God, fhall all appear fo contemptible in the eyes of the enlightened and purified inhabitants of the millennium age, that they cannot extol their memories. Totally free of malice and revenge, these good men will not reproach the memory of even these pests of the preceding period of fociety. Unable to praise, and unwilling to reproach them, their memories fhall be buried in the deepest oblivion. Let not therefore the defire of fame promp the statesman or the churchman, in this age, to do any thing finful in itself to accomplish his purposes. If he is a bad man, however high his rank, great his power, or enlarged his abilities, the time will come, even in this world, when the fame of the meanest fevants of God fhall far outfhine his. When his name fhall be entirely forgotten among men, "the righteous fhall be had in everlafting "remembrance."

Of this millennium ftate John fays, "This is the "firft refurrection." By this fymbol he declares, that this period fhall be fo ftriking a refemblance of the ftate of good men at the general refurrection, that it may be called "the firft refurrection." At the general refurrection, the bodies of good men fhall be raised glorious, immortal, and fpiritual; their fouls fhall be confirmed in wifdom and goodness; the mutual influence of their fouls and bodies fhall preferve and increase the vigour of both; their outward fituation and their fociety

fhall

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fhall be very good; and from the union of ali thefe, their happiness shall be pure and exalted. In the millennium ftate, fomething refembling all this fhall take place. Men fhall be spiritually alive, their intellectual and moral powers shall act as they ought to do. So clofe is the connection between the body and the foul of man, and fo powerful and permanent is their mutual influence, that the right difpofition of the minds of men hath the most natural tendency to prevent many bodily infirmities and difeafes, and to communicate to the body an uncommon degree of health, of vigour, and of beauty; more efpecially, if the proper regulation of the mind takes place in the early ftages of life, while the conftitution and the features of the body are in the courfe of forming, and if it continues uniform and permanent. Many mental vices give the most violent ftrokes to the constitution, and to the beauty of the body; and many virtues are the most fovereign medicines. 66 Envy is the rottennefs of the bones. A merry heart doeth good like a medicine." In the millennium ftate, when the minds of men fhall be under fuch good, early, and permanent regulation, it is highly probable that their bodies shall be healthful, vigorous, beautiful, and long-lived, to a degree of which at prefent we can form no adequate idea. This is plainly intimated in chap. xxi. 4. Isaiah xxxiii. 24, and Isaiah lxv. VOL. II. 17,-251

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17,-25. which paffages are all predictions of the millennium ftate. A body and mind fo well tempered and regulated muft be mutually helpful to

each other.

In the millennium, the outward fituation of men must be very comfortable, for there fhall be nothing to hurt in all God's holy mountain, and every man fhall fit under his own vine and under his own fig-tree unmolested. Their fociety will be very good. They shall have the most pure and immediate communion with God and Chrift, "for they are "the temple of the new Jerufalem;" they shall affociate with good men only, for no wicked man fhall arife until the thousand years (hall be expired, and righteoufnefs only dwelleth in the new heaven and the new earth.

How pure, exalted, and permanent, must be the happiness of men of that character, placed in this fituation, and bleffed with fuch fociety? Is not their state with propriety reprefented by the sym bol of the firft refurrection? Can any thing give men a more just and lively reprefentation of the character, fituation, fociety, and happiness of good men after the general refurrection, than the mil. lennium fhall do?

This ftate of the church of Chrift, when the Jews with the fullness of the Gentiles fhall be brought into it, the apostle Paul defcribes in terms of the fame import with a refurrection, Rom. xi. 15.

"For

"For if the cafting away of them (the Jews) be "the reconciling of the world: what fhall the re"ceiving of them be but life from the dead." The reader is defired to confider with attention the whole xxxvii, chapter of Ezekiel, which predicts and describes this ftate of the church and of the world at great length; especially from verfe ift to 14th, where it is represented at great length by the fymbol of a refurrection.

Verse 6th.-Bleffed and holy is he that hath part in the first refurrection; on fuch the second death hath no power, but they fhall be priests of God, and of Christ, and fhall reign with him a thousand years.

In this verse, the apoftle gives a moft comprehenfive description of the character and happiness of true Chriftians; efpecially of those who fhall live in the millennium. They are holy. Renewed by the Spirit of God, they do not confine their regard to fome only of the Chriftian virtues, whilft they neglect or counteract others of them, but they cultivate and practife every virtue in its pro per place; and perpetually aspire at higher attainments in them. They are bleffed. In them, as in all the intelligent, moral, and religious creatures of God, holiness and happiness keep pace with each

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each other.

Their holiness qualifies them for

enjoying happinefs, and is itfelf one of the most effential ingredients in their blifs.

In

On fuch the second death hath no power. this chapter, verfe 14th, and in chap. xxi. 8. we are informed, that to be caft into the lake of fire is the fecond death. That is, the complete depravity and mifery of wicked men in hell is the fecond death. The confirmed depravity of human nature, and that exquifite mifery which is the confequence of it in a future ftate, are uniformly called death in fcripture. Thus, Rom. vi. 23. “For the

wages of fin is death;" Rom. viii. 6. "To be "carnally minded is death;" and James i. 5." Sin "when finished bringeth forth death." Such perfons, in common with all men, fhall die the first death. Their bodies, feparated from their fouls, fhall for fome time moulder in the duft. But, they fhall not be hurt of the fecond death: Their fouls and bodies fhall be eternally free from all that depravity and mifery which form the vicious character and the woeful doom of wicked men in hell. So far from being confirmed in depravity and mifery in a future ftate, they shall be holy and happy even in this world; and by fuch a character and bleffedness, they fhall acquire the habits of holiness and happiness, which hall accompany them into the other world. For even here, "they fhall be priefts of God, and of Chrift,

and