modification and correction, be well and truly made in regard to the future changes in the natural creation, which the Scriptures in reality announce. Some of the particular changes, however, which Mr. D. expects, I cannot find to be predicted in the Bible, and verily believe that they are not to be found there by any fair process of interpretation.

The reader will now call to mind, since I have come to the close of Mr. D.'s book, that I have left, without any special remarks hitherto, the main constituent parts of his scheme, as exhibited on p. 160 seq. above. I did so, because I deemed it better on the whole, to make what few remarks I have to make upon these constituent parts, after the close of a general survey of his book, than to interrupt that survey by any intermediate discussion. I must now request the reader, therefore, to turn back and reperuse the leading features of the scheme in question, as exhibited on the pages named above, or in the work itself, in order that he may be enabled more readily and accurately to judge of the remarks which I shall now subjoin.

In a general point of view, there are several complaints which a reflecting man, who insists on some good degree of perspicuity and concinnity in theological and critical matters, may be disposed to make of Mr. D.'s statements.

First, there is a WANT OF EXPLICITNESS in respect to various important things, important at least to satisfy the reader, in regard to the author's views and system.

In No. 8 of the representation made above, it will be seen that Mr. D. assumes not only the restoration and literal return of the Jews to Palestine, but the reestablishment of what he calls the theocracy there, the re-building of the temple after Ezekiel's model (chap. 40—48, comp. also No. 11 above), and the institution of "rites of worship adapted to the dispensation in which Jerusalem and the Jewish nation are to stand preeminent among the nations." Observe how guardedly this is expressed. He does not speak out and say plainly, that the Levitical ritual of sacrifices, and offerings, and ceremonies, is to be reinstated; because this would be neither more nor less than a point-blank contradiction of what the author of the epistle to the Hebrews has affirmed and taught at large. And yet a theocracy and rites of worship cannot fairly mean, in the idiom of theologians and critics, any thing less than this, although the hasty reader may not, perhaps, at

first view discern it. But still, bold and uncompromising as the author usually is, in his assertions and theories, he likes not to appear flatly to contradict an Epistle, which is mainly occupied with taking down and removing that very building which Mr. D. covertly endeavors tò rear up and adorn anew. In so many words, plain and unequivocal, the Old Testament repeatedly and in a great variety of ways, (I mean of course, when it is literally interpreted as Mr. D. would have it in other cases), declares the renewal of the Levitical rites, in connection with the return of the Jews. Thus in Is. 66: 18-24, after a declaration that the Jews will be gathered to Jerusalem out of all nations, the context inmediately adds: "I will take of them for priests and Levites, saith the Lord,” v. 21. So in Ezekiel, chap. XLIV. and seq., all the special ordinances for the priests, people, princes, and strangers, are detailed; all the land of Canaan is apportioned, all the ritual offerings and sacrifices are prescribed with the greatest minuteness; and even the very measures of the city, temple, and possessions of the Levites, as also the names of the city-gates, and every thing of this nature, are all drawn out with exactness, like the diagram of a building or of a plot of ground; so that any doubt as to what is to be the future arrangement of all these matters is out of the question on the literal ground of Mr. D. He cannot surely refuse to acknowledge this, after he has so frequently referred to this very sketch of Ezekiel, as exhibiting the plan of the future Jerusalem.

Scores of passages might be cited from the Old Testament Scriptures, all of which are of the like tenor. The reader may justly complain, therefore, that Mr. D. has not explicitly developed the full measure of his convictions here; or at least, has not honestly advertised his reader of the inevitable consequences of his scheme of interpretation.

Again; Mr. D. has told us (No. 12), that “Christ will not dwell habitually at the Jerusalem" re-built upon the site of the ancient metropolis of Judea, but “in the New Jerusalem which comes down from God out of heaven," and that he will visit the first Jerusalem here named only “according to rites and at seasons appointed by him,” i. e. (as I must understand him) at the times of the usual fasts and feasts instituted after the example of the ancient theocracy. But he does not tell us, first, where, on this nether world, the New Jerusalem from heaven alights; nor, secondly, does he tell us explicitly.

who live there, besides Christ; nor, thirdly, what sort of intercourse or relation subsists between the heavenly-derived city and the earthly one. In No. 10, he represents all the risen and glorified saints as "kings and priests in the new earthly city, by whom the political and religious interests" of the new kingdom are to be managed. On pp. 366, 367, he seems to tell us, that the collected and converted body of the Jews are to perform this work. This apparent discrepancy has already been adverted to above; and I introduce it here, merely because it is a matter rather too important to his system, to be left in such a floating condition. If the saints are to be with Christ, who dwells habitually in the New Jerusalem which is from heaven, how can they be at the same time living in the earthly Jerusalem, and governing the world there? If all the saints are to govern, then who are to be with Christ in the heavenly Jerusalem? If only the Jewish saints are to govern, then the Gentile ones, living in the heavenly city, will enjoy much greater privileges than the children of Abraham. One wishes to know, at least, in what light the author views this subject. But he wishes in vain, for all is floating, varying, and of course uncertain.

The list of difficulties on the ground of imperfect and unsatisfactory development might be easily swelled so as to comprehend many more particulars. But I have aimed only at specimens. Let us proceed to another view of the representation which we have set out to examine. This is,

Secondly, that THERE ARE MANY APPARENT INCONSISTENCIES AND INCONGRUITIES in the scheme of Mr. D., both theological and critical.

I shall not attempt to reduce the catalogue of them to any rigid order, nor to render it complete. To make it complete would indeed occupy more time and space than can now be spared. But the following things seem plainly to belong to the subject in question.

(1) On p. 163, the first act in the great drama is the restoration of the Jews to their own land; but on p. 366 seq., we have an account of "the saints raised" amid the scenes of destruction that have been going on, as sent forth, after all this, to gather in and convert the Jews. If now it be said, that the expressions on p. 163 allow possibly of a consistency in this particular; yet, at all events, p. 163 seq. represents the Jews as restored before the judgment and extinction of the

wicked nations and the resurrection of the saints, while p. 366 represents the restoration of the Jews as after these events.

(2) No. 2 informs us, that a great conspiracy among the antichristian nations will lead to the great war of Gog and Magog, and the battle of Armageddon; but according to No. 15, Gog and Magog are only the wicked, who are raised from the dead after the close of the Millennium. I am aware, that the author has once intimated, that Ezekiel's Gog and Magog are only typical of those in the Apocalypse. But in other places, he has represented the new earthly capital and temple as built after the model of Ezekiel, and spoken of the whole prophecy of Ezekiel as having a literal fulfilment. Now nothing can be plainer, than that the war in question, and the temple, and city, in John, are of the same significance, and copied after the same model, as those in Ezekiel. If so, then the things predicted in the one cannot precede the Millennium, and those foretold in the other follow it.

(3) Whatever the author may say, to reconcile his scheme here on mere typological grounds, another thing is very clear, viz., Mr. D. represents the Gog and Magog spoken of by John in the Apocalypse, as consisting of only the wicked raised from the dead, (p. 166 and No. 15 above); while John himself represents these same enemies as coming up from the four corners, i. e. the farthest extremities, of the earth, Rev. 20: 8. And are there no wicked men, then, who are buried elsewhere than in these extremities, and who must be raised up, at the end of the world?

(4) In No. 3 we are told, that the saints with their resurrection-bodies, and the saints caught up to meet the Lord in the AIR, will dwell in the airy region for a series of years undefined, while the process of exterminating antichristian nations is going on. In what part of the Scriptures is it revealed, that Christ dwells, or will dwell, in the air? The Bible allots to Satan this place of residence, before his confinement during the Millennium, Eph. 2: 2. 6:12, where έv tot̃s éлovgaviots seems plainly to mean the aerial regions. The air is a new abode of Christ and the saints.

(5) When Christ and his saints descend from the air upon mount Olivet, "to change the geological structure" of the region and fit it for the new city (No. 7), and the earth is to "undergo great geological and atmospherical changes" (No. 14), do Christ and his saints also undergo a new transforma

tion, in order to fit them for terrestrial abodes? Or can such bodies as they have live equally well in heaven, or in the air above, or on the world below?

(6) There are some serious difficulties in respect to the nations to be destroyed at Christ's coming. At one time, it is the antichristian nations and mystic Babylon (pp. 164, 366); at another, those only who have persecuted Jews and Christians (p. 366). Are not idolaters, then, of the heathen world, antichristian? Or if all are to be destroyed who are opposed to Christianity, who are the nations left, that are to be born in a day by means of the saints at Jerusalem? No. 9.

(7) One representation informs us, that all the wicked on the face of the whole Roman earth are to be exterminated after a series of years (p. 165); what part and how much of the earth will be Roman, at the beginning of the Millennium?

(8) The new temple at Jerusalem being "the nucleus and centre of all religious and political influences," and all the nations of the earth being united to it, (p. 165 and No. 11), in what way are all the inhabitants of the earth, or "all flesh,' to "go up from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another," in order to worship there? For so ls. 66: 23 assures us they will do, if interpreted by the rules of Mr. D.

(9)-Mr. D. has given us no clue, by which we can discover how long it will take to convert the nations, that are unconverted at the time when Christ and the saints descend; nor how much time will be occupied with destroying all the wicked living upon Roman ground; but be this sooner or later, when it is achieved, what object in particular is to be gained, by the saints' dwelling any longer, either on the earth at large, or in the political metropolis? Their work is done; and why should their terrene residence be any longer protracted?

(10) The Bible tells us, in many places, that all Christians will be made kings and priests to God; if literally so, then who are to be the subjects, after all men are converted and become Christians? When all are kings, who are to be ruled?

(11) What is the use of the offerings to be made at Jerusalem during the Millennium? The apostle has told us, that Christ, by the offering of himself, has forever accomplished all which is to be or can be accomplished, by any offerings whatever.

(12) The apostle Paul tells us also, that Christ has "broken down the middle wall of partition" between Jews and Gen