it be placed on this earth, still waiting to be redeemed for the purpose? The preparation there meant, however, cannot possibly be an actual fitting up of the place which believers are to occupy with their Lord; for wherever it is the apostle tells us it still needs to be redeemed; in that sense it is not yet ready; and Christ himself said, in reference to his leaving the world, that he was going to prepare it, which he does by directing, on his throne of glory, the events which are to issue in its full establishment. Still, from the first, it might be said to be prepared, because destined for Christ and his elect people in the mind of God, even as he was himself "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world;" and every successive act in the history of the mediatorial kingdom is another step toward the accomplishment of the purpose.-Are we not again told, however, that the earth is to be destroyed, its elements made to melt with fervent heat, and all its works consumed? Unquestionably this is said-though not by any means necessarily implying that the earth is really to be annihilated. We know that God makes many changes pass over the works of his hands, but that he actually annihilates any, we have no ground, either in nature or in Scripture, to suppose. If, in the latter we are told of man's body, that it perishes, and is consumed by the moth, yet what can be more certain, than that it is not doomed to utter destruction, but shall live again? When we read of the old world being destroyed by the flood, we are at the same time assured, that the material fabric of the earth continued as before. Indeed, much the same language that is applied to the earth in this respect, is also extended to the heavens themselves; for they too are represented as ready to pass away, and to be changed as a vesture, and the promise speaks of new heavens, as well as a new earth. And in regard to this earth in particular, there is nothing in the language used concerning it to prevent us from believing, that the fire which, in the day of God's judgment, is to burst forth with consuming violence, may, like the waters of the deluge, and in a far higher respect than they, act as an element of purification-dissolving, indeed, the present constitution of things, and leaving not a wreck behind of all we now see and handle, but at the same time rectifying and improving the, powers of nature, refining and elevating the whole framework of the earth, and impressing on all that belongs to it a transcendent, imperishable glory-so that in condition and appearance it shall be substantially a new world, and one as far above what it now is, as heaven is above the earth.

There is nothing, then, in the other representations of Scripture, which appears, when fairly considered, to raise any valid objection against the renovated earth being the ultimate inheritance of the heirs of promise. And there is much to shut us up to the conclusion that it is so. We have enlarged on one testimony of inspiration, not because it is the only, or the chief one on the subject, but because it is so explicit, that it seems decisive of the question. For an inheritance, which has been already acquired or purchased, but which must be redeemed before it can be really our possession,

can be understood of nothing but that original dominion, which sin brought along with man, into the bondage of evil at the fall. And of what else can we understand the representation in the eighth Psalm, as interpreted by the pen of inspiration itself, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, chap. ii. 5-9, and in 1 Cor. xv. 27, 28? These passages in the New Testament put it beyond a doubt, that the idea of perfect and universal dominion, delineated in the Psalm, is to be realized in the world to come, over which Christ, as the head of redeemed humanity, is to rule, with his people in him and under him. The representation itself in the Psalm, is evidently borrowed from the first chapter of Genesis, and considered as a prophecy of good things to come, as a prediction of the dignity and honour already obtained for man in Christ, and hereafter to be revealed, it may be regarded as simply presenting to our view the picture of a restored and renovated creation. "It is just that "It is just that passage in Genesis, which describes the original condition of the earth," to use the words of Hengstenberg, "turned into a prayer for us," and we may add, into an object of hope and expectation. When that prayer is fulfilled, in other words, when the natural and moral evils entailed by the fall have been abolished, and the earth shall stand to man, when redeemed and glorified, in a similar relation to what it did at the birth of creation, then shall the hope. we now possess of an inheritance of glory, be turned into enjoyment. In Isa. xi. 6-9, the final results of Messiah's reign are in like manner delineated under the aspect of a world, which has obtained riddance of all the disorders introduced by sin, and is restored to the blessed harmony and peace which characterized it, when God pronounced it very good. And still more definitely, though with reference to the same aspect of things, the Apostle Peter, (Acts iii. 21,) represents the time of Christ's second coming as "the time of the restitution of all things," that is, when every thing should be restored to its pristine condition.-the same condition in kind, all pure and good, glorious and blessed, but higher in degree, as it is the design and tendency of redemption to ennoble whatsoever it touches.*

It is precisely on the same object, a redeemed and glorified earth, that the Apostle Paul, in the 8th chap. of the Romans, fixes the mind of believers as the terminating point of their hopes of glory. An incomparable glory is to be revealed in them, and in connexion with that, "the deliverance of a suffering creation from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the sons of God." What can this deliverance be, but what is marked in the Epistle to the Ephesians, as "the redemption of the purchased possession?" Nor is it possible to connect with any thing else, the words of Peter in his second Epistle, where, after speak

That this is simply the force of the original here, it may be enough to give the meaning of the main word from the lexicographer Hesychius: aronatuotas," is the restoration of a thing to its former state, or to a better; restitution, consummation, a revolution of the grander kind, from which a new order of things arises, rest after turmoil."

VOL. I.-19

ing of the dreadful conflagration which is to consume all that belongs to the earth in its present form, he adds,-as if expressly to guard against supposing, that he meant the actual and entire destruction of this world as the abode of man," Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens, and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."

It is only by understanding the words of Christ himself, "the meek shall inherit the earth," of the earth in that new condition, its state of blessedness and glory, that any full or adequate sense can be attached to them. He could not surely mean the earth as it then was, or as it is to be during any period of its existence, while sin and death reign in it. So long as it is in that condition, not only will the saints of God have many things to suffer in it, as our Lord immediately foretold, when he spake of the persecutions for righteousness' sake, which his people should have to endure, and on account of which he bade them look for their "reward in heaven;" but all the treasure it contains must be of the moth-eaten, perishable kind, which they are expressly forbidden to covet, and the earth itself must be that city without continuance, in contrast to which they are called to seek one to come. To speak, therefore, as many commentators do, of the tendency of piety in general, and of a mild and gracious disposition in particular, to secure for men a prosperous and happy life on earth, is quite beside the purpose as regards the fulfilment of the promise, that they shall "inherit the earth." If it could even command for them the whole that earth now can give, would Christ on that account have called them blessed? Would he not rather have warned them to beware of the deceitfulness of riches, and the abundance of honours thus likely to flow into their bosom? To be blessed in the earth as an inheritance, can only import, that the earth has become to them a real and proper good, such as it shall be, when it has been transformed into a fit abode for redeemed natures. AH which is further confirmed, and apparently rendered as clear and certain as language can make it, by the representations constantly made by Christ and the inspired writers, of his return to the earth and manifestation on it in glory, as connected with the final scenes and issues of his kingdom. When he left the world, it was as a man going into a far country, from which he was to come again; (Matth. xxv. 14; Luke xix. 12; John xiv. 3;) the heaven received him at his resurrection, but only until the times of the restitution of all things; (Acts iii. 21;) the period of his residence within the vail, is coincident with that during which his people have to maintain a hidden life, and is to be followed by another, in which they and he together are to be manifested in glory. (Col. iii. 4; Heb. ix. 28: 1 John iii. 2; Rev. i. 7.) And in the book of Revelation, while unquestionably the scenes are described in typical language, yet when exact localities are mentioned as the places where the scenes are to be realized, and that in connexion with a plain description of the condition of those who are to have part in them, we are compelled by all the ordinary rules of composition to re

gard such localities as real and proper habitations. What, then, can we make of the ascription of praise from the elders, representatives of a redeemed church, when they give glory to the Messiah, as "having made them kings and priests unto God, and they shall reign with him upon the earth?" Or, what of the closing scenes, where the evangelist sees a new heaven and a new earth, in the room of those which had passed away, and the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven to settle on the renovated earth, and the tabernacle of God fixed amongst men? (Rev. v. 9, 10, xx. 1-5.) Granting that the delineations of the book are a succession of pictures, drawn from the relations of things in the former ages of the world, and, especially under the Old Testament economy, and that the fulfilment to be looked for is not as of a literal description, but as of a symbolical representation, yet there must be certain fixed landmarks as to time and place, persons and objects, which, in their natures or their names, are so clearly defined, that by them the relation of one part to another must be arranged and interpreted. For example, in the above quotations, we cannot doubt who are kings and priests, or with whom they are to reign; and it were surely strange, if there could be any doubt of the theatre of their dominion, when it is so expressly denominated the earth. And still more strange, if when heaven and earth are mentioned relatively to each other, and the scene of the church's future glory fixed upon the latter as contradistinguished from the former, still earth should stand for heaven, and not for. itself. As well surely might it be affirmed, that when the name of God occurs there, or Jesus Christ, or the saints, it is not these, but some other objects that are to be understood by them. And, on the whole, we are forced to conclude with Usteri, that "the conception of a transference of the perfect kingdom of God into the heavens, is properly speaking modern, seeing that according to Paul, and the Apocalypse, (and he might also have added, Peter and Christ himself,) the seat of the kingdom of God is the earth, inasmuch as that likewise partakes in the general renovation."*

*The above passage is quoted by Tholuck, on Rom. viii. 19, who himself there, and on Heb. ii., concurs in the same view. He also states, what cannot be denied, that it is the view which has been adopted by the greatest number, and the most ancient of the expositors, amongst whom he mentions, though he does not cite, Chrysostom, Theodoret, Jerome, Augustine, Ambrose, Luther, &c. And Rivet, on Gen. viii. 22, states, that the opinion, which maintains only a change, and not an utter destruction of the world, has most supporters, both among the older and the more recent writers, so that it may be called, says he, "the common one, and be said to prevail by the number of its adherents." In the present day, the opposite opinion would probably be entitled to be regarded as by much the most common; ar the view here set forth, will perhaps by some be eyed with jealousy, if not condemned as novel. It may be proper, therefore, to give a few quotations from the more eminent commentators. Jerome, on Isa. lxv. 17, quotes Ps. cii. 26 and 27, which he thinks "clearly demonstrates, that the perdition spoken of, is not a reducing to nothing, but a change to the better;" and having referred to what Peter says of the new heavens, and the new earth, he remarks, that the apostle "does not say, we look for other heavens and another earth, but for the old and original ones transformed into a better state." Of the Fathers generally, as of Justin Martyr in particular, Semish states, that they regarded the future destruction of the World by

Having now closed our investigation, we draw the following conclusions from it.

1. The earthly Canaan was neither designed by God, nor from the first was it understood by his people, to be the ultimate and proper inheritance, which they were to occupy; things having been spoken and hoped for concerning it, which plainly could not be realized within the bounds of Canaan.

2. The inheritance was one which could be enjoyed only by those who had become the children of the resurrection, themselves fully redeemed in soul and body from all the effects and consequences of sin, made more glorious and blessed, indeed, than if they had never sinned, because constituted after the image of the heavenly Adam; and as the inheritance must correspond with the inheritor, it can only be man's original possession restored, the earth redeemed from the curse which sin brought on it, and, like man himself, rendered exceedingly more beautiful and glorious, than in its primeval state, the fit abode of a church, made like, in all its members, to the Son of God."

3. The occupation of the earthly Canaan by the natural seed of Abraham, was a type, and no more than a type, of this occupation by a redeemed church, of her destined inheritance of glory; and consequently every thing concerning the entrance of the former on their temporary possession, was ordered so as to represent and foreshadow the things which belong to the church's establishment in her permanent possession. Hence, between the giving of the promise, which though it did not terminate in, yet included the land

fire, "far more frequently as a transformation, than as an annihilation." (Life and Times of Justin, Bib. Cab. Vol. XLII. p. 366.) Calvin, while he discourages minute inquiries and vain speculations regarding the future state, expresses himself with confidence, on Rom. viii. 21, as to this world being the destined theatre of glory, and considers it as a proof of the incomparable glory to which the sons of God are to be raised, that the lower creation is to be renewed for the purpose of manifesting and ennobling it, just as the disorders and troubles of creation have testified to the appalling evil of our sin. So also Haldane, one of the last persons to run after a novelty, on the same passage, after quoting from 2 Pet. and Rev., continues: "The destruction of the substance of things differs from a change in their qualities. When meta! of a certain shape is subjected to fire, it is destroyed as to its figure, but not as to its substance. Thus the heavens and the earth will pass through the fire, but only that they may be purified and come forth anew, more excellent than before. This hope -the hope of deliverance-was held out in the sentence pronounced on man, for in the doom of our first parents the divine purpose of providing a deliverer was revealed. We know not the circumstances of this change, how it will be effected, or in what form the creation-those new heavens and that new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, suited for the abode of the sons of God-shall then exist; but we are sure it shall be worthy of the divine wisdom, although at present beyond our comprehension." To the same effect Fuller, in his Gospel its own Witness, ch. v. These quotations may suffice to vindicate our view regarding the renovated earth, as being itself the promised inheritance, from the charge of novelty, seeing it is substantially held by many of the most eminent commentators. If they have not followed out their views in the manner and to the extent we have done, this can make no material difference. Mr. Stuart, in his work on Romans, expresses his strong dissent from such views, on the ground of their being opposed to the declarations of Christ, and requiring such a literal interpretation of prophecy, as would lead to absurd and ridiculous expectations in regard to other predictions. We can find no contrariety in our opinion to any declarations of Christ or his apostles, and the other predictions he refers to belong to quite another class, and do not require, or even admit, as we shall show in the Appendix, of a strictly literal fulfilment.