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but when that shall end, the more triumphant bliss of an eternal weight of glory in the heavens. With these views let us be comforted, and possess our souls in patience, for behold it hasteneth. Soon the rush of years will unfold to the astonished sight the joys that have been bought with a Saviour's blood. The lives of three persons in succession, from the present year, 1827, of sixty years of age, are more than sufficient to reach the promised land; the third, if holy, will plunge in that sea of joy, will be one of those who shall feel the mighty change from mortal to immortality, such as the sinless pair possessed before their fall, and shall become a recipient of the immunities of the Millennial state.

Having passed through the various periods which relate to the cleansing of the sanctuary on the earth, though commencing at different eras, but all manifestly ending at one and the same time, viz. at the end of the next century, or in the year of our Lord 2000, I will just observe that Daniel the prophet has spoken of an additional number of years, which seem to reach beyond the completion of the time, times and a half time, or the 1260 years allotted for the cleansing of the sanctuary. See Dan. 12, 11, 12. This addition consists of seventy-five years, and evidently extends into the Millennial state, and relates to some events in volved in the blessedness of that time, which it seems was not God's good pleasure so clearly to reveal to Daniel. But it is added, verse 12, Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days. But here conjecture is lost: før

I consider the signification covered in obscurity, because those seventy-five days reach beyond the period of cleansing the sanctuary, which will be effected by the binding of Satan, by the destruction of all sinners. by the removal of all natural and moral evil, by the exaltation of the two witnesses, the Old and New Testament, up to the heaven of universal acceptance in all the earth; by the junction of Ezekiel's river of life with the ocean, the Millennium; by the resurrection of all the righteous dead, and by the restoration of every privilege which can possibly be consistent with that new order of things, and will doubtless be fully equal with the glories that would have crowned the race of Adam, if he had not sinned. However, it is not probable that the same mode of happiness in every respect, will then succeed, because the constituent qualification of their happiness, will differ from what it would have been in an unfallen state. For in the first order of things, men were to live by obedience to the law of God, without faith in a Redeemer: but in the Millennium, they will live by keeping the law of God through faith in Christ; for that state will be his reign-his government-his kingdom, and glorious triumph over all his foes. But as it respects happiness, arising from a local or natural situation while subsisting on the earth, it may be expected that the globe will again be adorned with all its ancient beauty, and paradisical luxuriance.

EIGHTH DIVISION.

An account of the first resurrection, and the subsequent happi ness of all people; with which is connected arguments to prove, that all natural and moral evil shall cease a thousend years; and that it was the intention of the Creator to have clothed Adam and Eve, and their posterity, whether they should stand or fall.

Then shall all sacred dust, whose souls had faith,
Be rescu'd from the power of conquering death,
And instant upward fly, with speed of light,
Far from the changing climes of day and night.
Then they, the saints on earth who yet remain,
A thousand years will wait the trump again ;—
This lapse of years shall know no tempting devil,
Nor natural ills, nor power of moral evil.

THIS great and glorious event is intimately connected with the Millennium, inasmuch as it is the very beginning of that day; for it is written by St. John, that the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years are finished. This is the first resurrection. Rev. 20, 5. From this it is evident, that there shall absolutely be one thousand years between the first re

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surrection and the second. This is the reason why I conclude that the resurrection of the righteous must take place the very moment of the commencement of the Millennium, in order that a thousand years may have exactly time enough to transpire before the resurrection of the wicked shall take place. And to aseertain this as a fact, we have only to recollect the above quoted remarkable words of St. John upon the subject. But the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years are finished. *

The Evangelist, in order. that the churches should clearly understand him to say, that literally there should be a lapse of a thousand years between the two resurrections, and that it shall be the righteous who are thus to be favoured with the first, he has said, Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection, on such the second death hath no power. Rev. 20, 6; which strongly intimates a second resurrection, and that they who shall compose it, shall be hurt of the second death; and it is added, And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Rev. 20, 14. And to prove that the wicked dead shall be cast into this lake of fire, which is the second death, we adduce these words: And whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the lake of fire. Rev. 20, 15. And to show that their stay in this lake is eternal, we have only to let the Revelator decide, who says, And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. Rev. 20, 18.

See Appendix (A.)

But that the righteous dead shall arise before the wicked dead, is confirmed by St. Paul, who says, "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first.” Thes. 4, 16. But the distance of time between the two resurrections is not mentioned by St. Paul; yet in Thes. 4, 17, he very plainly intimates, that there will be a lapse of time between the two resurrections, when he says, Then we which are alive and remain. Thus I understand him to mean that when the righteous dead awake at the sound of the archangel's voice, that they will immediately ascend out of sight to heaven; but they who are alive and on the earth at that time, shall remain till after the Millennium, or the thousand years are accomplished, and then shall be caught up at the sound of the last trump, to be together with them who ascend before and shall meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we be ever with the Lord. But if we blend the resurrection of saint and sinner together, then we make, between St. Paul and St. John, an unaccountable disagreement on the subject; for while one plainly puts a thousand years between, the other seems to blend them together.

It will no doubt be allowed, that these two apostles wrote by the same spirit of inspiration, and that they equally understood the process of the resurrection. And although St. Paul never read the book of Revelation, because it was not written till after the death of that apostle, who was slain with a sword at the command of Nero, the tyrant, in the year 65; but St. John lived to the

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