this Scripture description literally, and consequently that they do not believe, that this earth, which God originally pronounced very good, and made fit for a paradisaical state, is capable of becoming a heaven, when it is purged from all moral impurity, and partially renovated. And on the other hand, I am afraid that our spiritual opponents have become too Pharisaical, when they pretend that God's blessed creation is unfit for the reception of our Lord and themselves in their glorified state, (when in fact the Father himself constantly resides in every particle of it,) as if the air of this sublunary sphere, which went into their mouths, would defile their sanctified breath. Now I, for my part, am not so confined in my conceits of the kingdom of heaven. I believe that it is not confined to any place or circumstance, that it is strictly spiritual in its constitution, and belongs solely to the mind; and that it cannot be defiled by any communion with created matter, when that matter is purged by a reorganization at the resurrection from all the sensualities of sin. I cannot find it at all consistent with the attributes of the Deity, that this earth which was originally pronounced to be good for a paradisaical state, can, no sooner than it has been created, turn out to be bad and utterly unfit for it, and be consigned to total dissolution at a period not long after its formation. This is not only irrational, but absolutely unevangelical. For in the Gospel it is expressly affirmed, that the Word became flesh, in order to become the visible head of the creation, the first-born of every creature, and that all things were purposely created for him; while our false spiritualists would have every blessed and beautiful thing of God's excellent and wonderful workmanship destroyed, at the moment that its gracious heir came to take possession of it, and his kingdom transplanted to somewhere, and that none of them can tell

:

but, at any rate, to some gaudy place beyond the confines of this to them unsanctified system. But, God's name be praised, I look for the New Jerusaleni to "descend from God out of heaven to reign upon the earth," according to the Scriptures, and not to ascend nobody knows where. I look for a new heaven and a new earth in a spiritual and not a temporal sense, as a new social system, in which there will be order without law, and har-mony without constraint, in which every one will be king and priest, and endowed with eternal life; and if this social system be established upon this material earth, I am not so immersed in Pharisaical pride, as to call that unclean and bad which God has called good and clean for the kingdom of heaven does not consist in externals, but in joy and peace in the Holy Ghost. I am not going to deny that the present atmosphere and earth will undergo a partial change at the resurrection, to fit it for its renovated inhabitants; but that the passing away of the old heavens and earth, signifies a total abolition of atmosphere and earth altogether, as a residence for man restored to his state of purity, I think is both as unevangelical or unspiritual, as it is unreasonable. Heaven cannot consist in extent of possessions, or magnitude of authority or power, else heaven might be enjoyed under the present order of things. Surely then none will think this renovated earth too mean or too little, for a future state, when heaven does not consist in such externals. This would be to be carnal, and undoing all what the Gospel was designed to teach, that we should not place our happiness in such things. Now our pretended spiritualists will perhaps ask, where then do we place the abode of departed spirits, and the seat of Christ at the right hand of God among them, if there be no place set apart from the earth, which is called heaven?

matter.

Now we tell them, we are not careful to answer in that But if they will tell us, where the right hand of God is not, where he does not exert his power, then we will tell them where Christ, and his disembodied saints, are not. To the human race and to Christ as the first-born of it, however, the right hand of God, in whom we live, and move, and have our being, can never be far off; and if we are "encompassed with so great a cloud of witnesses " (Rev. xix. 1-6; xi. 15, 16; vi. 9, 10; 1 Cor. iv. 9), the atmosphere or "heavens" around us, may contain thousands of spirits and their embodied Lord as well, watching over the Church, ready to be revealed in the last time. I think then that our spiritualists are not spiritual enough, nor figurative enough; and I see no reason, why the day of judgment may not run out a thousand years or more, in which the two classes of men, good and bad, may be separately tried before the bar of God by the proofs which each class gives, in a state unmixed with that of the other, of its worthiness to enjoy eternal life, and the latter, to its everlasting shame, prove its undeservedness by its indomitable insubordination. But let it not be imagined, that I confound our Lord's personal appearance with the issue of the Word of God; for by the issue of the Word of God, I understand the propagation of the true principles of Christianity, which will be as it were only the breath of Christ's personal appearance to Antichrist, by which he will blast his impure discipline and doctrine before he himself really appears. And these principles I believe more particularly to regard two points, which are diametrically opposite to the mystery and harlotry of the false Church one with respect to his own person, in which Christ will shew, that SON OF GOD is his "New name," that "name which no one knoweth saving he

that receiveth it," or "which no one knoweth but he himself;" and the other with respect to the unscriptural alliance of Church and State, in which Christ will vindicate his own supremacy, as "King of kings and Lord of lords," (Rev. xix. 12, 16). I believe that the passing away of the heavens and earth by fire, partly alludes to the sudden and unexpected destruction of Rome and her dominion, according to the meaning of the symbols earth and heaven. See EARTH, RESURRECTION.

BRIMSTONE.-1. An ingredient of gunpowder. Rev. ix. 17, 18, which was invented about the time of the irruption of the Turks into Christendom, and used by them.

2, Perpetual destruction. Rev. xiv. 10; xix. 20; xx. 10; xxi. 8.

CANDLESTICK, or LAMP-BEARER. A Christian church. 1. The Seven Candlesticks. The seven churches in the Lydian or Proconsular Asia: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. The Lydian or Proconsular Asia, consisted of two provinces, one of which was called Asia, the other Lydia, in Constantine's division. In Asia were Ephesus, Pergamos and Smyrna comprehended; in Lydia, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Thyatira. Laodicea was situated in Phrygia Pacatiana Prima. But these seven churches, it must not be imagined, were the only ecclesiastical dioceses in the Lydian Asia. They might be the largest. The number seven, which signifies perfection, symbolizes an indefinite, yet complete number of churches; and these churches, and the number of them are selected to symbolize all the churches of the world, which partake of the seven or indefinite number of Spirits which stand before the throne, with which God illuminates them. The number of dioceses

in the two provinces according to the Notitia of Leo Sapiens and Carolus à Sancto Paulo, was from sixty-four to seventy-five: of which in Asia alone, which was about two hundred miles in length and fifty in breadth, there were from thirty to forty-six; so that the jurisdiction of each bishop extended, upon an average, over no more than five miles by one, that is, five square miles. It is true, that in other parts of the world, the dioceses were not so small. But Christ has selected out this spot. And if it be true, that the order of bishops be of Apostolical institution, and, according to Clemens Alexandrinus, St. John, "when he was settled at Ephesus, went about the neighbouring regions, ordaining bishops, and setting apart such men for the clergy, as were signified to him by the Holy Ghost," it appears that he took care to ordain a good number of them. Bingham, 11. i. 3. In Asia Carolus à Sancto Paulo has found forty-two ancient dioceses. 1, Ephesus, the metropolis. 2, Hypæpa. 3, Trallis. 4, Magnesia ad Mæandrum. 5, Elæa. 6, Adramyttium. 7, Assus. 8, Gargara. 9, Mastaura. 10, Brullena, or Priulla. 11, Pitane. 12, Myrrina. 13, Aureliopolis. 14, Nyssa. 15, Metropolis. 16, Valentinianopolis. 17, Aninetum. 18, Pergamus. 19, Anæa. 20, Priene. 21, Arcadiopolis. 22, Nova Aula. 23, Egea. 24, Andera. 25, Sion. 26, Fanum Jovis. 27, Colophon. 28, Lebedus. 29, Teos. 30, Erythræ. 31, Antandrus. 32, Pepere, or Perpere. 33, Cuma, or Cyme. 34, Aulium, or Aulii Come vel Vicus. 35, Naulochus. 36, Palæopolis. 37, Phocæa. 38, Bargaza, or Baretta. 39, Thymbria. 40, Clazo

menæ. 41, Magnesia. 42, Smyrna. To these Holstenius adds four more-viz. Evaza, Areopolis, Temnus, and Argiza; and thirty-eight of these are the same that are mentioned in the Notitia of Leo Sapiens. In the