quently shall cover the earth, as the waters cover the face of the sea. At that time they shall have "beat their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." This then is the expectation of Isaiah, and should be the firm and certain expectation of all saints, who shall not then be disappointed; for then "Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders, but thou shalt call thy walls salvation, and thy gates praise. Thy people also, shall be all righteous; they shall inherit the land for ever. A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I the Lord will hasten it in his time." Isa. Ix. 18, 21, 22. By the spirit of inspiration, the prophet Jeremiah looked beyond the sorrows of his countrymen, to whom was committed the oracles of truth, the first testament, and after whose name all saints are called Israelites, not because they are descended from the lineage of Abraham, but hecause they are the household of faith. The prophet, therefore, looks through the long vista of ages, to the time when Jerusalem, spirtual Jerusalem, Mount Zion, shall be built in the tops of the mountains, and all nations shall flow to it, which shall not like the temple, its glorious type, "be plucked up, nor thrown down any more forever."-Jer. xxxi. 40. "Therefore, they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock, and of the herd; and their soul shall be as a watered garden, and they shall not sorrow any more at all."-Jer. xxxi. 12. The Jews, nor their country, nor yet their city, for glory and strength excelling all others, have ever yet arrived to any such state of happiness as spoken ok above, by the prophet Jeremiah; it is therefore undoubtedly spoken of the times of the Millennium, when Jerusalem, in the spiritual sense, shall be built, and is called the New Jerusalem, which cannot be pulled down or overthrown, nor its inhabitants sorrow any more at all, strongly intimating that its citizens shall not suffer either from natural or moral-evil, any more, as they formerly had, in the days of probation. The prophet Daniel is declared, in the scriptures, to be a man greatly beloved of heaven; this was said to to! him by the angel Gabriel, at a time when he prayed and made his confession to God. And because he was beloved of the Most High, he was pleased to make known to him, in a vision of his sleep, the times which should pass over the nations of the globe, and also over the saints, how they must suffer from the tyranny of the beasts which he saw arise out of the sea, and strove together, which has actually come to pass in the several eras of time. But beyond all these, he saw a more glorious vision, which cannot be understood otherwise than of the Millennium. "I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a king. dom, that all people, nations, and languages, should + serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever; even for ever and ever. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High."-Dan.vii. 13, 14, 18, 27. It is evident that this kingdom shall be on the earth in the latter days, (which are even at the door) because in the last quoted verse, are the words, "under the whole heaven," and therefore, is qualified as betonging to the earth. From what has been advanced on the preceding pages of the second division, I feel justified in believing, that the ancient Jewish Church did expect, that when the Messiah should come, he would finally involve the whole earth in his kingdom, and that peace and great glory should be the concomitants of his reign for one thousand years. But why the idea should obtain of so definite a term of years, in the early age of the Church, is deeply interesting; but we see the same doctrine taught by the holy St. John, who wrote as he received it from the angel of Jesus Christ. I shall next proceed to prove, under the same division, that the Christian Church have ever taught the expectation of a Millennium. St John, the Revelator, speaks of that great day, as a day in which Christ shall come to be admired of his saints, who shall then take the kingdom, and possess it for ever. In order to prove that the Christian Churches, in the days of St. John, believed that a Millennium should come in the latter days, I have only to transcribe the seven first verses of the 20th Chapter of Revelation, which I proceed to do. Verse 1st." And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand. Verse 2d.-" And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and satan, and bound him a thousand years. Verse 3d.-" And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed for a little season. Verse 4th.-" And I saw thrones, and they that sat upon them; and judgment was given unto them; and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. Verse 5th." But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection." Who can speak plainer than St. John does in those. two last quoted verses? stating, explicitly, that between the resurrection of the righteous dead, and the resurrection of the wicked dead, shall be a lapse of a thou E sand years, which is the Millennium contended-for in these pages. Verse 6th.-" Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection, for on such the second death hath no power; but they shall be priests of God, and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. Verse 7th." And when the thousand years are expired, satan shall be loosed out of his prison." It is thought that these scriptures show, as clearly and as definitely as can be desired, that the primitive Church did expect the Millennium. Six times in the course of seven verses, has the Evangelist, in the most plain and emphatic manner, declared that a certain thousand years shall come, when the great Shepherd of the sheep shall walk in their midst, and that his spiritual presence shall be with them a thousand years. This, therefore, is the Millennium which is to come. "This doctrine of the reign of the saints after the destruction of Antichrist, was the opinion of the whole orthodox Christian Church in the age immediately following the death of St. John, when Polycarp, and many of St. John's disciples, were yet living, as is expressly stated by Justin Martyr; and is a testimony of sufficient strength to convince any who rely at all on the authority of antiquity, that this doctrine was believed by the primitive Church, who unquestionably founded it upon Rev. xx. from the 1st verse to the 7th, inclusive."-Second Advent, page 503. The Christian Churches have, in succeeding ages, held the doctrine; many abie theologans and fathers. |