manifestation of their Redeemer's glorious kingdom to the world, when they trufted he would "raife their vile bodies from the grave, and make them like to his glorious body," that they might be " kings and priests unto God for ever," and that so they might become partakers of the unutterable and eternal joys of heaven, when this earth fhould be diffolved, and "time fhould be no more." It should ever be remembered, that "the Gospel was preached to the Poor," that is, to the bulk of mankind; and its promifes are certainly adapted to their comprehenfion, while they exceed the utmost stretch of faculties the most accustomed to the fubtleties of abftract reafoning. The fleep of the foul, however reprefented, will appear to break the line of existence, and thus it will leffen the hold of futurity upon common minds at least: The effects of this chilling opinion are, I think, evident in the Christian world. It not only increases the gloom of the grave, and renders death more formidable, but it detaches our thoughts and feelings from a world, in which, in fpite of all reafoning, we seem to have such a distant intereft. And I am fully perfuaded, that the only effectual antidote against the contagious poifon of Materialism, and the brutalizing doctrine of the Eternal

Sleep

Sleep of Death, is that, which, awakening all the energies of man, by the prospect of immediate reward, and by placing that reward in part within the reach of his imagination, preferved the faith of the primitive Chriftians amidst the terrors and enticements which beset them in the times of Pagan tyrannyand this antidote, as I humbly conceive, will be found in the Scriptural doctrine of a Millennium, which includes the belief of immediate admiffion into a state of happiness previous to the resurrection of the body, and of an inconceivable increafe of blifs and glory, when the day of final judgment fhall arrive 1.

The

As the following extracts, felected from a Work printed in the year 1684, coincide with many of the opinions which I have ftated relative to the Millennium, and the manner in which it will be brought about; and as they contain likewife fome obfervations closely applicable to the prefent times, I wish to prefent them to my Readers. The Work referred to was unknown to the Writer of the laft Chapter, till after that Chapter was written; but, as there is fo ftriking an agreement of opinion upon a fubject concerning which men think fo variously, it is thought defirable to bring forward fuch a support from a book not easily procured, and written more than a century ago.

It hath been an opinion commonly received in the antient Church, that Elias, to wit, one in the fpirit and

The Reader will now judge how far the conjectures offered in these pages feem to be founded

power of Elias, fhall come to restore all things, before the fecond coming of Chrift, as John the Baptist had in part done before his firft appearance, by turning the difobedient to the wisdom of the juft. The ground of which opinion was not only that Prophecy of Malachi iv. 56. but also Matthew xvii. 11. Elias fhall truly first come, and reftore all things.' Thefe words of our Saviour wherein he fays, after John the Baptist had been come and was gone out of the world, that'Elias fhall come, or shall yet come;' it is thought that he would thereby fignifie, that all the Prophecy of Malachi was not fulfilled in the coming of John the Baptift, though in part it was, as our Saviour intimated, ver. 12.

“Mr. Mede fays, lib. i. p. 139. There is a fecond and more glorious calling of the Gentiles to be found in the Prophecies of Scripture. A calling wherein the Jews fhall have a fhare of the greatest glory, and are to have a pre-eminence above other nations, when all nations fhall flow into them and walk in their light.' And as the promife of Chrift's reign and government in the world is made to the Jews in fpecial, and in reference to their benefit, so there are feveral other things, which, considered and laid together, do feem to make it probable, that whenever Almighty God fhall bring them into their own land. again, and there fettle them as a nation, that then he will make them the chief among the nations,'

"But although Jerufalem fhall be called the Throne of the Lord, and although our Lord, Chrift Jefus, shall reign as King in all the earth, and his name alone be exalted in this his day, and though he shall reign and rule upon the throne of his father David, yet I can by no means agree

founded in Scripture and probability. But TIME alone can determine whether they be

really

with them who have thought that he fhall come from heaven to reign perfonally here on earth, for a thousand years: for, ift, He is to fit at the right hand of his Father Almighty in the heavens, until all his enemies are made his footstool, and that will not be till after his thousand years reign, mentioned Rev. xx. is expired. For after this Gog and Magog with their numerous company are to be fubdued; and St. Paul fays, the laft enemy which shall be deftroyed is death.' 2dly, If our Lord Chrift fhall come into the world in that splendour and glory wherewith he is now invested in the heavens, men in this mortal state would not be able to bear it, or to converse with him. St. John at his appearance to him with a countenance as the fun fhining in his ftrength, fell at his feet as dead,' Rev. i. 18. And it is a groundless fancy to think he should enter into a state of humiliation again after his exaltation, and lay afide his glory to converfe with mortal men. 3dly, It is altogether needlefs for our bleffed Saviour to come from heaven to reign on earth in reference to the ends and purposes of his reign. It is faid indeed, that our Lord Jefus Chrift fhall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing, and his kingdom,' 2 Timothy iv. 1. From whence fome have inferred, that either he muft appear to receive his kingdom, or that he will appear at the time of his kingdom and reign. That his appearing and his kingdom will in fome refpect be co-exiflent or co-incident, will not be denied: but in that refpect, that it will be fo, it will be of no ufe to prove his perfonal reign on earth for a thousand years. For his judging the quick and the dead, at the end of the world, is an act, and a principal act, of Chrift's kingly office, and is to be performed at the latter

'

end

really juft. Again I beg leave to state my deep conviction of their uncertain nature.

But

end of his reign, and before he delivers up the kingdom to God his Father; and his appearing then in the clouds of heaven to do this, is his appearing in the time of his kingdom, though but at the latter end of it; and yet we know not how long time will be taken up in managing this great part of his kingly office, or whether it will be long or fhort. Hear what Mr. Mede faith against this perfonal reign of Christ on earth; "The presence of Chrift in his kingdom fhall, no doubt, be glorious and evident: yet I dare not fo much as imagine, that it fhall be a visible converfe on earth: for the kingdom of Chrift ever hath been, and fhall be, a kingdom whose throne and kingly refidence is in heaven,' lib. iii. p. 603.

"Thus the kingdom under the whole heaven may be faid to be given to the people of the faints of the Moft High,' because the government of the whole world will, at the time pointed out in this Prophecy of Daniel, be put into the hands of those who shall be of the Church of Chrift, which is, and will be his kingdom in fpecial. For our bleffed Lord and Saviour will not administer all the affairs of his univerfal kingdom here on earth by himself immediately, but by fubftitutes and vicegerents, which will be kings over men when yet they are but viceroys under Chrift, who is Prince of the Kings of the earth, and King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.' As God the Father is faid to judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, (to wit, Chrift, Acts xvii. 31.), fo Christ will rule, and govern the world in the time of his kingdom here, by Governors deputed by him. In this respect the kingdom may be faid to be given to the Saints

of