judgment, to which we shall assign a distinct head.

6. The fullest informations respecting the time, signs, and circumstances, of what is usually termed "the day of judgment," are contained in our Lord's discourse with his disciples, (Mat. xxiv. and xxv. Luke xxi.) relative to the de