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THE 
 
 FIRST RESURRECTION 
 
 CONSIDERED 
 
 BtvitH ot %ttttv^: 
 
 OCCASIONED BY A TREATISE OF THE LATE 
 REV. H. GIPPS, LL.B. 
 
 JOSEPH D'ARCY^SIRR, A.M. M.R.I.A. 
 
 RECTOR OF KILCOLEMAN. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA! 
 ORRIN ROGERS, 67 SOUTH SECOND STREET. 
 
 E. G. Dorsey, PrinteTi 
 
 1841. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The following pages were penned at the request of the Rev. James 
 Anderson, Rector of Moore and Drum, in the Diocese of Tuam, who 
 put Mr. Gipps' book, unexpectedly, into the hands of the author. — As 
 the examination was undertaken, in obedience to the wishes of a private 
 friend, and commenced without any view to pubhcation, (he work itself 
 is not shaped as it would have been, under other circumstances. Much 
 of the practical bearing of the subject has been omitted — the reader is 
 requested to make up the deficiency, by bringing every page at once to 
 the test of God's revealed word, and to the throne of grace. The mat- 
 ters discussed, are of infinite moment; affect in the deepest manner our 
 respective relations to time and eternity ; and can only subserve any 
 salutary end when our inquiries into them are conducted under the 
 guidance of the Holy Spirit, and in reverent submission to his authority. 
 — Oh ! that there were one unanimous cry to arise, from every section 
 of the visible Church, for the outpouring of the Spirit on the whole. — 
 Till this event arrive, we shall be torn with dissensions — led astray by 
 every error that arises — and polluted with evils. — It becomes us now 
 with an irrepressible energy, with entreaties that admit of no denial, to 
 cry mightily to the Lord to restore his comforts unto us, and revisit 
 his vine— for— The Lord is nigh, even at the doors, to take account of 
 his servants. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 Author's respect for Mr. Gipps. — The Second Advent not 
 more discoursed of in the New Testament than in the Old. 
 — Difference of opinion on tiie subject does not depend on the 
 Interpretation of Rev. xx. 4, 5. — The Second Coming of 
 Christ is foretold in the previous part of the book. — Dani^er 
 of Interpreting^ words, not according to the context, bvit 
 according to their use in other places, when applied to other 
 subjects.— Ten points. — Eight considerations examined. — 
 Argument from authority rebutted, - _ _ . _ 5—35 
 
 LETTER IL 
 
 Parables. — Wheat and Tares. — Criticism on the expression 
 Kingdom of Heaven, illustrated by grain of mustard seed. 
 — Confounding the judgment on the wicked quick, and on 
 the wicked dead, cause of error. — Harvest and Vintage, Joel 
 ii. 3, 1 1 .—The Draw Net.— The Marriage Supper.— Talents. 
 — Judgment, illustrated by reference to Dan. vii. 13. — The 
 ■wovAs Nations. — Saints exYA^dncA. — Goats and Sheep, Ezek. 
 xxxiv. 10, 31. Mic. iv. 6, 8, 36—57 
 
 LETTER IlL 
 
 The Transfiguration.— The Coming-One.— 2 Pet. i. 16.— 
 Prophecyof the Judgment, Matt. xxiv. — Parable of the Fig- 
 tree and all the trees, Luke xxi. — The Gospel Kingdom. — 
 Figurative Comings. — The Last Day. — Christ's voice heard 
 in the grave. — The Judgment-seat of Christ.— Retribution 
 of enemies, -- 58—84 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 The Kingdom.— Matt. xiii. 41; xvi. 28.— Luke i. 33; xxii. 30.— 
 John xviii. 36.— Eph. v. 5.— Col. i. 13.— 2 Tim. iv. 18.— Heb. i. 
 8.-2 Pet. i. 11, The delivering up of the Kingdom. — 1 Cor. 
 
VI 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 XV. 23— 26.— David ic rule over Enemies.— The Tabernacle 
 state of the New Heavens and New Earth.— Psalms ex. 
 xlvii.— First Fruits.— The End.— 2 Tim. iv. 1. - - - 84—116 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 Literal and Figurative interpretation discussed. — Symbols. — 
 Psa. xi. 6— 8.— The Branch and Root of Jesse.— Isa. Iv. 12, 
 13. — Resurrection of Souls. — Mr. Gipps' Rules of Literal 
 and Figurative Interpretation examined. — First Resurrec- 
 tion as connected with the Statements in Zech. xiv. 1 — 11. 
 —Luke XX. 34— 36.— Acts iv. 1, 2.-1 Cor. xv. Phil. iii. 11. 117—149 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Letter to His Grace the Hon. and Most Rev. the Lord Arch- 
 bishop of Tuam, &c. &c. - - 151—159 
 
 Notes, 160 
 
 .^' 
 

 THE 
 
 FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 Author's respect for Mr. Gipps. — The Second Advent not more discoursed of 
 in the New Testament than in the Old. — Difference of opinion on the sub- 
 ject does not depend on the Interpretation of Rev. xx. 4, 5. — The Second 
 Coming of Christ is foretold in the previous part of the book. — Danger of 
 Interpreting words, not according to the context, but according to their use 
 in other places, when applied to other subjects. — Ten points. — Eight con- 
 siderations examined. — Argument from authority rebutted. 
 
 UikMay, 1833: 
 Mr DEAR Friend, 
 
 I have complied with your request, and perused Mr, Gipps' 
 treatise on the First Resurrection with the most diligent atten- 
 tion. The excellent spirit, which pervades it, is just what I 
 should have expected from a man of the deep piety, which I 
 believe the author to have possessed. I remember still, with 
 great pleasure, the sweet savour of his preaching on one occa- 
 sion at St. John's, Chichester, some years ago, where I had the 
 privilege of hearing him. His mode of treating the subject 
 also, is what it ought have been, an appeal to the written word. 
 In obedience to your request, I will just glance at the princi- 
 pal topics, with as much regard to your desire for brevity as 
 possible, and with all the respect, wiiich is due to the memory 
 of so devoted a minister of the word. 
 
 I. The notion with which he set out, of finding a priori more 
 of the Second Advent in the New Testament than in the Old, 
 js one which cannot be granted and is quite unfounded. One, 
 who comes to the perusal of any part of the Bible with a pre- 
 conceived conviction of what he must, or must not find there, 
 is sure to err. In point of fac'r, the New Testament contains 
 vastly more oi the Jirst Advent, than we meet with about it in 
 the Old. It is actually a history of all that related to that ad- 
 vent, with lengthened proofs that he who has come is the Mes- 
 25 
 
(j THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 siah, though he has not yet fulfilled all that was predictetl con- 
 cerning him; and hortatory declarations of duty, involved in, 
 and arising out of the fact, that the Virgin-born deliverer has 
 appeared. These declarations necessarily connect themselves 
 with the completion of the deliverance, to be effected at the 
 period of the second advent, respecting which, therefore, we 
 meet with abundant intimations for the encouragement of the 
 faithful. But these notices of the coming one, (o s/i;^s/^£voc) are, 
 in general, assumptions rather than descriptions of the fact, 
 that he will return as the destined conqueror and king. They 
 suppose the previously revealed matter as certain; and rather 
 enforce the moral obligations connected with his Epiphany to 
 come, than detail its results. These, on the contrary, are to 
 • be met with, at great length, in the Prophets, and therefore 
 are we directed to them for illumination in all that relates to 
 the Presence (n^tpovc-nt) and Majesty (M6j-aA£»T»<:) of Jesus. 2 
 Pet. i. 16. 
 
 2. The assertion, that "all the difference of opinion upon the 
 subject originates from the interpretation of a passage in the 
 New Testament," viz. Rev. xx, 4, 5, is a decided mistake. 
 Blot that passage out of the Book of Revelation, and still the 
 reign of Jesus with the saints will stand forth as a revealed 
 truth, both in that book from which it is thus blotted out, and 
 in almost every book of the Bible, either in the way of type, 
 or of prediction, or of exhortation. Yet is it on the assump- 
 tion of this error, that the whole work is penned. Had it in- 
 deed been stated, that from this passage alone we obtain any 
 information of the length of time that Satan is to be bound; 
 and that it is from the thoiisayid years, to which his bondage is 
 here limited, the name of Millenarians came to be attached to 
 those, who believe in the personal reign of Christ and his 
 saints, his observation had been correct. The thousand years 
 are not the limit of their reign, though they are the limit of Sa- 
 tan's captivity. Nor is it from this place we derive the proof, 
 that the "Lord my God shall come, and all his saints with 
 him," to reign on earth reclaimed to his authority, rescued 
 from the usurper's grasp, and made new. But having from 
 sundry passages of the livel}^ oracles, that have been commit- 
 ted to us, learned that such is the divine purpose, we affirm 
 that this particular prediction must refer to the time, when 
 they, who are the children of the resurrection, shall accom- 
 pany the Messiah on his return, as joint heirs with him, to 
 claim the Heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts 
 of the earth for his possession, as the rightful Heir of the world, 
 as Abraham's seed, as Jesse's root, and as David's son and suc- 
 cessor on Israel's throne, in whom and to whom, the kingdom 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 7 
 
 is established for the ages. He that overcometh shall have power 
 over the nations, and rule them with a rod of iron, shivering 
 them to pieces, as a potter's vessel, Rev. ii. 26, 27; shall sit 
 with Christ on his own throne, Rev. iii. 21; and shall inherit 
 all things. Rev. xxi. 7. The burden of the ransomed song 
 is, zve shall reig?t on the earth, and when therefore on the ejection 
 of Satan, John beholds thrones occupied, and the sitters thereon 
 united with the martyrs, who are represented as reigning con- 
 currently with them; and when we find him further affirming 
 concerning this event, which in symbolic show passes before 
 his view, this is the first resurrection, we cannot entertain a doubt, 
 that he saw in prospect that glorious consummation, for which 
 the disem.bodied just express such devout and confident desire. 
 3. The assertion, that ''the Second coming of Christ has not 
 been described, as he conceived, in the previous part of the 
 book" of Revelation, is an error the very reverse of that on 
 which I first remarked. What! is the second coming of Christ 
 not noticed up to the very close of a book, which is entitled 
 THE REVELATION of Jesus Christ, aookaat^ts i.^.^ x^;^^ot/? 
 Not noticed chap. i. 7. — Behold he cometh icith clouds; and every 
 eye shall see him, afid they also, tohich pierced him; and all kifi- 
 dreds of the earth shall zvail because of him; even so, Amen? Not 
 noticed in the Epistles to the Seven Churches, throughout 
 which the warning else I will come unto thee quickly, is so oft 
 repeated, in connexion with the reward to be bestowed on the 
 conquerors, and the rule over the nations, and the impress of 
 the New Jerusalem name, and the admission to the supper, and 
 the elevation to the throne? Not noticed under the Sixth Seal, 
 where, with despairing agony, the apostate confederates roar 
 out their deep distress to the mountains and the rocks to shel- 
 ter themyVom the face of Him that sitteth 07i the thro?ie, and from 
 the wrath of the Lamb; — chap. vi. 12, 17? Not noticed, where 
 the two sealed companies of Israel and of the nations, washed 
 in white robes, are descried in the act of following the Lamb, 
 who dwelleth in the midst of them, feedeth them, leadeth them 
 to living fountains of waters, and wipeth away all their tears; — 
 chap. vii. 14, 17? Not noticed, zvhen the seventh angel sounded, 
 and there were great voices in heaven, saying, — the zoorldly king- 
 dom of our Lord and of his Christ is come,* and he shall reign for 
 the ages of the ages; when the elders praise Almighty God, say- 
 ing — thou hast taken to thee thy great pozi'er, aiid hast reigned. 
 Rev. xi. 15, 19? Not noticed, when a loud voice announced 
 the fact in heaven, nozo is come salvation and strength, and the 
 kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ; for the accuser 
 of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God 
 * So Griesbach correctly reads the text. 
 
g THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 day and 7iight. Rev. xii. 10? Not noticed, when the Son of 
 Man is actually described as crowned and seated on a white 
 cloud, reaping the harvest and treading the vintage of the earth. 
 Rev. xiv. 14, 20? Not noticed, when the thundered Hallel is 
 uttered — Allelujah! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth, — Let 
 us be glad and rejoice a?id give honour to him, for the marriage of 
 the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready, when he 
 goeth forth on the white horse, followed by the armies of hea- 
 ven, to smite the nations, rule them zcith the rod of iron and tread 
 the voinepress of the fierceness of the rirath of Almighty God. Rev. 
 xix. 1, 21? If so, then is the coming of Christ not noticed in 
 any part of the book, nor is the resurrection. Not a word of 
 either is mentioned. Rev. xx. 11. The whole book is either 
 introductory to, or descriptive of his Apocalypse. The falla- 
 cy, h.owever, has been attempted to be justified by an argu- 
 ment which applies particularly to the last passage I have re- 
 ferred to. It is thus put: — The description in ch. xix. 11, 21, 
 cannot, I conceive, be understood of Christ's second coming in 
 person, because he is there described as ''riding upon a white 
 horse, clothed in a vesture dipped in blood; having a sword 
 going out of his mouth; and having a name written upon his 
 thigh!" Now nothing of this kind was the case when he as- 
 cended; and consequently nothing of the kind will be the case 
 when he comes in person a second time, for it is expressly de- 
 clared, Acts i. 11: "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing 
 into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you 
 into heaven, shall so come in like manner, as ye have seen him 
 go into heaven." It might, perhaps, be sufficient to say that 
 the silence of the divine historians concerning the minute ac- 
 companiments of the ascension, affords no warrant for the hasty 
 assertion, that nothing of the kind took place then. The record 
 of the fact does not negative the occurrence of such circum- 
 stances at that juncture. We may presume what we please, 
 but we have no right to argue from thence as if our presump- 
 tion was a certainty. I take it to be highly probable that the 
 conjecture is correct, and that Christ was not then mounted 
 on a white horse, had no name written on his thigh, no rai- 
 ment stained in blood wrapped around him, and no sword pro- 
 ceeding out of his mouth, but what docs this prove? Nothing. 
 Equally dissimilar with this negative description of his ascent, 
 is the asserted, but unproved, description of his coming. Rev. 
 XX. 11, 12. When he ascended, sat he upon a white throne, 
 stood there before him the dead, small and great, and were 
 there opened before him then the books of life and of death? 
 The manner (i t/ic^tj?,) by which he went and by which he shall 
 return, relates not to the mere adventitious or collateral cir- 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 9 
 
 cumstances, which attended his departure, or which shall mark 
 his return; but denotes either the literal path by which he tra- 
 versed the heaven, (oupxvo;,) the clouds by which he was obscured 
 and from which he shall emerge; or the speed, unexpectedness, 
 glory, and superiority to the laws of matter, which distinguished 
 his ascent. But the argument he made use of, p. 98, overturns 
 the reasoning of Mr. Gipps, in this place entirely. The omis- 
 sion in some prophecies of an incident, (such as that noticed 
 Zech. ix. 9.) connected with some future event, which is, never- 
 theless, foretold in some other prophecy, regarding the same 
 event, by no means justifies the idea, that such predictions do 
 not relate to one and the same event, or that such incidents 
 shall not mark its occuri'ence. The prediction in Acts i. 11, 
 makes no mention of the myriads of his holy ones, by whom 
 he shall be attended, when he returns; yet by those myriads 
 shall he be surrounded. Two angels stood by the side of his 
 disconsolate disciples, after his departure from them; but not 
 one is said to have visibly hovered about his person, as his as- 
 cent was effected. He shall be accompanied by them on his 
 return, all joyous as the ministering attendants on his glory; 
 but when he ascended he left them behind him sorrowing. 
 But let men argue as they may, the description in Rev. xix. of 
 the Word of God may be shewn, by many undeniable proofs, 
 to be indeed the literal description of him at his second advent. 
 First, that description is introduced as already noticed by the 
 deafening acclamations of the countless multitude, who make 
 the heaven ring because the Omnipotent reigneth. Secondly, 
 their joy knows no bounds because the marriage of the Lamb 
 is come. Can there be a doubt that that marriage will be so- 
 lemnized, I appeal to Mr. Gipps' own statement, (see p. 32,) 
 at the second advent of Messiah. Is not the Bride represented, 
 as having made herself ready? But it is also in this aspect she 
 is presented before us, as adorned for her husband, under the 
 symbol of the New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of 
 heaven, (Rev. xxi. 2,) which relates, according to Mr. Gipps, 
 to the heavenly state. Thirdly, as the going forth of Messiah 
 is to smite the nations and trample them in fury, so it issues in 
 the supper of slaughtered carcasses provided for the fowls of 
 heaven, and the consignment of the beast, (d>:piov) and the false 
 prophet, and their respective votaries to the lake of fire. If 
 there be any one thing, plainly revealed, it is this, that the Man 
 of Sin will be destroyed by the brightness of the Redeemer's 
 coming; and I believe there can be none found to assert that 
 any of the ungodly, or still more, that all the living worship- 
 pers of the beast, with the beast himself and his confederate 
 prophet, the antitypical Balak and Balaam, shall be cast into 
 VOL. III. — 26 
 
2Q THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 the lake of fire, before the second coming of Jesus. I cannot 
 but express my regret, that such a man as Mr. Gipps should 
 have allowed himself to sanction the evil practice of many, 
 who stand in no awe of God's word, by speaking of the ab- 
 surdity, which this view involves. It is a mode of reasoning 
 to which we should never have recourse, where the word of 
 God is concerned. What our purblind reason may deem ab- 
 surd enough, divine Wisdom may regard in all the clearness of 
 assured fact, or positive demonstration. Were it a legitimate 
 method of argument, the Jews might, with effect, have reasoned 
 on the absurdity of a Virgin producing a son, or of the king 
 Messiah riding on an ass and its colt. But while he reasoned 
 on the absurdity of "any worm of the earth, any sinful child 
 of man," being able to make war against Christ in person, and 
 therefore judged the whole prophecy to be figurative, he over- 
 looked the fact that no such power was claimed by, no such 
 design attributed to these congregated battalia of ungodly men. 
 Rev. xix. 19, is not expressive of the purpose entertained by 
 the antagonists of Jesus, but of the fact that John saw them in 
 vision gathered together {Troiyto-M mxifxov) to make battle against the 
 warrior horseman — [?roin<ra.t may be taken either transitively or 
 intransitively). Now if we look back to Rev. xvi. 14, we shall 
 find that they are actually gathered together to this battle by 
 the seducing agency of demons, unclean and frog-like spirits, 
 even as was Ahab led up, by a lying spirit in the mouth of all 
 his prophets, to that fatal field where closed alike his ignomi- 
 nious life and reign. To oppose their might to that of the Om- 
 nipotent they could entertain no idea; of the result they could 
 have no conception. — The issue is hidden from their eyes. 
 They are led up ignorantly to Armageddon, without the most 
 distant conception of the collision, which must ensue. They 
 go not forth intentionally against the Messiah; they set him 
 at nought and discredit his very being, for they are the wor- 
 shippers of the Anti-Messiah, who is their leader. The ab- 
 sence of any such intention on their part is quite clear from the 
 statement, that they were acting under delusion: "the beast 
 was taken, and with him the false propiiet that wrought miracles 
 before him, with which he deceived them that had the mark of 
 the beast." Rev. xix. 20. Again the Devil is imprisoned "that 
 he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years 
 should be fulfilled," Rev. xx. 3. But being thus assembled, 
 Messiah straight proceeds against them to battle, followed by 
 the armies of heaven, to assert his own title to worship and to 
 empire, and bestows their carcasses on the birds of prey, while 
 he casts the beast and the false prophet alive into the lake of 
 fire burning with brimstone. Compare the statement itself with 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. H 
 
 other prophecies, and you will find, that what the deluded con- 
 federates meditate is to make war against Israel. Dan. xi. 44, 
 utterly to make aicaij many, or rather, to devote many to destruction 
 under the pretext of religion. But Michael unexpectedly stands 
 up for the children of his people, Dan. xii. 1. Compare par- 
 ticularly Zech. xiv. 1, 5. In verse 2 of this last passage, and in 
 Rev. xvi. 16, the gathering of the nations, which is indeed ef- 
 fected in his providence, is attributed to Jehovah. It is against 
 Jerusalem they direct the efforts of their hostility, and while 
 engaged in war against the people of God, the Lord my God and 
 all his saints come to their utter discomfiture. He, who touches 
 Israel touches the apple of his eye; and thus, therefore, in one 
 sense do they make actual war against him. The issue is simi- 
 larly described Isa. Ixvi. 15, 24. The whole absurdity was in 
 Mr. Gipps' own mind from not comparing the predictions, which 
 relate to this crisis, and from not understanding the sense ac- 
 cordingly, in which they made war against the Word of God 
 and his army. 
 
 4. Suffer me to point out the danger of the following mode 
 of reasoning. "The ideas, which occur in ver. 4, such as *'I 
 saw the souls of them which were beheaded for the testimony 
 of Jesus — living — reigning — with Christ — priests — dead;" oc- 
 cur also, as I shall endeavour hereafter to shew in other pas- 
 sages of Scripture, in reference to the saints in this life, he can- 
 not therefore conclude from the mere use of these expressions, 
 that the resurrection here spoken of must necessarily be that of 
 the saints in their glorified bodies; and that their living and 
 reigning with Christ must ?iecessarily he the living and reigning 
 of the saints in glory, with Christ personally present with 
 them." Words, which in themselves are applicable to a vast 
 variety of objects, can never necessarily be confined in their 
 import to any one of those objects, which they variously repre- 
 sent. Even proper names cannot thus be restricted. Pro- 
 nounce or write the name John, and it will not in itself, neces- 
 sarily denote any one individual. It may denote the Baptist 
 or John of Gaunt, or the king of England so named. Even Je- 
 sus may signify the son of Nun, or the son of Sirach, or the son 
 of Mary. The sense of a whole passage is that, which can alone 
 determine the object, which any word is designed to bring be- 
 fore our mind. This indeed is afterwards admitted, but still a 
 long note is appended to prove that the word (ctv^srTaa-/;) resur- 
 rection is used to signify a moral change, in Luke ii. 34. — and 
 "a// the resurrection, which Christ imparts to his people," both 
 that of the soul here, and of the body hereafter, in John xi. 
 25, as if some mighty mystery were contained in the possible 
 application of the word resurrection, to something wholly differ- 
 
12 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 ent from the re-embodying of a departed spirit. As well 
 might some thorough-going Sceptic employ scripture to defend 
 his infidelity, and caution us against the doctrine of the resur- 
 rection, as he might just as conclusively do by calling on us to 
 remark that the verb {a.via-'n/ui.i) to rise again, from which the 
 substantive (amo-a-Ta£r«) resurrectio?!, takes its origin, is employed 
 to denote the act of standing up from a posture of repose, and 
 does not ?2ecessarily imply the notion of resurrection, as under- 
 stood by the orthodox. He might appeal too. in confirmation 
 of his opinion, to such scriptures as the following; — "he said 
 unto him, follow me, and he, (Levi,) arose and followed him," 
 Mark ii. 14. None believed that this Publican was raised from 
 the dead. "If Satan rise up against himself and be divided, 
 he cannot stand, but hath an end," Mark iii. 26. Who be- 
 lieves that Satan actually was once embodied, and is capable of 
 resuming flesh, dividing himself in twain, and dooming his 
 whole person to annihilation? "And there arose certain and 
 bare false witness against him," Mark xiv. 57. It never was 
 understood that false witnesses arose from the dead, to testify 
 against the blessed Redeemer; nor yet, that the High Priest 
 before whom he was arraigned, was a dead man, who sud-' 
 denly became instinct with life. When he stood up, (avua-Ta;) 
 ver. 60, and examined Jesus concerning the things whereof he 
 was accused. "The young men arose, bound him (Ananias) 
 up, and carried him out, and buried him," Acts v. 6. Was it 
 ever supposed that a miracle was performed on a number of 
 dead youths, that they might remove the corpse of this trans- 
 gressor to the grave? Similar questions might be put con- 
 cerning the rising up of the sect of the Sadducees in a state of 
 indignation, Acts v. 17, and of the sect of the Libertines, Acts 
 vi. 9. &c., but there is enough of this idle exposure of criticism. 
 Let this system of hesitation concerning the possible meaning of 
 words be pursued, and there will be nothing certain in Scrip- 
 ture. — Nay, let it be brought to bear on all we read and hear, 
 and we shall be reduced to universal scepticism. The obvious 
 and grammatical import of plain words must ever be taken, or 
 we must fall into endless error. It is of all things essential, 
 that by this rule we shall abide, in the perusal of what God 
 has written. He never employed equivoques to express his 
 mind to his creatures. Now it so happens that as it regards 
 Rev. XX. 4., we are given an antecedent intimation, that leaves 
 no room for reasonable doubt as concerns its real meaning. 
 The kings of the earth being gathered together by the agency 
 of the frog-like Demons, and by the divine appointment, to 
 Armageddon, "the seventh angel poured out his vial into the 
 air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of Heaven, 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. X3 
 
 saying, it is done," Rev. xvi. 17. This surely expresses the 
 completion of all predicted and purposed vengeance on the 
 apostate nations, the grand and fearful winding up of the pre- 
 sent dispensation. Nor can this be an erring exposition, for 
 it is also written, "in the days of the voice of the seventh an- 
 gel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God shall be 
 finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets." 
 Rev. X. 7. But the vengeance which befalls the infidel faction 
 with their kings, their captives and their mighty men, at Ar- 
 mageddon; the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, so long 
 pent up in the seventh vial, is all discharged by the Warrior 
 Horseman; whose regal dignity is inscribed on his vesture and 
 his thigh, as detailed in the close of chap. xix. immediately be- 
 fore the notice of the first Resurrection; and the confederates 
 are either cast alive into the lake of fire, or furnish food to the 
 fowls of Heaven. Now these confederates, thus removed from 
 the land of the living, are pre-eminently the dead in sin; They 
 were all the worshippers of the Beast, and included amongst 
 them all those throughout Christendom, "who believed not the 
 truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness," 2 Thess. ii. 12. 
 If they, therefore, who at this era fall under judgment as the 
 dead in sin, are thus weeded out of the earth, it necessarily 
 follows that it cannot be of such as in this sense only are dead, 
 that the remark is made, in contrast with the occupants of the 
 thrones, who live and reign with Christ the thousand years, 
 and constitute the first resurrection, "but the rest of the dead 
 lived not again, till the thousand years were finished;" — 
 whence it follows, that the rest of the dead are no other than 
 the disembodied, who rejected the testimony of God against 
 themselves. I am aware of Mr. Gipp's singular opinion, that 
 the living and reigning with Christ a thousand years, is a figure, 
 for the spiritual opposition to the still rampant Beast, of a suc- 
 cession of persons, none of whom he will permit to come to a 
 natural end, but all of whom he is to cut off with the sword 
 of martyrdom, as fast as they arise, their ranks being filled up 
 by others, who are similarly to be slain for their resistance to 
 his worship and his mark. The millennium's thus to be a sea- 
 son, not of peace, but of blood — not of rest, but of trouble — 
 not of life, but of death! Credat qui xult! — Strange indeed, 
 would it be, if so direful a spirit were to spring up, and the 
 most terrific and enduring of all persecutions, with which the 
 Church was ever to be visited, should commence just as Satan 
 was bound! Strange that his work should be so much better 
 done for him, when wholly removed from the scene, than 
 when personally acting with all his evil energy, in all the chil- 
 dren of disobedience, throughout the region of his usurped do- 
 2<3* 
 
J4 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 minion! I know not how to account for it, that an idea such 
 as this could ever have obtained admission into such a mind. 
 The Beast is but Satan's puppet — the Dragon gives him his own 
 throne, authority, and power, Rev. xiii. 2. The whole world 
 worships the Dragon, for his liberality to the Beast, ver. 4. The 
 Dragon is the grand conspirator in leading up the kings of the 
 earth to Armageddon. (Rev. xvi. 13.) under the guidance of 
 the Beast, whose head is at this time, identified with the Man 
 of Sin, < 'whose coming is after the working of Satan with all 
 power, and signs, and lying wonders," 2 Thess. ii. 9. The 
 gathering together therefore, at Armageddon, the rule of the 
 Beast, his evil doings, and his disastrous end must, beyond all 
 question, take place before the imprisonment of Satan, and the 
 expiry of his deceitful working. But (he thrones are only 
 then occupied, and the martyrs only then reign, when the bind- 
 ing of Satan takes place. It is during the thousand years of 
 his captivity that they are expressly said to reign, in the pas- 
 sage before us, and it thence follows indisputably, that their 
 reign is subsequent to the downfall and judgment of the Beast, 
 and that their rejection of, and martyrdom by him, were ante- 
 rior to that event. This is altogether so obvious, that I never 
 supposed that it could have been doubted. 
 
 6. The whole of chap. xx. and part of xxi. having been quoted 
 at length, ten points are deduced from the perusal of this im- 
 portant portion of holy Scripture. Some are self-evident; 
 others are enlarged on afterwards. They demand but little 
 observation. In his seventh point we are met with the asser- 
 tion, that death and the grave, as the enemies of Christ, are 
 not destroj'ed at \.\\q first resurrection but at the judgment before 
 the white throne. None maintain, that they are so destroyed 
 at the first resurrection; it remains to be proved, that they will 
 be so at the latter. Nothing can be more obvious, than that 
 Death and Hades being cast into the lake of fire denotes sim- 
 ply, that the ungodly dead are consigned to that dread furnace, 
 whose l)odies were previously preyed on by the one, and whose 
 souls had once populated the other. Thus viewed, they must 
 be regarded as the prison-keepers of the ungodly, rather than 
 as the enemies of Christ. In this latter respect they are not 
 brought before us here. It is material to notice that a pre- 
 vious judgment, executed on the beast and the false prophet, 
 a thousand years preceding, had consigned them to the same 
 place of torment, chap. xix. 20. The mere casting of the 
 wicked into that abyss, therefore, is not tantamount to the de- 
 struction of death and Hades as the enemies of Christ. I will 
 not enter here on the whole argument, but I think it necessary 
 to premise, with reference to future reasonings, that the time, 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 25 
 
 when the old heavens and the old earth pass away, are by no 
 means marked in Rev. xx. 11. It is there simply stated, that 
 he who sitteth upon the great white throne is one, from whose 
 face they did flee away. The period of their flight, and the 
 character of their flight, an expression by the way, as figura- 
 tive as any that occurs in the book, are left altogether unde- 
 termined. Yet do we meet with a remarkable note, in the 
 previous part of the book, which leads us at once to determine 
 the juncture^ when the figurative flight occurs. Under the 
 sixlh seal, which plainly marks the judgment on the nations at 
 Armageddon, it is written, "the heaven departed as a scroll, 
 when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were 
 moved out of their places. Rev. vi. 14. 
 
 7. The ten points having been made, are followed by eicrhl 
 considerations. I proceed to notice them seriatim. The first con- 
 siderafion is thus expressed: — "The description, which the Holy 
 Ghost has given of the persons, who will reign with Christ, as 
 signified in this passage, convinces me that he does not intend 
 to signify the saints reigning with Christ after his second com- 
 ing. If he had intended this, I feel assured he would have 
 given such a designation of those who reign, as would apply to 
 all the saints without exception.*' I am prepared to prove, 
 that the language here employed does include them all, but I 
 feel constrained 171 limine to protest against this mode of putting 
 the question. The matter at issue is simply this, has the Spi- 
 rit spoken universaUij of the saints as thus reigning, or has he 
 confined his description to a particular class of saints, to the ex- 
 clusion of the residue. It is not for us to argue what would 
 have been, or what ought to have been the mode of expression 
 employed by the Holy Spirit, under particular circumstances. 
 It is not by our estimate of the proprieties of expression, that 
 we are to judge of the diction employed by the Holy Spirit; 
 neither must we presume to do so. But he proceeds — "Verse 
 6, limits the reigning to those, who partake of Vne first resurrec- 
 tion. This, therefore, excludes all the saints who remain «/i^e 
 at the time of the second coming of Christ, because they will 
 not partake of any resurrection as they have not died." Now, 
 verse 6 does not limit the reigning to those who partake of the 
 first resurrection, but simply pronounces those blessed, who 
 have a part in it. Taking it thus for granted, that the living 
 saints are excluded from the description of the first resurrec- 
 tion, (Rev. XX. 6,) another step in advance is made, and 1 Cor. 
 XV. 50, 54, and 1 Thess. iv. 15, 17, are appealed to, to prove 
 that the living saints, as well as those who have died, shall re- 
 joice together at the second advent; and it is thence concluded, 
 fiom the discovery of so essential a difference, that the events 
 
Jg THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 referred to, in Rev. xx. 4, 6, on the one hand, and in 1 Cor. xv. 
 50, 54, and in 1 Thess. iv. 15, 17, on the other, are widely dis- 
 similar. According to this mode of reasoning, his own system 
 would equally fall to the ground. He maintained, that the just 
 and the unjust will arise together, or so nearly together, that 
 they will both stand, at the same time, on the same day, before 
 the bar of judgment. But the unjust are not named in 1 Cor. 
 XV. nor by implication included in 1 Thess. iv. Those pas- 
 sages, therefore, cannot refer to the resurrection of the dead, as 
 they contain so incomplete a representation of the prodigies of 
 the last day, as necessarily to constitute, by the vast amount of 
 omission, an essential difference between the two events. In 
 looking over the Roman History, I often find it stated that the 
 Romans conquered; without noticing the auxiliaries from va- 
 rious nations under heaven, which composed their army; and 
 in the same manner the various fortunes of Napoleon Bona- 
 parte are continually referred to, without any references being 
 made to the tributary forces, by whose aid he pushed on his 
 victories; or notwithstanding whose assistance he sustained de- 
 feat; are we therefore to conclude, that the armies either of the 
 one or of the other were composed exclusively either of Ro- 
 mans or of Frenchman? With as much evidence of truth might 
 we conclude, that martyrs only are included in the narrative of 
 the first resurrection. I know that such a conclusion indeed 
 has been drawn by my Millenarian friend, Mr. Burgh, from the 
 place before us, since he restricts the sense of this passage to 
 those, who have at least had the spirit of martyrs. Now I, for 
 my part, believe that all the I^ord's real children possess just 
 such a spirit, for they have the spirit of Jesus. No other spi- 
 rit but the spirit of Jesus is the spirit of martyrdom. He jus- 
 tifies his conclusion, however, by identifying the white robed 
 armies of Rev. xix. 14, with the sitters upon thrones. He sup- 
 poses them to be the understood nominative to the verb sat; 
 and because the white robed multitude of Rev. vii. 14, are said 
 to have come out of much tribulation, he at once determines 
 that the white robe is the martyrs' garb and that the sitters upon 
 thrones must all have come out of the tribulation of martyrdom. 
 But a little examination would have proved, that while martyrs 
 are arrayed in white, the white robe is not peculiar to them. 
 In the very passage referred to, it is said that their robes were 
 made white in the blood of the Lamb; but all who truly believe 
 are washed clean from every defilement in that same fountain. 
 In Rev. xix. S, it is said of the Lamb's wife, "to her was granted 
 that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white; for 
 the fine linen is the righteousness of saints," unless it be 
 shown that none belongto the bride, and that none arc recog- 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 17 
 
 nised as saints but such as either passed, or were actually ready 
 to pass through martyrdom, it cannot be maintained that the 
 white robed armies who follow the Lamb, and who are evi- 
 dently identified by their raiment with the bride, were either 
 martyrs in fact or in intent. True it is, indeed, that these white- 
 stoled attendants on Messiah are all conquerors. "He that over- 
 cometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment," Rev. iii. 
 5. "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my 
 throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my 
 Father in his throne," verse 21, but before Christ addresses this 
 promise to the Laodiceans he counsels them, and that too, or 
 ere their victory can be achieved, to buy of him while raiment 
 that they may be clothed, and that the shame o/" their ?iaked?iess do 
 not appear. But what is this conquest? "Whatsoever is born 
 of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that over- 
 cometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh 
 the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God, 
 1 John V. 4, 5. The beloved disciple was assuredly directed 
 to pen these words, at once to shed light upon his own pro- 
 phecy, and to add to our comfort and joy of faith. Again, he 
 writes. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them, the 
 spirits proceeding out of the Antichrist; "because greater is he 
 that is in you than he that is in the world," 1 John iv. 4. Be- 
 sides, is it not written by another apostle — "Who shall separate 
 us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or 
 persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As 
 it is written. For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we 
 are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay in all these things 
 we are more than conquerors through him that loved us," 
 Rom. vii. 35, 37. Here, indeed, we are presented with a long 
 enumeration of every description of sorrow, that can arise to put 
 the stedfastness of^'aith to trial and the unquenchable love of 
 Christ to the test. Most graciously is conquest, yea more than 
 conquest ensured to all, who are troubled, including martyrs, 
 but not excluding others. I, therefore, can discover no ground 
 for the limitation that has been contended for, though I readily 
 admit, nay maintain, on the general tenor of Scripture, that it 
 is through much tribulation the way to the kingdom lieth; and 
 that their's is a perilous state who know nothing of it, or who 
 court the world in order to avoid it. Let there be an unflinch- 
 ing confession of Jesus and trouble will follow; but let us not 
 restrict the fellowship of the believer with Jesus in his suffer- 
 ings, to external trials. Many, on whom no frown of man ever 
 alighted, have had the deepest experience of his sorrows, who 
 wept over Jerusalem, and whose heart bled for the wretched- 
 ness of a world that was estranged from God. In addition 
 
Ig, THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 to the argument to be derived from the character of the 
 white robed sufferers, who gain the conquest, which they 
 undertake, I would add that the promise, which they attain 
 to, is sure to all the seed. "7/" ye be Christ's, the?i are ye Abra- 
 ham's seed and heirs according to the promise.'' Gal. iii. 29. The 
 Patriarchs, the Prophets, and all who obtained a good report of 
 old, "through faith, received not the promise; God having 
 provided some better thing for us, that they without us should 
 not be made perfect." Heb. xi. 39, 40. 'Tis true many of 
 these endured the fire of persecution, but many are enumerated 
 who endured none. Faith is the criterion of heirship referred 
 to; and the possessors of that faith yet await the time with pa- 
 tience when they are to be made perfect conjointly with us, i. e. 
 with all 7vho have obtaified like precious faith zcith us, through the 
 righteousness of our God afid Saviour Jesus Christ, for to all such 
 are given exceeding great and precious promises, that by these they 
 might be partakers of the divine nature, and therefore of the di- 
 vine inheritance. 2 Pet. I, 3, 4. The kingdom of heaven is 
 entailed on all the poor in spirit, the heirship of earth belongeth 
 to all the meek — the vision of God shall be enjoyed by all the 
 pure in heart — the peace-makers are all the children of God, and 
 if children, then heirs; so that the poor i?i spirit — the meek — the 
 pure i?i heart — the peace-makers — as well as those 7vho are perse- 
 cuted for righteousness sake, are all persons of whom we may 
 affirm their's is the kingdom of heave?!. Matt. v. 3 — 10. What 
 is denoted by the expression, the kingdom of heaven, will per- 
 haps come under consideration. But I proceed to examine 
 more closely the contested passage, and beg to lay it before 
 you, as exhibited in Mr. R. Roe's forthcoming Analytical 
 Arrangement of the Apocalypse, where it is laid down ac- 
 cording to the laws of the Hebrew parallelism.* 
 
 » 
 * "Mr. Boys, in the portions of Scripture which he has arranged, first ex- 
 hibits the corresponding parts in such visible form as to be obvious at a glance; 
 and then subjoins, in similar form, a summary of their respective topics. It 
 is a common practice to write metrical compositions in this manner, lor the 
 purpose of shewing both the species of verse, and the order of their occurrence; 
 and, if this is advantageous in the <iase of sound only, how much more so in 
 that of the sense. It is indeed only so far as this process is mentally perform- 
 ed, that a single sentence can be understood; and though this may be sufficient 
 on all common occasions, yet in the case of the Bible, in whicii every word 
 has weight, and in which the correspondences pervade every part, with un- 
 equalled regularity, variety and beauty, every possible help is desirable. In 
 short, I consider it as the most effective instrument that has yet been put into 
 our hands; that it is capable of turning the scale on most doubtful questions; 
 that by its means the reader often obtains, from bare inspection, a clearer and 
 more comprehensive view of the subject than from long and elaborate com- 
 mentaries; and that, till an arrangement agreeable to it, of the entire volume 
 of Scripture is completed, we shall not make the nearest possible approach 
 either to the best translation or the most correct interpretation." 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 19 
 
 And I saw 
 
 td 
 
 fd 
 
 O o B 
 
 != =r 
 
 
 Cb CD 
 
 
 Oq^ 
 
 
 C c/; 
 
 
 S » 
 
 m 
 
 
 cj 
 
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 '-' S cf 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 o s 
 
 O 
 
 p o 
 
 02 
 
 
 o 
 
 5 B 
 
 •^ 
 
 s -^ 
 
 
 cr * 
 
 P3 
 
 
 <! 
 
 a. 
 
 
 p- 
 
 > 
 
 ■■^^^-^N 
 
 O 
 
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 s^S- 
 
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 O re 
 
 Ul 
 
 ^ a> 
 
 
 
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 ^ 3' 
 
 >^ 
 
 "3 re_ 
 
 
 General. 
 
 Particular. 
 
 TOPICS. 
 
 Jail Thrones. 
 
 \ b 1 I Sitting and judging. 
 
 a 2 I Souls: description, \\\\ EegaUve. 
 
 b 2 I Living and reigning, 
 c I I Time. 
 a 3 1 Rest of the dead, 
 b 3 I Not living. 
 
 c 2 I Time. 
 
20 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 You will observe two objects were presented to the Apos- 
 tles' view, 1st. — Thrones occupied by judges, who are neither 
 named nor described; and 2ndly. — Souls, -{vxai, of whom a de- 
 scription is given both positively and negatively. As the 
 Thrones, which were seen occupied, are parallel to the Souls 
 who are so minutely described; so is the sitting aiid judging on 
 the former, parallel to the living and the reigning of the latter; 
 and are not to be confounded, as if they relate to the same per- 
 sons or to the same circumstances. In the second member of 
 the parallelism, the living saints are included and described 
 negatively (d. 2.) along with those (d. 1.) who had been cut off 
 in that same persecution, under which they also had been found 
 faithful though they escaped the sword. The former member 
 of the parallelism (a 1.) had been itself abundantly sufficient, 
 to have included all these different parties, had it not been the 
 Lord's will to have afforded special encouragement and conso- 
 lation to such of his dear children, as shall be exposed to the 
 last fiery trial of Antichrist, now speedily about to be devel- 
 oped. The fact that they also shall live and reign with Christ, 
 is therefore expressed in terms that admit of no doubt; and 
 they occupy, accordingly, so prominent a place in the predic- 
 tion, that some would confine its gracious promise exclusively 
 to them. In adopting such a limitation, they are neither justi- 
 fied by the passage itself, nor by the context, nor by the gene- 
 ral scope of Scripture. — I have further to remark on the pas- 
 sage, that the verb (sxafl/o-stv) they sat, having no nominative ex- 
 pressed, must be taken impersonally and include all who shall 
 so sit on thrones and judge; but these are described to be the 
 whole body of the saints, 1 Cor. vi. 2; 2 Tim, iv. 8, &c. ; and 
 therefore all the saints shall so sit and so judge. Let it not be 
 supposed that because the verb is plural it cannot be taken im- 
 personally. I offer you the following examples of plural verbs, 
 which must all, of necessity, be taken impersonally, from the 
 structure of the sentences, in which they occur. Thus, good 
 measure it is said shall men give into ijour bosutn, Luke vi. 38; 
 the word men has been supplied — no nominative is expressed 
 — the verb is J'a>rrouaiv. Again, thou fool this night do they require 
 thy soul of thee, Luke xii. 20,* marg. Our translators, how- 
 ever, saw that a.7r^noua-tv must be impersonally taken. A very 
 remarkable instance of the same structure occurs Luke xvi. 9, 
 "they may receive you into everlasting habitations" — the 
 nominative, which has been so unfortunately supplied to the 
 verb, tr«|aivTcu has led to considerable misapprehension of the 
 sense. Two instructive examples of this mode of writing oc- 
 
 ♦ Sed frustra qiiarunt veteres de quibiis hoc dicatur. Est enim personales 
 pro impersonali, aiU activum pro Passive. Grotius, in Poll S3'nops: in loco. 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 21 
 
 cur in the Apocalypse itself. The fugitive and persecuted 
 woman had a place prepared for her of God, that they should 
 feed her Ti>i<pa,a-iv, 1260 days, Rev. xii. 6, i. e. she was to be fed 
 during that period of time. Lastly, "blessed is, that watcheth 
 and keepeth his garments lest he walk naked and they see his 
 shame," — lest who see it? To the word see /^KiTraxn there can 
 be no nominative understood, and the sense obviously is, lest 
 his shame become an object of general observation. But 
 though all these plural verbs are taken impersonally, yet do 
 they imply a numerical whole, which acteth the part ascribed 
 to the unexpressed and unintimated nominative. By some 
 considerable body shall the shame of the naked be discerned — 
 the woman be fed — the faithful distributers of mammon be re- 
 ceived — the soul of the fool be required — the benevolent be 
 benevolently treated — and the thrones be occupied. But for 
 the knowledge of that body, in each particular case, we must 
 be indebted to the general statements of Scripture and not to 
 the sentence alone in which the action is attributed to it. 
 
 Cofisideration the second. — "The description which the Holy 
 Ghost has given, respecting the duration of the reigning, ap- 
 pears to me another reason for believing it is not the same as 
 the reigning of the»saints with Christ, after his second coming. 
 If this passage were intended to foretell such a reigning of the 
 saints after their resurrection, as would be immediately con- 
 nected with, and precede their reigning for ever; I feel con- 
 vinced we should have met with some express declaration upon 
 this subject; and that the mode of expression in verse 4, would 
 have been somewhat of this kind: "and they lived and reign- 
 ed with Christ a [Greek the) thousand years and for ever and 
 ever." 1 should expect this both, &c." — With conjectural ex- 
 pectations it is in vain to contend, as it is also improper to 
 come, to the examination of Scripture. Here, however, we 
 have a positive misapprehension of what is actually written. 
 We are not given any direct information as to the duration of 
 the reign in this place. That which we are instructed in the 
 actual duration of, is the term of Satan's incarceration. This 
 being limited to a thousand years, during the which the rest 
 of the dead do not rise, it is said, not concerning the occupa- 
 tion of the thrones, but concerning those who were faithful 
 during the tyranny of the beast, that they also lived and reign- 
 ed with Christ the thousand years — which is widely difl'erent 
 from the conjectured statement, that they only lived and reigned 
 A thousand years, to the idea that their reign is limited to that 
 time. They exercise uninterrupted authority while Satan is 
 bound — when loosed for a little season he interferes with that 
 authority, and endeavours to re-establish his usurpation on the 
 
 VOL. III. — 27 
 
22 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 ruins of their empire, and accordingly he leads up his deluded 
 victims against the camp of the saints. But what is the issue? 
 Does he succeed in his daring exploit? Does he hurl them 
 from the thrones they occupy? No such thing. He cannot 
 compete with heaven. Fire comes down from God and de- 
 vours his rebel hosts, while he, himself, is cast anew into the 
 lake of fire where the beast and the false prophet are. The in- 
 road on their realms is effectually and for ever defeated, and 
 the saints continue in the possession of their covenant-esta- 
 blished dominion. In a note the error is pushed to an extreme, 
 on the autliority of an anonymous author: "When I con- 
 sider that a period of a thousand years bears a less proportion 
 to eternity, than the smallest grain of sand does to the whole 
 earth; and that the saints are to live for eternity, I iiever can 
 conceive that the Holy Ghost has given such numerous and glo- 
 rious descriptions, concerning the state of the saints during 
 the period of a thousand years, and has left the infinitely more 
 important eternity wrapped up in darkness, &c. " No man's 
 conceptions are to be the gauge by which we are to measure 
 the wisdom, whereby the Holy Ghost may contrive to acquaint 
 us with the divine purposes, or the method he pursues in mak- 
 ing known to us things to come. The Socinian might, with 
 equal force, bring in his conceptions to interpret what is writ- 
 ten. The question can never be what any man thinks, but 
 what God has taught. In this case, however, the period is 
 only introduced to denote the probationary term allotted to the 
 devil-freed world, under the reign of Christ and his saints, 
 during which the rest of the dead are suffered to remain un- 
 judged in Hades. 
 
 Consideration the third. — "The promise given inverse 6, con- 
 cerning those who partake of the first resurrection; namely, on 
 such the second death hath no power, would also lead me to con- 
 ceive, that these persons do not signify the saints risen and 
 reigning in their glorified bodies." This idea is the very op- 
 posite of consideration the first, where the difficulty was repre- 
 sented to be, that former promises were not reiterated — here 
 the difficulty is, that they are repeated. The promise being 
 given to the saints, while living in their mortal bodies, that they 
 should not taste the second death, it is thought superfluous to 
 repeat it "with reference to the risen saints!" The assurance, 
 however, that the second death has no power on those who 
 partake of the first resurrection, being one that is addressed to 
 them while living here in their mortal bodies is far from being 
 superfluous, and is plainly designed for their comfort, while 
 awaiting the promise of the life to come. It is not deemed 
 superfluous, or inappropriate to his risen state to say, that Christ 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 23 
 
 being raised from the dead dieth no more, (QavstTo? etltou olx. in KvpiMi) 
 death domineers no longer over him, Rom. vi. 9, and if it be not 
 inappropriate or superfluous thus to speak of the risen head, 
 neither can it be so to affirm of the risen members, over such 
 the Death the second possesses no authority. Our Lord, when 
 speaking of his members, as rvorthy to obtain that age, and the 
 resurrection, that out of dead ones, deems it neither inappropri- 
 ate nor superfluous to speak of them, in the enjoyment of that 
 resurrection, as persons, who cannot die any more, ou-n yap amda. vuv 
 'in S'uvuvmt, Luke XX. 36, and how then can it be either inappro- 
 priate or superfluous to speak of them as persons, over whom 
 the death the second possesses no authority? So far is it from being 
 either inappropriate or superfluous to speak of them after this 
 wise, that had the fact not been made a matter of promise and 
 revelation, we could never, with certainty, have known that 
 their enjoyment of the resurrection would involve their com- 
 plete and perpetual exemption from so fearful a calamity. 
 Even thus viewed, the objection embodied in consideration the 
 third is evidently fallacious. It is put somewhat more strongly 
 thus, to those who are in this life, exposed to the frst death it 
 is promised "he that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second 
 death. Hence the superfluousness, if I might so speak, of such 
 a promise in reference to the riseti and glorified saints, and its 
 peculiar suitableness and actual previous application by the 
 Spirit, to suffering saints before the first death, and exposed 
 thereto, would confirm my conviction that the reigning with 
 Christ cannot signify that of the saints with their glorified bo- 
 dies." We have already despatched the question of the super- 
 fluousness of such a statement with reference to the risen 
 saints. I now proceed to show that the whole argument is 
 based upon the erroneous conception that the passage before us 
 is a promise at all. — It is narrative and not promise — prophetic 
 narrative penned not for the instruction of risen saints, but for 
 the comfort o( suffering saints. The words are consecutive to 
 the prophecy o( the frst resurrection, and are as follows: — *'He 
 is blessed and holy who has part in the resurrection the first. 
 Over these the death the second has no authority, but they 
 shall be priests of God, even Messiah, and shall reign with him 
 a thousand years. Here is nothing of an address to the living 
 but an extract from an historical prophecy, styled "the revela- 
 tion of Jesus Christ," and which John was commanded to write 
 in a book and to send to the seven churches. It states as a 
 fact concerning certain persons, who share in "the resurrec- 
 tion the first," that "the death the second," which is evidently 
 opposed thereunto, has no authority, exercises no control over 
 them, oiKix^i^ova-ictv. This statement supposes ihat the death the 
 
24 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 second, is, at the time spoken of, in the actual possession of do- 
 minion. But the death the seco7id is described to be the same 
 thing with the casting of the ungodly into the Lake of fire. 
 Rev. XX. 14. Now the first time when in the exercise of re- 
 tributive justice, ungodly persons are cast into it, and thus sub- 
 jected to the dominion of the death the seco?id, is on the discom- 
 fiture of the Beast and the False Prophet. Till the Beast and 
 the False Prophet therefore, are cast into the Lake of fire, the 
 death the second will have no subjects, and will exercise in con- 
 sequence no dominion. There could be nothing peculiar affirm- 
 ed, respecting any class of persons at present, were we to say 
 of them, that the death the second has no power over them, for 
 he has no power over any, since the Beast and the False Pro- 
 phet are not yet consigned to the Lake of fire. But after that 
 event it will be a striking peculiarity, in the case of the risen 
 saints, that notwithstanding their previous descent to Hades, 
 the death the second has no power over them. The introduction 
 of this tremendous tyrant in the exercise of power, but yet a 
 power which reaches not to the saints, and therefore, interfereth 
 not with the sovereignty they exercise, when placed on thrones, 
 and in possession of the crown which the rigliteous judge shall 
 award them, is a strong corroborative testimony to the literal 
 interpretation of the first Resurrection. Their jurisdiction is 
 independent of his, and his independent of theirs. Both ex- 
 ercise authority at the same period, but over widely difierent 
 realms. 
 
 Consideration the fourth. — "If the first resurrection be inter- 
 preted to signify the resurrection of the saints, then "the rest of 
 the dead," in ver. 5, and '*the dead, small and great," in ver. 
 12, must be interpreted to signify the ungodly dead; and to be 
 the same the one as the other. It appears to me, however, 
 that "the rest of the dead" cannot be interpreted to be the 
 same as "the dead, small and great," because the expressions 
 are so widely diflferent. I cannot but conceive, that if the 
 Holy Ghost had intended the same persons in ver. 5, and ver. 
 \2, he w^ould have given the same description in each, and that 
 ver. 12 would have been, "and I saw the rest of the dead stand 
 before God," &c. We have here another instance of his 
 conception of what the Holy Ghost would have said, had he 
 really intended to convey a certain meaning. But I pass this 
 over. It is by a considerable bound, the conclusion was reach- 
 ed, that the ungodbj being denoted by "the rest of the dead," 
 must also be denoted by "the dead, small and great." It de- 
 manded a pause before so hasty a stride was taken. The tin- 
 godbj being understood to be "the rest of the dead," must 
 doubtless be included amongst "the dead, small and great," 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 25 
 
 who are brought up finally for judgment; but wherefore is it 
 that this latter expression must needs be confined to them? 
 There is a change indeed, in the form of expresson, but may 
 there not be abundant reason for it differing essentially from 
 that contemplated by Mr. Gipps. A thousand years intervene 
 between the period when "the rest of the dead" are doomed 
 not to live again, till the expiration of that remarkable epoch, 
 and the time when "the dead, small and great," are led up to 
 the White Throne. Is it not possible that in so great a space 
 of time the invisible world may receive a considerable increase 
 of inhabitants from amongst the mortal dwellers upon earth, 
 over whom the saints shall reign? Great longevity indeed, 
 will be restored to man, but still death is to exist during the 
 Millennium. The child of a hundred years shall die. That 
 mortality will then take place, is determined by these Scrip- 
 tures amongst others. Isa. Ixv. 20; Ezek. xliv. 25, 31; 1 Cor. 
 XV. 26. Had verse 12 merely stated that "the rest of the dead," 
 as described in verse 5, who had died before the thousand years 
 began, stood before God, it would not have included those, 
 who shall die during the thousand years. — But this is not so. 
 Co7isideration the Jifth. — "The time when "the rest of the 
 dead lived again," in ver. 5, appears to me equally to differ 
 from the time when "the dead, small and great stand before 
 God," in ver, 12. It seems to me to be clearly implied that 
 the resurrection "of the rest of the dead," signified in ver. 5, 
 will take place after "the ending of the thousand years;" at 
 the same time that Satan is "loosed from his prison," ver. 7. 
 But "the dead, small and great, stand before God," not after 
 the ending of the thousand years, but of the intervening period 
 described ver. 7, to 10. Consequently this cannot be the same 
 as the "living again of the rest of the dead," described in ver. 
 5. but must be separated from it by this intervening period." 
 That the resurrection of the rest of the dead will take place 
 after the expiration of the thousand years, admits of no doubt, 
 but the sense intended to be conveyed by the phrase, that it 
 will take place "after the ending" of those years is not, that it 
 will merely be subsequent to their expiration, but that it will 
 immediately take place when they come to a close. Two as- 
 sumptions are involved in their statement: ihe first is, that "the 
 rest of the dead" arise at the very moment in which the thou- 
 sand years expire, and the second is, that the judgment before 
 the great white throne does not occur till after the destruction 
 of Gog and Magog. The first assumption rests on the force of 
 the word until. It is written, "the rest of the dead lived not 
 again, until the thousand years were finished." If this pre- 
 diction conveys the idea of their immediate resurrection, from 
 27* 
 
26 
 
 THE FIRST RESURRECTION, 
 
 the force of the word U7itil, then have we often employed this 
 word in a very loose manner. But let us put it to the test. It 
 wasprophecied by Jacob; — "The sceptre shall not depart from 
 Judah; nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh 
 come." Gen. xlix. 10. Did this take place immediately upon 
 Shiloh's appearance? Judea did not become a Roman Province 
 till eleven years after Messiah's birth, and though then incor- 
 porated with Syria, the Jews were still suffered to retain their 
 own polity, nor was it wholly subverted till the fall of Jerusa- 
 lem. The young maidens who directed Saul in. his quest for 
 the Seer, said to him and his servant; "as soon as ye be come 
 into the city, ye shall straightway find him, before he go up to 
 the high place to eat, for the people will not eat until he come, 
 because he doth bless the sacrifice, and afterwards they eat that 
 be bidden." 1 Sam. ix. 13. Does this imply that immediately 
 on the appearance of the Seer, the people all began to eat? Even 
 after their important colloquy, and after Samuel had placed the 
 destined Monarch and his Servant in the most honourable seat 
 in the parlour, a delay arose, till the reserved joint was served 
 up for the extraordinarily honoured guests. WhenArtaxerxes 
 wrote to the Samaritans saying; — "Give ye now commandment 
 to cause these men to cease, and that this city be not builded, 
 until another commandment shall be given from me," Ezra 
 iv. 19, did he give them to understand, that on issuing that pro- 
 spective decree, the city should arise immediately in all her fair 
 proportions? With just as fair shew of reason might it be ar- 
 gued, that Samuel went to see Saul on the day of his death, 1 
 Sam. XV. 35; that the apostles immediately departed from Je- 
 rusalem, when they were endued with power from on high, 
 Luke xxiv. 49; and that Mary ceased to be a Virgin the very 
 moment she brought forth her first-born Son, Matt. i. 25. The 
 second assumption supposes, that because the judgment before 
 the great white throne \s related after the destruction of Gog 
 and Magog, it must therefore, be subsequent to that event. 
 This assumption can only arise from an entire ignorance of the 
 structure of the Apocalypse. It is far from being a, continuous 
 record of events, successive! ij to ensue. As well might we argue, 
 that because the second advent is noticed in Rev. i. 7, all that 
 is related subsequently as happening, in the book is posterior 
 to that event. The subsequently related events may, or may 
 not be posterior, but this must first be demonstrated before any 
 inference, can legitimately be drawn from it. My own opinion 
 is, that the two events in question are coetaneous. There is 
 no mark given, by which we can certainly decide that they do 
 not synchronize. However the idea on which he resolves that 
 they are consecutive, might have been urg.ed, with great weight 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 27 
 
 against the writer himself. According to him, we have the 
 coming of Christ, and the simultaneous resurrection of the just 
 and of the unjust, and their respective dooms described in Rev. 
 XX. 11, 15. But by his theory also, the descent of the Saints, 
 under the symbol of New Jerusalem, is described in the second 
 verse of the succeeding chapter. They however come with 
 Christ, the living Saints being caught up the while to meet 
 them. 1 Cor. xv, 23, 1 Thess. iv. 16, 17. If the prophecy 
 therefore, be a consecutive narrative of events, gradually to be 
 unfolded in the very order of their prediction, we must at once 
 come to the conclusion, either that the Judgment before the 
 White Throne is anterior to the coming of Christ with his 
 Saints, and is descriptive of something widely different from 
 the transactions, which shall occur on the descent of the Holy 
 City; or else that the descent of the Holy City, as a bride 
 adorned for her husband, is the symbolical representation, not 
 of those blessed souls who shall accompany the Lord on his 
 return, but of some event posterior to their resurrection and 
 appearing. 
 
 Consideration the sixth. — ''The omission of any declaration 
 as to "the sea, death, and the grave giving up the dead" at the 
 first resurrection, and the making such a declaration respecting 
 the dead, in ver. 13, convinces me both that the "first resurrec- 
 tion" is not that of the saints, and also, that the dead in vers. 
 12, 13, include all mankind, both the saints and the ungodly." 
 Let us attend to the process of reasoning, for at the first sight 
 the reason here put forward, is far from obvious. "In every 
 other part of the word of God, the information given concern- 
 ing the resurrection of the Saints is not only much more fre- 
 quent, but also much more explicit, than concerning the resur- 
 rection of the ungodly. I feel convincedj therefore, that in this 
 portion also of Scripture, if it were intended to foretell a resur- 
 rection of the saints distinct from that of the ungodly, more ex- 
 plicit information would be given concerning the former, than 
 concerning the latter. I find, however, that the information 
 given, concerning "the first resurrection," instead of being 
 much more,, is much less explicit, than that concerning the 
 resunection intimated in ver. 12, 13, for there is not the least 
 allusion to the "sea, death, and the grave giving up the dead" 
 at the first resurrection, and it is expressly declared, that they 
 do this at the timeof the resurrection set forth in ver. 12, 13." 
 Are the sea,death, and the grave, synonymous with the saints? Or 
 is it essential that these objects should enter into the explicit 
 delineation of the sainta at their resurrection? It appears to 
 me that we are given far more explicit information concerning 
 them, when they are described as «7/m^ on thrones,. and judging^ . 
 
28 
 
 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 as livwg and reigning zvith Christ the thousand years, than what 
 we should have been, had we been only taught to believe, that 
 the various receptacles of their mouldering and mouldered bo- 
 dies, had yielded those bodies up. Might there not, however, 
 be some wise and important reason for omitting the notice of 
 their various burial places, and fixing the attention exclusively 
 on the site of their united glory? Are they not one and all 
 represented as sleeping in Jesus, as having one common place 
 of repose, as being collected into the common repository of the 
 Saviour's body, and as having risen with him virtually, when 
 he burst the sepulchre, and would it not therefore, have been 
 unmeet to have represented them here as the yet unrisen, as 
 distributed into various masses, and as divided in death amongst 
 the various charnel-houses, which sea, death, and the grave af- 
 forded? Possessed of the glory that excelleth, the dark valley 
 of the shadow of death, through which they had past, is for- 
 gotten, and nothing is remembered but the victory by which 
 death was swallowed up; the victory by which the sting was 
 extracted from the oppressor; the life, which having been hid 
 in Jesus, was brought out into manifestation, when Christ, who 
 is their life, had appeared, as the triumphant word of God, 
 whereupon they accordingly had taken their covenanted seat 
 with him upon his throne. Most richly fraught with comfort 
 is the very omission, by which it is sought to overturn their 
 possession of immortality, and their acquisition of incorruption, 
 in the morning of the first resurrection. Most blessed is the 
 thouo-ht, that the glory, which shall be revealed in us, is such 
 and so great, that the sufferings of the present time, and our 
 lio-ht afflictions, which are but for a moment, though that mo- 
 ment be death, are yet unworthy of notice by the inspiring 
 spirit, when he would set forth our exceeding blessedness, as 
 partakers of the first resurrection. It is very singular that this 
 should be deemed a less explicit notice of the Saints, which 
 setteth forth their glory as enthroned — as judging the world — as 
 living and reigning zcith Christ, than a passage which merely de- 
 scribelh the resignation by the sea, death, and the grave of those, 
 whose bodies they held in possession. Here the saints occupy 
 the whole space in the view of the Prophet, who is so wrapt 
 up with the contemplation of their exalted dignity that he de- 
 spatches the whole mass of the ungodly, with the brief notice, 
 "the rest of the dead." There, not a syllable occurs, which 
 can be construed to describe the saints themselves, or the glory 
 which they inherit; they are left without one explicit note to 
 mark them, though they are said to be most explicitly held up 
 to our consideration in the words seal death! grave! Even 
 the word Avxa-TAtrt; or resurreetion, is not once met with, and yet 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 29 
 
 it twice occurs in the place where it is said they are entirely 
 overlooked. Here, their future state as risen, is detailed. There, 
 the past condition of the judged, as having been held previous- 
 ly by the sea, deatii, and the grave, is described, together with 
 the doom of those, who are not written in the book of life, and 
 who are cast into the lake of fire. Is this anything resembling 
 explicit information concerning the saints? 
 
 Consideration the Seventh. — "Those which have been already 
 adduced are confirmed by the introduction in verse 15 of tlie 
 phrase of distinction, "whosoever was not found written in the 
 book of life," in describing who are to be "cast into the lake 
 of fire." There could be no occasion for this distinction unless 
 these who are written in the book of life had formed a part of 
 those, vvho stood before God and zuere judged. For otherwise 
 the dead, in verse 12, would include only the ungodly; and 
 consequently all the dead would, without exception, "be cast 
 into the lakeof fire. " In this case the mode of expression in 
 verse 15, would have been as general as in verse 12; and as 
 • verse 12 speaks of "the dead, small and great," standing before 
 God, so verse 15 would have declared "and the dead, small and 
 great, were cast into the lake of fire." I premise that all the 
 dead who stand before God must be those who at that time 
 were in the state of death. A false impression might be pro- 
 duced in the mind of the reader of this place that Millenarians 
 were chargeable with the doctrine that all who die are cast into 
 the lake of fire. This place is considered by them to repre- 
 sent the judgment simply of those, who remained in the state 
 of death at the period of the first resurrection, and of all those 
 who may have descended into that state after the first resur- 
 rection. It is rather an uncommon kind of proof to refer to 
 those, who are "not written in the book of life," as evi- 
 dences that ALL those who were ever written in the book of 
 life are included in their description. The negation of par- 
 ticular qualities in any company of men does not imply the 
 existence of those qualities in others with whom they may 
 be associated. Still a marked distinction does exist between 
 the statement of the dead who stand before the throne, and 
 the dead who are cast into the lake of fire. That distinc- 
 tion, while it justifies not the idea that a// the living just, at this 
 time, stand before the throne, seems to result from what we re- 
 marked under consideration the fourth, that death will exist dur- 
 ing the Millennium: and that children of an hundred years 
 old, who are not accursed, will die. The names of these latter 
 will, doubtless, be inscribed in the book of life; and to distin- 
 guish them from such, it is said of the dead, who stand before 
 
30 THE FIRST RESURRECTION.. 
 
 the throne, that their names, not being written in the book of 
 life, they are cast intO' the lake of fire. But observe, particu- 
 larly, who they are, that are said to stand before the throne, 
 and to be cast into the lake. They are the dead — not per- 
 sons raised from death and possessed anew of life, but persons 
 still dead, who only exchange one form of death for another — 
 not one word is there said in this place to indicate that the per- 
 sons judged are made alive again. The resurrection of dam- 
 nation is not a resurrection of life! 
 
 Consider alion the Eighth. — "The declaration made in verse 12, 
 concerning "the opening of the book of life,'^ at the time when 
 the dead are judged, and the reference made to it in verse 15, 
 convince me that the first resurrection cannot signify the resur- 
 rection of the saints at the second coming of Christ. The 
 opening of the book of life, as observed p. 1 1, appears to me to 
 signify the manifestation of those who are written in it. Two 
 reasons lead me to conceive, that this must take place at the 
 second coming of Christ." The act of opening a book is the 
 manifestation of nothing. When opened before a judge it is 
 designed for reference and appeal. The publication, or the 
 reading aloud of a registry, containing the names of individu- 
 als, appointed to favour or to office, would be the manifestative 
 declaration of the good awarded them; and had it been stated 
 in this place that such a publication was to be made, I should 
 then acquiesce in the criticism, which describes the opening 
 of the book to signify, "the manifestation of those who are 
 written in it." But so far is this from being the case, I find 
 the only use which it is described as subserving, is the making 
 such an appeal to its pages as leads to the discovery of those 
 zvho have jiot bee?}, enrolled zvithi?i it, that they may be cast into 
 the lake of fire. It is placed there as a book of reference, and 
 does not symbolize the open manifestation of the saints, of 
 whom no mention whatsoever is made. It may be as well to 
 examine further the expression on which these remarks are 
 founded — <'the book of life." It is not peculiar to the Apoca- 
 lypse. We meet it for instance in Phil. iv. 3, "others, my fel- 
 low labourers, whose names are written in the book of life." 
 You are aware of the Jewish notion, that on the first day of 
 the New Year, tiiree books are alwa3^s opened, not for the 
 manifestation of character, but for the registration therein, re- 
 spectively of the righteous, the middling, and the incorrigible, 
 the righteous being immediately written to everlasting life. 
 Upon leaving the synagogue the first night of the feast, they 
 accordingly salute each other, saying, ''to a good year shall ye 
 be inscribed," to which the reply is, "and thou also." In 
 their New Year's-Day service" this petition occurs, "remem- 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 31 
 
 ber us unto life, King! delighted with the living; vouchsafe 
 to write us in the book of life, for thine own sake, God of 
 life! the living God, the King, our Supporter, Saviour, and 
 Protector." Now, though they have no autliority for the ex- 
 istence of any such annual transaction, yet had Moses taught 
 them that a record of the professedly righteous was kept by 
 Jehovah, from which he blotteth out, from time to time, the 
 names of the transgressors, who belie their profession. Very 
 remarkable is the place I refer to. On the occasion of the 
 golden-calf "Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Oh, this 
 people have sinned a great sin, and have made them Gods of 
 gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin; — and if not, blot 
 me, I pray thee, out of thy book, which ihou hast written. 
 And the Lord said unto Moses, whosoever hath sinned against 
 me, him will I blot out of my book." Exod. xxxii. 32, 33. 
 * This affecting incident, which manifested such intense love 
 in Moses for the children of his people, may further be illus- 
 trated by the threat denounced against the false prophets, Ezek. 
 jciii. 9. "Mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, 
 and that divine lies; they shall not be in the assembly, [or se- 
 cret council,] of my people;" they shall not betaken into con- 
 sultation — "in the good secret which is hidden from my peo- 
 ple, they shall not be" Targ. "neither shall they be written in 
 the writing of the house of Israel." That writing cannot be 
 the mere roll or register of those, who return from captivity, 
 for that would only amount to the same thing, which is set 
 forth in the succeeding denunciation, "neither shall they enter 
 into the land of Israel." The Targum correctly expounds it, 
 "in the writing of the life of the age, which is written for the 
 
 "* In the public registers, all that were born of a particular tribe were en- 
 tered in the list of their respective families, under that tribe. This was the 
 Book of Life; but when any of those died, his name might be considered as 
 blotted out from this list. Our baptisvial registers, which record the births of 
 all the inhabitants of a particular parisA or district, and which are properly our 
 hooks of life; and our bills of mortality, which are properly our books of death, 
 or the lists of those who are thus blotted out from our baptismal register, or 
 books of life, are very significant and illustrative remains of the ancient regis- 
 ters, or books of life and death, among the Jews, the Greeks, the Romans, and 
 most ancient nations. It is worthy of remark, that in China, the names of the 
 persons who have been tried on criminal processes, are written in two distinct 
 books, which are called the book of life, andifAc book of death; those who have 
 been acquitted, or who have not been capitally convicted, are written in the 
 former; those who have been found guilty in the latter. These two books are 
 presented to the Emperor, by his Ministers, who, as Sovereign, has a right to 
 erase any name from either; to place the living among the dead that he may 
 die; or the dead, that is, the person condemned to death, among the living, that 
 he may be preserved. Thus he blots out of the book of life, or the book of death, 
 according to his Sovereign's pleasure, or the representation of his Ministers, 
 or the intercession of friends, &c. An ancient, extremely rich picture, in my 
 own possession, representing this circumstance, painted in China, was thus 
 interpreted to me by a native of China." — Adam Clarke in loco. 
 
32 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 righteous of the house of Israel, they shall not be written." 
 Against the enemies of Messiah, just this very woe is de- 
 nounced. Psalm Ixix. 26, 2S. "Let their habitation be deso- 
 late, and let none dwell in their tents, &c. Let them be blot- 
 ted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the 
 righteous." While therefore, the Jews have only tradition to 
 support their notion of a periodical posting and balancing of 
 the books, yet must the book of life be an ever-varying re- 
 cord, not detailing the names of those, who have secretly been 
 chosen from the foundation of the world, but of those, who, by 
 works are manifested to be such. They who overcome, are 
 they alone who shall never be blotted out from thence. Rev. 
 iii. 5. Herein it differs from the registry contained on Jeho- 
 vah's palms, to which reference is had, in Rev. xvii. 8. So 
 that at no two periods could it contain the same catalogue of 
 persons. Opened at Armageddon, it would present a much 
 narrower amount of the living saved, than what it will do, when 
 opened at the expiration of the thousand years. Frightful was 
 the obliteratioa of names from that book, when the deluge 
 swept all the ungodly of the earth, and meagre, very meagre 
 was the roll it contained then of living souls. Woe is me — an- 
 other day yet more terrific is hastening on, when Jehovah, 
 upon the full developement of Antichrist, shall proceed to ex- 
 punge from thence, by one dread sweep of his obliterating pen. 
 the names of all the deluded votaries of the embodied Dragon. 
 May we be found watching! — In order to have established 
 any thing from the argument drawn from the reference to this 
 book, in Rev. xx. 11, 15, it should have been proved that the 
 Book of life is only to be opened once; — that it is to be spread 
 open to the gaze, and for the information of all the living, and 
 of all the dead; — and that all the living, and all the dead, from 
 the beginning of the creation to the close of all things, are in- 
 cluded in the registry. But we are not told that this is the only 
 juncture, upon which reference is to be had to this book of 
 doom. We learn that it is spread open before the Judge, and 
 not before those, who arc arraigned at his bar. While so far 
 are we from being told, that all who are then alive, and all who 
 had ever died, shall then be judged according to their works, 
 the judgment is expressly limited to the dead small and great, 
 the small and great who are then dead, to the exclusion alto- 
 gether, of those who are alive. If the saints at that time stand 
 before the bar. as argued from the book of life being opened, 
 they must then be included amongst the dead small and 
 great. But when Christ comes, they will come with him, not 
 as the dead, but as the reawakened sleepers, and as the changed 
 living. They are clearly, therefore, not included in the de- 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 33 
 
 scription. Two reasons, which we have chiefly anticipated, 
 were urged by Mr. Gipps, in confirmation of his view. — First, 
 having stated the circumstances of Christ's coming, &c. he adds, 
 "it is utterly inconceivable to me that all this glory can be 
 conferred upon the saints, and such a manifestation of them be 
 made in the presence of Christ, of all the holy angels, of one an- 
 other, and of all the ungodly living in every part of the earth one 
 moment before what is called the opening of the book of life." 
 It is no argument, as applied to revelation, that any portion of 
 what God has been pleased to communicate of his purposes, to 
 his creatures, is inconceivable to any or to all of them. That 
 which occasioned the difficulty of conception in this case, how- 
 ever, was the misapprehension of what was meant by the open- 
 ing of the book of life — and by the book of life itself. Again, 
 although the glory, which shall be revealed in us, will be visi- 
 ble to the ungodly, it is not before the ungodly, dead, or liv- 
 ing, but before the father and his angels, Christ has promised 
 to confess those, whom he will not blot out of the book of life. 
 Rev. iii. 5. But we have still to consider the other reason. 
 "Secondly.- — It is expressly set forth that the manifestation of 
 the sons of God will take place at their resurrection. Rom. viii. 
 19, 23. As therefore, I am convinced that this manifestation 
 cannot take place before the book of life is opened, in which 
 their names are written, but must be the same as the discovery 
 of those who are written therein, I feel assured, that the resur- 
 rection of the saints will be at the time of the opening of the 
 hook of life, and not at the resurrection.' ' I could not desire a 
 more convincing passage to disprove the scheme which Mr. 
 Gipps thus vindicated, than the passage to which he has here 
 referred us. Strange that he should have endeavoured to make 
 the judgment before the great white throne, synchronize with 
 the manifestation of the sons of God. Rom. viii. 19,23. The 
 judgment before the great white throne, in his view of it, coin- 
 cided with the conflagration of the world; its actual annihila- 
 tion; — but the manifestation of the sons of God, according to 
 St. Paul, is so far from being coetaneous with the dissolution of 
 the frame of nature, that he describes that event as introduc- 
 tory to the deliverance of creation from her involuntary bon- 
 dage to corruption, the sigji for which she longeth, in this season 
 of her travail pains, as the assurance of her approaching ex- 
 emption from all physical and moral evil by sin engendered.'* 
 8. The argument from authority, as shewing the judgment 
 of the primitive church, has been drawn from the three ancient 
 creeds, called the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian. What the 
 judgment of the church in those days really was cannot be 
 
 * See Appendix. 
 VOL. III. — 2S 
 
34 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 learned from these sources. Those creeds do not express the 
 idea that at the very monaent of Christ's re-appearing he will 
 judge all the living and all the dead. They simply express the 
 idea, as doth the Scripture, that he will come for this purpose, 
 but do not undertake to specify either the order or the dura- 
 tion of the judgment. In fact they confine themselves as much 
 as possible to the very words of Scripture and oifer nothing in 
 the way of exposition. It is not, however, from the translation 
 of these creeds, that we can so easily determine the point, as 
 from an inspection of the Greek originals. In the Apostles' 
 Creed it is said, "from thence he shall come to judge both the 
 quick and the dead." /utAKetip^io-Sa.mpivu.t ^aiv-rxc nai vaipov;. He is about 
 to come to judge living ones and dead ones. This corresponds 
 verbatim with the words of 1 Tim. iv. 1. (rou /uixkovto; npivnv ^wra.^ 
 jcxt Y&cfov;.) But herein we have only an expression of his pur- 
 pose to execute the office whereunto he is appointed as, (;t/imc 
 ^wVTav now v6Jt/)a)v,) judge of living ones and dead ones. Acts x. 42. 
 But that the creed itself, or the Scriptures, from which the 
 words of the creed are taken, express an instantaneous judg- 
 ment of all the living and of all the dead, on his appearing, is 
 certainly not the case. I find his coming to judge the living 
 detailed at length in the third and fourth chapters of the pro- 
 phet Malachi. There is there no notice of the dead, as simul- 
 taneously called to judgment, and much is related of the puri- 
 fication of Levi, of the conversion of Israel, of the fertilization 
 of their land and of other matters, which evince that the day 
 of his coming, though dreadful in its dawn to the proud and 
 those who do wickedly, will be attended with the most gra- 
 cious results to earth; and that though it will be ushered in 
 with speed, by his suddenly appearing in his temple, it will be 
 mercifully protracted to pour out a blessing from the open win- 
 dows of heaven. I might pass through all the prophets, and 
 show from their concurrent testimony, that the appearing of 
 our great God and Saviour, as described by them, is ever set 
 forth as leading to many and wonderful results, atTecting our 
 world, as ushering in a long reign of righteousness, and the con- 
 tinuous unintermilted exercise of true judgment. When, there- 
 fore, I express my belief that Christ will come to judge the liv- 
 ing, I express my belief that he will come to execute all that 
 judgment on, and to exercise all that justice in the earth, which 
 the prophets assure me he will do. It must be shewn there- 
 fore, from other evidence than that contained in the Apostles' 
 Creed, that the primitive church put a different construction 
 upon such Scriptures as these, than what I and other Mille- 
 narians are induced to do. The same remarks apply to the 
 JVicene creed, where, however, it is additionally stated, that 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 35 
 
 Christ will come with glory to judge living ones and dead 
 ones, and that his kingdom shall have no end, which is quoted 
 from Luke i. 33; but this does not apply to the present point. 
 But in the Alhanasian creed this further remark is added, "at 
 whose coming all men shall rise again, with their bodies, and 
 shall give an account of their own works." This might seem 
 at first view to intimate the simultaneous resurrection of all 
 mankind at the very moment of the Saviour's appearing — at 
 his coming being an expression that seems equivalent to the 
 juncture of his arrival, but in the Greek the words are Ovn 
 
 TTsifiova-iet TravTi; 01 nvBjiaiTrot etyua-THa-ovriii. Now the WOrd Trafova-ia. doCS tiot 
 
 imply the mere notion of his arrival but the fact of his being 
 present. In this sense we meet with it, Thess. ii. 19, are not 
 evefi ye i/x^pcarSiv before our Lord Jesus Christ, «v t« autou Tntfcva-ni., in his 
 presence. It is not doubted, by any, that during the presence 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ all human kind shall stand forth, and 
 give account of the things done in the body. In conclusion I 
 would remark, that the circumstance of Christ being the judge 
 of the quick and the dead, derives much light from the parallel 
 statement in Rom. xiv. 9. To this end Christ both died, and 
 rose, and revived, tva. Kitmnfim km ^mrcev nv^rnvtm, that he might exer- 
 cise LORDSHIP over both dead and living ones. (Compare Luke 
 xxii. 25, where it is used to signify the exercise of royal au- 
 thority by the kings of the Gentiles.) This gives the true idea 
 of his being appointed to judge the quick and the dead. His 
 being appointed to this office is no more than what he said him- 
 self, "I appoint unto you a kingdom as my Father had appointed 
 unto me," Luke xxii. 25. It is remarkable that this informa- 
 tion was graciously vouchsafed to them on the very occasion, 
 when he spake of the present exercise of authority by the Gen- 
 tile Kings, in opposition to which they were to stand forth in 
 living contrast, as those that serve; the thrones, upon which 
 they were to sit judging the tzvelve tribes of Israel, being reserved 
 for another dispensation, in which he also shall judge and reign. 
 I might rebut the argument from authority still further by ap- 
 pealing to the ample testimonies of Justin Martyr, Irenseus, 
 and Origen, but this has amply been done already, and I de- 
 cline therefore entering upon it. 
 
35 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 LETTER IL 
 
 Parables. — Wheat and Tares— Criticism on the expression Kingdom of Hea- 
 ven, illustrated by grain of mustard seed — Confounding the judgment on the 
 ■wicked quick, and on the wicked dead, cause of error — Harvest and Vin- 
 tage, Joel ii. 3, 11.— The Draw Net— The Marriage Supper — Talents- 
 Judgment, illustrated by reference to Dan. vii. 13 — The words Nations — 
 Saints explained — Goals and Sheep, Ezek. xxxiv. 10, 31. Mic. iv. 6, 8. 
 
 The second chapter of Mr. Gipps' book is valuable for the 
 example it affords of an appeal to that part of Scripture, (the 
 Parables) which the opposers of Christ's personal reign on earth 
 with his saints, generally avoid upon the plea that no argument 
 can be drawn from them. The success which has attended our 
 excellent author's excursion into the region of parable, has by 
 no means equalled the boldness of the attempt, or the excel- 
 lence of the design. 
 
 WHEAT AND TARES. 
 
 He commences with the parable of the wheat and the tares. 
 Most unpropitious is the result. In opposition to the points he 
 has collected out of this instructive discourse, I gather the fol- 
 lowing: — The period at which the action of the parable is laid 
 is the end of the age (st/^w?) — the field that is then reaped is the 
 world {Koa/moi) and not Hades. Of the generations who had 
 previously passed away, or of the resurrection of the dead, just 
 or unjust, not one syllable is said — the scene of the Son of 
 Man's kingdom, or the territory it is to embrace, is the world, 
 the field that is to be reaped, (the doers of iniquity are to be 
 gathered out of his kingdom, v. 41,) the reapers are the mes- 
 sengers of the Son of Man himself, and not of the Father, be- 
 fore whom he will confess his own faithful confessors; the 
 world is not only here represented as the kingdom of the Son, 
 the visible administrator of divine sovereignty for the Father, 
 but also as the scene over which the righteous shall exercise 
 power, ''then shall the righteous shine forth as the Sun in the 
 kingdom of their Father." Remember our daily prayer — 
 "thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, &c. The king- 
 dom of heaven, in this parable, is resembled not to the world, 
 nor to the tares, nor yet to the sowers, but to the gathered 
 wheat — the righteous in their manifested glory as the Sun, the 
 well known symbol of supreme power. 
 
 I beg to observe that /3*3-<\s;o denotes the regia potestas, or su- 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 37 
 
 preme power, as well as the regniim or kingdom. For this use 
 of the term Scapula refers to Plato and Xenophon. This is the 
 sense in which I believe it to be chiefly employed in Scripture, 
 but particularly in the parables. By the kingdom of ihe heavens, 
 I therefore understand the supernal rulers. It must, for in- 
 stance, be so considered in the parable, immediately following, 
 of the grain of mustard seed. The church seminally contained 
 in and undergoing death with Jesus, gradually developed and 
 producing fruit till it acquires its full maturity, is then pre- 
 sented to view not as being subjected itself to authority, but as 
 affording protection to the fowl of heaven. It is the very coun- 
 terpart of Nebuchadnezzar's tree, which was interpreted of him- 
 self as the supreme ruler, Dan. iv. 22, 23. As men are sym- 
 bolized by seed in the parable of the wheat and tares, so here 
 the mustard-seed is the seed of the woman, the seed of Abra- 
 ham, and the tree Christ himself and his spiritual branches — 
 see John xii. 24. It will be material to bear these remarks in 
 mind, as also the following observation of Schleusner on the 
 word fista-iKua. 7. ponitur pro liio-iKiu? rex, abstracto posito pro 
 
 concrete; Mark xi. 10. m^oyn^ivyi n ip;)(^cjuiv>i 0A'7iKiiii th Trctrpog yi/Acev ^ct^J; 
 
 coll. Luke xix. 38. luxoyn/ufvo; 6 ip;)^ojuiv» 0cii7tMu; Apoc. i. 6, &c. Eadem 
 modo iip-xnv/A.a. pro tifiug ponitur 1 Pet. ii. 5, 9. 
 
 It having been a mere assumption that the parable related to 
 the resurrection, while it could only concern the rapture of the 
 saints, his first inference falls to the ground, as does also the ^e- 
 co7}d. But I observe, that with regard to this parable and his 
 inferences from many other parables, he was deceived by the 
 analogy between the judgment on the ungodly living at Arma- 
 geddon, and on the wicked dead before the white throne. The 
 devil, who deceived the nations after the thousand years were 
 ended, is represented as being cast into the lake of fire, where 
 the beast and the false prophet were thrown before the thou- 
 sand years began. There are, therefore, two different com- 
 mittals to this lake. Of the first we have not only the record 
 in Rev. xix. 20, but in a great variety of the Old Testament 
 Scriptures, particularly Isa. Ixvi. 16, 24; Zech. xiv. 12. The 
 mere circumstance, therefore, of a judgment being mentioned 
 which may correspond with either of these, is not sufficient in 
 itself to determine to which of these events it refers. If it be 
 a judgment on the living, it must be referred to Armageddon; 
 if it be a judgment on the dead it must be referred to the great 
 white throne. Now in the parable of the tares and wheat it 
 is evidently the living at the time of the coming of the Son 
 of Man, who are described as the subjects of the judgment; 
 this will appear not only from what has been already remarked, 
 but also from a prophetic coincidence Mr. Gipps failed to no- 
 28* 
 
33 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 tice. That coincidence is the vision of the zvhite cloud with 
 Ihe Son of Man seated thereon, and the description of the har- 
 vest and vintage which ensues, Rev. xiv. 14, 16. While one 
 angel reaps the harvest, another gathers the vine of the earth 
 by the command of him who has power overjire, and casts the 
 ripe clusters into the great winepress of the wrath of God. — 
 Again I meet with an intimation of a judgment described with 
 similar imagery and corresponding in point of time in Joel iii. 
 When the wonders described in the preceding chapter are 
 brought to pass, the sun darkened and the moon converted into 
 blood, (by which symbols I understand the obscuration of the 
 Sun of righteousness during the reign of the personal Anti- 
 christ — and thesynchronical martyrdom of the church, i?i those 
 days, and in that time when the captivity of Judah shall be re- 
 stored, then it is written "I will gather all nations, and will 
 bring them down into the valley of Jehosaphat, and will plead 
 with them there, for my people, and for my heritage Israel, 
 whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my 
 land," v. 2. The Prophet having adverted to some prelimi- 
 nary events, issues the summons for this fearful gathering of 
 the nations, and adds, "assemble yourselves, and come all ye 
 lieathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither 
 cause thij mighty ones to come down Lord. Let the heathen 
 be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for 
 there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye 
 in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe, come, get you down, for the 
 press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Mul- 
 titudes, multitudes in the valley of decision ; for the day of the 
 Lord is near, in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon 
 shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. 
 The LoKD also, shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from 
 Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake, but the 
 Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the chil- 
 dren of Israel. So shall ye know that I am the Lord, your God, 
 dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain; then shall Jerusalem be 
 holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more. 
 And it sliall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall 
 drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and 
 all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain 
 shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the 
 valley of Shittim. Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom 
 shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the chil- 
 dren of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their 
 land. But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from 
 generation to generation. For 1 will cleanse their blood that 
 I have not cleansed, for the Lord dwelleth. in Zion." 11, 21. 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 39 
 
 Now from this prophecy I gather the following information. 
 At the time of Israel's restoration, there is to be a judicial har- 
 vest and vintage, corresponding with the judgment on the 
 tares; the Gentile nations, of whom Egypt and Edom are par- 
 ticularly noticed, are to be cut off, for their violence against 
 Judah, and the innocent blood they have shed; the agents in 
 the execution of this judgment, are to be the mighty ones of Je- 
 hovah — Jesus, the hope and strength of Israel, corresponding 
 with the messengers of the Son of Man in the parable of the 
 wheat and the tares, with the impalpable and immaterial hosts of 
 the Lords, commonly but improperly called locusts, who come 
 as a thief and before whom a fire burneth, described Joel ii. 3, 
 8 — 1 1 — with the sanctified ones, the mighty ones, ybr Jeho- 
 vah's a^/o-er ot/jo rey'oice i?i his highness, and who, with the noise of 
 a multitudinous host, mustered by Jehovah for the battle, come 
 against Babylon, "from a far country, from the end of heaven, 
 even Jehovah and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the 
 whole land," or, "all the wickedof the earth" as the Targum.Isai. 
 xiii. 2 — 5, comp. Isa. xxxiii. 4; Psalm cxlix. 5 — 9; Mai. iv. 3. 
 The symbolical heavens are to be eclipsed — Jehovah is then to 
 take up his permanent abode in Zion — strangers shall no more 
 make a thoroughfare of Jerusalem — exuberant fertility shall 
 distinguish the whole of the promised territory — a stream 
 which takes its rise in the Lord's house, shall water the valley 
 of Shittim, corresponding with that foretold, Ezek. xlvii. 1 — 
 5. The Jews sliall uninterruptedly enjoy their own land for 
 ever, the blood of Messiah, which they invoked on their own 
 nation, and for the shedding of which they have already suf- 
 fered so fearfully, shall at length be cleansed; and Jehovah 
 dwell in Zion, a fact from which the city shall thenceforth take 
 its very name. Ezek. xlviii. 35. I have been thus particular 
 in recapitulating the evidence contained in this prediction, be- 
 cause it not only affirms that the harvest and vintage concern 
 the living nations, who shall be gathered in the valley of Je- 
 hoshaphat, but because the consequences to Edom, Egypt, Pa- 
 lestine, and the Jewish Jeople, are such, as to forbid that the 
 idea, for a single moment, should be entertained, that the judg- 
 ment could be followed by the conflagration of the globe, or 
 the annihilation of the world. 
 
 But before I leave this parable, I have another remark to 
 make on the strange inconsistency, into which Mr. Gipps fell, 
 in his anxiety to make out his anti-millenarian scheme. The 
 wheat and tares, which according to him are all the godly, and 
 all the ungodly of all ages, remain unsevered till the end of the 
 age; yet in describing the separate stale, in order to mark the 
 distinction between the resurrection of the just and the unjust, 
 
40 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 he speaks of the great mass of both, (and justly,) as having 
 previously been severed, the just being with Christ, the unjust 
 being in wretchedness; but the parable knows nothing of any, 
 save those who remain unsevered up to that period. It can- 
 not therefore, mean to describe those who have gone down to 
 the regions of the dead. 
 
 THE DRAW NET. 
 
 This parable has been similarly misapprehended. The no- 
 tion of a resurrection is here again assumed. All that we are 
 taught is, that, at the consummatio?! of the age, there will a sepa- 
 ration of the wicked from among the just. The good fish hav- 
 ing been gathered into vessels, as into a place of security, the 
 bad, heaped indiscriminately together, without any redeeming 
 admixture, are cast away. It was thus also, in the case of the 
 tares, they too were first collected into bundles, preparatory to 
 the burning, while the wheat is safely housed in the barn. Is 
 not all this the very counterpart of what the pj-ophet taught of 
 old? Having promised to labouring Judah, the resurrection of 
 her faithful progenitors now sleeping in the dust, who shall 
 awake and sing, their dew being as the very dew of the dawn, 
 seeing the land shall then cast out her Rephairn,. (giants) he im- 
 mediately addresses the living just of Judah. "Come, my 
 people,. enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about 
 thee; hide thyself as it were, for a little moment, until the in- 
 dignation be overpast. For behold, the Lord cometh out of 
 his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their ini- 
 quity, the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more 
 cover her slain. In that day, the Lord, witii his sore, and 
 great, and strong sword shall punish Leviathan the piercing 
 serpent, (Antichrist) even Leviathan that crooked serpent, and 
 he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea." (Egypt, the king 
 of the South.) Isa. xxvi. 19 — 21; xxvii. 1. Now mark what 
 follows, the responsive song of the vineyard is sung in that 
 DAY, V. 2. — which is thus closed by Jehovah, "they that come 
 of the root of Jacob shall flourish: Israel shall blossom and 
 bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit," v. 6. — the de- 
 fenced citij shall be desolated, and left as a wilderness, v. 10. 
 <'And it shall come to pass, in that day, that the Lord shall 
 make a gathering of his fruit from the channel of the river, 
 unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gleaned up one by 
 one, ye children of Israel, not for faggots of burning, but for 
 blessing," v. 12, Furthermore, "it shall come to pass in that 
 DAY, that the great Trumpet, (that of Jubilee) shall be blown, 
 and they shall come, which were ready to perish in the land of 
 Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 41 
 
 the Lord in the holy mount, at Jerusalem," v. 13. Thus, 
 then there will be a resurrection, like the dew of the dawn, at 
 what time, Jehovah, safe housing his people, shall punish the 
 inhabitants of the earth, leagued with Leviathan; mercy shall 
 then be vouchsafed to Israel — her children shall be gathered 
 out of all nations, according to that which was before promised, 
 Deut. XXX. 4, and her outcasts shall come from Assyria and. 
 Egypt, to worship Jehovah in Jerusalem. 
 
 Mr. Gipps here again assumes that the Angeli are those, 
 whom we commonly call angels, I wish this word were al- 
 ways rendered messengers — it would often prevent misappre- 
 hension — I am convinced that these messengers are the saints, 
 with whom the Lord my God shall come, the white robed 
 warriors on white horses, who follow the Word of God, when 
 he goeth forth to the slaughter of his enemies. Rev. xix. 14. 
 Again he assumes that the casting of the wicked into the fur- 
 nace of fire, is the same event with "the casting into the lake 
 of fire" of all who "are not written in the book of life." Rev. 
 ,xx. 15. But as those, who are there described as being cast 
 into the lake of fire, are the risen dead, and those who are 
 drawn to shore in the draw net, must be those, who are living 
 at the consiimmatio7i of the age, for two reasons, presently to be 
 noticed; I argue that the casting of the wicked into the furnace 
 of fire, as described in the parable, must be the same with the 
 casting alive of the beast and the false prophet, against whom, 
 the word of God goeth forth to war, into the lake of fire, burn- 
 ing with brimstone. Rev. xix. 20. One reason, which leads 
 me to conclude, that the captured fish represent the living at 
 the period specified, is, that they remain unsevered till that 
 period, whereas, the dead in going down to Hades, are actually 
 severed upon their entrance into the invisible world. A second 
 reason, which operates with me, in arriving at this conviction, 
 is, that the fish are not represented as having been dead, and. 
 then restored to life, but, on the contrary, as being all brought 
 alive out of their natural element, to the shore; and as having 
 been drawn in thither, not by any murderous mode of capture, 
 which might of itself, deprive of life, but by a net, which in- 
 jureth not, and which is constantly employed, in order to re- 
 move fish, in an unharmed state, from one sheet or stream of 
 water, to another. 
 
 THE MARRIAGE SUPPER. Mat. Xxii. 1, 14. 
 
 In Mr. Gipps' remarks on the close of this parable, we meet 
 with many unfounded assumptions, which are essential to his 
 system of interpretation. 1. — He assumes it to be the Bride- 
 groom who comes in to see the guests, v. 11, but of the bride- 
 
42 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 groom no mention is made throughout the parable, except in 
 the second verse. "The kingdom of Heaven is like unto a 
 king, which made a marriage for his Son." The Son was the 
 Bridegroom, but of the actual appearance of the Son at the 
 feast, no account is given. It was the king, and not the Son, 
 who made this preparatory survey of the guests, and corre- 
 sponds with Dan. vii. 9. 2. — He assumes, that the man with- 
 out the wedding garment is the representative of all mere nomi- 
 nal professors, who have not put on Christ, of all ages, who 
 have succeeded in deceiving the servants (S'^ukcv;) of Christ, or 
 his ministers, and who must therefore be raised, in order to be 
 judged. It might be enough to say in the phrase of the Scot- 
 tish law, "not proven," but we have abundant evidence from 
 the parable itself, that this unmeetly garmented man is not the 
 representative of the dead. The king had provided the mar- 
 riage feast, (ycijum) the nuptual festivity, as evidenced on the 
 Mount of Transfiguration, for his Son, and therefore, sent he 
 forth his servants, John possibly and his disciples, to summon 
 the Jews — a refusal follows — and other servants, the 70 disci- 
 ples and the apostles, renew the summons, which being in like 
 manner unheeded, (while the messengers themselves, are either 
 persecuted or slain) Jerusalem, the city of the murderers, is de- 
 stroyed and burned with fire. I observe, that had the invita- 
 tion been accepted by the Jews, had they abandoned the habili- 
 ments of worldliness and hypocrisy, had they at once adorned 
 themselves in fitting raiment for the august solemnity, the mar- 
 riage, — the solemnization of which, was strictly dependant on 
 the alternative of man's evil, — had then taken place. But not 
 seeing the glory of the bridegroom, nor the feast actually pre- 
 pared, they discredited the message, and involved themselves 
 in those national calamities, which have ever since rested upon 
 their devoted posterity. The portion of the parable, which we 
 have thus examined, all reiateth to men of Abraham's lineage, 
 in proper flesh and blood, dwelling on earth's surface, and 
 meeting with retribution in this life. Without the slightest 
 intimation of any change of scene, we are next presented with 
 the mission of the servants to the highways, not of Hades as- 
 suredly, but of the Gentile world. They succeed in collecting 
 a great number, good and bad, on whose pretensions they de- 
 cide not, between whom they make no separation, and all of 
 whom profess abundant readiness to become guests. These 
 assuredl)' are neither disembodied spirits, nor men raised from 
 the dead, but men like unto the Jews, collected by mortal ser- 
 vants, similar to those servants (^ovmk,) who were persecuted 
 unto the death, by the Jews. Just at this juncture, when the 
 servants have accomplished their mission, in the assembling of 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 43 
 
 a large company, out of all the highways, the king takes his 
 survey, not of the feast, for it is not yet spread forth to view, 
 though all the preparations for it, have long previously heen 
 made, but of those men who have avowed their willingness to 
 partake of the entertainment. His eye immediately discerns 
 one, who is without the nuptial robe, who has ventured to as- 
 sociate himself with the guests in his own raiment of worldli- 
 ness and hypocrisy, just like Ananias and Saphira. His rejec- 
 tion follows. Now if the murderers, whose city was burned, 
 were mortal men — if the places they scornfully vacated, were 
 reserved for others, mortal like themselves, (see Matt, xvi.43.) 
 we are accordingly summoned to supply their room — if the 
 servants who deliver the summons, and those who professedly 
 accept it are all mortal — if the mortal servants who summon 
 them, can only gather them together in some place where mor- 
 tal men can be gathered, then does it follow that the ill array- 
 ed intruder is also mortal, seeing he has taken his station in 
 the place where the servants have gathered all the company, 
 y. 10. The assembly you will observe, are not brought in by 
 supernal agents before the king, that he may pass judgment 
 upon their pretensions, but he himself unexpectedly comes in 
 to take this view of them. 3. — Mr. Gipps next assumes that 
 the servants (S'U^covot) the deacons, who are commanded to exclude 
 the presumptuous unprovided guests, are the angel-executioners 
 of the judgment. In this I consider him to be mistaken. As 
 the assembly which is viewed, is the" church in its militant 
 state, collected together by one class of servants, (the J'oukoi); so 
 I believe the Deacons here, to be another class of ecclesiastical 
 office-bearers, who at the time of the end, being filled with the 
 Holy Ghost, and endowed with supernatural discernment, shall, 
 by express revelation from the Lord, cast out the evil person 
 or persons, (for he is doubtless, the representative of a class 
 of persons,) from communion. 4. — He assumes that the outer 
 darkness is the same with the lake of fire. Two things more 
 dissimilar than oider darkness and the lake of fire, cannot well 
 be conceived. If the view I have given above of this most 
 important prediction be correct, then the outer darkness 
 must be that, which is outside of the church, even that, where- 
 in the votaries of Antichrist shall be involved. Now it is not 
 a little remarkable, that it is said of the man of sin, that he 
 shall deceive all those who have not received the love of the 
 truth, that they might be saved, while it is added that "God 
 shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie; 
 that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but 
 had pleasure in unrighteousness." 2 Thess. 10 — 12. Still the 
 ejection of an outward communicant into this outer darkness 
 
44 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 would not necessarily Involve his final perdition, any more than 
 the disasters, which fell upon Judah necessarily involved, the 
 damnation of all the Jews, whom the Romans slew or dis- 
 persed. It might, and doubtless would, in some cases, amount 
 to no more than the act of judicial mercy under similar cir- 
 cumstances, commanded (1 Cor. v. 5.) to be exercised. In 
 either case it conveys a most solemn warning to us, on whom 
 the ends of the world are come, seeing we live on the eve of 
 that survey, which Jehovah shall thus take of his church, and 
 who may, notwithstanding our high sounding profession, be 
 consigned to weeping and gnashing of teeth. If found finally 
 in this condition, our situation shall be fearful indeed, accord- 
 ing as it is written in that remarkable parallel passage Zeph. i. 
 7, which, with its context, sheds immense light upon the sub- 
 ject. "The Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his 
 guests. And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord's 
 sacrifice that I will punish the princes, and the king's children, 
 and all such as are clothed with strange apparel." "The evil ser- 
 vants shall, in that day, be punished as well as the princes," v. 
 9. "A cry and a howling shall be heard from the gates, and a 
 crashing from the hills," v. 10. "Jerusalem shall be searched 
 with candles," v. 12. "The great day of the Lord is near, near, 
 and hasteth greatly: the voice of the day of the Lord: the 
 mighty man shall cry there bitterly — that day is a day of wrath, 
 a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, 
 a day of darkness aiid gloominess, a day of clouds and thick dark- 
 ness," V. 14, 15. ^^And I will bring distress upon men and they shall 
 walk like blind me?i because they have sinned against the Lord," 
 &c. I need not refer to the points of resemblance — I only 
 observe that these things are said concerning the situation of 
 society on this earth immediately preceding the last tremen- 
 dous crisis. 5. — Mr. Gipps further assumes tbat the parable 
 represents the time of Christ's second coming with his spouse 
 the church. This I regard as the most extraordinary assump- 
 tion of all. We have before seen that the bridegroom is not 
 noticed — neither is the bride. We have only the guests de- 
 scribed. — The bride is not even by implication alluded to. 
 
 THE TALENTS. Matt. XXV. 14, 
 
 In his exposition of this parable we meet just the same kind 
 of assumptions on the part of Mr. Gipps. 1. — He assumes 
 the resurrection of all parties who are reckoned with — though 
 not a syllable is to be met with throughout it concerning the 
 resurrection of any. — It is the visible church alone that is here 
 described as reckoned with — (all the dead, small and great, are 
 not summoned before him). The members of his church, 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 45 
 
 symbolized by his own servants, are solemnly called to ac- 
 count for the use they made of his goods during his absence — 
 the faithful are appointed to offices of trust and government 
 over the cities of the world, (we know of no cities beyond 
 it,) suited to their characters, proportioned to their abilities, 
 and corresponding with their past employment of the means 
 of usefulness they enjoyed. Their appointment to these offices 
 and ?iot their actual entrance upon them is all that is here de- 
 scribed. The recompense of the reward is the subject of the 
 narrative. One alone, who wrapped up his Lord's talent in a 
 napkin, is deprived of all share in the joy of his Lord. 2. — 
 This servant is assumed, as in the case of the man without the 
 wedding garment, to be the representative of all the ungodly 
 of all ages. But when we consider that, even within the limits 
 of the Church, many are called but few chosen, it seems strange 
 that the many should here stand represented as being only ofie 
 to four. But thus it will be at the sifting time. The nominal 
 professors will drop off in the time of persecution and re- 
 proach, when they have no longer any temporal advantage to 
 gain, while the solitary unprofitable servant, who refused to 
 exercise his gift, though he remained in connection with the 
 body, shall be himself cut off from all privileges and recom- 
 pense by the direct exercise of his Lord's power. 3. — His ex- 
 pulsion from the body, his jactation into the outer darkness is 
 assumed, as in the former case, to denote the same thing as the 
 casting of all the ungodly into the lake of fire. We need not 
 repeat what we have said before on this point. 
 
 There is one remark I must add before I leave this parable. 
 The Lord coming to recko?i with his servants is a different 
 thing from the Lord coming to 7-eign with them. When they 
 enter i?ito his joy they shall, indeed, reign with him, but the 
 scrutiny which takes place here is preparatory to it. I would 
 make this parable synchronize with the sealing of the 144,000 
 in Revelations vii. 4. xiv. I, who then receive their appoint- 
 ment to office, when they are sealed. 
 
 JUDGMENT OF THE SHEEP AND GOATS. — Matt. XXV. 31 — 46. 
 
 This prediction is one of immense importance. The time 
 to which it relates is the time, in which the Son of Man shall 
 come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him. To un- 
 derstand the parable aright it is material to ascertain from the 
 light of the other Scriptures what the coming of the Son of 
 Man in his glory denoteth; for the language of Christ here is 
 not descriptive of the epoch itself, but only of an event con- 
 nected with it, and the terms actually employed suppose that 
 the character of that epoch was well understood, as an admit- 
 
 voL. III. — 29 
 
46 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 ted matter of faith by his auditors. Now, I find this epoch 
 marked with the greatest particularity by Daniel vii. 13, 14, 
 where, having previously described the origin, progress, and 
 fatal end of the four great Monarchies, and of the Gentile 
 apostacy, he says, "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 destro^yed." — 
 From which I gatlier, that when he comes in his glory he shall 
 succeed to universal sovereignty, obtain the greatness of the 
 empire forfeited by the Beasts, and never lose it like them by 
 forfeiture. Peoples, natiojis, and languages are made subser- 
 vient to him, and are made so then for the first time. The 
 subdivisions of mankind here described must exist in order to 
 own him king, but those subdivisions are peculiar to a terres- 
 trial condition, and it is, therefore, men as inhabiting the world, 
 who shall then become his subjects. It is under these very 
 terms Nebuchadnezzar and Darius respectively address their 
 subjects, inscribing their decrees to all peoples, nations and lan- 
 guages. Dan. iii. 4; vi. 25. It is the invariable formula em- 
 ployed through this prophet to characterize the dwellers upon 
 earth, who were subject to imperial rule. When, therefore, it 
 is written that they shall be transferred from the rulers who 
 abused their authority, to Messiah himself, it is tantamount to 
 the prediction elsewhere met with, that he shall be king over 
 all the earth. But further, this shall come to pass, when he 
 shall come in the clouds of heaven, which is equivalent with the 
 expression in the parable before us, 7cJien the So?i. of Man shall 
 come in his glory. When he cometh in glory all men therefore 
 cannot have put off mortalit}', nor t^hall they stand before 
 him in resurrection bodies, but the generation of men then ex- 
 isting, who shall survive the tribulation of those days, shall 
 continue to inhabit the earth, not as the vassals of earthly mo- 
 narchs, but as the liege subjects of the Son of Man. I need 
 not at present multiply proofs from the Prophets, that when 
 he cometh in glory he will come in the character here foretold, 
 and just at that epoch when the possessors of abused power 
 shall be compelled to relinquish it to him. 
 
 But in addition to the epoch it is material also to ascertain 
 who those are that shall accompany him; vvho, in fact, are 
 meant by all the holy messengers, spoken of here. In 
 Enoch's prophecy they are represented to be the .Myriads of his 
 Saints. Jude 14. Paul writes that those, who are to be brought 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 47 
 
 with him, are they who have previously slept with him, the 
 dead in Christ, to whom are to be conjoined the believing quick. 
 1 Thess. iv. 14 — 17. And again, that tJie messengers of nis own 
 power [ctyyixm S'u)/difji.iu)^ avTov) who Were once troubled and afflicted 
 for his sake, shall be the attendants of his Apocalypse from 
 Heaven. 2 Thess. i. 7. They are said to be his oxen messen- 
 gers, ATTOT, in contradistinction to those of the Father, who are 
 commonly described hj iheicvm a7i gels. It is important to bear 
 this in mind. — When in the latter day his feet shall stand upon 
 the Mount of Olives, it is written, Zech. xiv. 5, that all the 
 sai?its shall come with him, but I know no Scripture authority 
 for stating that all the a??^e/5, strictly so called, shall come with 
 him. The saints are his ozvn messengers. Thus in the parable 
 of the Tares, it is indefinitely asserted. Matt. xiii. 39, the reapers 
 are messengers; but in verse 41, the indefinite assertion assumes 
 a distinct and definite form. The Son of man shall send forth 
 HIS OWN MESSENGERS, tou; uyytKov; ctuTov, and they shall galhev out 
 of his ki7igdom all things that offend. He tells us himself, in- 
 deed, that "he shall send his own angels with a great sound of 
 a trumpet, and they shall gather his elect (by whom I under- 
 stand the Jews,) from the four winds," &c. Matt. xxiv. 31, 
 but these trumpets of the great Jubilee will, I believe, be blown 
 by the saints. It may be necessary to notice the statement, 
 Hereafter ye shall see the heaven open and the angels of God, as in 
 Jacob's vision, ascend'wg and descenditig upon the Son of Man, 
 executing his behests and fulfilling his righteous pleasure. As 
 his own messengers are called elsewhere the saints of the Most 
 High, so here they are called the Messengers of God, descending 
 from the New Jerusalem to their camp contiguous to the ter- 
 restrial city, Rev. xx. 9, before the heavenly city descends actu- 
 ally to the earth. Rev. xxi. 10, 24, 27, when earth shall be- 
 come a fit site for its abiding resting-place. But to refer to 
 the Prophet Daniel, the angel who interpreted to him the vision 
 of the four Beasts, and of the righteous empire, by which they 
 are to be uprooted and succeeded, adds, in explanation of this 
 latter empire, and as corresponding with the cession of empire 
 to the Son of Man, But the Saints of the Most High or of the high 
 places (marg. & com. Eph. i. 3; ii. 6) shall take the kingdom and 
 possess the kingdom even for ever and ever. Here then we have the 
 Saints as the supernal rulers taking the empire out of the grasp 
 of the Beast, and entering on the possession of it themselves, 
 at the very time when the Son of Man cometh in glory, and 
 receiveth his own indestructible and universal kingdom from 
 the Ancient of days. But this they could not do unless they 
 accompanied and received it conjointly with him, unless, in 
 fact, the cession of it to him implied the cession of it to them. 
 
48 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 And this it does for they are joint-heirs along with him, and 
 shall be glorified together with him. Rom. viii. 17. He shall 
 grant it to them to sit with him on his throne, even as he sat 
 down on the Father's throne. Rev. iii. 21. He has made 
 them kings and priests unto God, and they shall reign with 
 him on the earth, Rev. v. 10. But Daniel proceeds after- 
 wards himself to expatiate further on his own vision, thus inter- 
 preted, "I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, 
 and prevailed against them; until the ancient of days came, 
 and jtidg'me?it was given to the sai?ils of the Most High, and the 
 time came that the Saints possessed the Kingdom," v. 21, 22, 
 From this I gather that the Saints were the objects of a suc- 
 cessful persecution up to the session of the ancient of days; 
 that they were therefore once the faithful confessors of Mes- 
 siah; and must thence be the faithful in Christ Jesus. Again, 
 I learn, that they are not themselves arraigned before the tri- 
 bunal of Jesus, but are advanced to judicial eminence, and regal 
 power — they must therefore be all the Saints [nym) the messen- 
 gers {ayyixat) who shall be with the Son of Man when he cometh 
 in his glory, and when all nations are gathered before him. 
 By the expressions allnatiofis Mr. Gipps understands all the 
 generations of men, godly and ungodly, from the foundation 
 of the world, up to this time. They cannot be the departed 
 generations of the godly, because they are included in all the 
 holy messengers, who accompany Messiah, and before whom 
 these nations are gathered. They cannot be the departed 
 generations of the ungodly, for there is no note whatever of 
 their having been raised from the grave, no mention of the 
 dead, small and great, standing before the great white throne. 
 But as we have a long argument to prove that the word nations 
 really does denote the risen dead of all generations, we must 
 endeavour to examine it — "First," he says, "the usual signifi- 
 cation of the word nations or all ?iations, implies persons not of 
 one generation only, but of various generations." Well, it is 
 quite true that when the history, civilization, or character of 
 nations are the subject of discourse, the various generations of 
 men, who as compatriots have figured on the stage, or swelled 
 the population for the day, either are or may be included; but 
 it is only in reference to them as the once mortal occupants of 
 the soil, who did in their time perform their part in the exhi- 
 bition of the national character and prowess, but not as disem- 
 bodied spirits, or as men raised from the dead. It is with 
 reference to the past and to society, and' not with reference to 
 individual conduct or to their future condition, that allusion is 
 made when the bye-gone generations of men are spoken of 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 49 
 
 under the general appellation of the nation or nations to which 
 they belonged. But Scripture usage must determine the sense 
 in which the term is employed by inspiration. I take Mr. 
 Gipps' references — I have made thee a Father of many nations, 
 Rom. iv. 17. This promise is to be regarded in the light of 
 anticipatory history. Many nations did spring from Abraham 
 in the respective lines of Ishmael, Isaac, and the sons of Ketu- 
 rah, together with all the seed to whom the promise is sure, so 
 that he is "the father of us all (KaTivsivn) in the sight of God, 
 who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things, which be 
 not, as though they were." v. 16, 17. But how does this 
 affect the question — does the descent of nations, literally inha- 
 biting the world and distinguished by their respective national 
 features, though those nations descend from Abraham, at all 
 justify the idea that the nations can be expressive of the dead 
 small and great ? Is it in their corporate capacity, or as charac- 
 terized by their national distinctions they are to stand before 
 the great white throne? Paul proves God's purpose of mercy to 
 the Gentiles, by referring to sundry prophecies, which speak 
 of a time yet future, in which all nations shall rejoice in God, 
 praise his name, and be ruled over by the root of Jesse, Rom. 
 XV. 9 — 12; but unless it be proved, that this is to take place 
 after the supposed dissolution of the entire fabric of the world, 
 I see not how' the argument is improved by this reference. 
 Such a proof indeed I know cannot be given, for when I look 
 back to the last quotation made by the apostle from Isa. x. 10, 
 where he found it, I find it added that it shall come to pass in 
 THAT day, when the Gentiles shall thus trust in Jesse's root, 
 "that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to re- 
 cover the remnant of his people that shall be left from Assyria, 
 &c. gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four cor- 
 ners of the earth — remove the envy between her and Ephraim 
 — cause them to spoil the Philistines, Edomites, Moabites and 
 Ammonites, — divide Euphrates into seven streams, and re- 
 serve a highway from Assyria, as of old, from Egypt for his 
 people." vi. ii. 16. All these things can only be done on the 
 present surface of our world; and the nations therefore, who 
 are to trust in Jesse's root, must be literal nations in flesh and 
 blood embodied. — But to proceed, it is written, "the Scripture 
 foreseeing God would justify the nations through faith preached 
 before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, in thee shall all na- 
 tions be blessed," Gal. iii. 8, and so all nations shall — for his 
 seed shall possess- the gate of his enemies, and be thus empow- 
 ered to bless them. Gen. xxii. 17. "Israel shall blossom and 
 bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit. From this ulti- 
 mate purpose of the Lord the apostle gathers the argument, 
 29* 
 
50 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 that as all nations are to be then blessed, believing Gentiles are 
 now also, by an inchoate fulfilment of the prediction, blessed 
 with faithful Abraham, v. 9, But is it not of the present justi- 
 fication of the mystic seed of Abraham taken out of the na- 
 tions and constituted a chosen iialion, a royal priesthood, a pecu- 
 liar people that Paul speaketh? and is it not of the ultimate 
 condition of the earth, siill distinguished by national subdivi- 
 sions, once inimical to, but now possessed by Israel that the 
 promise, which he quotes, speaketh? The song of the redeem- 
 ed, next referred to. Rev. v. 9, is the song of those, who have 
 ceased to have any thing national about them,^ for they are 
 redeemed out q/"all nations. They do not form now, though 
 they once belonged to separate nations. — Again, Rev. xii. 5. 
 The man child is "to rule all nations with a rod of iron." Surely 
 this prediction comporteth not with one view entertained by 
 our respected author — whether it be the literal or the mystic 
 Christ, who is spoken of, all nations shall thus be ruled by him 
 — according as we have seen predicted in Dan. vii. or as in 
 these very words it is more particularly foretold concerning 
 him, Ps. ii. 9; Rev. ii. 27; xix. 15. But the "all nations" to 
 be thus ruled are the nations of this world, subdivided, in like 
 manner, as we see them subdivided now, and consisting of men 
 clothed in real flesh and blood. Of this there can be no doubt, 
 if, as it is stated in the second Psalm, he who shall thus rule 
 them, is to sit the while as king on the holy hill of Zio?j, to ob- 
 tain *'the Heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts 
 of the earth for his possession," v. 6 — 9. The cause of Baby- 
 lon's fall is traced, Rev. xiv. 8, to her having "made all na- 
 tions drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." If 
 she made the disembodied spirits do so, there would be some 
 ground for her arrogant claim to the keys of hell. The na- 
 tions she scourged, who partook of her wine, and of her for- 
 nication, were the nations who submitted to her supremacy 
 and domination. The last reference trenches on particularly 
 debateable ground. — Satan shall be bound in order that he may 
 not deceive the iiations during the thousand years, Rev. xx. 3. 
 Let the interpretation of this contested place be what it may, 
 it is on all sides acknowledged that the nations, who are thus 
 to be exempted from temptations, are nations of living men, 
 who never passed through death. — The point, however, seems 
 to be in all these passages, which have been adduced, that, 
 though they be nations of living men, they are designed to 
 describe more generations of living men than one — and what 
 results from this? nothing. — No period can be referred to in 
 any one nation, wherein there was not a constant succession of 
 living persons taking place — the young ever pressing on the 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 5X 
 
 old, and the cradle ever supplying the ranks, which the grave 
 had thinned. But in no one instance is the term employed to 
 describe those, who having been gathered to their fathers, have 
 gone down into the region of invisible spirits. The distinc- 
 tion of nations existeth not tliere, and indeed is utterly impos- 
 sible. The separation in that world not being according to na- 
 tions, but according to character. They are not re-collected 
 there as Britons and as Hindoos, but classified alone as the just 
 and the unjust. In opposition however, to this remark, Mr. 
 Gipps adds ^'secondly, The term nations in Rev. vii. 9, appears to 
 me to refer, not only to persons of different generations, but 
 to those who have died before Christ's second coming, in 
 agreement with the obvious meaning of the term. Matt, xxv." 
 That it is so obvious, then, is the question at issue. Now the 
 place he refers to is the verse immediately following the ac- 
 count of the sealing of the twelve tribes of Israel, and to the fol- 
 lowing effect — "After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, 
 which no man could number, of (a* out of) all nations, (out of 
 every nation) and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood be- 
 fore the throne and before the Lamb,, clothed with white robes 
 and palms in their hands." Now, the very same word, out of, 
 which is employed in the passage already examined. Rev. v. 
 9, is the very same, which is used here; and though it be trans- 
 lated in our version as the mere sign of the genitive case, I can 
 see nothing which distinguishes it in the smallest degree from 
 the parallel place, where the phrase, with which it is connected, 
 is not surmised to signify, "those who have died before Christ's 
 second coming." I am willing to admit, indeed, that the 
 countless multitude standing before the throne is composed of 
 such, but are they described as nations? — No such thing. They 
 are composed of persons out of all (every) nations. And why 
 this reference to their former estate on earth, but to teach us 
 that, besides the 144,000 sealed of Israel, there will be in that 
 same day of sealing, a goodly company of Gentile origin also, 
 who shall actthepartof faithful witnesses for Jesus? "Thirdly," 
 Mr. Gipps continues, "the context shews that the term all na- 
 tions cannot refer only to the generation then living, but must 
 also include preceding generations. For the sheep who form one 
 division of all nations, (ver. 32,) represent the Saints, but the 
 Saints not only of that but also of all preceding generations will 
 be with the Lord when becomes. 1 Thess. iv. 15 — 17; Col. iii. 
 4. Consequently the sheep include the saints of all preceding 
 generations, and therefore the term all nations also includes all 
 preceding generations," &c. Now, I deny that the sheep do 
 represent the saints strictly so called. If I be correct, in what 
 I have already endeavoured to establish, that the Saints are the 
 
52 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 holy messengers, who accompany Messiah, then is it impossi- 
 ble that they can be the sheep also. The one surround Mes- 
 siah, as assessors on his throne; the others are gathered before 
 him to be judged. The nations judicially assembled are sepa- 
 rated and distinguished by the characteristic appellatives of 
 goals and sheep. I ask then is there no nation, which Scripture 
 delights to represent under the interesting symbol of sheep? 
 Assuredly the Jews are emphatically the sheep of the Lord's 
 pasture. When Judah is to obtain victory over Greece's sons, 
 it is written — "the Lord their God shall save them in that day, 
 as the flock of his people." Zach. ix. 16. I might refer to in- 
 numerable places to this effect, but I satisfy myself with the 
 notice of Ezek. xxxiv. 10 — 31. The Lord having declared 
 his purpose of requiring his flock at the hands of the political 
 shepherds, who scattered Israel, promises himself to search and 
 seek them out; to gather his sheep from the places of their 
 dispersion, in the cloudy and dark day; to feed them in a good 
 pasture; to provide them with a good fold and fat pasture on 
 the high mountains of Israel; to seek the lost, bind the broken, 
 strengthen the sick, take care of the *fat and the strong, and 
 feed them with discretion. f He then proceeds to declare his 
 purpose of judgment, in an address to his own flock, (ver. 17, 
 see marg.) And yoit, myjlock, thus sailh the Lord God, be- 
 hold I judge betiveen 
 
 The small cattle o/" lambs and kids, 
 
 Afid between the rams and the great he goats. This is 1 
 know is generally understood to refer to the two divisions of 
 Judah, the righteous, and unrighteous. But in the preceding 
 description of the flock we meet with no notice of kids or He- 
 goats. It is the sheep alone, that Jehovah speaks of as his flock, 
 which he is to gather and feed. And having gathered these on 
 the mountains of Israel, he resolves to decide judicially between 
 them and the goats, who can therefore be no otiier than the 
 Gentile Anti-Christian confederates, including indeed the apos- 
 tate Jews, who shall be in alliance with them, and against 
 whom, as we know from other Scriptures, their arms shall 
 finally be turned. He now addresses the goats — "Is it a small 
 thing unto you to have eaten up the good pasture, but ye must 
 tread down with your feet the residue of 3'our pastures? And 
 to have drunk of the deep waters, but ye must foul the resi- 
 due with your feet?" Afid as for uy flock, which is contra- 
 distinguished from the party addressed, "they eat that, which 
 ye have trodden with your feet, and they drink that, which ye 
 have fouled with your feet." This ungenerous treatment of 
 the sheep, want of affection towards them, and indisposition to 
 * V. 16, so Arab. Syr. Vulg. Newcombe. t Newcombe. 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 53 
 
 serve them, is made the very ground of the judgment. ''There- 
 fore thus saith the lord god unto them: Behold I, even I will 
 judge, between the fat cattle and the lean cattle." v. 20. The 
 fat cattle here are commonly confounded with the fat and the 
 strong of Jehovah's own flock, of whom he promises to take 
 care in v. 17. But the characteristic of fatness is insufficient 
 to prove the identity. Some of liis own flock may be fat in 
 comparison of others, but, as an aggregate, his own flock, as 
 contrasted with the goats, who have eaten up the good pasture 
 and trodden down the residue, may be lean. That they are 
 not the fat of his own flock, who are here spoken of, appears 
 from what follows. "Because ye have thrust with side and 
 with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, 
 (the horns or powers of the Gentiles) till he have scattered 
 THEM abroad; therefore will I save my flock, and they shall 
 be no more a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle." 
 V. 21, 22. The Jews did not disperse the Jews. The Gen- 
 tiles scattered them abroad. His flock, the Jews, are to be saved 
 from the scatterens — "And I will set up one Shepherd over 
 them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall 
 feed them, and lie shall be their Shepherd," in the room of 
 the political shepherds or rulers, from whose power they are 
 rescued. In other words, as in v. 24, ''I the Jehovah will be 
 their Elohim, and my servant David a prince among them; I 
 the LORD have spoken it." I reserve the rest of this prediction 
 till the close of our remarks on the Saviour's prophec}'. I ob- 
 serve we have here Messiah the Prince, David, the beloved 
 one, succeeding to the office of the evil Shepherds, the Princes 
 of the Gentiles; and the nations themselves, as ^o«/s judged. Is 
 there not, therefore, a perfect correspondence between this pre- 
 diction and the account given in Matthew of the nations gath- 
 ered before the Son of Man, and separated for judgment, the 
 sheep and the goats? I cannot but believe, that both predic- 
 tions relate to the same period and the same parties. To use 
 Mr. Gipps' mode of argument, and indeed his very words, 
 changing only the final reference, "the very striking coinci- 
 dence, which there is between the description in Matt. xxv. 
 31 to 46, of the events, which will take place at the time of 
 Christ's coming in glory, and the description which the Holy 
 Ghost has also given us in" Ezek. xxxiv. 10 — 31, "of the events 
 which will take place at the time" when Israel is rescued from 
 evil Shepherds, and placed under the shepherding of Messiah 
 the Prince, "proves, I conceive, that they are one and the 
 same event." But to proceed — the sheep are addressed as the 
 Blessed of the Father, and called to inherit the kingdom prepared 
 for them from the foundation of the world. This address would 
 
54 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 assuredly be applicable to the case of the Saints, because they 
 are the blessed of the Father and a kingdom is prepared for 
 them, from the foundation of the world, and were they the par- 
 ties symbolised by the sheep, no doubt could exist that it was 
 their blessedness and their kingdom that was spoken of. But 
 the natural posterity of Abraham are also blessed, and a king- 
 dom is also in reserve at the very same epoch, for them. Hear 
 what is written. — In that day, when the mountain of the house 
 of the Lord is exalted above the hills, and many nations come 
 there to be taught of his ways by the Lord, and universal peace 
 prevails, "in that day, saith the lord, will 1 assemble her that 
 HALTETH, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that 
 I have afflicted; and I will make her that halted a remnant, 
 and her that was cast off a strong nation; and Jehovah shall 
 reign over them in Mount Zion, from henceforth even for ever. 
 And thou, tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daugh- 
 ter of Zion, UNTO THEE SHALL IT COME, EVEN THE FIRST DO- 
 MINION; THE KINGDOM SHALL COME TO THE DAUGHTER OF JE- 
 RUSALEM, Micah iv. 6, 8. Now Imperial authority is here 
 assigned to Judah, and yet she herself is placed under the more 
 immediate government of Messiah; while she is by two special 
 notes identified with the sheep: first, by the expression she that 
 halted, in allusion to lame sheep who go sideways; and secondly, 
 by the name conferred on her, the tower of the Jlock. The deci- 
 sion of the Son of Man, rests precisely on the same grounds 
 with the decision in Ezekiel. The goats are brought in guilty 
 thus, '^inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these my 
 brethren, (the Jews emphatically are the brethren of the Lord 
 Jesus, for he was of the seed of Abraham and of the family of 
 David, according to the flesh,) ye did it ?70t to me; and the sheep 
 are accepted in these terms, "inasmuch as ye did it to one of 
 the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." The 
 goats are judged in Ezekiel, because so far from shewing kind- 
 ness to the sheep, they scattered and peeled them, eat their 
 good pastures, and fouled their good waters. So here, it is the 
 conduct, that was observed tozvards the sheep, that is made the 
 criterion of judgment. I feel perfectly satisfied, notwithstand- 
 ing the ingenuity of Mr. Gipps, and indeed of the commenta- 
 tors in general, that this is not the criterion of judgment before 
 the white throne, but works in general. So long ago as the 
 call of Abraham it was made the criterion of the divine deal- 
 ings towards mankind. "I will bless them that bless thee, and 
 curse him that curseth thee." Gen. xii. 3. I therefore look 
 with gladsome approval on tiie contemplated emancipation of 
 the Jews by the i3ritish Legislature. They talk indeed of the 
 course, that ought to be pursued by a Christian nation, towards 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION, 55 
 
 the blasphemers of Messiah. There never has been in the 
 strict and proper sense, a Christian nation — there is not at this 
 moment a Christian nation — and there never will be a Chris- 
 tian nation upon earth, till Messiah shall take his station on the 
 throne of his Father David. Shew nie any one nation, at any 
 one time, of which the majority either have been or are Chris- 
 tians in deed and in truth. But we must not wander from the 
 question. We now arrive at the sentence, which passes on the 
 respective parties, the sheep and the goats. The latter are con- 
 signed to death or punishment. This corresponds with the 
 punishment inflicted on the slain of all flesh, whose carcasses 
 are an abhorrence, and vvhose torments are conspicuous to the 
 survivors, Isa. Ixvi. 24; with the slaying of the Beast, the de- 
 struction of his body, and its consignment to the flames, Dan. 
 vii. 11; with the harvest and vintage in the valley of Jehosha- 
 phat, Joel iii. 14; with the supernatural destruction, one after 
 another, of the inlets of sin, the bodily organs of those, who 
 fought against Jerusalem, Zech. xiv. 12; with the conflagration 
 of those, who do wickedly, as stubble in an oven, Mai. iv. 1; 
 and with the treading of the winepress of the fierceness and 
 wrath of Almighty God, the supper provided for the fowls of 
 heaven, and the consigning of the Beast, the False Prophet, and 
 their deluded votaries, to the lake of fire burning with brim- 
 stone, Rev. xix. 17 — 21. The reward bestowed on the sheep 
 seems to present more difiiculty, but there is none in reality. 
 The Jewish nation, as collected before the Son of man, will at 
 this crisis be righteous. Pleaded with, as of old time, in the 
 wilderness of the land of Egypt, the rebels having previously 
 been purged out, the restored residue shall, with true penitence, 
 remember their doings, and their szceet savour shall be accepted, 
 Ezek. XX. 33 — 44. The surviving third part of the self-re- 
 stored portion, found in the occupation of the land, refined as 
 silver and gold in the fire, shall call on the name of the Lord 
 and be heard: "I will say, it is my people, and they shall say 
 the Lord is my God." Zech. xiii. 9. When they confess their 
 iniquities; when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled; and 
 they have accepted the punishment of their iniquities, it is 
 then the covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob shall be re- 
 membered, and the land also. Lev. xxvi. 30 — 4 5. (see Horse- 
 ley in loco.) "When from thence thou shalt seek the Lordthy 
 God and shalt find him, and when thou shall seek him with all 
 thy heart and with all thy soul in thy affliction, and when all these 
 things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, then thou 
 shalt turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient to his 
 voice, (for the Lord thy God is a merciful God) he will not for- 
 sake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy 
 
55 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 fathers, which hesware unto them." Deut. iv. 28 — 31. (amend- 
 ed after Horseley); see also Deut. xxx. 1 — 7. Fearful abomina- 
 tions we know will be committed, by the apostate Jews in Je- 
 rusalem, as described in Ezek. viii. but before swift destruc- 
 tion Cometh upon the offenders, the Lord says, '<Go through 
 the midst of the City, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set 
 a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry 
 for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof." 
 Ezek. ix. 4. These correspond with the third refined part in 
 Zechariah, and with those mentioned by the same prophet, on 
 whom the spirit of grace and of supplication being poured out, 
 they mourn, like the mourning for an only son, each family 
 apart, when they look upon him, whom they have pierced, 
 Zech. xii. 10 — 14. But still more evidently does the de- 
 scription of those mourners in Jerusalem correspond with the 
 144,000 of Israel, who are sealed, before judgment is suffered 
 to alight on the ungodly. Rev. vii. 1 — 4. Now, I find in an 
 express, undeniable, and universally admitted description of 
 the second advent, these righteous mourners specifically men- 
 tioned as beholding, at the same time with all nations, the Son 
 of Man in his glory — "Behold, he cometh with clouds and 
 every eye shall see him, and they which pierced him: and all 
 the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him." Rev. i. 
 7. The reference is undeniably to Zechariah, and the parties 
 described are the inhabitants of the world, not of Hades, every 
 eye, divided into the two classes of sheep and goats — they rvho 
 pierced him, the Jews — all the kindreds of the earth, the Gentiles. 
 This might be proved from innumerable scriptures to be their 
 lot, but I confine myself to the context in Ezekiel xxxiv. which 
 I reserved till now. Placed under the happy rule of Messiah 
 their Shepherd all this blessedness is their's. "I will make 
 with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts 
 to cease out of the land; and they shall dwell safely in the 
 wilderness, (for it now becomes a portion of the land, according 
 to the promise, that it should extend from Euphrates to the 
 Nile) and sleep in the woods. And I will make them and the 
 places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the 
 shower to come down in his season; there shall he shozvers of 
 blessing;" v. 25, 26 — extraordinary fertility shall succeed to 
 barrenness, safety to peril, and liberty to bondage; ver. 27,28. 
 "And I will raise up for them a plant of renon-n, and they shall 
 no more be consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear 
 the shame of the heathen any more. Thus shall they know 
 that I the Jehovah their Elohim am nith them (Immanuel,) and 
 that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, sailh the Lord 
 God. And ye my Jlock, the flock of my pasture are Men, and 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 57 
 
 I am your God, saith the Lord God." I content myself with 
 the quotation. I have now brought this long examination of 
 the Parable of the Judgment on the Nations to a close, and if 
 I have satisfied you as to its true meaning, I have, at the same 
 time, overturned all the inferences, which from a mistaken ap- 
 prehension of its subject, were deduced from it by Mr. Gipps. 
 The ordinary view of it remained with me for a long period 
 after I had received, (now upwards of twenty years ago,) the 
 doctrine of the personal reign of Jesus and his Saints on earth. I 
 therefore wonder not at the error of this respected author. The 
 colour, which our educational prepossessions cast over a great 
 portion of God's word, both obscures a vast mass of the truth 
 it contains, and prevents its reception. This is more particu- 
 larly the case with the Parables. They have been so thoroughly 
 interwoven with the traditions of men, it is difficult to distin- 
 guish them from the foreign threads, which have been passed 
 through them. 
 
 But independently of this difficulty in the way of a right 
 interpretation, there is another cause, though it has greatly been 
 overlooked, which adds largely to the prevailing ignorance of 
 their contents — the designed obscurity, in which they are in- 
 volved. Those, who are least friendly to prophetic enquiry, 
 imagining that the parables are amongst the plainest parts of 
 Scripture, though such of them as are allegorical are one and 
 all prophetic, consider the veriest tyro in divinity capable of 
 expounding them. But hear what the Holy One, who spake 
 them, saith; "Unto you it is given to know the Mystery of the 
 Kingdom of God; but unto them that are without, all these 
 things are done in parables, that seeing they may see, and not 
 perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand; lest 
 at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be 
 forgiven them." Mark iv. 11, 12. "All these things spake 
 Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable 
 spake he not unto them; that it might be fulfilled, which was 
 spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in para- 
 bles, I will utter things, which have been kept secret from the 
 foundation of the world." Matt. xiii. 34, .35. With these re- 
 marks I conclude my review of Mr. Gipps' appeal to the Para- 
 bles, but as h\s second chapter is far from being confined to this 
 branch of the subject, I shall find abundant materials there to 
 supply me with matter for another letter. 
 
 VOL. III. — 30 
 
58 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 • 
 
 The Transfiguration— The Coming-One— 2 Pet. i. 16— Prophecy of the Judg- 
 ment, Matt. xxiv. — Parable of the Fig-tree, and all the trees, Luke xxi. — 
 The Gospel Kingdom— Figurative Comings— The Last Day— Christ's voice 
 heard in the grave — The Judgment-seat of Christ — Retribution of Enemies. 
 
 I now return to that portion of Mr. Gipps' second letter, 
 which does not refer to the Parables. I commence with his 
 notice of 
 
 THE TRANSFIGURATION. Matt. Xvl. 27. 
 
 To this reference I would add verse 28, "For the Son of 
 Man shall come in the glory of his own {mtov) father, with his 
 own messengers, (siyyixm avt-cv) and then he shall reward each 
 according to his practice. Verily I say unto you, there be 
 some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see 
 the Son of Man coming in his own (auTot/) kingdom." 
 
 The parties at this period, to be recompensed, I believe to be 
 Jiis own messengers. If you have gone along with me, in the 
 remarks I have already made, you will agree with me in de- 
 ciding that his 01IJ71 messengers are the saints, with whom the 
 Son of Man shall come, when he shall take possession of his 
 kingdom; the rewards, which he here refers to, will be also 
 admitted to be those, which it is his gracious purpose to con- 
 fer upon them, in correspondence with the rule laid down in 
 the parable of the Talents. But the passage before us opens 
 with a note of reference to an antecedent statement; that note 
 is the word ^^for.'^ It is taken by Mr. Gipps as introducing 
 the alleged proof, that as each will be rewarded according to 
 his practice, that man will be profited nothing, who, though he 
 had gained the whole world, shall then lose his own soul. I 
 believe him to misapprehend the argument. Christ would en- 
 force the advantage of taking up our cross and following him. 
 He does this in two ways, first, by shewing that he, who acts 
 otherwise, shall lose his own soul, and secondli/, by showing that 
 he, who adopts this course, for his sake, shall find it. This 
 latter he establishes, and, in establishing it, establishes the other 
 by inference, by saying, that when he comes in the glory of 
 his Father, he shall bring with him his own messengers, those 
 who denied themselves, took up their cross and followed him, 
 and give a reward to each of them, that is to each messenger, 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 59 
 
 according to their service done for him, as his messengers. In 
 order to prove his own theory, it was quite necessary for Mr. 
 Gipps to shew, that the coming of the Son of Man in the glory 
 of his Father, in ver. 27, was a widely different thing from the 
 So?i of Ma?i coming in his kivgdom, ver. 28. This lie has at- 
 tempted to do by a violation of all rules of consistent interpre- 
 tation. While in ver. 27, the coming is literal, in ver. 28, the 
 coming Son of Man is a figure — it is no coming at all — it 
 amounts to nothing more than the destruction of Jerusalem, an 
 event, which was not marked by his coming! And yet there 
 is a difference between the two comings, distinctly marked in 
 the original, though the real coming referred to, be but one, 
 and the same event. The phrase, in the first verse, is this, 
 /uieKKa ii>x,(^bai shall hereafter come; in the next verse he solemnly 
 assures them of the certainty of this future event, by the pro- 
 mise that some of those, then present, should actually, before 
 they tasted death, see him, as the ifx^f^^vov, the coming one, in 
 HIS OWN kingdom. Now this was an expression well under- 
 stood by them. It was as the Coming-One the Jews were wont 
 to speak of Messiah, and accordingly, when the Baptist would 
 enquire of him whether he was the Messiah or not, he put the 
 interrogatory to him thus, art thou ip^o/^ivo; the coming one, 
 (Matt, xi, 3,) not regarding him as already come, while he ap- 
 peared only as the Man of Sorrows, having laid his glory by. 
 Again, the multitudes, who attend his triumphant entry into 
 Jerusalem, describe him in their song of praise, not as one, 
 who had already come, but as, ep;io/uivo! the coming one in the 
 name of the Lord. Matt. xxi. 9. Further, when he utters his 
 pathetic lament over Jerusalem, he limits the term of judicial 
 Jewish blindness in these words, ye shall not see me henceforth, 
 till ye shall say, Blessed is, ipx^of^ivo; the coming one, i?i the 
 name of the Lord, a passage, which corroborates the view I have 
 endeavoured to establish in the preceding letter, that he shall 
 be hailed with delight and faith, by the Jews, on his return. 
 When Hosannas linger on their tongues, and they are in ex- 
 pectation of his approach, then shall they see him. Now, 
 when the Disciples saw Jesus, they saw the Coming-07ie; but 
 when, with their naked eyes, they only saw the manhood, they 
 did not see him, as the Coming-One, in his kingdom. This, 
 however, he promises, that some of them should see, before 
 they tasted death. And the three Evangelists, who record the 
 conversation, do one and all proceed immediately to relate the 
 fact of the Transfiguration, which took place a week after, 
 when Peter, James and John were permitted to behold him in 
 his glory, Luke ix. 32. While Peter, himself a witness of the 
 wondrous vision, refers to it, as the manifestation of the power 
 
60 
 
 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 and presence of Jesus in his Majesty. 2 Pet. i. 16 — 18. Against 
 this view, however, of the subject, Mr. G., argues, Jirst, that "the 
 declaration, "Verily, I say unto you, there be some standing 
 liere," &c.; not only indicates that the event foretold would be 
 remarkable and uncommon, but also, that its peculiarity consisted, 
 not in the Son of Man coming in his kingdom, but in some, who 
 were then standing there, not tasting of death before that time.'' 
 In shewing the connection, in which the words really stand, 
 we have, by anticipation, met this argument. For if these 
 words form the close of a continuous discourse relating to the 
 coming of the Son of Man, we are not to suppose that the 
 subject is immediately abandoned, and that an abrupt promise 
 of longevity, totally unconnected with the matter in hand, is 
 addressed to some of the auditors, and linked to the original 
 exhortation by words, apparently similar in sense, and nearly 
 so in expression, but utterly dissimilar in the covert meaning 
 intended to be conveyed. The promise is not a promise 
 of longevity, but a promise, that while yet in the flesh, they 
 should see the Coming- One, i?i his kingdom; the sole peculiarity 
 being, that this marvellous pledge should be afforded to some 
 of them, that the Son of Man shall, indeed, come in the glory 
 of the Father and reward his servants. Secondly, Mr. Gipps, 
 cot/Id not see, how a brief transfiguration a few days after can 
 be considered as his "coming in his kingdom," or as in Mark 
 xi., "the kingdom of God coming with power." But St. Peter 
 could; — the very word in Mark, to which Mr. Gipps referred 
 as so staggeringly emphatic, («v Suvujuu,) iti power, is that precisely, 
 which the eye-witness of the transfiguration employs to ex- 
 press that characteristic of Messiah in glory, which was proved 
 by that very event to be no cunningly devised fable, which 
 was declared by him, the power, ((fuva^/v,) of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. 2 Pet. i. 16. Thirdly, Mr. Gipps discovered a coinci- 
 dence between this promise directly made before the transfi- 
 guration, and another statement, which contained no promise, 
 interpreted as referring to John in the record itself, which was 
 spoken after the resurrection, John xxi. 23. So far was it from 
 being a promise of protracted life to John, that he himself ex- 
 pressly says, Jesus said not unto him. He shall 7iot die, but if i 
 WILL that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee. "If I will;" — 
 is this the language of promise, or of prophecy? Is it not the 
 mere expression of the possibility of its being Messiah's will, 
 that John should continue till he came? It matters not what 
 historians relate of his surviving the fall of Jerusalem thirty 
 years. The fall of Jerusalem is not identical with the coming 
 of the Son of Man. Strange that he should have been thought 
 to have come then, by those, who deny him to have been seen 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. Ql 
 
 coming on the holy mount, by Peter, James and John. If 
 there was intended to be any intimation given, John xxi. 23, 
 that John should not die before the Son of Man came, then 
 is he certainly still living, and has never seen death. The pas- 
 sage can admit of no other interpretation. Mr. Gipps was 
 again misled by his coincidences. But he adduces "a similar 
 declaration concerning Christ's coming. Matt. x. 23. <When 
 they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another; for verily 
 I say unto you, ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel 
 till the Son of Man be come.' Here," he adds, ''Jesus declar- 
 ed to the Apostles that some coming of his zoould take place, be- 
 fore they had gone through all the cities of Israel to preach the 
 Gospel." He thus leaves it. But we must not leave it here. 
 This chapter contains at length those ample instructions ad- 
 dressed to the twelve, on being appointed to the exercise of 
 the Apostolic office, wherein he informed them of the treat- 
 ment they should receive at a subsequent period from the Gen- 
 tiles, (v. 19.) and the consequences, which should result to 
 others, upon the reception of the Gospel (v. 21.) insomuch 
 that the nearest relatives should deliver up the faithful confes- 
 sors of the truth to death. He then addeth, what is applicable 
 to the case of all disciples as well to them, "Ye shall be hated 
 of all men for my name's sake; but he that endureth to the end 
 shall be saved; but when they persecute you in this city," &c., 
 then follow the words under consideration, in connection with 
 which nineteen verses of general application are appended. I 
 judge, therefore, that the verse in question, from the connec- 
 tion in which it stands, is not to be considered as exclusively 
 addressed to the Apostles themselves. The commission given 
 to them to disciple all nations, with the annexed promise, that 
 Christ would be with them to the consummation of the age, 
 ■with which His Gospel concludes, is considered to be of uni- 
 versal obligation, and to bear equally on the case of those, 
 who have succeeded to their labours, and yet that commission 
 embraces not even a distant allusion to any other labourers in 
 the vineyard than themselves. Can I then be wrong in con- 
 cluding, when such an allusion is made, that they are not them- 
 selves the only individuals referred to in a passage, thus em- 
 bodied, in so general a discourse? I am aware that the words 
 are commonly interpreted to relate to the itinerary of the 
 Apostles, through the towns of Judea. But the words, ye shall 
 not finish (tsass-dts) the cities of Israel, rather refer to a work to be 
 accomplished on the cities of Israel, that to a mere visitation 
 of them. This same verb I find employed by Christ in that 
 expiring utterance, by which he expressed the perfection of his 
 atonement, (Trnxe^Tiu) It is finished. John xix. 30. Paul uses 
 30* 
 
Q2 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 it to denote the perfection of legal righteousness; "shall not 
 uncircumcision, which is by nature, if it fulfil (tsaous-*) the law, 
 judge thee," &c. ; Rom. ii. 27. James likewise employs it in 
 the same sense; "If ye fulfil Tsxem the royal law." Jam. ii. 8. 
 I regard our Lord therefore as saying, not, ye shall not finish 
 TOUR TOUR of the cities, but ye shall notfinish the reformation 
 of the cities of Israel, ye shall not perfect these cities, till the Son 
 of Man become. Observe now the words are the cities of Is- 
 rael. Is there not a reference here to the unrestored ten 
 tribes? They were not then in the land, and could not then 
 have been visited. Their restoration shall not take place till 
 after the coming of the Son of Man; Isa. Ixvi. 20, and their 
 moral visitation shall not therefore be effected till then. But 
 suppose the ordinary rendering to be correct, even a literal 
 visit to the cities of their sojourn, where they are concealed 
 till the end come, shall not be effected even by missionary la- 
 bours, till the Lord's return. Further, if the cities are to be 
 understood of the actual cities then existing in Canaan, the 
 statement admits of a just Scriptural exposition, without, for a 
 moment, acquiescing in Mr. Gipps' view of the subject. The 
 Apostles were sent on this embassy at an early period of 
 Christ's ministry, and the circumstance of their being thus 
 commissioned is actually related six chapters before the ac- 
 count of the transfiguration. But we have already proved that 
 three of the Apostles then saw the Messiah as the Coming-One 
 in his kingdom. Christ may therefore have designed to inti- 
 mate, that they should not have gone through the cities of Israel 
 before this vision of himself, as the Coming-One, had taken 
 place. 
 
 PROPHECY OF THE JUDGMENT. — Matt. Xxiv. 
 
 Mr. Gipps would have it, however, that it is a figurative com- 
 ing of Christ at the destruction of Jerusalem, that is referred to 
 above, and "in confirmation of this" he appealed to the very 
 solemn and obscure prediction of our Lord in reply to the 
 double question of the disciples, vchen shall these things be? the 
 destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, "and what shall be 
 the sign of thy coming, and of the consummation of the age?" 
 Matt. xxiv. 4. In his elaborate reply he both describes the 
 ruin of the city, and the awful events, which siiall precede and 
 accompany his own lightning-like coming. I say it is obscure 
 from the manner, in which, according to prophetic usage, the 
 two events are intertwined, and the manner in which commen- 
 tators have treated it. To unfold it in all its bearings, as it 
 ouglit to be, would occupy a treatise as long as Mr. Gipps' own, 
 and I therefore refer you, in the mean time, to a paper of great 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 53 
 
 value on the subject, under the signature of M. in the Chris- 
 tian Herald, vol. iii. p. 188. Though I agree not with the 
 whole of the article, yet it is abundantly sufficient to prove, 
 that Mr. G.'s theory of interpretation is erroneous. I may, 
 however, in passing, put a few questions on the subject, which 
 may tend to disentangle the prediction from the knotted mass, 
 into which modern Interpreters have brought it. Was the 
 sun darkened, did the moon withdraw her light, did the stars 
 fall from heaven, and were the powers of heaven shaken, at 
 the fall of Jerusalem? I may be answered, that all this was 
 effected symbolically, as it affected the Jewish state. But the 
 Jewish state had long previously become a non-entity. Pro- 
 digies in the heavens, it may be rejoined, are related by Jose- 
 phus, to have taken place. I ask, admitting them to have 
 really taken place, (though I suspect them to be as apocryphal 
 as any related by Livy,) were they prodigies such as these? 
 Was the sign of the Son of Man noticed in heaven? Seeing 
 him come in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory, 
 "did all the tribes of the earth mourn?" Did his own {aurov) 
 messengers issue forth, with a trumpet of great compass, and 
 gather together his own (mtou) elect, (whom I believe to be the 
 144,000 sealed of Israel,) from the four winds, from the one 
 end of heaven to the other? Was that the day and hour, of 
 which no man knew any thing save the Father only? Was 
 that the period, which was antitypical to the day of Noah? 
 Was that the day, in the expectation of which the Church is 
 required to watch, to stand in readiness as against a thief, or as 
 servants in obedient fulfilment of duty, awaiting their Lord's 
 return? He, who can answer these questions, in the affirma- 
 tive, should never complain of the imaginative powers or credu- 
 lity of others. Yet must all these questions be so answered, 
 before it can be shewn that this prophecy speaks of Christ as 
 coming in any sense at the siege of Jerusalem. I know there is 
 yet one resort, which such expositors have recourse to, "this 
 generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled." Mede 
 proposes to translate >svsa ?iatio?i — this nation shall not pass, in 
 which he is now followed by Faber; but I prefer Faber's former 
 criticism, who is no Millenarian, this generation shall not pass 
 till q,ll these things be a-fulfilling, or be put in the course of ful- 
 filment, such being the force of the Greek Aorist. Or it may 
 mean this race (that is the Jews,) though they shall be de- 
 stroyed as an sSvo?, a state or community living together, shall 
 be preserved till all, &c. An extra attempt to pin down all this 
 prophecy to the destruction of Jerusalem is made by Mr. Gipps, 
 by appealing to the closing words of the 
 
g4 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 PARABLE OF THE FIG-TREE, AND ALL THE TREES. Luke Xxi. 
 
 which is incorporated into the prophecy by both Evangelists, 
 in their record of what the Lord said on the occasion, and 
 which he affirms to be "connected with the time of the destruc- 
 tion of Jerusalem." How it is so connected he has not in- 
 formed us. But what saith the Parable? as the Fig-tree shoot- 
 eth forth at the approach of summer, "so likewise ye, when ye 
 see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of 
 God is nigh at hand. There is no resemblance between the 
 shooting forth of a fig-tree, and the destruction of Jerusalem. 
 The fall of the city was more analogous to the fall of the leaf 
 and the approach of winter, than to the budding honours of a 
 forest and the approach of summer. But perhaps there was 
 some confusion here, and that the parable really in Mr. Gipps' 
 mind was that of the Fig-tree alone, Luke xiii. 6 — 9, which 
 having three years been visited by the Lord of the Vineyard, 
 as the Jewish Church was by the Saviour, through the corre- 
 sponding period of his ministry, and found to be still barren, 
 was nevertheless allowed to continue a short space, as a cum- 
 berer of the ground, in the gracious hope, that being carefully 
 attended to by Apostles and Evangelists, it might yet blossom 
 and bud and bring forth fruit to perfection, the fearful alterna- 
 tive being, that it should be cut down without mercy should 
 no fruit be discovered. I can understand how this parable 
 might have been running in the mind of our author, which he 
 may very properly have connected with the destruction of Je- 
 rusalem; and I can further understand how he might, very 
 naturally, and very properly also, have viewed it, as illustrated 
 by the symbolic action of our Lord, on his departure from 
 Bethany, the morrow after his triumphant entry into Jerusa- 
 lem, when "seeing a fig-tree afar off, having leaves, he came, 
 if haply he might find any thing thereon; and when he came 
 to it he found nothing but leaves, for, was it not tlic time of 
 figs?" I read this interrogatively, the season for gathering figs 
 was not arrived, and therefore he ought to have found them 
 thereon; "and Jesus answered and said unto it, no man eat 
 fruit of thee hereafter for or to the age," Mark xi. 12, 14. I 
 must detain you with a few remarks on 
 
 THE GOSPEL KINGDOM. 
 
 There is scarcely a more common phrase than this, yet has 
 it no scripture warrant. It is still less correct than that, with 
 which the platforms of our societies abound, where we so often 
 hear "the extension of the Redeemer's kingdom," spoken of. 
 This latter may be understood, though not intended, scrip- 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 65 
 
 turally, if we attach to it the sense 1 have spoken of, as de- 
 signed to be conveyed by the formula, the kingdom of Heaven 
 in the parables. The gospel can neither r€ig?i nor be reigned 
 over. The word itself is but an abbreviation of the larger 
 phrase "The glad tidings of the kingdom of the Heavens." 
 This is one instance of the inaccuracy, with which men allow 
 themselves to quote Scripture. A further plea is advanced in 
 support of the notion, that Christ came, as affirmed, at the siege 
 of Jerusalem, because, as stated, the Scriptures constantly refer 
 to his various 
 
 FIGURATIVE COMINGS. 
 
 This wov A figurative, on which we shall hereafter have more 
 to observe, is often a good help to spiritualizers. I deny that 
 there is, or ever has been, any coming of Christ, which can 
 be c^\\q(\ figurative. He did not come in a figure when he was 
 born of the Virgin; he will not come in a figure when every 
 eye shall see him. Neither is the coming of the Comforter to 
 the church, as the manifester of Jesus, a figure. And if this be 
 no figure, neither is the promise, which accompanied it, of the 
 abiding presence of the 'I'hree in One, with the lovers of Jesus, 
 a figure. *'If any man love me he will keep my words; and 
 my father will love him, and we will come and make our abode 
 with him, John xiv. 23. Is it a figure that Christ is formed, 
 in such, the hope of glory — that he is one with them and they 
 are one with him — that they shall continue in the Son and in 
 the Father? Can such a truth as this be confounded, by any 
 of the Lord's children, with the predictions of Christ's coming 
 in the clouds of heaven, with the glory of his Father, accom- 
 panied by his own angels? I argue now on the idea that the 
 above words have the meaning usually ascribed to them, but I 
 rather regard them as containing a prophecy of Christ's future 
 coming to his church, as their abiding friend and counsellor, 
 when he shall no more remove himself from the midst of them. 
 I am the more inclined to this view of the subject, from the 
 language, which he adopts in the close of the epistle to the an- 
 gel of the church of Laodicea. But of this in its order, for 
 this likewise is appealed to as a coming in a figure, with va- 
 rious other notices of the coming of the Lord, in the epistles 
 to the seven churches, at which we must now glance seriatim. 
 
 I must premise, that while there was an applicability in 
 these various epistles to the circumstances and histories of the 
 various churches, which are named, yet are they to be con- 
 sidered of just the same general character with the inspired 
 epistles of the apostles of our Lord — Nay more, as being them- 
 selves predictions, prefixed to the most symbolical of all books 
 
65 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 of prophecy, they are to be regarded as embodying the practi- 
 cal conckisions, which it is essential we should draw from the 
 contemplation of those revealed purposes of the Almighty, yet 
 to be developed in act. There is something in the very struc- 
 ture of these epistles, which prepares us at once to expect 
 something of more general concernment than the mere local 
 circumstances, that affected these particular churches. Sexeyi 
 characteristics are employed in the preceding vision to mark 
 out the regal dignity and glory of Jesus. One of these seven- 
 fold features of the son of God, in his apocalypse, is selected to 
 be prefixed, rather than his own name, to each of the seve?i 
 epistles, till the whole have been enumerated in rotation. He 
 is, amongst other attributes, described as the possessor of the 
 sete?} spirits, and of the seven stars, and I therefore regard his 
 addresses to the seven angels, as forming one complete exhorta- 
 tion, according to the mystic import of the word seven, to the 
 church universal, from the great Bishop and Shepherd of souls. 
 In this judgment I am further warranted by the remarkable 
 conclusion to each, "he that hath an ear let him hear what the 
 Spirit saith unto the Churches;" not, let it be remembered, to 
 this church or to that church, or to the seven churches, but to 
 the churches. They have all, moreover, a direct bearing on the 
 period of the second advent, and chiefly concern the church at 
 that juncture. For instance the Spirit's promise to the con- 
 queror, that he shall "eat of the tree of life in the midst of the 
 paradise of God," Rev. ii. 7. comp. xxii. 2; that he shall "not 
 be hurt of the second death," Rev. ii. 11, comp. xx. 6; that he 
 shall receive a stone inscribed with a new name unknown to 
 all but himself. Rev. ii. 17, comp. xix. 12; that he shall be given 
 the morning star, Rev. ii. 28, comp. xx. 16, and 2 Pet. i. 19; 
 that he shall be clothed in white raiment, remain unblotted 
 from the book of life, and be confessed before the Father, Rev. 
 iii. 5, comp. Rev. ix. 14 — xvii. 12, xxi. 27. and Matt. x. 32; 
 that he shall be a pillar in the temple and go no more out, and 
 be inscribed with the name of the New Jerusalem descending 
 from God, and with the new name of Jesus, Rev. iii. 12, comp. 
 xxi.; that he shall have power over the nations, rule them with 
 a rod of iron, and sit down with Jesus on his own throne, even 
 as he has sat down with the Father on his throne. Rev. ii. 27, iii. 
 21, comp. Rev. xii. 5, xx. 4, all these promises assuredly re- 
 late to a time yet future. Add to these some direct references 
 to the last times, which must relate to the church at the final 
 crisis of her militant estate; as for instance, the address to Per- 
 gamos is to one, who dwelleth where Satan's Throne is. It 
 is vain to say that this pre-eminence in evil belonged to Per- 
 gamos, because of its extraordinary wealth, but refer to Rev. 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 67 
 
 xiii. 2, 8, and see if it be not connected with universal domi- 
 nation as exercised against the saints, such as never was pos- 
 sessed or exercised by Pergamos. Again, censure is passed 
 on the same angel for encouragement afforded to those, who 
 held the nefarious doctrine of Balaam, who, when he could not 
 destroy Israel, through covetousness, advised that their ruin 
 should be compassed by seducing them into idolatry. Now 
 two apostles refer to this very Balaam as the type of the final 
 apostacy. Peter, in making known the power and coming of 
 our Lord Jesus, and enforcing duty with reference to the day 
 of God, proceeds to forewarn us of the false prophets, who are 
 to arise, through covetousness making merchandise of us with 
 feigned words, "which have forsaken the right way, and are 
 gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Bosor, 
 who loved the wages of unrighteousness, but was rebuked, for 
 his iniquity, the dumb ass speaking with man's voice having 
 forbidden the madness of the prophet," 2 Pet. ii. 1 — 3, 15, 16. 
 While Jude more briefly notices the matter v. 11, "woe unto 
 them, for they have walked in the way of Cain, rushed eagerly 
 on in the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gain- 
 saying of Core." But besides these remarkable references to 
 the future, I meet with these striking words in the epistle 
 to Philadelphia, "because thou hast kept the word of my pa- 
 tience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, 
 which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell 
 upon the earth," Rev. iii. 10. This promise must surely re- 
 gard the faithful m the season of temptation, {t»; y.iXKoucn\Q if>xi<r^a.t) 
 which shall hereafter come on the rohole Oikoumene, inhabited 
 EARTH, of which we meet with a description, Isa. xxiv. 17 — 23; 
 Dan. xii. 1; 2 Thess. ii. S — 12. These considerations all lead 
 me to the full conviction that the seve?i epistles, while they 
 were specially addressed to the churches named, were only 
 addressed to them in type, and were designed for the church 
 in its septiform condition, at the time of the end; and such 
 substantially is the view of the learned Vitringa, who was not 
 a millenarian. This being the case, I now come to the exami- 
 nation of those passages in them, to which Mr. Gipps refers, 
 as expressive of certain Jigiirative comings of Christ. 
 
 I. He thus begins: — "To the Angel of Ephesus it is said, "I 
 will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick 
 out of its place, except thou repent." Rev. ii. 5. The pros- 
 pect of Christ's coming is constantly, through Scripture, pressed 
 on the conscience of the believer, and of the Minister in par- 
 ticular, as a motive of action. Thus, 1 Thess. ii. 19, Paul asks, 
 as concerning himself, "what is our hope, or joy, or crown of 
 rejoicing? are not even ye, in the presence of our Lord Jesus 
 
gg THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 Christ, AT HIS COMING." It is in the view of Christ's coming 
 and the position they will then occupy, as having by him been 
 built on the true foundation, that he considers them his glory 
 and joy; because like the purer metals and the precious stones 
 they will withstand the trial of the fire. See 1 Cor. iii. 11 — 14. 
 Now, in exact contrast to the case of Paul, but looking on- 
 ward, just to the same event, the Presbytery are addressed in 
 the person of the Ephesian angel, and threatened with the loss 
 of their candlestick or church; or its removal from the place 
 it occupied with reference to Jesus. Its proper place was not 
 Ephesus, defiled with the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, but the Pe- 
 riphery of that circle, in the midst of which stood the Son of 
 Man in all his glory. He came not to root out a church from 
 the city of Diana, but he will come to level with the dust the 
 pretensions of every unrepentant professing church, and then 
 shall they, who laboured in the word and doctrine, amongst 
 them, lose their reward, even though they themselves were 
 personally faithful. 
 
 2. We are next referred to "His comitig quickly to the Church 
 of Pergamos to Jight against those, who hold the doctrine of the 
 JVicolaitanes,^' (Rev. ii. 22, 25) — as he will also against those, 
 who hold the doctrine of Balaam. We have already shewn, 
 that this doctrine has reference to a future period; to that last 
 form of delusion, which shall arise before the coming of the 
 Son of Man. Eichorn, a German Theologian, from whom Mr. 
 Irving seems reluctantly to dissent, considers the Balaam and 
 the Nicolas to be the same persons from the remarkable iden- 
 tity in the import of their names, the one in Hebrew and the 
 other in Greek, denoting the Conqueror of the people. I believe 
 the doctrine to be the same, but the individuals to be different, 
 though allied enemies of the Lord — the latter being the anti- 
 type of Balak. I see them both developed in the history of 
 the two beasts of Rev. xiii. The Balak being the last head of 
 the ten-horned beast set up, as the true Antichrist, for univer- 
 sal adoration; and the Balaam being the governing head of the 
 two horned beast in his last estate, the false Prophet. They 
 are both confederate for the same evil purpose, and exercise 
 concurrently a mysterious power "over all kindreds, and 
 tongues and people." The church, which can endure, in the 
 midst of her, the maintainers of such a doctrine, is called on 
 to repent, or she will be involved in the same ruin with the 
 beast and the false prophet, at the coming of Christ; for he will 
 fight against henoith the sword of his mouth, the very instrument 
 wherewith he is described as fighting with the Beast, and the 
 false Prophet, Rev. xix. 15 — 21. The identity of character, 
 of name, and of end, completely establish this point. As (here 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. QQ 
 
 were many Antichrists in John's days, so I doubt not there 
 was much of the Balaam and Balak delusion abroad, against 
 which, it was important to caution the infant church, and they 
 also were required to direct their faith and their hope onward 
 to the final issue, as was the church at Thessalonica; "The Lord 
 make you to increase and abound in love, one toward another, 
 and toward all men, even as we do toward you; to the end he 
 may establish you hearts, unblameable in holiness before God, 
 even our father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with 
 all his saints," 1 Thess. iii. 12 — 13. Who ever regarded this 
 as a figurative coming, and yet was it written to, and of men, 
 who have been above seventeen centuries asleep in Jesus? 
 
 3. We are directed to the coming in Jigure "against the an- 
 tinomian characters in the church at Thyatira, Rev. ii. 22 — 25." 
 I admit there is a coming spoken of, but not against Thyatira. 
 "That which ye have, hold fast till I come," (ver. 25.) are the 
 words of exhortation to the faithful themselves, answering in 
 substance precisely, to the words last quoted from Thessalo- 
 nians. They follow indeed, the intimation given of the fearful 
 end of the woman Jezebel, and her paramours; the very counter- 
 part she is of the woman that rideth the Beast, Rev. xvii. She 
 is the apostate church, with whom spiritual fornication is com- 
 mitted. Her ruin is attributed to Jesus truly; "Behold I will 
 cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her, 
 into great tribulation;" but this is not stated to be effected by 
 him, at the period of his coming. Neither is the ruin of the 
 whore of Babylon. She is to be desolated by the tefi hor?is, 
 Rev. xvii. 16, for God shall put it into their hearts to fulfil his 
 will, and great tribulation shall ensue to her paramours, Rev. 
 xviii. 9 — 11 — 15 — 19. Such is the connection, in which these 
 words stand; and, from the whole tone of the epistle, it is quite 
 obvious that it is to the second advent of the Lord Jesus we 
 are referred, when we are required to hold fast that, which we 
 have. 
 
 4. Appeal is now made to "His coming as a thief upon the 
 church of Sardis," (Rev. iii. 3.) What other coming can this 
 possibly refer to, than that spoken of? Matt. xxiv. 43. "Know 
 this, that if the good man of the house had known in what watch 
 the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not 
 have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore, be ye 
 also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man 
 Cometh." What else can it denote than what is referred to, 1 
 Thess. V. 1 — 2. But of the times and the seasons, "brethren, 
 ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know 
 perfectly, that the. day of the Lord so cometh, as a thief in the 
 night." Who ever was so wedded to system as to regard this 
 
 VOL. III. — 31 
 
70 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 as descriptive, not of the second coming of Jesus, but of the 
 hour of death? Has not Peter said the "day of the Lord will 
 come, (not the day of death) as a thief in the night; in which 
 the heavens shall pass away with a great noise; and the ele- 
 ments shall melt with fervent heat, &c." 2 Pet. iii. 20. And 
 finally, is not this gracious warning prefixed to the account of 
 the dreadful day of Armageddon? "Bebgld I come as a thief. 
 Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepellr^is garments, lest he 
 walk naked, and they see his shame." Rev. xvi. 
 
 5. The next reference is more extraordinary still, "His com- 
 ing in the judgments, which he was about to execute on the 
 Roman empire, and from which he promised to keep the church 
 at Philadelphia," (Rev. iii. 10, 11.) Really it is too much to 
 assume at once the reference to Rome, with which there is no- 
 thing whatever to identify the prediction, and the character of 
 the Coming. I have already spoken of the first verse, and re- 
 ferred to other Scriptures for the import of the hour of tempta- 
 tion, which is assuredly yet future. But whatever it be, it is 
 not identified necessarily with the Coming, which is thus spoken 
 of separately — •'Behold, I come quickly; hold that fast which 
 thou hast, that no man take thy crown," Rev. iii. 11. Is not 
 this as applicable to us as to them? Was it on the downfall of 
 Rome this crown was to be awarded or periled? If I be cor- 
 rect in my reading of Scripture it is only to be conferred in 
 the same day with Paul's. "Henceforth there is laid up for 
 me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous 
 judge shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but to 
 ALL THEM also that love his appearing." 2 Tim. iv. S. If 
 those of Thyatira, here spoken of, were amongst the all, who 
 love the appearing of Jesus, then must they wait till that day 
 to receive their crown — but that day is the day of Christ's ap- 
 pearing, that concerning which he hath said, behold, I come 
 quickly. 
 
 6. "We are directed to his coming in and supping zvilh any 
 individual believer in the corrupt church of Laodicea, who 
 should opeji the door, that is, of the church, at the door or out- 
 side of which Jesus declares himself to be standing." The 
 words, referred to, immediately follow a general call to repent- 
 ance, and are introductory to that promise of a crown to the 
 conqueror, already noticed. I have no doubt whatever, that 
 they contain a promise of participation in the enjoyment of the 
 marriage supper of the Lamb. "Behold, I stand at the door 
 and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I 
 will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." 
 The interposing door I believe to be that qf the heart and not 
 merely of the church, seeing we are individually spoken to — 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 71 
 
 the promise is, that if it be opened to receive him at his sum- 
 mons, they who open it shall sup together with him at his 
 Coming. To the denunciation against the rich, who heap up 
 treasure together for the last days, this exhortation, with 
 reference to the second advent, is appended — "Be patient, 
 therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold the 
 husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and 
 hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter 
 rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts; for the coming 
 of the Lord draii^eth nigh. Grudge not against another, brethren, 
 lest ye be condemned; Behold, the Judge standeth before the door.'' 
 James v. 7, 9. The demand for admission is made — his per- 
 sonal appeal to the heart and the affections is enforced. The 
 supper is ready — But, as the master of the house long absent, 
 he shall speedily make a claim for admission into his proper 
 dwelling the church also. Alas! that so many of his servants 
 should have said in their hearts, my Lord delayeth his coming. 
 To him the porter openeth, and the sheep know his voice. 
 They truly shall sit down at the marriage supper of the Lamb. 
 To them, and them only, will he come in and feast with them. 
 Till the King has solemnly viewed the guests, and cast out 
 the unprofitable servants, he will not make his appearance. 
 Such is the promise; one, which I maintain to be as much a 
 promise of good things to come, as is the promise of the throne 
 which follows. These are then the places to which Mr. Gipps 
 referred to establish his point of figurative comings. I simply 
 ask, was he warranted in following them up with such a con- 
 clusion as this? — "These prophecies have all been fulfilled, 
 these comings have all taken place, yet Christ has not come 
 personally in any one of them!!!" Nay, but they all relate to 
 one coming, and that coming is future and shall be personal. 
 
 THE LAST DAY. 
 
 Much importance is attached to this expression, and many 
 passages quoted to prove, that the judgment, both of the just 
 and of the unjust, is to take place therein. This I have no 
 hesitation in admitting; neither do I doubt that it coincides, 
 though it is not altogether of the same import, with, "the day 
 of judgment, — the day of God, — the day in which the Son of 
 man shall be revealed, &c." But I do deny it to be a day of 
 four-and-twenty hours. The day of God is not necessarily 
 more brief in duration, than that whereof Christ speaketh when 
 he saith, "your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he 
 saw it and was glad," John viii. 56. Was the day of Messiah, 
 which he saw, and which gladdened him with its glory, a 
 period so evanescent as that, which we measure by a single 
 
^2 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 revolution of the earth upon her axis? Ah! no, he saw the 
 promises of millennial blessedness afar off, was persuaded of 
 them, and for the joy, which was set before him, cheerfully 
 avowed himself a pilgrim, Heb. xi. 13. But to come nearer 
 the matter, — the expression in the New Testament, is bor- 
 rowed from the Old, — "The day of the Lord is at hand," saith 
 the prophet Isaiah, " It shall come as a destruction from the 
 Almighty," Isa. xiii. 6. But it appears that this shall not be, 
 in Mr. Gipps's sense, the last day, which shall shine upon the 
 world; though it will be the last of grace to the mystic Assy- 
 rian. For then mercy shall be extended to Jacob; Israel also 
 shall be established in the land, they shall rule over their 
 oppressors — "It shall come to pass in that day that the Lord 
 shall give thee rest from thy sorrow and from thy fear, and 
 from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve, that 
 thou shall take up this proverb against the king of Babylon — 
 T will break the Assyrian in my land," Isa. xiv. 1 — 4, 25. 
 The literal Assyrian, be it remembered, perished at Babylon. 
 Again, 'Uhat day. Matt. vii. 22," when the kingdom of heaven 
 shall be entered on, is met witii, repeatedly, in this prophet. 
 Thus, i?i that day "there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall 
 stand for an ensign of the people; of him shall the Gentiles 
 enquire, (oracularly,) and his rest shall be glorious." This 
 surely relates to the day of the Messiah, which Abraham saw 
 and was glad. "And it shall come to pass, i?i that day, The 
 Jehovah shall set his hand the second time to recover the 
 remnant of his people." There shall be an high way also 
 from Assyria to Egypt, Isa. xi. 10, 11, 16. "And iii that day 
 shall ye say. Praise the Lord — crj' out and shout thou inha- 
 bitant of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst 
 of thee," Isa. xii. 1, 4 — 6. Turn now to Joel, whose predic- 
 tions all relate to that day. He exhorts to deep abasement, 
 and adds, "alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, 
 and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come," Joel i. 
 15. Now observe his statement concerning that day, to which 
 he constantly refers through the remainder of the prophecy — 
 the land is in a state of desolation, Iti, 20. — the day cometh, 
 and the army of impalpable spirits, before whom a fire burneth, 
 and before whom Jehovah utterelh his voice, proceed to exe- 
 cute their fearful commission, ii. 1 — 11; fertility, along with 
 the former and the latter rain, is restored; while joy, and a 
 brow unclouded with shame, mark the happy condition of 
 Israel, in the midst of whom Jehovah taketh his station, 21 — 
 27. The day of the Lord is now identified with the termina- 
 tion of the last days, and the spirit is poured forth upon all 
 flesh, 88 — 32. The captivity of Judah and Jerusalem is re- 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION, 73 
 
 stored — the nations are leathered in the valley of Jehoshaphat 
 — Jehovah sitteth there to judge them — the harvest and vintage 
 take place; "Jehovah also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his 
 voice from Jerusalem;" he shall dwell in Zion, "be the hope 
 of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel;" — 
 yea, in that day wine and milk shall drop down from the 
 mountains — a fountain proceed from the house of the Lord. — 
 Egypt and Edom shall be desolated — Judah shall dwell for 
 ever, and her blood be cleansed, iii. 1 — 21. The predictions 
 of Zephaniah are just to the same effect; "the day of the Lord 
 is at hand; for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid 
 his guests. It shall come to pass m the day of the Lord's 
 sacrifice that I will punish the princes, &c." Jerusalem shall 
 be searched with candles; the fire of jealousy shall burn the 
 whole land, Zeph. i. 7 — 18; the nation not desired is invited 
 to assemble, before the day of the lord's anger cometh 
 upon her, and the meek of the earth are exhorted to righteous- 
 ness, that they may be hid "in the day of the Lord's anger;" 
 — Moab and Ammon, Ethiopia, and Assyria, are given to the 
 spoil, while the former are especially conferred on Israel; the 
 Elohim of the heathen are to be famished, and "men shall 
 worship Jehovah, every one from his place, even all the isles 
 of the heathen," ii. 1 — 15. The filthy city is reproved and 
 purified by judgment, iii. 1 — 7; they are commanded to wait 
 on the Lord till the day that he rises up to the prey; his 
 determination to gather the nations, and devour them with the 
 fire of his jealousy, is expressed. "Then will I turn to the 
 people a pure lip, that they may all call upon the name of the 
 Loid, to serve him with one shoulder. From beyond the 
 rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants, even the daughter of my 
 dispersed, shall bring mine offering. In that day thou shalt 
 not be ashamed for all thy doings;" the daughter of Zion is 
 exhorted to rejoice; her judgments are taken away, her enemy 
 cast out; "the King of Israel, the Jehovah, is in the midst of thee; 
 thou shalt not see evil any more. In that day it shall be said 
 to Jerusalem, Fear not; and to Zion, let not thy hands be 
 slack; the Lord thy God, in the midst of thee, is mighty; he 
 will save, he will rejoice over thee with singing;" they who 
 afflicted her shall be undone; in every land, where they were 
 put to shame, they shall obtain praise and fame. "At that 
 time will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather 
 you, for I shall make you a name and a praise among all the 
 people of the earth, when I turn back your captivity before 
 your eyes, saith the Lord," 8 — 20. From this abstract of 
 these two prophets, who have written so largely on the day 
 of the Lord, it is obvious that that (/ay embraces the destruction 
 31* 
 
74 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 of the assembled nations; the desolation of Israel, and the 
 blessedness she consequently obtains under the gracious rule 
 of THE King op Israel, Jehovah, who shall dwell in the 
 midst of her, even in Zion, the city of her solemnities. It 
 must therefore embrace a period of very considerable duration. 
 Various references are made to the last day in John, Four 
 of these are distinct promises to those, whom the Father hath 
 given to Jesus, and who believe in him; who are drawn to him 
 of the Father; who partake of his flesh and blood, that he will 
 raise them up at the last day, John vi. 39, 40, 44, 54. If 
 these promises have any definite meaning, they imply that the 
 resurrection of the last day will be confined to those, who were 
 given to, believed in, were drawn unto, and partook of Jesus. 
 Martha expresses her conviction, John xi. 24, "that her 
 brother shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day." 
 This conviction of hers, however, cannot be considered as 
 decisive of the general question, as it concerns only an indi- 
 vidual; but that individual, nevertheless, was one whom Jesus 
 loved. But it is written, concerning another class of charac- 
 ters, "he that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath 
 one that judgeth him; the word that I have spoken, the same 
 shall judge him in the last day," John xii. 48. Now here is 
 nothing stated concerning the resurrection of the rejecter of 
 Jesus; but there is of the decision of the word concerning him 
 at the last day. It shall exclude him from the resurrection of 
 the just, of those who confessed Jesus; he shall not rise — that 
 is the judgment written concerning him. To rise then, he 
 must have confessed Jesus — have been given to him, believed 
 in him, been drawn to him of the Father, and have partaken 
 of his flesh and of his blood. — It will then appear that he had 
 no life in him — that he did not possess eternal life. 
 
 The case of the various cities of the plain have been referred 
 to, as spoken of by our Lord, in reference to the day of judg- 
 ment. If you examine your Greek Testament you will find 
 the article omitted in all the places where they are spoken of, 
 (Matt. X. 15. xi. 22, 24.) It is not in the day of judgment, but 
 in a day of judgment, "visitation by temporal calamities," it 
 shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom, &c., as long since 
 noticed by Dr. Hales, in his Analysis of Chronology, vol. ii. 
 page 119 — 8vo. Lon. 1830. Where the future condemnation 
 of the unjust departed is spoken of, the same form of expres- 
 sion is used — an account shall be given of every idle word, 
 it Hf^i/ix x.pia-(a>i:, in « day of judgment. Matt. xii. 36. The unjust 
 are to be reservedyor a day of judgment, u; >i/uipav Kpt<!-ia>;, 2 Pet. ii. 
 9. The heavens and the earth are also kept in store against a 
 day of judgment and perdition of the ungodly men, the period of 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 75 
 
 this ruin is circumscribed, and extendelh not through the 
 whole term o( the judgment. 2 Pet. iii. 7. But John speaking 
 of those, who shall be raised in the last day, says, Herein is 
 our love made perfect that we may have boldnes, svTxx^s/jaTxs 
 
 x.p(a-ia>;, IN THE DAY OF THE JUDGMENT. 1 John iv. 17, that is, 
 
 throughout the entire period, which extendeth from the occu- 
 pation of the thrones, at the first resurrection, to the judgment 
 before the white throne. The same distinction is to be ob- 
 served in the kindred expression, Jude 6 — "the messengers, 
 which kept not their principality, but left their own habitation, 
 he hath reserved in chains of Hades under darkness unto a 
 judgment of a great day," w Kpiaiv juiyctxii; ^juepug — there is nothing 
 definite in the verse, which pointeth out any particular great 
 day, yet it must doubtless be that, when the dead small and 
 great stand before the great white throne. But there is an- 
 other day appointed for judgment of the ungodly living, the 
 nations, in the valley of Jehoshaphat, to which we are mani- 
 festly referred in the next place, that is cited by Mr. Gipps. 
 Acts xvii. 31. He hath appointed A day, ifi xvhich he zoill judge 
 the OiKOUMENE, the platform of the empire of the beast, in 
 righteousness by that man xvhom he hath ordained, ajfording assur- 
 ance thereof to all, raising him out of dead ones. This passage 
 is also made the subject of a separate article. It is difficult 
 to determine at first sight, to which judgment, that in the val- 
 ley of decision, or that before the white throne it may refer, 
 but from the mention of the Oikoumene, inhabited earth, I doubt 
 not it is the former. The appointment of such a day was in 
 itself abundant evidence that God would no longer wink at 
 idolatry, and the necessity of repentance was justly argued 
 therefrom. The judgment by the law shall be iti a day ivufxtfn, 
 when God shall judge the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. Rom. 
 iii. 16. Herein there is no definite allusion to a particular 
 day, as in our version. "The day, in which the Son of Man 
 shall be revealed," Luke xvii. 30, is limited by the very terms 
 employed and by the context to the actual moment of his 
 Apocalypse "when one shall be taken," i.e., rapt up into glory, 
 "and another left," the morning of the first resurrection. But 
 it seems surprising Mr. Gipps should have referred to it, when 
 he has interpreted the whole of the prophecy as given by St. 
 Matthew, of the figurative coming of Messiah to destroy Je- 
 rusalem. "The day of the Lord Jesus," 1 Cor. v. 5, which is 
 identical with the day of the Messiah, that Abraham longed to 
 see, is here spoken of as that, in which the fallen brother, hav- 
 ing undergone due discipline, may be saved. Now this is the 
 very character we attribute to the Millennial day, the day of 
 Messiah, the day of perfect bliss and consummation to Abra- 
 
76 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 ham's seed, the heirs of those promises. The day of the 
 Lord Jesus is again employed to denote the period of their 
 enjoyment, 2 Cor, i. 14, ''we are your rejoicing, even as ye 
 also are our's, in the day of the Lord Jesus." After a like 
 manner the lord's Day, which cometh as a thief on the un- 
 godly world, then dreaming of safety and peace, is mentioned 
 (1 Thess. V. 2 — 11) as presenting a widely different aspect to 
 the CHILDREN OF THE DAY. "Ye, brethren, are not in dark- 
 ness that the day should overtake you as a thief. God hath not 
 appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Je- 
 sus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, 
 we should live together with him, wherefore comfort yourselves 
 together and edify one another, even as also ye do." In a 
 place, to which we must hereafter refer, the Lord's day is again 
 spoken of in its thief-like approach, as presenting to the faith- 
 ful an object of earnest desire and an incitement to Christian 
 holiness. 2 Pet. iii. 10 — 13. Messiah's day, that which Abra- 
 ham rejoiced to see, is by this very name described, as not 
 being then mstant, for the comfort of the Thessalonian Church, 
 who were fearful, it seems, of being overtaken by the time of 
 tribulation, which precedes its dawn, 2 Thess. ii. 2. That 
 day, {»i,uipai>cuv»,) is emphatically referred to as the day, when 
 many, who have not done the Father's will, shall in vain claim 
 admission to the kingdom, Matt. vii. 22; as that, in which the 
 kingdom of God has come, Luke x. 12; as that, which shall 
 come unawares on the carnal, Luke xxi. 34; As that in which 
 Jesus shall be glorified in his Saints, 2 Thess. i. 10; as that 
 against which Paul had entrusted his all to the Saviour's cen- 
 tinelship, 2 Tim. i. 12; as that, in which it was prayed for 
 Onesiphorus he might find mercy, 2 Tim. i. IS; and finally as 
 that, in which the crown of righteousness should be awarded 
 to those, who love the Epiphany or glorious appearing of the 
 Lord. Such are Mr. Gipps' references; but I add, that it 
 occurs in other places, which he has not noticed, as for in- 
 stance, "of /Aa/ c/ay and hour knoweth no man," Matt. xxiv. 
 36; Mark xiii. 32, — but this was supposed to have reference 
 to the siege of Jerusalem. His own criticism, however, over- 
 turns his theory. Again — "I will not drink henceforth of this 
 fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you 
 in my Father's kingdom," Matt. xxvi. 29; Mark xiv. 25. He 
 that is on the house-top in that day must not come down to 
 take his stuff out of the house, Luke xvii. 31. We now come 
 to a very important place on the context of which, (that is 
 John xiv. 23,) I have already pronounced my opinion — "a< 
 that day ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in me 
 and I in you," John xiv. 20, The witness of the spirit might 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 77 
 
 710ZU persuade them of the fact, but thc7i the proof of it shall be 
 submitted to their very senses. This interpretation is further 
 justified by the preceding promise, "I will not leave you or- 
 phans," — the Spirit should be sent to them during his absence. 
 And further he addeth another promise "I will come to you,' 
 ver. IS, In conformity with which he saith afterwards, "ye 
 have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again 
 unto you," ver, 27. There can be no doubt that this referreth 
 to the second advent, and therefore his coming to them, their 
 acquaintedness in that day with his unity with the Father, and 
 their unity with him, (ver. 20,) and his coming with the Fa- 
 ther to abide with them, (ver. 23,) are all identical. Lastly, 
 we meet with it in the description of the fight of Armaged- 
 don, which introduces the thousand years; and therefore must 
 precede the judgment before the great white throne by at least 
 that term of time, (Rev. xvi. 14,) "they are the spirits of de- 
 mons working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the 
 earth and of the whole Oikoiimejie, inhabited earth, and the bat- 
 tle of //fa/^?-ea/ </«?/, of Almighty God." Now observe, they are 
 not said to be collected to battle at the great day, but to the battle 
 of that great day — the battle, by which it is to be distinguished. 
 We thus identify the day of Armageddon's fight with the day of 
 admission to the kingdom; which comes unawares; where 
 Paul's deposit shall be found in safety; when Messiah shall be 
 glorified in his Saints; Onesiphorus find mercy; the crown of 
 righteousness be awarded; the fruit of the vine be partaken of 
 by Messiah and his disciples; the man on the house-top neglect 
 his stufi'in the house; the unity of Messiah and the Church be 
 discoverable by sense; and the interminable abode of the Fa- 
 ther and the Son, with the Church take place. But it is also 
 the Lord's day, and the day of Messiah. The day of Mes- 
 siah, however, embraces many days, for it is written "days 
 shall come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the 
 Son of Man, and ye shall not see it," Luke xvii. 22. But, 
 according to Mr. Gipps, the other formula we have noticed, 
 the last day, the day of judgment, &c. all describe the very same 
 day, in its dawn and in its close, with Messiah's day, and they 
 therefore must include many days, commencing with the battle 
 of that great day of Almighty God. It will be seen, however, 
 that I do not regard all those formulae as expressing the entire 
 period of Messiah's day, though they are all identified with it. 
 Some of them are shewn by the context, to describe the judg- 
 ment on the living at the dawn, — and others the judgment of 
 the dead, small and great, before' the white throne far on in 
 the eve of Messiah's day — One other place I have yet to quote, 
 which embraces, in my apprehension, both these judgments. 
 
78 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 He, who sees the end from the beginning, takes in both judg- 
 ments at one glance. Thus in the prophets, he repeatedly re- 
 presents both advents, as if they were one continuous event; 
 and describes the miraculous effusion of the spirit on the apos- 
 tles at Pentecost, and o?i all Jlesh at the close of our dispensa- 
 tion, as if no period intervened, during which there was to be 
 a remarkable cessation of the direct exercise of his power. It 
 is the completion of his purposes; whether of wrath or mercy, 
 he ever delights to describe, and he pauses not to detail the 
 intermediate events, which occasion a pause in the accomplish- 
 ment of his end. The place 1 refer to is the address to the 
 profligate, Rom. ii. 5, '<but after thy hardness and impenitent 
 heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath, 
 and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." 
 
 From what I have already advanced, it will appear, that I 
 do not rely on the hypothesis, that the last day, or Messiah's 
 day, is to be one of just one thousand years, neither more nor 
 less, which is assumed to be essential to the doctrine of the 
 Millennium. This assumption, however, forms the basis of 
 many an argument, and is asserted to rest on the use, which 
 has been made of 2 Pet. iii. 8. For my own part, however, I 
 am not aware, that more has been inferred from this.place, than 
 what must naturally arise from its perusal, viz., that in the di- 
 vine estimate, the measure of time, being vastly different from 
 man's, a period, which extendeth to a thousand years, is ac- 
 counted but a day, — a long period is abbreviated; while, on 
 the contrary, a day, in heaven's language, denoteth a thousand 
 years — a short term is elongated; a note of the inspired mea- 
 surement of time is not given in Psalm xc. 4. It is a general 
 maxim, employed in the place before us, to account, indeed, 
 for the apparent slowness in the execution of the divine pur- 
 poses, and the suspension, which has taken place, in the 
 thief-like approach of the LorcPs day, to which the first clause 
 is especially applicable; but still, from its bearing upon that 
 day, which is emplatically the Lord's own, and, therefore, not 
 to be judged of by human criteria, I deem it to convey an inti- 
 mation, according to the purport of the second clause, that that 
 day will actually consist, as we have already seen it will, of a 
 very considerable period. I confine not the period to a thou- 
 sand years, I believe it will vastly exceed it. The thousand 
 years in Rev. xx. 4, are not made the limit of the saint's reign, 
 but of Satan's confinement to the bottomless pit. This remark 
 at once answers a vast portion of the book we are reviewing. 
 
 Christ's voice heard in the grave. 
 It is argued from John v. 28, 29, that all who are in their 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION, 79 
 
 graves shall hear that voice, at one and the same time, and 
 come forth at once, either to the resurrection of life, or of dam- 
 nation. It seems strange to me that no reference should be 
 made to verses 25 — 27. I quote the whole passage: — 25 
 "verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now 
 is, [icat vuv io-Tt,) when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of 
 God, and they that hear shall live." 26 "For as the Father hath 
 life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in him- 
 self," 27 "And hath given him authority to execute judgment 
 also, because he is the Son of Man." 28 "Marvel not at this, 
 for the hour is coming, in which all they in the graves shall 
 hear his very voice;" 29 "And shall come forth. They who have 
 produced good things at the resurrection of life, but they vvho 
 have practised evil things at the resurrection of judgment." It 
 is scarcely possible for language to make a greater distinction, 
 as to the time of the resurrection of life, and the time of the 
 resurrection of judgment, than is made in the above verses. 
 The hour is now, from its comparative nearness, when the 
 dead, who hear the voice of him that hath life in himself, shall 
 live; — a statement, which implies, that others shall not then 
 hear, and shall not live. — I know the gloss is, that the dead 
 here spoken of are the dead in sin. But the discourse is on 
 the raising of the dead by the Son, in proof of his equality in 
 honour with the Father, who raiseth the dead, and maketh 
 them alive, even as the Son maketh alive those, whom he 
 wills, ver. 21, — judgment is not even exercised by the Father, 
 but is committed to the Son, (ver. 22.) that he may have equal 
 honour, (ver. 23.) In further explication, of which wonder- 
 ful prerogative, we are presented with reduplicated amens, or 
 verilys, solemnly authenticating the certainty of its exercise, 
 as evidenced first in the communication of the power of his 
 resurrection-life, the eternal life, to those vvho believe here, 
 "verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and 
 believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life, and cometh 
 not into judgment, but is passed from death unto life," has ex- 
 perienced already the power of the resurrection, and shall 
 never be arraigned in the judgment, for it only can affect the 
 dead, who have never experienced that power; and secondly, 
 in the resurrection of the just, (ver. 25) which we have already 
 cited, "verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and 
 now is," when the dead, vvho hear his voice, shall live, when 
 those, vvho have experienced the power of the resurrection, 
 shall receive the fulness of the blessing, even "the adoption, to 
 wit the redemption of the body." — These reduplicated amens 
 thus present us with the successive exercise of those greater 
 works (v. 20) by Jesus, on behalf of his church, which are de- 
 
QQ THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 signed to occasion adoring marvel— ;yZrs/, the quickening, by 
 his Spirit, of the dead in sin; and secondly, the recall to life, in 
 its utmost bliss and consummation, of those who sleep in Jesus. 
 But great a marvel as is this, another marvel is to follow, for 
 ALL that are in their graves shall hear his voice — they who have 
 produced good, as already stated, "at* the resurrection of life," 
 when they alone shall hear the voice; and they, who have 
 practiced evil, "at the resurrection of judgment," whereto the 
 former shall not come. 
 
 We have a long critique on the word Hour, in order to prove 
 that the coming hour (of ver. 29,) cannot embrace the whole 
 period, which shall elapse between the first resurrection and 
 the judgment before the White Throne, as if it were neces- 
 sarily confined in import to the 24th part of a day — but in this 
 very chapter, yea, in this very discourse, the same word upa. is 
 employed to denote the whole season of John the Baptist's 
 ministry, (ver. 35.) It marks the time, during which the 
 disciples should be persecuted, (John xvi. 2) the time in which 
 they should no more be spoken to in proverbs, but shewn 
 plainly of the Father, (John xvi. 25,) that is, according to 
 Beza, ab ascensione Christi, when the spirit was poured out, ad 
 finem usque secidorum, from the ascension of Christ even to the 
 end of the ages. It must either, in fact, denote with him the 
 whole dispensation of the spirit, or else the Millennial dispen- 
 sation. — Again, according to "//le commentarij of the age," as 
 the bishop of Calcutta calls that of Mr. Scott, (and, indeed, I 
 know not that it is even sought to be denied by any,) the same 
 word hour oipa. is used to mark out the whole of the Christian 
 dispensation, 1 John ii. IS. "Little children, it is the last 
 time, (hour;) and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come, 
 even now are there many Antichrists; whereby we know that 
 it is the last time, (hour.") — Were we to adopt Mr. Gipps' 
 mode of reasoning here, we might make out" that twenty-three 
 hours of the last day were expended, when John wrote this. 
 We have only to substitute the word hour, for day. — None of 
 the hours of the last day, "can be afteu the last hour, because 
 there can be no hour aftek the last." But all the emphasis 
 of type will be insufficient to prove that every hour but one of 
 the last day, was run out in John's time. And as little can 
 it serve to prove that the last of the all days, during which 
 Christ was to be present, by his spirit, with the ministry, 
 (Mat. xxviii. 20,) or that the last day, even that wherein he 
 shall raise up all, who believed in him, and them onl}', is the 
 last, which shall dawn upon the earth. But to return, John's 
 
 * u; has the force of at, when applied to any thing which recently preceded, 
 as life 3ind judgment both had here. 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. gj 
 
 use of the word hour corresponds with the usage of the Seventy, 
 for they employ it as equivalent with the Hebrew, ny, which 
 signifies indefinitely time or season. No advantage therefore 
 can be derived to Mr. Gipps' theory, from the occurrence of 
 the word hour in our Lord's notice of the resurrection of life, 
 and the resurrection of judgment. 
 
 THE JUDGMENT SEAT OP CHRIST. 
 
 All are to appear before it, either to receive the good or the 
 bad according to the things, which they had practised in the 
 body. 2. Cor. v. 10. It is argued from hence, that they are 
 all to do so "at one and the same time." Does it hence follow 
 that they are all to appear there at one and the same time? 
 It were waste of time to pursue this reasoning. One observa- 
 tion, however, on the Judgment Seat* We find this word 
 (;S»^*) in Acts xii. 21, translated throne, "on a- set day Herod 
 arrayed in royal apparel sat upon his (/3«/^a) throne." Now, 
 what is the posture of the Saints, before the throne of Christ; 
 and the character, in which they appear there? Is it as parties 
 arraigned before the Judge? Far from it. Their attitude 
 there is not that of persons upon their trial, but of victors, who 
 have fought the fight and gained the prize. "I beheld, and lo! 
 a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, 
 and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne 
 and before the lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in 
 their hands," Rev. vii. 9. Widely different are the circum- 
 stances, under which the dead small and great stand before the 
 white throne, Rev. xx. 12. All thus shall indeed stand before 
 the throne of Jesus, but at veiy different seasons, and for very 
 
 * The whole passag:e runs thus — "We must all appear before the judgment- 
 seat, (throne) of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, 
 according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing there- 
 fore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto 
 
 GOD — AND I TRU.ST ALSO, ARE MADE MANIFEST IN YOUR CONSCIENCES." The mcu, 
 
 whom he would persuade, are thus evidently contrasted with the brethren, to 
 whose consciences he was made manifest. This view of the subject is much 
 corroborated by the statement of the Apostle, concerning the judicial correc- 
 tion of communicants. "For this cause many are weak and sickly among 
 you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be 
 JUDGED. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we 
 should not be condemned (judged) with the world." 1 Cor. xi. 30 — 32. 
 Those, who are hereafter to judge the world, are at present invested with 
 authority, an authority, which has indeed, for centuries been paralysed, but 
 still an authority, which ought to be in exercise, to judge their own mem- 
 bers. Communication with evil doers being first forbidden, Paul asks "what 
 have I to do to judge them that are withoutl Do not ye judge them that 
 are within'? But them that are without, God judgeth o ©esf xg/va, There- 
 fore put away from among yourselves, that wicked person," 1 Cor. v. 11 — 
 13. Against those who are in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation 
 Kxran^ijuit. Rom. viii. 1. A variety of other passages might be quoted to the 
 same effect. 
 
 VOL. III. — 32 
 
g2 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 different purposes — the saints to magnify the Lord and to cast 
 their crowns before his feet at his coming ; but the rest of the 
 dead, when the thousand years are ended, to receive their 
 doom. The terrors of that day caused Paul earnestly to per- 
 suade men, (mark, not the saints) to repentance and faith. 2 
 Cor. V. 11. 
 
 RETRIBUTION TO ENEMIES. 
 
 An argument is drawn from 2 Thess. i. 5 — 9, that all who 
 troubled his saints of all ages, with all the knowers-not of God, 
 and the obeyers-not of the Gospel shall be punished at the very 
 same time, wherein believers are admitted, by Jesus, into the 
 enjoyment of their rest. The distinction between those, who 
 troubled the Thessalonian converts (ver. 6.) and those, «jAo 
 know 7iot God, by whom he understood the Pagans; and those 
 who obeyed ?iot the Gospel, by whom he understood the Jews, 
 (ver. S.) was so manifest to Macknight, that he interprets the 
 former verse at once of the affliction, which was to be brought 
 upon the Jews, translating it thus: — "Notwithstanding it is 
 just with God to give in return affliction to them who afflict 
 you." I do not, indeed, follow him in his exposition, but I 
 just notice it to shew, that there is nothing in the passage itself, 
 which justifies the idea that this affliction was to be visited on 
 the persecutors in the very same day, wherein the afflicted were 
 to obtain rest. Their rest, indeed, we are distinctly told shall 
 be entered on, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven. 
 Now, I rather think it is the change of idiom, by which a 
 substantive is made a verb, and when the adverb of time pre- 
 fixed, which our translators adopted in writing down these 
 words, as expressing the sense of the Greek, which occasioned 
 the misconception 1 speak of; and caused our much respected 
 author to make the affliction which is to be visited on the 
 persecutors synchronize with the rest to be conferred on the 
 afflicted. But the original runs literally thus: — "To you, the 
 afflicted, rest with us in the Apocalypse of the Lord Jesus, 
 from Heaven, with messengers of his own energy" — the rest 
 they shall obtain is actually in the Apocahjpse, when they shall 
 be associated with the Revealed Jesus and his messengers 
 of energy — while nothing is determined as to the juncture, 
 when the affliction shall come on the persecutors. 1 have no 
 doubt it will come on them long after the moment of the 
 Apocalypse, even at the judgment before the white throne. 
 But there are enemies noticed in the succeeding verse, on 
 whom vengeance shall be taken, at the very time of the Apoca- 
 lypse in flaming fire, even the knowers-not of God and the 
 obeyers-not of the Gospel, the Jews and the Gentiles then 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. g3 
 
 living, who shall be gathered together before the Son of Man, 
 as we have already seen, "who shall suffer punishment, the slay- 
 ing, (oxeS^ov,*) from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of 
 his might, in that day when he shall come to be glorified in his 
 saints, &c." This punishment by slaying, which corresponds 
 so accurately with Isa. Ixvi. 15-17, and Rev. xix. 21, is here 
 represented you will observe, not as the grand feature of that 
 day, but as a mere adjunct, — the great business of that day 
 being the glorification of Jesus through his own Saitits, and the 
 admiration to be won by him, from all the believers. It is 
 not a little remarkable also, that while the whole family named 
 after him are included in the formula, all his Saints, all the 
 believers; it is otherwise in the enumeration of his foes, the 
 knowers-not of God, the obeyers-not of the Gospel. I know 
 not that I need trouble you with any further remarks on this 
 passage. I believe I have met all that Mr. Gipps has advanced 
 in the above exposition. I would, however, add here a few 
 remarks, which I have postponed till now, on Dan. xii. 2. I 
 cannot myself discover any force in the idea, that the awaking 
 of some to life and some to shame, in this place, contains the 
 expression of the simultaneous arising of both classes — but, I 
 have so great a respect for Mr. Begg's judgment, I am unwill- 
 ing altogether to deny the justice of his interpretation, that 
 some of those, who have been eminently wicked, will be 
 raised at the same time with the righteous, and consigned to 
 perdition. But I must own I cannot receive the notion. It 
 appears to me contradictory to the law our Lord has laid down 
 for the resurrection at the last day; and in my view of the place 
 I meet with no real difficulty. The many who sleep, of whom 
 Daniel speaks, are evidently Jews. The object of the Spirit 
 in noticing them at all is to mark the period and glorious 
 results of Michael's interference for his people. When he 
 standeth up, for their deliverance from the time of unexampled 
 tribulation, the scattering of the holy people shall be finished, 
 and therefore the Jews restored, (ver. 7;) and so great shall be 
 their enjoyment, and so completely shall the enemy be sub- 
 dued, that the uise, and amongst them Daniel, for he too shall 
 stand in his lot at the end of the days, "shall shine as the 
 brightness of the firmament, and they that turned many to 
 righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever," (ver. 3.) It 
 was to introduce this promise to the faithful, the fact of the 
 resurrection was referred to at all, but being referred to, the 
 resurrection of life and the resurrection of judgment are both 
 noticed in one comprehensive glance of the end from the 
 
 * This word is used as the exponent of Tnsn to cut ofl', 1 Kings xiii. 3, 4, by 
 the Ixx. 
 
§4 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 beginning, just as we have already seen to be the case in the 
 parallel place of John v. 29. I am the more confirmed in this 
 for three reasons: — 
 
 1. There is no note of time given in v. 2, by which the two 
 resurrections are made synchronical. 
 
 2. Without expatiating on the resurrection of some to shame 
 and everlasting contempt, he contents himself with the mere 
 notice of the fact, and then returns to detail the character of the 
 retribution; but goes on immediately to describe the glory of 
 the some, with whose resurrection to everlasting life he had 
 commenced the statement, being only for a moment diverted 
 from it, that the ungodly might know there will also be a 
 resurrection of judgment; and, 
 
 3dly, I agree with Theodoret and Bishop Newton, who 
 quotes him, that the mnmj are put for the entire multitude of 
 those who sleep, i. e. for «//, just as Paul uses the word, Rom. 
 V. 15, 19. 
 
 So far Mr. Gipps and I are agreed — but then it is plain from 
 the prophecy that the shining of the wise as the firmament 
 synchronizes with the restoration of the Jews; while all are 
 agreed that the resurrection to shame will not take place until 
 the dead small and great stand before the white throne, which 
 is at least a thousand years afterwards. 
 
 I believe I have now left nothing important unnoticed in 
 Mr. Gipps' second Chapter, with the exception of his comment 
 on 2 Peter iii., for the rebutting of which I refer you to my 
 own pamphlet on the subject; and with the exception also of 
 his view of the kingdom as connected with 2 Tim. iv. 1, and 
 1 Cor. XV. 24 — 26. But these topics will afibrd ample mate- 
 rials for another letter, and therefore undismayed by your re- 
 quest for brevity, I postpone their consideration for the present. 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 The Kingdom. — Matt. xiii. 41: xvi. 18— Luke i. 33; xxii. 30 — John xviii. 36— 
 Eph. V. .5— Col. i. 13—2 Tim. iv. 18— Heb. i. 8.-2 Pet. i. 11, The peliver- 
 TNG UP OF THE KINGDOM — 1 CoF. XV. 23-26 — Davidic rule over Enemies — 
 The Tabernicle stale of the New Heavens and New Earth — Ps. ex. xlvii. 
 —First Fruits— The End— 2 Tim. iv. 1. 
 
 I hope my tediousness will not oppress you, and that mak- 
 ing all due allowance for my inability to compress my matter, 
 you will novjT permit me to present you with some remarks on 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 85 
 
 The Kingdom. 
 
 Mr. Gipps writes thus: "the reader will find light by con- 
 sulting the following passages, which are, I believe, all in the 
 New Testament, in which the kingdom peculiarily his, is men- 
 tioned. Matt. xiii. 41; and xvi. 2S; Luke i, 33; and xxii. 30; 
 John xviii. 36; Eph. v. 5; Col. i. 13; 2 Tim. iv. 1, 18; Heb. 
 i. 8; 2 Pet. i. 11." — Let us then adopt this recommendation, 
 and may light be vouchsafed to our understandings, while we 
 examine these texts in order. 
 
 1. — At the end of the age or dispensation; all offenders, sym- 
 bolized by the tares, shall be gathered out of his kingdom, by 
 the messengers of the Son of Man, Matt, xiii, 41. But the 
 kingdom, out of which they shall be then gathered, as we have 
 already seen, corresponds with the world, (aoc^oc;) the world, 
 therefore, must be the platform of his empire. Furthermore, 
 — when the tares, being thus gathered, are cast into the fur- 
 nace, "then shall the righteous shine forth as the Sun, in the 
 kingdom of their Father," (ver. 43.) But the kingdom of 
 their Father, for the coming of which we pray daily, is con- 
 nected with the time when his will shall be done 07i earlh, as it 
 is in heaven. It must, therefore, be a kingdom, of which the 
 visible administrator, as will hereafter be seen, shall be the Son 
 of Man. 
 
 2. — The kingdom of tlie Son of Man, in which he was to 
 be seen coming, by some of his disciples, before they tasted 
 death, we have already discovered, from the testimony of one . 
 of those favoured individuals, to be that of the final establish- 
 ment, whereof the pledge was given on the mount of transfi- 
 guration, when he appeared to them in that very glory, where- 
 with he shall hereafter take possession of his father David's 
 throne, comp. Matt. xvi. 28, with 2 Pet. i. 16 — 18. That he 
 shall indeed reign upon that throne, is abundantly confirmed 
 unto us, by the next place to which we are referred, 
 
 3. — Thus did the angel prophecy to Mary, at the salutation, 
 concerning Jesus; — "He shall be great, and shall be called the 
 Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give unto him the 
 throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house 
 of Jacob for the ages, and of his kingdom there shall be no end," 
 Luke i. 32, 33. For my part I cannot understand, how men 
 can so fritter away this promise, as to make it affirmatory of 
 any thing rather than wiiat it directly, totidem verbis, ensures to 
 the Virgin's son. He shall succeed to David's throne, and rule 
 the house of Jacob for the ages, says the angel; he shall neither 
 succeed to the one, nor rule the other, the anti-millenarians, 
 with one consentient voice, exclaim. Having all pre-deter- 
 32* 
 
35 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 mined this, they, one and all, draw to the utmost extent on 
 their imaginations, to force some ingenious construction on the 
 words, which they were never designed to convey. They talk 
 of his reigning in the heart, which David never did; of his 
 ruling the spiritual Jacob, and of his being head of the church, 
 as David was of the state, though in this case his throne would 
 be altogether diverse from that of David, &c. &c.* The gene- 
 ral resort, however, is a quibble. Of whatever materials the 
 actual throne, upon which David sat, was composed, it must 
 long since have been destroyed, and it must now be impossible 
 for Jesus to take his seat on it. But when history relates that 
 some successful general or barbarian prince ascended the throne 
 of the Caesars, does she not mean to inform us by this well de- 
 fined phraseology, that the adventurer in question had suc- 
 ceeded to the rank, style, dignity, honour, and power of Cae- 
 sar? And wherefore must Scripture be treated as no man 
 would venture to treat any profane record? The rank and 
 power of David, as king of Israel, was delegated to him by Je- 
 hovah, in whose name he reigned in Jerusalem. Just that 
 rank and power is secured by oath and promise to Messiah, 
 1 Chron. xvii. 12 — 14, where Jehovah promises that the throne 
 shall be established for him for the ages; and that he shall be 
 established in Jehovah's kingdom and house for the ages: while 
 David (ver. 17) gratefully acknowledges that his house was 
 thus spoken of for a great while to come; and that he was mer- 
 cifully regarded according to the order of the Adam that is 
 FUTURE. But refer, in corroboration hereof, to Isa. ix. 6, 7; 
 Jer. xxiii. 5 — xxxiii. 12 — 26; Amos ix, 11; Acts ii. 30. In 
 this last place, indeed, the promise is referred to in proof of 
 the resurrection. David being a prophet, foresaw that the 
 resurrection must take place in order that the promise of sit- 
 ting upon his throne might be fulfilled to Messiah. Cut off" as 
 the Man of Sorrows, it was manifest he could not reign in Je- 
 rusalem amongst his ancients gloriously before his death, and 
 that he must therefore rise in order that he should do so. Has 
 he done so yet? Assuredly not. It is not to David's throne 
 he ascended, for David never ascended or reigned there, John 
 iii. 13; Acts iii. 34. He ascended, on the • contrary, to the 
 Father's throne. Rev. iii. 21. And as he has sat down thereon, 
 so shall he cause all who overcome to sit down with himself 
 on his own throne, when that throne shall be established in 
 righteousness. He is now exercising with the Father, just the 
 same authority which the Father exercised, and which he ex- 
 ercised when David reigned in Mount Zion. But the autho- 
 rity which he is to exercise, according to the oath of the Fa- 
 * See my article on David's throne, Christian Examiner, Vol. x. 17. 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. g7 
 
 ther, is a delegated authority, as the fruit of david's loins 
 ACCORDING TO THE FLESH, just such as David cxcrcised as the 
 anointed one of the Father, as the man after God's own heart, 
 Acts ii, 30. But the Davidic kingdom is to be brought to a 
 close, how then are we to interpret the wortis of the angel — 
 "and of his kingdom there shall be no end?" These words 
 admit of two interpretations. 1st. — Let us bear in mind the 
 analogous language of Dan. vi. 26; vii. 14, and it will amount 
 to the same thing with the statement, that his kingdom shall 
 not pass aiv ay, as did the four great monarchies, or be destroyed, 
 as they were. No other dynasty shall succeed his; — his sceptre 
 shall neither be wrested from him by sedition, revolution, or 
 conquest. But, 2ndly, the endless kingdom may have no refe- 
 rence to the occupancy of David's throne; and this I incline 
 to believe. His reign, as the David in the midst of his ene- 
 mies, shall merge in his reign, as the Solomon, in the midst 
 of his willing friends; and his reign, as the Solomon, all hav- 
 ing been accomplished that was designed by his vicegerency, 
 shall merge in the now direct rule of the Father, who shall 
 then be all in all. It is quite according to the prophetic 
 usage, that events the most distant, should be thus brought to- 
 gether. Thus do we find his ignominious infancy united with 
 his glorious reign, without any note of the long intervening 
 period, in Isa. ix. 6, 7. In the last verse some words have 
 been supplied. It should run, his government is for increase,* it 
 shall increase. The perpetual increase of power distinctly 
 corresponding with the various stages of authority already no- 
 ticed; and the peace shall not end — "He shall ascend the 
 throne of David." So Houbigant amends the passage, and he 
 had no system to maintain. 
 
 4. — At the institution of the last supper, Jesus — having said, 
 he would no more eat of the Passover, until it should be ful- 
 filled in the kingdom of God; and that he would no more drink 
 of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God should 
 come — first points out the traitor, and then represses the vain 
 ambition of the apostles for present greatness, by referring 
 them to his own menial condition amongst them, as one that 
 serveth, adding, "ye are they which have continued with me 
 in my (trials) temptations. And I appoint unto you a king- 
 dom, as my Father hath appointed unto me, that ye may eat and 
 drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging 
 the twelve tribes of Israel," Luke xxii. 16, 18, 28, 30. The 
 kingdom wherein the Passover shall be fulfilled by the deliver- 
 ance of all the actual heirs from the mystic Egypt; the king- 
 dom wherein the fruit of the vine shall be drank of neic, by 
 Messiah and his saints; the kingdom to which they are 
 * Propagabit late imperium,— Houbigant. 
 
« 
 
 gg THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 appointed; the kingdom wherein they sliall eat and drink at 
 Messiah's table; and the kingdon, finally, wherein the apos- 
 tles shall sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel, 
 I take it for granted, must be the very same. — But on an- 
 other occasion, Christ taught them to regard the rege?ieration, 
 [TruKtryma-ict,) as the period when they should thus sit on thrones. 
 — "We have forsaken all, and followed thee," they said, after 
 he had observed on the conduct of the rich youth, who went 
 away from him sorrowful, ''what shall we have therefore? and 
 Jesus said to them, verily I say unto you, that ye, which have 
 followed me, shall, in the Palingenesia, when the Son of Man 
 shall sit on the throne of his own, mtov, glory, also sit on the 
 twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel, Mat. xix. 
 27, 28. The regefieralion, when all this shall come to pass, 
 can only refer to that period when he that sitteth ofi the throne 
 shall say, "behold I make all things new," Rev. xxi. 5. But 
 in that day, "the tabernacle of God shall be with men, and he 
 will dwell with them, and they shall be his people," ver. 3. 
 Further, that day is identified with the hour when the Son of 
 Man shall sit "on the throne of his own glory," even when he 
 shall come in the glory of his Father, with his own holy ones, 
 his messengers. — Apostles are not the only individuals who 
 shall partake of his felicity, or who shall eat and drink with 
 him. — For he hath said, "every one that hath forsaken houses 
 or brethren, or sister or father, or mother, or wife, or children, 
 or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundred-fold, 
 and shall inherit eternal life," Mat. xix. 29. "Again, many 
 shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with 
 Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. 
 The marriage supper of the Lamb, shall not be restricted to 
 the few, who attended Jesus in his day of sorrow — it shall be 
 participated in by all, who have had fellowship with him in 
 his su fieri ngs, and have been made conformable to his death. — 
 As the apostles shall then sit on thrones, judging the twelve 
 tribes of Israel, so shall the saints also judge the world, 1 Cor. 
 vi. 2. They that overcome, shall sit on Messiah's throne. 
 Rev. iii. 21. "He that overcometh, shall inherit all things, 
 and I will be his God, and he shall be my son," Rev. xxi. 7. 
 They shall inherit all things, by virtue of their union with the 
 Son, who is heir of all things, Heb. i. 2, who is himself the 
 conqueror, and through whom they are more than conquerors. 
 But something may be necessary to be said on the word judge 
 — the apostles shall judo-e (he t-a-elve tribes of Israel — the saints 
 shall judge the world. In speaking of the judgment, and of the 
 Judge of the quick and the dead, the notion, in general, is 
 restricted to the idea of pronouncing a sentence, either of 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 89 
 
 acquittal or condemnation, on those who shall simultaneously 
 be arraigned before the bar of justice. — But this is a mere 
 popular error. — The judge, who, with us acts in the name, and 
 on the behalf of the king, has to decide civil, as well as crimi- 
 nal causes. — He exercises, in fact, a portion of the kingly 
 office, as the king's deputy in all legal matters, to facilitate the 
 dispatch of justice, no monarch being capable of fulfilling, in 
 his own person, all the multifarious offices, which it belongs to 
 him of risiht to discharge. — In like manner, He, who of old, 
 vouchsafed to be Israel's king, did, in condescension to Israel s 
 weakness, appoint judges to sit in the gate, deciding cases; and 
 still further, to exercise other legal functions, as generalissimos 
 of his armies. It is in allusion to these extensive judicial 
 functions, appertaining to vice-royalty, that he, who is followed 
 by the armies of heaven on white horses, and who is to possess 
 the gate of his enemies, is styled the Judge of the quick and 
 the dead; and that they who are his, at his coming, are said 
 also to judge the world. — Further the admirers of Mr. Gipps' 
 mode of reasoning, must naturally be struck with the coinci- 
 dence between the assurance above given, that the apostles are 
 to sit on thrones, and the annunciation concerning ihajirst resur- 
 rection which John makes. Rev. xx. 4. "I saw thrones and 
 they sat upon them." Though an error may arise in tracing 
 the similitude between various statements of wrath to befall the 
 ungodly hereafter, as those statements may synchronize either 
 with the execution of vengeance on the nations, in the valley 
 of decision, or with the great assize or judicial transaction 
 before the great white throne, where the dead small and great 
 shall stand arraigned before him, who sitteth thereon; yet no 
 such mistake can arise here, for we know of but one period 
 when the thrones shall be set, when crowns of righteousness 
 shall be awarded, when the saints shall possess the kingdom 
 under the whole heaven, when the various cities shall be placed 
 under their jurisdiction, and when they shall enter into the 
 joy of their Lord. 
 
 5. — We now come to Christ's reply to Pilate. Mij kingdom 
 is not of this world, is not derived from it, if my kingdom were, 
 oi, out of this world, that is were world-derived, then would my 
 servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews, but my 
 kingdom is not [vw) now, (evTst/Ssv) henceforward, (ex eo tempore) 
 or here, (hie) that is, in the world, John xviii. 36. From this 
 place we learn, that the Messiah's kingdom was not to be 
 WORLD-DERIVED. It is to be givcn directly by the Father, and 
 to be based on the ruins of every earthly dynasty. It was not to 
 be set up at that time. There is a time to come, viz. the Palinge- 
 nesia, commencing in the restitution of all things, it when shall 
 
90 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 thenceforward be set up here. Such is the direct, plain, 
 natural import of the place before us. Were this the only 
 passage in the Bible bearing on the subject, I would here take 
 my stand, and assert, that Christ must yet be king over all the 
 earth. A writer in the Christian Examiner, Vol. x. p. 505, 
 has endeavoured with much subtlety to give this text another 
 turn. He argues that as Pilate's question, "art thou the King 
 of the Jews," had reference to the tiine then being, our Lord's 
 reply must necessarily be restricted to the same time, when he 
 said, "thou sayest tliat I am — a king. To this end was I born; 
 and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear 
 witness unto the truth." He here affirms first, that he was 
 born to be a king; and secondly, that he came into the world 
 to bear testimony to the truth, evidently of his own kingship, 
 but not to exercise the royal functions. Now has it never 
 been heard that men were born to be kings, who yet never 
 ascended the tlirone till a very advanced period of life? Jesus 
 was indeed king of the Jews, when he stood before Pilate and 
 sufiered upon the cross. He was not acknowledged as king, 
 his subjects were in rebellion against him, and he attempted 
 not to exercise one act of authority as their legitimate monarch. 
 Far be it from me, b}' an act of "high treason, to un-king him 
 now by denying to him that title, to which he made a rightful 
 claim;" when he said, "thou sayest that I am — a king." But 
 I do say he only claimed the title — he neither assumed nor 
 exercised tiie office — "When Jesus therefore perceived that 
 they would come and take him by force to make him a king, 
 he departed again into a mountain himself alone." John vi. 
 15. It is no answer to say that he claimed "the name and 
 essence of kingship" when he affirmed "all power is given unto 
 me in heaven and on earth." Does he exercise this delegated 
 power? Has he bound Satan? Is the usurpation at an end? 
 Do the Jews own and obey him? Have they yet welcomed 
 him saying, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the 
 Lord?" Has the oppression of the Gentiles ceased? Has he 
 received the Heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost 
 parts of the earth for his possession? He occupies a throne 
 indeed, but it is the throne of the Father, Rev. iii. 21. On 
 David's throne, as King of the Jews, he does not sit, neither 
 has he sat; and to all his other crowns the crown of all the 
 earth has not been added. Two arguments have been drawn 
 from John xviii. 36, to prove that Messiah's kingdom is what 
 some please to call spiritual. I. His kingdom is not of this 
 world, which is interpreted by reference to John viii. 23, that 
 as he himself was not of this world, but spiritual and heavenly, 
 and not earthly like the Jews, so likewise his kingdom is not 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 91 
 
 earthly but spiritual. This seems to me to be a very inappro- 
 priate reference for an antimillenarian to rely on, unless, 
 indeed, it be determined to deny his humanity in order to 
 maintain a desperate hypothesis. Jesus was not world-derived, 
 but was he therefore not a man? He was from above and he 
 was supernaturally conceived in the Virgin's womb; but was 
 he therefore not jlesh and blood? Was the body that was pre- 
 pared for him immaterial? Methought he was "Man of the 
 substance of his mother, born in the world!" Was he not 
 Abraham's seed, and sprang he not from David's loins? Now 
 just as he, though he had an earthly body, in all respects like 
 unto that belonging to the brethren, sin only excepted, was 
 nevertheless, not world-derived, but the Lord from heaven: 
 so, likewise, is his kingdom not world-derived, and yet is it 
 the Lordship of earth; soon shall the cry be heard, "the 
 worldly kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ, is come," 
 Rev. xi. 15. (see Griesback's text.) 2. — It is urged, that 
 because his servants did not fight for his deliverance, his king- 
 dom could not be "literal and worldly;" that, if it had been so 
 they would have been "seen to fight." Had his kingdom 
 been world-derived, the sword had indeed been resorted to, by 
 his supporters, in proper flesh and blood subsisting, to prevent 
 his crucifixion. Then had his under-rozoers, vmpirai, his assist- 
 ants, embarked with him in the same vessel, made way for him, 
 through blood, to the throne of Jerusalem; and, instead of a 
 crown of thorns, they had adorned his brow with the diadem 
 of Solomon. But in stating this did he, who avowed himself, 
 the rightful king of the Jews, affirm that he would never claim 
 the sceptre hereafter, and would never make his title good by 
 the agency of other under-rowers or servants? In saying that 
 his kingdom was not 7iow to be henceforward, or his under- 
 rowers would fight, did he not in effect assert that the time 
 would come, when his kingdom, though not of the world 
 derived, should yet in the world be established, and that too 
 by a most fearful conflict, in which his under-rowers shall 
 fight, (see Ps. cxlix. 5—9. Joel ii. 3—11. Mai. iv. 3. 
 Alas! the day of the Lord, in the valley of decision is near. 
 That the disciples did thus understand our Lord to intimate 
 that he would, at some future period, claim his seat on David's 
 throne, and that too after he had been, for forty days subsequent 
 to his resurrection, instructing them in the things jjerlaining to 
 the kingdom of God, appears from the question they put to him — 
 Lord, wilt thoti at this time restore, (a^rot^S/s-Tave/?,) re-establish, the 
 kingdom to Israel? In this question I apprehend there is an 
 allusion to the unfulfilled vision of the valley of dry bones; 
 and the predicted revival and restoration of the two houses of 
 
g2 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 Israel; and the symbolical union of the two sticks of the Pro- 
 phet. For I find that portion of prophecy thus commented on, 
 by Jehovah. "Behold, I will take the children of Israel from 
 among the heathen, whither they be gone, 1 will gather them 
 on every side, and bring them into their own land, and I will 
 make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of 
 Israel; and one king shall he king to them all — David, my ser- 
 vant, shall be king over them; and they shall haveo7ie Shepherd, 
 (a passage which greatly corroborates our view of the judgment 
 of the Sheep and Goats,) — and they shall dwell in the land, 
 which I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your 
 fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they 
 and their children, and their childrens' children, for ever: and 
 my servant David shall be their prince for ever, (or for the ages) 
 — my tabernacle shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, 
 and they shall be my people, and the heathen shall know that 
 I, the Lord, do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in 
 the midst of them for evermore." Ezek. xxxvii. 21 — 28. 
 Whether this prediction were in the view of the apostles or 
 not, however, when they put the above question to their 
 adorable master, it is quite obvious, that it abundantly justified 
 their expectation, that he would thus establish the kingdom; 
 become Israel's prince for the ages; dwell in the midst of 
 them, as thus located in their own land; place his tabernacle 
 abidingly amongst them, which it never has been at all since 
 the Babylonish captivity; and thereby cause the heathen to 
 know Jehovah, as Israel's sanctifier. Their master's reply did 
 not, in the remotest degree, curb this expectation, but, on the 
 contrary, confirmed it. They take for granted, that such a 
 re-establishment must take place, and they enquire is it to take 
 place at this time. But, being unwilling to afford them any 
 information, as to the time, he rejoins, that it was not for 
 them "to know the times and the seasons, which the Father 
 hath placed under his own control," Acts i. 6, 7. It is par- 
 ticularly worthy of note that Peter after he had received the 
 Holy Ghost and healed the lame man at the Temple gate, 
 pressed the doctrine of repentance on the Jews, saying that 
 the Lord "shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached 
 unto you; whom the heavens must receive until the times of 
 re-establishing, aTrcKxr^a-Taa-ic, (tlie substantive form of that un- 
 usual expression, whicii was employed in the enquiry that w^as 
 made of Christ concerning the time when he would re-establish 
 Israel's kingdom;) of all things, which God hath spoken by 
 the mouth of all his holy Prophets since the world began, or 
 from the age," Acts iii. 21. comp. Rom. viii. 19 — 23. Rev. 
 V. 9 — 13. Every one of the Prophets have, I undertake to 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 93 
 
 prove to you, spoken of these times, as connected with Israel's 
 recover}', and the second advent. As for instance, Obadiah, 
 who makes not the most remote mention of the first advent, 
 or of what is called the Gospel kingdom, yet speaks of these 
 times as setting in with the day of the Lord on the heathen, 
 with deliverance and holiness on Mount Zion, with the de- 
 struction of enemies, and with the re-possession of Canaan by 
 Israel — concluding his prediction thus: — "Saviours shall come 
 up on Mount Zion to judge the Mount of Esau; and the king- 
 dom shall be the Lord's." Obad. 15—21. But to return; I 
 now repeat what I once before wrote, though it was met with 
 a sneer by a writer in the Christian Examiner; Christ "could 
 only then, according to the divine purpose, bear testimony to 
 his rightful sovereignty, but that testimony is infinitely im- 
 portant. His kingdom, he informed Pilate, was not of this, 
 xo«7^i?, (kosmos world) not of the earth in its present attire, for 
 now i. e., at this time, his kingdom is not from hence." The 
 veriest tyro knows, that the word, jcoo-^o?, primarily signifies 
 ornament or order, and that when applied to earth it denotes its 
 ornamental garniture. When Christ, therefore, says his king- 
 dom is not of this, xotr^sc, he conveys to us the idea, that his 
 kingdom is in no wise derived from earth in her thistly 
 habiliments, disorganized throughout, and presenting in her 
 aspect none of that regular symmetry, for which she was 
 distinguished, when she came forth from the hands of her 
 great Creator. 
 
 6. — We learn, that, no whoremongers, unclean persons, nor 
 the covetous, who are idolaters, "have any inheritance in the 
 kingdom of Christ, and of God," Eph. v. 5. The passage it- 
 self does not convey any direct intimation of what the king- 
 dom is. But as it is stated to be a kingdom, upon which we are 
 to enter by inheritance, we have some clue as to its nature. 
 We meet with several notices of the inheritance in this epistle. 
 They who have believed in Christ, and have redemption through 
 his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, have in him also ob- 
 tained an inheritance,^^ Chap. i. 11. — Now if we look back to 
 Rom. viii. 15 — 21, we shall find it said, concerning the chil- 
 dren of God, who are "joint heirs with Christ," that their pre- 
 sent sufferings can be nothing, when compared with the glory 
 to be revealed in them, because the whole burdened creation, 
 with outstretched neck, awaiteth the manifestation of the Sons of 
 God, as the epoch when deliverance, not destruction, observe, 
 awaiteth it. If the mere manifestation of the Sons of God to 
 the creation, shall bring down such a blessing upon creation, 
 what blessednesss, what glory, what recompense for suffering 
 must be in reserve for the corporate heirship! Again, they 
 
 VOL. III. — 33 
 
94 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 are said to be "sealed with that holy spirit of promise, which 
 is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the 
 purchased possession." Chap. i. 13, 14. Recurring again to 
 Romans, viii. we find it likewise affirmed of the heirs, "ye 
 have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, 
 Father, the Spirit itself bearing witness with our spirits, that 
 we are the children of God; and, if children, then, heirs," &c. 
 But further, they who are sealed with the spirit, receive their 
 inheritance on the redemption of the purchased possession. 
 What is this possession that is purchased? It cannot be hea- 
 ven, for heaven needeth not redemption; — it never was defiled 
 with sin; it never was afflicted with misery; and, to speak of 
 its redemption, or deliverance from evil, would be absurd in 
 the extreme. It must, therefore, mean either the church or 
 the world, or both; now both are redeemed, and both shall be de- 
 livered. "The creation itself also shall be delivered from the 
 bondage of corruption, we are expressly taught in Rom. viii.; 
 and the same all-instructive passage tells us, — "not they, only, 
 but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit; 
 even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adop- 
 tion, to wit, the redemption of the bodij.^' It is a very common 
 error to speak of heaven as bought for the church. This stands 
 upon no foundation of Scripture. That which has been bought, 
 or ransomed, or delivered, is that, which is in the power of 
 the enemy, and it has been bought for Jesus. "Ye are not your 
 own, ye are bought with a price, the precious blood of Jesus. *' 
 That blood literally fell on and besprinkled the material, in 
 token that it too shall be delivered, and its curse removed. In 
 another passage, I find Paul describing the long concealed mys- 
 tery to be, "that the Gentiles should befellozu heirs, and of the 
 same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the Gos- 
 pel," Eph. iii., not the mere vocation of the Gentiles, as is 
 sometimes stated, but the actual, joint participation in the pro- 
 mised inheritance of believing Gentiles, with those of the cir- 
 cumcision in the flesh, who are also circumcised in heart. The 
 inheritance promised to Israel is Canaan, and by incorporation 
 into the same body with Israel, by being engrafied into the 
 same olive and partaking of the same seed, to whom the pro- 
 mise was made, the Gentiles acquired an equal right to Canaan 
 with the Jews, and shall with Jesus, the seed of Abr.iham, 
 enter on its actual occupation. This mystery is more fully 
 unfolded. Col. i. 27, as "made manifest to the saints, to whom 
 God would make known," but Oh! what slow and stupid 
 scholars we are, zohat is the riches of the glory of tliis mystery 
 among the Gentiles; zvhichis christ in you, the hope of glory 
 — Christ in you! but is not Christ the heir? Yea, and of him is 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 95 
 
 it expressly written, "Yet will I bring an Heir unto thee, 
 inhabitant of Mareshah [or the inheritance); He, the glory oj Is- 
 rael, shaW come to Adullam," which Burkius with Hillery un- 
 derstands and translates, at the perpetuity of the yoke, when it 
 seems irrevocable, when all things appear to insure its continu- 
 ance.— When the Heir, in all the lowliness of despised man- 
 hood, first came to demand the fruit of his vineyard, the cry 
 was raised '^this is the heir, come let us kill him and the in- 
 heritance shall be our's." Matt. xxi. 38. The evi purpose 
 prevailed, but the husbandmen were fearfully requited —i hey 
 fell on the choice corner stone and were broken. Ihen \vas 
 it that the yoke was truly placed upon their pecks. But when 
 he cometh"in his glory, and grindeth to powder the ungodly 
 upon whom he shall fall, then shall the yoke, once deemed 
 perpetual, and that by men who, ought to have been better in- 
 structed, fall from their shoulders; and from the coadition o 
 bondslaves they shall be raised to the rank of Princes in all 
 lands.— And shall the Heir, the Glory of Israel, be brought to 
 . his inheritance? Then, verily, they, who are joint-heirs with 
 him, must also be brought into possession, and enter upon the 
 kingdom; hut 7io zDhoremotiger, nor unclean person, nor covetous 
 man, who is an idolalor, shall have any inheritance with them i« 
 the kingdom of Christ and of God. Now, in the context _ot this 
 chapter, the heirs of this kingdom are further described as 
 formed into that spousal bodv, of which Jesus is the husband, 
 as being the Bride, the Lamb's wife, Eph. v. 2 3—33. But at 
 the juncture, when '-the marriage of the Lamb is come and his 
 wife hath made herself ready," Rev. xix. 7, then goeth he 
 forth on the white horse, accompanied by his joint-heirs, to 
 smite the nations, rule them with a rod of iron, cast the beastial 
 body into the lake of fire, bind Satan, and establish the thrones, 
 on which his joint-heirs— the armies that followed him to the 
 carnage— the JBride herself, shall live and reign with him the 
 thousand years, Rev. xix. 11-21; xx. 1-4. No doubt can 
 exist as to the identity of the Warrior Horsemen and the ^ride. 
 — To her was granted, as her special prerogative, as the fitting 
 robe of state for the queen consort of the Lamb, that she should 
 be arrayed in fine linen, clean and rohite: for the fine linen is the 
 righteousness of Saints. But the warrior horsemen are similarly 
 apparelled— "the armies, which were in heaven, followed him 
 upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean." 
 The royal vesture belongeth only to the Bride. She accom- 
 panies him therefore to his final conquest, and shall she be ex- 
 cluded from his throne? Assuredly not. But he commences 
 his reign at the final conquest, after treading the winepress, 
 and binding Satan, that is at the first resurrection; and there- 
 
96 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 fore the kingdom of Christ and of God, in which she has her 
 inheritance, is that, which is established during the thousand 
 years or upwards, which precede the judgment before the 
 white throne. We meet with a passage every way similar to 
 Eph. V, 5, in Gal. v. 21, "they which do such things (the 
 works of the flesh) shall not inherit the kingdom of God," but 
 in contrast with these, they who bring forth the fruits of the 
 Spirit, WHO ARE Christ's and have crucified the jiesh with its 
 affections and lusts, are brought before us — and they must needs 
 therefore be the inheritors of the kingdom. The expression 
 who are Christ's, must be well noted. — It occurs before chap. iii. 
 29. If ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed, and 
 HEIRS ACCORDING TO THE PROMISE. What promise? Verily, 
 the promise of Canaan to Abraham, as the heir of the world, 
 and to his seed, which he referred to ver. 16. (comp. Gen. xii. 
 7.; xiii. 15; xv. 18.) in proof that the inheritance is not of the 
 law but of promise.* So that, as he afterwards writes, now, 
 we, brethren, (kxta,) according to, or in like maimer with Isaac, 
 are the children of promise. Gal. iv. 28. 
 
 7. — Intimately connected with the passage we have just ex- 
 amined, is that, which next presents itself. — I must quote the 
 preceding verse along with it. "Giving thanks unto the Fa- 
 ther, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inherit- 
 ance of the saints in light; who hath delivered us from the," 
 [i^c-jo-i'jL;,) authority or "control of the darkness, and hath trans- 
 lated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love," Col. i. 12, 
 13. Their adaptation to the inheritance, as connected with 
 their present deliverance from the control of evil, and their 
 change of condition from the degradation of slavery to the 
 honourable estate of the kingship, is here the subject of thanks- 
 giving. — The inheritance we have alread}'^ enlarged on, and 
 have found it to be an inheritance in the yet future kingdom 
 of Christ and of God. — But the kingdom, into which they are 
 here said to be brought, is something different; and being put 
 in contrast with the slavery, out of which they are delivered, 
 can only denote the state of regal dignity into which, as a na- 
 tion of kings, the pollygarchy of Jesus, with whom they are 
 associated in his throne, they have, through much abounding 
 grace, been brought. — Thus are we said in the same sense to 
 be brought "unto the Mount Zion,and unto the city of the liv- 
 ing God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable com- 
 pany of messengers, to the general assembly and church of the 
 first-born," Heb. xii. 22, 23. The heavenly Jerusalem, unto 
 which we are brought, and which is hereafter to come down 
 
 * See Christian Herald, vol. iv. page 153, on the Promise of Canaan to the 
 Seed. 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 97 
 
 from God out of heaven, is an expression which duly weighed, 
 may throw much light upon our inquiry. The word, (e^ou/xiv;*,) 
 heavenly, here applied to the New Jerusalem, is the very word 
 used in Ephesians, to describe the place, to which the faithful 
 are exalted, though it is also used to denote the place in which 
 Satan and his subordinate powers now exercise their authority. — 
 The one are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies, 
 (iTTovpavioi;,) Eph. i. 3. — they "are raised up together and made 
 to sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus," Eph. ii. 6, 
 and yet are they called on to "wrestle against the rulers of4.he 
 darkness of this age," dispensation or economy, "against the 
 spirituals of the wickedness in the heavenlies," Eph. vi. 12. 
 Those rulers, those spirituals are now in the possession, and 
 yet, by reason of the certainty of their ejection; by reason of 
 the fact, that a greater one is in the church, than he that is in 
 the world; and by reason of the certainty of the fact, that there 
 is a present enjoyment, of the power of the world to come, 
 experienced by the heirs of tiie inheritance; they are already 
 said to be located and blessed in the heavenlies. Just, in the 
 same way, are they also said to be arrived at Jerusalem, the 
 heavenly, and to be translated into the kingdom of the Son of 
 God's love. 
 
 8. — That some such meaning ought to be ascribed to the 
 passage referred to, will appear, I think; from the next place, 
 to which I will draw your attention, for I pass over the next, 
 in order, as it forms the subject of a separate investigation. — 
 The Lord, who stood by Paul at his first answer, when all 
 others forsook him, he writes to Timothy, "shall deliver me 
 from every evil work, and will save me unto his kingdom, the 
 heavenly," (t«v i^rou/iawov,) 2 Tim. iv. 18. His deliverance from 
 every evil work is here opposed to, as it is also connected 
 with his being saved unto the kingdom, the heavenly; just as 
 the deliverance from the control of darkness is opposed to the 
 translation into the kingdom of the Son of God's love, in the 
 former passage; — In the one, the present power — in the other, 
 the full experience of the blessing, is spoken of It is the 
 more remarkable in the latter case, not only from the certainty, 
 with which the yet unrealized issue is contemplated, a certainty 
 which in Scripture language, would fully warrant its being 
 described in the light of a present enjoyment; but also from 
 his previously stated conviction, that the crown of righteous- 
 ness shall he given to him, and all that love the Lord's 
 appearing i7i that day, v. S, to which we need now add nothing 
 further after our former comment. 
 
 9. — But unto the Son, he saith, "Thy throne, God, is for 
 the age of the age, a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of 
 33* 
 
gg THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 thy kingdom." Heb. i. 8. These words are quoted from the 
 Song of Loves, Ps. xlv. 6, in proof of Messiah's pre-eminent 
 dignity. Now examine the context where they are originally 
 found. — The comeliness of Jesus being described, he is in- 
 voked, as the Mighty One, to gird on his sword — his right 
 hand, it is affirmed, shall teach him terrible things; — and then, 
 it is added, "Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's 
 enemies — the peoples fall under thee." — Does not this predic- 
 tion directly correspond with the destruction by fire and sword, 
 of all flesh, Isa. Ixvi. 16, and with the destruction of the beasts, 
 Rev. ix. 17 — 21! Immediately following this announcement 
 of discomfiture, the words before us are inscribed, "Thy 
 throne, God, is for the age of the age; the sceptre of thy 
 kingdom, is a right sceptre." His own grace and dignity being 
 further noticed, the appearance of the Queen, the Lamb's wife, 
 at his right hand, in all the royal splendour, is dilated on 
 through the remainder of the Psalm. The facts here pre- 
 dicted, and the order of the events, precisely correspond with 
 the prophecy of Dan, vii. and of Rev. xix., enemies are 
 destro3'ed by the enthroned Son, and with him, in the great- 
 ness of his triumph, and in the glory of his kingdom, is 
 associated the Church of the First-born, whose names are 
 written in heaven. But the kingdom, in the glory of which, 
 she is associated with him is, in the words of Daniel, "the 
 kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdom, 
 under the whole heaven; for T^^re's Daughter gifts her, the 
 rich among the people entreat her favour, and, becoming now 
 a fruitful mother, she makes her children princes in all the 
 earth. Great light indeed does this place throw upon the 
 kingdom. One remark more before we pass on — as the events 
 described synchronize with those of Rev. xix. the setting up of 
 this kingdom must correspond with the establishment of the 
 thrones and the first resurrection. Rev. xx. 4; and must there- 
 fore precede the judgment before the White Throne, by at 
 least one thousand years. 
 
 10. — They who with all diligence practise the duties of the 
 Christian calling, Peter affirms shall 7iever fall. For so, he adds, 
 an entrance shall he minislered to you abimda7illij inlo the age- 
 belonging or age-enduring in the millennial kingdom of our Lord 
 and Saviour Jesus Christ, 2 Pet. i. 11. Wherefore he deter- 
 mines not to be negligent in reminding them of these things, 
 seeing he had followed no cunningly devised fable, but was an 
 eye-wit?iess of his majesty on the holy mount, 12-18. From the 
 determination he thus comes to, it is manifest that the age- 
 belonging kingdom is the same with that, of which the trans- 
 figuration was both the type and pledge, as we have already 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 99 
 
 seen. But that kingdom is the kingdom of the Coming One, 
 who shall return by the same trackway, that he once ascended 
 into heaven. The age-belonging kingdom, into which an 
 entrance shall abundantly be ministered to the called and 
 chosen, is that which shall be established, when Jesus thus 
 returns to claim the kingdoms for his own, and to take his 
 long-promised station upon the throne of his Father David. 
 
 THE DELIVERING UP OF THE KINGDOM. 
 
 Great importance has very deservedly been attached, in this 
 controversy, to 1 Cor. xv. 23 — 26. The kingdom which Christ 
 will deliver up to the Father, I cordially agree with Mr. Gipps, 
 "will not be delivered up at the end of the thousand years, 
 described Rev. xx. 4; for "he will not deliver up the kingdom 
 till all enemies are subdued," v. 25. But the Holy Ghost 
 after defining in three verses of Rev. xx. (3, 5, 7,) the ending 
 of the thousand years, informs us that enemies remain, after 
 that period is thus ended; for the Devil is to be loosed, and the 
 7iationsin the foicr quarters of the earth, whose number is as the 
 sand of the sea, are to be deceived by him, and to wage war 
 against the Saints; and are to be subdued at the time when fire 
 comes down from God, ver. 9. Therefore Christ must con- 
 tinue to retain the kingdom during the whole of this succeeding pe- 
 riod; and consequently cannot have delivered it up at the end 
 of the preceding period of the thousand years."* I, for one, 
 never supposed that the personal reign of Christ and his Saints 
 on earth was to be limited to the term of the thousand years. 
 That term is only employed to limit the first age of uninter- 
 rupted dominion, which the Saints shall enjoy with him, who 
 is, {htt(3-iKiv;Tm aimm) KiNG OF THE Ages, 1 Tim. i. 17; even the 
 period of Satan's confinement and of the Lord's forbearance 
 with the rest of the dead, whose judgment is postponed till 
 after its close. Further, I fully agree with Mr. Gipps, that "we 
 may perhaps receive light upon the subject of the kingdom, by 
 referring to the nature of David's kingdom, which is continually 
 represented as typical of Christ's, (Isa. ix. 6, 7; Jer. xxiii. 5, 
 6; Luke i. 32.) The kingdom of David was two-fold. "t One 
 branch of it was over willing Israel; the other "over the ene- 
 mies of Israel, the Edomites, Moabites, Philistines, &c., whom 
 he subdued in battle, and over whom, though unwilling, he 
 reigned by power." We have already seen, that David's king- 
 dom was more than a type of Christ's, for Christ shall actually 
 sit upon the throne of David, succeed to him in the kingdom, 
 be literally kijig of the Jeivs, and Ruler in Israel, We shall 
 prove presently also, that he shall subdue the same nations to- 
 *NoteR. p. 48. +Id.p.49. 
 
100 ^^^ FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 gether with all, who shall be confederate against Israel. In 
 the <'clay of the Lord, which is near upon all the heathen," 
 Obad. 15, we are expressly told that the Edomites are to be 
 consumed, (v, IS,) and that the plain of the Philistines, and 
 that of the Canaanites, and of the cities of the South are to be 
 possessed by "the captivity of this host of the children of Is- 
 rael." (ver. 19, 20.) The Moabites and Ammonites are ex- 
 pressly named, as amongst the discomfited by Israel, when 
 marshalled under the root of Jesse, as the time of their final 
 recovery. (Isa. xi. 14.) Joel mentions the desolation of Edom 
 in the plain of Jehoshaphat, (iii. 19.) And (in Amos ix. 12,) 
 we are told that the "remnant of Edom and of all the heathen 
 upon whom Jehovah's name is called," shall be possessed in 
 that very day, when the fallen Tabernacle of David shall be 
 raised. Indeed it is said to be raised for this very purpose, 
 that possession may be taken of them. But further in that 
 DAY, when he, who came forth unto Jehovah out of Bethle- 
 hem Ephratah, and is to be ruler in Israel whose goings forth 
 have beeti from of old from the days of eternity, or the ages, shall 
 stand a?id feed in the strength of the Lord, in the Majesty of 
 THE name of the Lord his God, and he shall be great ttnto the 
 ends of the earth; and when the remnant of his brethren 
 shall relur?i uiito the children of Israel, fi'om whom they have 
 long been dissevered, even since they were led captive of Shal- 
 menezer; — then will he utterly destroy all the instruments of 
 idolatry, and oppression, and execute vengeance in anger and 
 fury upon the heathen. (Mic. v. 2 — 15.) Thus, then, shall 
 Messiah discomfit and subdue and take possession of the terri- 
 tories of the same identical enemies of Israel, and of the hea- 
 then round about, as David did; and shall re-erect David's Ta- 
 bernacle with the very view of taking them in possession. So 
 shall he rule in the midst of his enemies. The Davidic-reign 
 shall then commence. Then shall obedience by the rod of 
 iron be enforced. This circumstance accounts for the fact, that 
 when the bonds, which ruled them, are relaxed, and Satan let 
 loose again, they readily fall into his snares, become the vic- 
 tims of his delusion, and suffer him to lead them up against the 
 camp of the Saints, and the beloved city, (Rev. xx. 7 — 9.) It 
 is not till after this crisis that the Solomon-reijin shall com- 
 mence. The Davidic-reign is not designed to be permanent, 
 but is to merge in the Solomon. Amongst other reasons, I 
 draw this conclusion from the form of expression employed 
 above, the promised re-erection of David's Tabernacle. A ta- 
 bernacle is a temjjorary and moveable dwelling. Everything 
 in David's history marks the condition of a newly established, 
 though powerful monarchy. Conquest after conquest leads to 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 101 
 
 the extension of his power. He neither builds a palace for 
 himself and his successors, nor is he permitted to erect a tem- 
 ple for Jehovah. All this was reserved for Solomon. I find 
 a similar distinction observed in the vision of the new earth 
 and the new heavens. The camp of the Saints, which Gog and 
 Magog made a vain effort to invest, being deluded by some 
 Ij'ing artifice of the Father of lies, could only have been a tem- 
 porary and moveable provision for their accommodation; but 
 we shall afterwards find them in occupation of a permanent 
 and glorious city. When John first beholds, in the distance, 
 the Holy City, he beholds it accordingly, not as actually de- 
 scended, but descending; and a voice informs him, "Behold the 
 Tabernacle of God is with men," Rev. xxi. 2, 3. It was then 
 the descending city, just as Jesus is now the coming King. 
 From hence the saints could go, to and fro, and place their 
 camp wheresoever they listed; and while this is the case, while 
 the city is only descending, the tabernacle of God, and not the 
 temple, is established amongst men. But in the second vision, 
 with which John was favoured, of the descending city, not in 
 the distance, but nigh at hand, for he is carried away in the 
 spirit to the summit of a lofty mountain, from which he may 
 obtain a nearer prospect, (yer. 10 — 26,) he gains an accurate 
 acquaintance with its whole structure, its dimensions, and ma- 
 terials. He hears nothing now of the tabernacle of God being 
 with men, but he finds that the city possesses the very glory 
 of God; and while he sees no temple therein, of material form, 
 yet is he careful to assign the reason,yor the Lord God Almighty, 
 and the Lamb, are the temple op it. And so resplendent 
 is the glory of tfie Lord in the midst of it, that sun and moon 
 are not needed; and now doth he discern it, with prophetic 
 eye, in actual contact with earth, for he writeth, "the nations 
 of them that are saved shall walk in the light of it; and the kings 
 of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it; yea, they shall 
 bring the glory and honour of the nations," as well as of their 
 monarchs, "into it." The city now assumes the aspect of the 
 temple and supercedes the tabernacle. You will thus perceive 
 that I consider the vision of the Nevv Heavens to embrace 
 both the Davidic and Solomon reign, both the Tabernacle and 
 Temple state of Messiah's kingdom. I know the objection 
 that is made to the idea that the thousand years are included 
 within the period of the dispensation of the Nevv Heavens, 
 from the statement that there was no more sea, after the first 
 earth and heaven had passed away; and that yet the sea gave 
 up the dead, ivhich were in it when the judgment took place be- 
 fore the white throne after the thousand years were ended. 
 But 1 beg it to be observed, 
 
102 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 1. That the words, "and I saw a new heaven and a new 
 earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away. 
 And there was no more sea," (Rev. xxi. 1,) form a separate 
 and independent vision expressive of the final modification that 
 ensues, the whole dispensation at one glance passing before 
 him: and is no more necessarily affirmative that the sea ceased 
 at once to be, when the new dispensation commenced, than 
 the prophecy of Micah iv. is necessarily affirmative tliat He, 
 who came out of Bethlehem Ephratah, did at his coming out 
 thereof become Ruler in Israel, become great unto the ends of 
 the earth, and execute the vengeance written. 
 
 2. I am also aware that the passing away of the first heaven 
 and earth is said to have taken place when the Judge taketh 
 his station upon the white throne, because it is said concerning 
 him, that from his '"face the earth and the heaven fled away;" 
 but while this is predicated of him, it is not said that they flee 
 away from his face uhen he taketh his station upon the white 
 throne, but on the contrary they are said to have fled away from 
 his face — but his face was disclosed to their view at the destruc- 
 tion of the beast, for then every eye saw him, before the thou- 
 sand years commenced, and I therefore argue that the heavens 
 and the earth had passed away at least a thousand years before, 
 even at the time when he looked out upon the earth from the 
 cloud of his glory. It is only spoken of as a note of identity 
 to distinguish him, just as the fact of his riding upon an ass is 
 parenthetically introduced to identify the king of Israel, who 
 cuts off the charlol from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem 
 and whose domimo?i extendethyVom sea eve?i to sea, and from the 
 river even to the ends cf the earth, Zech. ix. 9, 10, with the lowly 
 Jesus of Nazareth. From not noticing this prophetic mode of 
 writing, we are often in danger of falling into a similar error 
 with the Jews, who were unable to see tlie fulfilment of any 
 prophecies in the Messiah, because all that was said of him did 
 not come to pass in the term of his natural life. 
 
 3. — Unless the new heaven and new earth were identical 
 with the orb we inhabit and its atmosphere, it could never be 
 said there was no more sea — that it was ?to more, or no lofiger, 
 implies that it had been before. The new heavens and new 
 earth must therefore be a modification or altered state of the 
 first heavens and the first earth. 
 
 But much stress has been laid upon the absolute destruction 
 of the enemies, >vhose entire subjugation is to lead to the sur- 
 render of the kingdom to the Father. Christ is to put down or 
 destroy every principality, and the last enemy he is to put 
 down or destroy is death. The word, n^rcLfyim^put down, implies 
 something different to destruction. Scapula defines it, "reddo 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 103 
 
 ttifiyov, et inefficacem, facio cessare ab operl, tollo, aboleo." It 
 signifies, in this place, the depriving enemies of all evil energy, 
 the entire paralysis of all hostility, the cessation of enmity, the 
 abolishing of strife, the reduction of death to a powerless and 
 inoperative condition. With regard to himself, Christ did 
 thus deprive him of power and abolished death, (2 Tim. i. 10) 
 when he arose from the sepulchre; and so also, as it concerned 
 himself, did he render powerless, or deprive of energy, para- 
 lyse, destroy not only death, but him also that had tiie power 
 of death, that is the Devil, (Heb. ii. 15) and more than this — 
 he did thus virtually abolish, enervate, paralyse, and deprive 
 them of all energy, as it regards every object of redemption — 
 When full effect is given to his work, then will death and Satan 
 lose all activity, and cease to exercise any influence or au- 
 thority. — But this will not be the case till after the Davidic 
 reign has closed. — This result is posterior to the judgment 
 before the great white throne — while enemies remain, what- 
 ever restraint may be imposed upon their enmity, either by 
 exterior force, such as the rod of iron, or judicially, the king- 
 dom will not be surrendered to the Father. It is obvious, that 
 these enemies are fiow rampant. — The Devil is going about as 
 a roaring lion, unchained. — He is still in fujl and undeniable 
 possession of his usurpation as god of this world, and prince of 
 the power of the air. The whole world lieth in him. — Death, 
 spiritual, is dominant. Death and the grave are daily slaying 
 their millions. Christ, indeed, made a shew of them all, triumph- 
 ing over them, in himself, iv mtu,, (and thus margin,) at his 
 ascension, (Col. ii. 15.) when he led captivity captive; and 
 before that hour, he saw Satan as lightning fall from heaven, 
 when the unclean spirits being cast out by his disciples, proof 
 was afforded of the mighty potency, which is lodged in the 
 heirs of the kingdom, and shall ultimately be put forth for the 
 entire subversion of all evil; but it was only a shew he then 
 made of the adversaries, and it was but in vision, and in 
 earnest of his ultimate ejection, he beheld the fall of Satan 
 from heaven. There we still find him lodged, for it is against 
 him and his wretched coadjutors, as in the occupation of the 
 heavenlics, (Eph. vi. 12,) we are called on to wrestle. Till 
 the time comes for casting them out, he will continue to sit at 
 the right hand of the Father, (Ps. ex. 1.) 'Tis somewhat 
 strange, after Mr. Gipps' admission, that the subjugation of 
 enemies is future; that they are not in fact made Messiah's 
 footstool; he should, nevertheless, argue from this psalm, that 
 they are his footstool; that his session, at the Father's right 
 hand, is equivalent to his rule in the midst of them; that "at 
 his ascension, he was invested with this kingdom over all prin- 
 
2Q4 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 cipalities and powers," (Eph. i. 20, 21; 1 Pet. iii. 22;) and 
 that it is tiiis kingdom which, upon the final extirpation of the 
 enemies, he is to deliver up. He, indeed, afterwards some- 
 what more cautiously expresses himself, when he speaks of the 
 "absolute authority over all enemies," which belongeth unto 
 the Son of Man. — Such an authority does truly belong to him 
 — all pozver is given to him. — It has been granted to him to sit 
 down on the Father's throne; but his own throne, on which 
 his fellow victors are to sit along with him, he occupies not as 
 yet. — His session on the right hand of the Father is antecedent 
 to his rule, and must not be confounded with it. "Sit thou at 
 my right hand," was the address to him at the ascension, and is 
 expressive of his present dignity and position. — ''The Lord 
 shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion, rule thou &c." 
 is a prospective promise descriptive of his future reign. — His 
 elevation to the right hand of the Father was fulfilled at the 
 ascension, (Acts ii. 32-36;) but his position there is one of 
 expectation, where he patiently awaiteth the hour, when he 
 shall receive the kingdom over enemies, by constituting them 
 his footstool, (Heb. x. 12, 13.; If Paul (in Eph. ii. 20—22,) 
 speaks of him at the right hand as advanced above all princi- 
 pality, and as having acquired a name above every name, so 
 that virtually and in purpose all things are put under his feet 
 as the Church's head; and if another Apostle speaks of him as 
 "on the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers 
 being made subject unto him" (1 Pet. iii. 22;) we must bear 
 in mind the modifying statement of the inspired comment on 
 the kindred prediction (of Ps. viii. 6.) ''thou hast put all things 
 under his feet," which we meet with, (Heb. ii. 8,) "But now 
 we see not yet all things put under him;" and learn to inter- 
 pret those places as we would Rom. viii. 30, where those who 
 are juslijied are said to be also glorified, though they are onl}' 
 o-Jorified in purpose, and shall not enter upon glory, till the 
 Son of Man cometh in his kingdom. Very strangely I must 
 say has Phil. ii. 7 — 11 been referred to in proof that, as a 
 reward of his sufferings, he has already received the kingdom 
 over principalities and powers. They are not even mentioned, 
 nor is the kingdom — but the ultimate design of his exaltation, 
 and of his acquisition of that name, which is above every name, 
 is stated to be, "that at the name of Jesus every knee should 
 bow of the heavenlies, (f.Tci/^av/w,) of the earthlies, (sTijaav,) and 
 of the undcr-grounders, (MTax^cnm,) and every tongue confess 
 that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." 
 But as Paul says of Ps. viii. 6, so say I of this statement of his, 
 ■we see not yet all the heavenlies, the earthlies, and the under- 
 grounders bowing the knee at Jesus' name, nor hear we all 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. ^05 
 
 tongues confessing him. For tliis blessed result we must wait 
 patiently. It remains to be effected when the times of reani- 
 rnalion, (uvct^u^i;,) shall come y"rom l/ie presence of the Lord (Acts 
 iii. 19.) We must wait for it — for Jesus himself waiteth for 
 it, sitting at the right hand of the Father, till his enemies are 
 made his footstool. There must he continue to sit till the 
 appointed hour cometh, for it is written of him, on his session 
 there, "whom the heavens must receive for contain) until the 
 times of the re-establishing of all things, which God hath spoken 
 by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began," 
 (Acts iii. 21.) But, as a vast deal depends upon the view, 
 which is taken of Psalm ex. I would draw your attention, 
 before we proceed further, a little more minutely to it. The 
 following is Horseley's Version, followed by extracts from 
 some of his notes: — 
 
 Messiah's exaltation. 
 
 1. [Thus] spake Jehovah to my Lord, 
 "Sit thou on my right hand, till I make 
 Thine enemies thy foot-stool." 
 
 2. The Sceptre of thy power Jehovah shall send abroad from Zion; 
 Have thou dominion in the very midst of thine enemies. 
 
 3. With thee shall be offerings of free will, 
 
 In the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness. 
 
 The dew of thy progeny is more than of the womb of the morning. 
 
 4. Jehovah hath bound himself by an oath, and will not repent; 
 Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedech. 
 
 5. The Lord, at thy right hand, O Jehovah,* 
 Woundeth kings in the day of his wrath. 
 
 ORACULAR VOICE. 
 
 6. He shall strive with the heathen, filling all with slaughter, 
 Wounding the head of mighty ones upon the earth.t 
 
 7. He shall drink of the brook beside the way 
 Therefore shall he lift up his head. 
 
 Ver. 3. "The 'offerings of free will' denote the spiritual worship of the 
 Gospel" — "If our modern text gives the true reading, the expression is to be 
 joined with 'offerings of free will,' as another phrase for the same thing, 
 intimating that that spiritual devotion, which the Gospel requires, is alone 
 worthy of God, and is the perfection of worship. But if the reading of the 
 Ixx. be adopted, as it is represented in the Alexandrine MSS. which seems to 
 have been Tianp '''\•^r^2 'the splendours of thy Saints,' it is either a periphrasis 
 for the Saints and Aogels in heaven, who are thus described as joined with 
 Christians upon earth in the offerings of free will; or the clause 'in the splen- 
 dours of thy saints,' is a farther description of the time for those free-will offer- 
 ings, intended, in the preceding clause, by 'the day of thy power.' After a 
 
 * COMMON VERSION. 
 
 The Lord at thy right hand 
 
 Shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath, 
 t "Or, according to the modern reading, 'wounding the head of a great 
 country.' " 
 
 VOL. III. — 3*4 
 
2QQ THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 long examination of the kindred expression, Ps. xcvi. 9, which is similarly 
 connected with the bringing of a bread offering into his courts, by the heathen; 
 all the earth being admonished to stand in awe of him, he adds, 'The divine 
 Spirit looked forward to the institution of that universal worship, in which the 
 only offering should be a mincha, commemorative of the one efficacious bloody 
 sacrifice, offered once for all. And this is a i'urther argument, that 'the beau- 
 ties of holiness,' intended by the divine spirit, are to be looked for in that 
 improved spiritual worship." 
 
 Ver. 5. — "In the first verse, the Lord is distinguished from Jehovah, and 
 placed at his right hand. It is difficult to believe, that at so small a distance in 
 the same Psalm, both the titles and the situations should be interchanged, viz., 
 Jehovah called the Lord, and placed at the Lord's right hand. 1 am, there- 
 fore, Ttiuch inclined to indulge in a conjkcture, which Dr. Kennicott, too, 
 seems to have entertained, that the word nin> or cn'^N hath been lost out of 
 the text, after the word irc^ and should be restored!!!" 
 
 Ver. 7. "The composition of this Psalm is admirable in the extaiic style. 
 The Psalmist begins gravely, relating in the first verse, an oracular promise 
 of Jehovah to his Lord. Then, in the 2d, 3d, and 4th verses, he addresses his 
 discourse to his Lord, upon the subject of that promise. In 5th verse, having 
 before his imagination, the scene of his Lord's achievements in his state of 
 exaltation, his admiration breaks out in words addressed to Jehovah. The 
 7th and 8th, I am much inclined to consider as the reply of an oracular voice 
 to the astonished prophet." 
 
 This view of the structure of the Psalm, is, I believe, en- 
 tirely correct, with the exception of the view of verse 5, which, 
 as you will observe above, is founded on a conjectural emenda- 
 tion, unworthy, altogether, of his great critical powers. He 
 found it ^'difficult to believe,^' that in '<an ecstatic Psalm, at so 
 small a distance," in prophetic writing, though not, observe, 
 in prophetic time, "the titles and the situation should be inter- 
 changed;" hence, he says, he was "much inclined to indulge 
 in a conjecture," — the inclination is forthwith indulged — the 
 conjecture is instantly expressed — the word Jehovah must have 
 been lost out of the text; — it is inserted at once, as a vocative; 
 and an address to the Son is straightway transmuted into an 
 address to the Father. This is a very reprehensible mode of 
 criticism; but it is one which has been very rarely adopted by 
 this great man. However, he misunderstood Kennicott: — his 
 sole remark on verse 5 was this, — "I think the ancient versions 
 read here nin'-" — not meaning that the word Jehovah was in- 
 serted in these versions as a vocative, but that it occupied the 
 place, which the word ijix, or Lord, does in our text. And so 
 our translators manifestly thought also, for they have printed 
 the word, Lord, in capitals, as if the original were Jehovah; 
 and so the original is in many manuscripts. This emendation, 
 however, does not vary the sense; Jehovah is Adoni, and 
 Adoni is Jehovah. In Horseley's general outline I fully agree. 
 — First, the exaltation of the ascended Adoni to the right hand 
 of the Father: and the solemn promise that he should set there, 
 till his enemies were to be made his foot-stool, is announced 
 bj the oracular voice. I say, until they are to be made his 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 107 
 
 foot-stool, or the period of subjugation arrives. This appears 
 from the textn>iy>s ly, 'Hill I shall cause to make," or place; — such 
 is the force of the conjugation, Hiphil, which conveys the idea 
 of causing another to do. That other, here, must be the Mes- 
 siah himself, who is to sit at the right hand, and be retained 
 in the heavens, till the Father shall cause him to make, — not 
 has already made, — his enemies his footstool. Messiah shall 
 be the Father's agent, and instrument, in accomplishing this 
 very work for himself. But this appears further, from the 
 second portion of the Psalm, which consists of a prophetic ad- 
 dress to the exalted and ascended Adoni, sitting at the right 
 hand of the Father, (ver. 2 — 5,) an address which is continued 
 through the //iiW portion, (v. 6, 7.) whether it is to be consider- 
 ed as an oracular response or not. 1st, Jehovah, it is predicted, 
 shall send the sceptre of Messiah's power abroad from Zion. 
 The prophet here takes up precisely the import of the oracular 
 address, and ascribes the impelling povver, by which Messiah's 
 own sceptre shall be swayed, to the Father, who shall cause 
 that sceptre to be sent abroad from Zion. Right fearful shall 
 be the sweep of its vengeance. It shall dash to pieces, as a 
 potter's vessel, the embattled hosts of Antichrist, Ps. ii. 9. 
 2ndly, In the very midst of his enemies, shall his dominion be 
 established. The enemies here spoken of, must continue pre- 
 sent, to admit of his thus ruling in the midst of them. He 
 shall place his feet 7ipo?i their necks, in partial fulfilment of the 
 oracular promise, that his enemies shall be made his fool-slool. 
 There are two ideas in Scripture, apparently attached to this 
 form of expression: — one, the actual exterm'matiori of enemies. 
 Thus was it when Joshua caused the five kings to be drawn 
 forth from the cave, and addressed the captains of the men of 
 war, which went with him, saying, "Come near, put your feet 
 upon the necks of these kings. And they came near and put 
 their feet upon the necks of them." This was altogether a 
 symbolical action. The confederacy of the kings, which was 
 formed against Israel, was thus broken. It is remarkable that 
 it was headed by Adoni-Zedech, King of Jerusalem, by name, 
 pretension, and office, the actual type of Antichrist. By name, 
 the Lord of Righteousness — Antichrist will assume the name, 
 as the anti-Messiah, of the Righteous Adoni. By preten- 
 sion, exhibit himself as the true object of worship, (2 Thess. 
 ii. 4,) and deny the Father and the Son, (Dan. xi. 36, 37; 1 
 John ii. 22.) By office, be king of Jerusalem, (Dan. xi. 41 
 — 45. As Adoni-Zedech and his confederate kings were sub- 
 jugated and destroyed, the feet of Joshua's captains being placed 
 upon their necks, so shall Antichrist and his confederate kings. 
 Thus does Messiah address the giver of victory, whose right 
 
log THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 ha7id hath holden him up in the conflict with his foes. — '<I have 
 pursued mine enemies and overtaken them: neither did I turn 
 again till they were consumed. I have stamped them to the 
 ground that they were not able to rise. They are fallen under 
 my feet. For thou has girded me with strength to the battle; 
 thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me. 
 Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies, that I 
 might destroy them." (Psalm xviii. 35 — 40; comp. Isa. xxx. 
 28.) Again the Prophet, foreseeing the judgment of the Am- 
 monites, says, "Whiles they see vanity unto thee, whiles 
 they divine a lie unto thee, to bring thee upon the necks of the 
 slam, upon the necks of the wicked, rohose day is come, when 
 their iniquity shall have an end," (Ezekiel xxi. 29.) And 
 as the captains of Joshua trod on kings in the day of Joshua's 
 conquest, so shall the righteous in the day of Jesus' vic- 
 tory. They who fear his name, "shall tread down the wick- 
 ed; for they shall be as ashes ujider the soles of their feet, in 
 the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of Hosts." (Mai. 
 iv. 3.) But there is also another idea attached to the ex- 
 pression, which implies simply the subjection and not the ex- 
 tinction of those, who are made the footstool of conquerors. 
 Thus spake the prophet to the Jews, through Zedekiah, their 
 king, "Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Baby- 
 lon, and serve him and his people, and live," (Jer. xxvii. 12.) 
 Zion's most piteous complaint at present is, "our necks are un- 
 der persecution; we labour and have no rest," (Lam. v. 5.) 
 Thus the Assyrian, overflowing Immanuel's land, is to "reach 
 even to the neck," (Isa. viii. 8.) But the burden, which the 
 mystic Assyrian imposeth, it is predicted shall be removed 
 from off their shoulder, (Isa. x. 27.) In the day of Judah's 
 triumph, however, it is written, on the other hand, "He bring- 
 eth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city he layeth it 
 low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust; The 
 foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor and the steps 
 of the needy," (Isa. xxvi. 5, 6.) Addressing the covetous, 
 who take possession of lands by violence; and the oppressors, 
 who defraud innocent families and eject them from their homes, 
 the Lord saith, "Behold, against this family do I devise an 
 evil, from which ye shall not remove your 7iecks, neither shall 
 ye go haughtily," (Mic. ii. 3.) The whole matter is summed 
 up in Psalm xlvii. which may be regarded not only as parallel 
 to, but also as an enlarged exposition of the thought, rule thou 
 in the midst of thine enemies. 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 109 
 
 1. O softly apply* your hand, all ye peoples, 
 Shout unfo God with the voice of triumph, 
 
 2. For Jehovah the High, the Terrible, 
 Is the great king over all the earth: 
 
 3. He sulxiueth the peoples under us, 
 And the nations under our feet. 
 
 4 He chooseth for us our inheritance, 
 
 The elation of Jacob whom he loveth. Selah. 
 
 5. God is gone up with loud shouting, 
 Jehovah with the sound of a trumpet. 
 
 6. Sing ye, God, sing ye, 
 Sing ye to Jehovah, sing ye. 
 
 7. He is established King of all the earth- 
 Sing ye God with imderstanding. 
 
 8. God reigneth over the Gentiles, 
 
 God sitteth on the throne of hiss holiness. 
 
 9. The willing of the peoples are gathered together, 
 A people of the God of Abraham. 
 
 Because the protectors of the earth are for God, 
 He is greatly exalted. 
 
 In this Psalm, which Horseley properly names "A Song of 
 Triumph, in prospect of the establishment of God's universal 
 kingdom," Messiah having become the Great King over all 
 the earth is described (ver. 3,) not as extinguishing, but subdu- 
 ing the nations, when he placeth them under the feet of Israel. 
 — Having achieved this conquest, he goeth "up the hill of Sion. 
 God is described as returning to his ancient seat among the 
 chosen people ;"t and reigning over the Gentiles, the lailling 
 amongst them or "the voluntary ones," as Horseley has it, gather 
 themselves unto him in contradistinction to the residue, and 
 are formed into a people of the God of Abraham. While the 
 Protectors or Princes of the people being on his side, his ex- 
 altation is complete, and very greatly is he to be feared. So 
 that we are here presented with a full explanation of the do- 
 minion, which Messiah exercises in the midst of his enemies. 
 Thus accurately, therefore, does the act of the Father, in send- 
 ing forth Messiah's sceptre from Zion, and causing him to rule 
 amidst his foes, correspond with the engagement that he would 
 cause him to make them his footstool, Returning then to Ps. 
 ex. I find, in addition, that he is to receive the oflTerings of free 
 will in this day of his power, when surrounded with the splen- 
 dours of his Saints, just as the willing of the people are said to 
 gather around him, (Ps, xlvii. 9;) and when the dew of his 
 progeny shall become more numerous than those, which spring 
 from the morning's womb. Furthermore, I find it is predict- 
 ed of him, at this juncture, that he will strike through kings, 
 strive with the Heathen, filling all with slaughter, and wound 
 
 * To the mouth, in allusion to the practice still observed among the Syrian 
 women, who in joy keep patting the mouth as they chaunt, "Lille li li lij" 
 which they call the Zeraleet. 
 
 t Horseley. 
 34* 
 
J 10 '^'HE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 the head of the mighty ones upon the earth. Can it he shewn, 
 that such a day of wrath thus dawned upon earth when he as- 
 cended on high, and took his seat at the right hand? Still two 
 difficulties may be urged — one, from the oath, which is record- 
 ed (ver. 4,) 'Hhou art a Priest for ever after the order of Mel- 
 chisedech." Paul teaches us that he is already made so, (Heb. 
 vi. 20,) and argues the change of the Law from the change of 
 the Priesthood, (Heb. vii. 11, 12.) But the same Paul tells 
 us he had many things to say of him, as such, which were hard 
 to be uttered, by reason of our dulness in hearing, (Heb. v. 
 11;) so hard to be uttered that in the exposition of his priest- 
 hood he confines himself to the analogy, which existed be- 
 tween it and that of Aaron; carefully notices his kingship of 
 Salem, (Heb. vii. 1;) the new covenant, which, in the exercise 
 of his office, he is hereafter to make with Israel (viii. 8;) and 
 his future return at the judgment, from the holiest of all, (into 
 which he hath entered for us,) without sin, unto the salvation 
 of those that look for him, (Heb. ix. 28.) He is now behind 
 the vail. Hereafter he shall come forth; his Epiphany as High 
 Priest, in all the gorgeous robes of office shall take place, and 
 he shall assume his seat upon his throne as king of Jerusalem, 
 (see Zechar. vi. 12 — 15, comp. with Zech. ix. 9 — 17, and xiv. 
 16.) That this reference to tlie Melchisedech priesthood does 
 not connect itself with his entrance upon the priestly office at 
 the ascension, or with his present mediation, as such in the 
 Holiest of all, but with his future exercise of povi^er, as the 
 royal Priest, I argue from the fact that this oath, which was 
 sworn to him, and registered above, from the foundation of the 
 world, is introduced manifestly in corroboration of the subject 
 matter of the Psalm — that the peoples shall be subdued by 
 him, and under him in the day of his might, when as king or 
 RIGHTEOUSNESS, he shall come in the splendour of his saints; 
 that the Lord at his right hand, shall smite through kings in 
 the day of his wrath; and that the sceptre, which belongeth to 
 him as the Melchisedech or King of Righteousness, shall be no 
 less an instrument of power than a symbol of imperial supre- 
 macy. The other objection may be drawn from the statement, 
 in the last verse, "he shall drink of the brook by the way," 
 which has been variously interpreted of the Messiah in his day 
 of sorrow — of the cup of anguish which he drank — of the 
 brook Kidron, by which he trod his weary way, and on 
 whose banks he tasted of his last dread agony — of tlie aid, 
 which he sought, in his toilsome travels from the water, which 
 the streams of Judea afforded, &c. But, independently of the 
 fact, that such a notice of his woe very ill accords with the 
 general subject of the Psalm; and would form an inapt conclu- 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. m 
 
 sion to the history of his exaltation: I must request of you to 
 notice that it constitutes a part of the third portion of the Psalm, 
 in which there is a remarkable change of person from the 
 second to the third. — This change of person fully warrants 
 Horseley's idea of its being an oracular respoiise corroborative of 
 the Psalmist's previous address to Messiah, his Adoni, on his 
 exaltation to the right hand of the Majesty on High — Verse 7, 
 establishes the fact, by a direct voice from the sanctuary, that 
 he shall be himself active in destroying his enemies, but more 
 especially the head of the mighty ones on the earth. That head 
 over many countries is unquestionably the Man of Sin, the 
 Antichrist. The correct version is given, I believe, by Fry, 
 
 7. He drinketh of the Nile on the way, 
 Therefore he liftethhigh his head. 
 
 His note is excellent. "I consider Sna here as a proper name; 
 Parkhurst observes — 'from the Hebrew ^jna is plainly derived 
 the Greek ns;aoc, Latin JVilus, and English JVile.' The express 
 meaning of the Hebrew term is a low, hollow valley, with a 
 stream running through the midst, by which it is occasionally 
 overflowed. The channels of most streams that issue from 
 the mountains, answer to this description; and the whole land 
 of Egypt may be considered as a channel of a mountain tor- 
 rent, on a larger scale, whose stream usually flows quietly in 
 the midst of it, but is subject to its periodical overflowings." 
 To which he adds, in his exposition, "Daniel, or rather the 
 Angel interpreter that addresses himself to the Prophet in 
 chapter xii. has clearly foreshewn, that one circumstance in 
 the last conflict, on the eve of the second Advent, will be the 
 seizing of Egypt by the bestial power; by which circumstance 
 his heart is elated, and he becomes infuriated to his destruc- 
 tion." Thus viewed the discomfited head of many countries, 
 being inflated with judicial haughtiness of head, is represented 
 as bringing down on himself the predicted calamity. But 
 rapid as are the changes in prophecy from person to person, I 
 am still unwilling to decide at once, with Mr. Fry, that it is 
 Antichrist, who drinketh by the way. I am rather con- 
 strained to regard the prediction as referring to the conquering 
 Messiah victorious over the mystic Egyptian, who while he 
 obtains refreshment from the living fountain, in communion 
 with the Father, just as a wearied warrior in his march satisfies 
 his thirst from the rivulet that flows along his sultry route, 
 shall also drink of the blood of the slain, as is predicted 
 of Israel, who "shall not lie down, until he eat of the prey 
 and drink of the blood of the slain," (Num. xxiii. 24, comp. 
 Isa. Ixiii. 1-6;) in which last place, moreover, Messiah is like- 
 
112 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 wise described as treading down the peoples, with whose 
 blood his raiment is sprinkled. 
 
 Further, it may be proper to observe, concerning the ex- 
 pression, with which the psalm opens, "sit thou at my right 
 hand," that it is far from being expressive of the idea of 
 independent sovereignty. The right hand is a place of dignity 
 and authority, but it is a place of reflected dignity and of 
 derivative authority. Thus at the right hand of Jesus stands 
 the Queen, in gold of Ophir, Psalm xlv. 9. Thus of old, on 
 his right hand, was Queen Bathsheba seated, when she made 
 her suit for Adonijah to King Solomon. The power and the 
 honour implied in the session at the right hand, therefore, is 
 not expressive of power as of se//" directed, nor of honour as of 
 self proceeding. That seat simply denoteth the station of 
 dignity and influence which belongeth to him, whom the king 
 delighteth to honour. But this position, when taken by a 
 superior, while it may only denote condescension, is in Scrip- 
 ture employed to express the relief, which he brings to the 
 weak, the afflicted, or the oppressed. We meet with both 
 uses of the word in Messiah's song of confidence, in the pro- 
 spect of his resurrection, and in the anticipation of the soul- 
 satisfying results of the travail of his soul, (Ps. xvi. 8-11.) 
 First he sees Jehovah at his right hand in the day of trial; — I 
 SHALL NOT BE MOVED, is the couclusion which he draws. 
 Again, the impossibility of his seeing corruption leads to the 
 confident assurance, "thou wilt shew me the path of life; in 
 thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand are pleasures 
 for evermore." From hence I argue, that when the Supreme 
 Power the Fountain of honour, saith, *'sit thou at my right 
 hand," he confers a grant of honour, authority, and consequent 
 enjoyment, subsidiary to his own. Hence the present posi- 
 tion of Messiah, as intimated in these words, implies not the 
 direct active exercise of an independent sovereignty, such as 
 is imported in the words, "rule thou in the midst of thine 
 enemies," but simply a quiescent concurrence. 
 
 We have hitherto been arguing on the idea, that 1 Cor. xv. 
 25, is a direct quotation from Ps. ex. 1, but it is much more; 
 the introduction of the word all considerably amplifies the 
 idea, which is there met with. When seated at his right 
 hand, Jehovah simply promises Messiah to make his enemies 
 his footstool. Here it is said of Christ, "he must reign till he 
 hath put all enemies under his feet." Now the reason for 
 this universal proposition we find from ver. 27, to be derived 
 from Psalm viii. 6, "For, he hath put all things under his 
 feet," the very words of David, in the prophecy where he 
 views Jesus as stilling the enemy and the avenger, and as 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 113 
 
 invested with entire jurisdiction, and with the active, uncon- 
 trolled dominion of the material creation. Whence Paul 
 views the whole as prospective, also adding, ver. 28, "And 
 when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son 
 also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, 
 that God may be all in all. 
 
 Having removed these difficulties, I now proceed to the 
 examination of the context. It occurs in a lengthened discus- 
 sion of the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, which some 
 choose to limit to the question of the resurrection of believers 
 of this dispensation, but on what principle I know not. The 
 statement is as general as possible, in the words immediately 
 preceding this important passage. "Since by man came death, 
 by man came also a resurrection of the dead. For as in 
 Adam all die, even so in Christ, shall all be made alive. 
 BUT EVERT MAN IN HIS OWN ORDER." It has been remarked, 
 that the word, -ra^iM^t, signifies bajid. It is indifferent as to our 
 present argument. — There is a subsequent distinction made, 
 not only between the bands themselves, but also, between the 
 periods of their resurrection. The worth of that band, which 
 obtains precedence, is infinitely great, but numerically, it only 
 comprehends a unit. Christ, the first fruits, great anti- 
 type of the Paschal Wave-sheaf (Lev. xxiii. 10 — 14,) by 
 which the barley harvest was sanctified. Afterwards, (iTrwra,) 
 long posterior to the resurrection of the first band "they that 
 are Christ's at his coming, or at his own presence," {Trxpovrta. avrou.) 
 Most carefully, in the very terms by which this band is dis- 
 tinguished, are the ungodly excluded from all participation 
 with them in the act of rising from the grave. — This is acceded 
 — The saints are allowed to have the precedence, by a very 
 brief interval, which, if I understand the reasoning correctly, 
 cannot extend beyond a few seconds, or it may be a few hours. 
 That it must be a very short period, within the compass of a 
 natural day, that intervenes between their resurrection, and 
 that of the rest of the dead, is argued from the adverb of time, 
 with which the next clause opens, then, {ut^,) the end. 
 The preceding adverb of time, (iTritTo,,) afterwards is said to be 
 "suited to denote a long interval;" the adverb urci, on the con- 
 trary, it is said, is only "suited to denote a short interval," 
 because the places in which Mr. Gipps discovers its employ- 
 ment, have reference only to a brief period. We are not 
 interested, as we shall soon see, in adjusting the relative claims 
 of these two adverbs, or to arbitrate between them as to their 
 capacity of expressing a long interval of time; but we may 
 remark as somewhat singular, that the Lexicographical skill of 
 Scapula, was insufficient to discover this inequality of power 
 
JJ4 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 between them. He renders them both by the same words, 
 poslea deinde, htm. But let the criticism stand, and what then? 
 1{, ma, even be admitted to import an immediate succession of 
 the event, to the notice of which it is prefixed, it will equally 
 serve our purpose; for that event shall indeed immediately- 
 succeed, not the resurrection of the saints, but the (Trafxm^ix, or) 
 presence of Jesus. You will perceive at once, that this term 
 is not restricted, like our English word coming, to the very 
 moment of his appearing, or arrival; but to the entire period 
 of his presence as king. "Afterwards, they that are Christ's, 
 during his presence" — the7i, when the period thus character- 
 ized cometh to its close — ihe end. But the period of his pre- 
 sence is necessarily a very long interval, for it is during this 
 period he reigns in the midst of his enemies as the David, and 
 finally deprives them of all evil energy, as the Solomon. I 
 have further to observe, that the resurrection of the saints is, 
 in my judgment, symbolized by another typical action, analo- 
 gous to that of the wave-sheaf, whereby the resurrection of 
 Jesus was adumbrated. Fifty days after the sheaf of barley 
 was waved, two leavened wheaten loaves, the produce of the 
 ensuing wheat harvest, were commanded to be waved in like 
 manner; and of these, it was also said, "they are the first fruits 
 unto the Lord," (Lev. xxiii. 17.) In reading this, I am at 
 once reminded of the words, "we being many, are one loaf," 
 (1 Cor. X. 17,) and I discover in the double offering, an indica- 
 tion of the two-fold church, Israelitish and Gentile; Jacob and 
 Jeshurun, or the righteous ones; the two witnesses, both of 
 Isaiah and St. John (comp. Isa, xliii. 10, and xliv. 2 — S, with 
 Rev. xi. 3, 4, and i. 20.) Thus Zechariah's two branched 
 candlestick, with its two connected olive trees, which are in- 
 terpreted to denote the "two anointed ones, that stand by the 
 Lord of the whole earth," having the true anointing that 
 teacheth all things; and the two women who obtain the empire, 
 on the destruction of the apostacy, which is named wicked- 
 ness, (Zech. iv. 11 — 14, and v. 5 — 11,) doth also portray the 
 same mystic body, separate, yet united. — Viev\-ing then the 
 resurrection of the saints, as the first fruits of another harvest, 
 it necessarily follows, that the end must be postponed till that 
 harvest can be gathered. This is the design of that approach- 
 ing dispensation, wherein the Queen-consort of the Lamb, 
 shall be a fruitful mother indeed, and the dew of her progeny 
 shall be more numerous than the dew-drops from the morn- 
 ing's womb. 
 
 Concerning the end itself, I fully accord with Mr. Gipps, 
 that it does denote a crisis which was right well understood 
 by the Corinthian church; and which, I believe, to be the 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 115 
 
 actual re-establishment of all things spoken of by all the holy 
 prophets, to which those limes are introductory, at the com- 
 mencement of which, Christ shall come back from the heavens, 
 that must retain him till then, (Acts iii. 21.) I further agree 
 with Mr. Gipps, that the end here spoken of, is not the ter- 
 mination of the thousand years, but of that much longer period, 
 which shall elapse before all enemies are fully deprived of 
 their evil energy. It is needless to enter further on the subject 
 in this place, as any additional observations I might make, 
 would have no direct bearing on the subject, and would lead to 
 a discussion, far more copious than what I now propose to 
 mj'self. 
 
 I have postponed till now one other passage, on which Mr. 
 Gipps relies, as indicative of the simultaneous judgment of all 
 the living, and all the dead, and therefore the simultaneous 
 resurrection of the just and of the unjust. — "I charge thee be- 
 fore God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick 
 and the dead, at his appearing, and his kingdom," 2 Tim. iv. 
 1. I reserved this place for the last, that we might arrive first 
 at a correct idea, both of the judgment which Christ is to ex- 
 ercise, and of the kingdom which he is to possess. — The words 
 literally run, "I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, the future one (or who is hereafter) to judge living 
 ones, and dead ones, at his own epiphany, and his own king- 
 dom." Were all the living, and all the dead to be judged at 
 the very hour of the Epiphany, and every thing concerning 
 them to be finally determined, at one and the same moment, 
 then would it never have been added as making the juncture, 
 that the future Lord will also judge them at his own kingdom. 
 — The difficulty, which this expression threw in his way, was 
 so fully felt by Mr. Gipps, that he was obliged to add a note 
 apologetic for departing from his own exposition of the king- 
 dom, which is to be delivered up, as over enemies; for he saw 
 at once, that if this kingdom, according to his idea, was to be 
 given up at the resurrection of the saints, it could never be 
 here spoken of, an event equally future with the Epiphany 
 itself — He therefore sends us for light to all the passages, 
 which we have examined in the beginning of this letter; and 
 further, attempts to make a distinction between the kingdom of 
 1 Cor. XV, 24, which Christ delivers up, and which must there- 
 fore have previously been his oim; and his kingdom in the 
 verse before us, — the sole ground of the criticism being, that 
 the word kingdom, has an article prefixed to it in one "place, 
 and a personal pronoun in the other! — With equal force might 
 it be argued, that because the words his own body, the church, 
 have each the personal pronoun annexed, Eph. i. 22, and Col. 
 
116 
 
 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 i. 24, they must refer to quite a different matter from the body, 
 the church of wiiich he is described to be the head, Col. i. 18. 
 His exposition of the meaning of the expression, his kingdom, 
 however, renders it rather an indfjiniie kind of mark for deter- 
 mining the precise juncture for the occurrence of that jialural 
 day, in which he maintains, that all the living, and all the dead, 
 are at one, and the same moment, to be judged. — "Here, says 
 he, "the expression is his ki?igdom, which appears to me, to 
 signify his kingdom of the Gospel in this life, and of eternal 
 glory in the life to come." Supposing this notion to be cor- 
 rect, we may substitute the definition for the words defined. — 
 See how the passage will then read, "who shall judge the 
 quick and the dead at his epiphany, and his kingdom of the 
 gospel in this life, and of eternal glory in the life to come." — 
 If this be the sense of the passage, the notion of the judgment 
 being confined to a day of four and twenty houi's, is necessa- 
 rily overturned, and the period of judgment is made to em- 
 brace, not a thousand years only, but the whole period, from 
 the first advent onward, at least, to the judgment before the 
 white throne, which must include very nearly three Mille- 
 naries, and more, for ought that we are informed. — This, how- 
 ever, is a greater concession than I demand. I am willing to 
 strike out of the account, the whole of the present dispensa- 
 tion, considering the period of judgment, for the purpose of 
 exercising which, Jesus Christ, as the future Lord, shall ap- 
 pear, is to be measured solely by the interval, which shall 
 elapse between his approaching Epiphany, and the delivering 
 up of his kingdom. — During all that period, concerning the 
 duration of which, with the exception of the intimation of the 
 fact, that it is to be for the ages of the ages, no light is afforded 
 us in Scripture; he will continue to exercise the office of Judge, 
 and sit on David's throne, as king, that he may effectually 
 paralyse every enemy. — At his Epiphany, and at his King- 
 dom, which is successive to his Epiphany, the process of judg- 
 ing will go forward — dead ones, as well as living ones, shall 
 submit to the sceptre, which he wields. I know not that I 
 have omitted to notice any argument that has been urged, 
 though I have not attempted to pursue, with the arguments of 
 a logician, the syllogisms, which have been so unsparingly ac- 
 cumulated on this branch of the enquiry. — Mr. Gipps* third 
 chapter we must reserve for another occasion. 
 
 Yours affectionately, &c. «Sic. 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 117 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 Literal and Figurative interpretation discussed— Symbols — Psa. xi. 6—8. The 
 Branch and Root of Jesse— Isa. Iv. 12, 13. Resurrection of Souls— Mr. 
 Gipps' Rules of Literal and Figurative Interpretation examined— First Re- 
 surrection as connected with the Statements in Zech. xiv. 1—11. Luke xx. 
 34— 3G. Acts iv. 1, 2. 1 Cor. xv. Phil. iii. 11. 
 
 Mr. Gipps' third chapter, which professedly treats of the 
 arguments in favour of the Millenarian interpretation, opens 
 with some general remarks on the nature of literal and figura- 
 tive interpretation as applied to Rev. xx. 4. In discussing this 
 subject he has fallen into the very common error of confound- 
 ing symbols with figures. We can scarcely take up any ordi- 
 nary composition without meeting with occasional instances of 
 fgurative writing. If it be the production of a poetic mind, 
 we are examining, the indications of a lively itnagination will 
 exhibit themselves in every page; — illustrations, similes, ori- 
 ginal conceptions, allusions to remote analogies, with various 
 proofs of the writer's possession of the ideal faculty, will pre- 
 sent themselves in every direction. I cannot open a letter of 
 Cowper's, written in all the confidence of friendship to his 
 ordinary correspondents, without finding images, continually 
 recurring, which prove the writer to have been a man of poetic 
 genius. I have this moment opened the first Vol. of Hayley's 
 collection of his correspondence at random, and I find him in 
 speaking of our recognition of friends in a future life, writing; 
 — "For my own part, this life is such a momentary thing, and 
 all its interests have so shrunk in my estimation, since by the 
 grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, I became attentive to the things 
 of another; that like a zoorm in the bud of all my friendships 
 and affections, this very thought would eat the heart out of them 
 all, had I a thousand; and were their date to terminate with 
 this life, I think I should have no inclination to cultivate and 
 improve such a fugitive business."* Again, describing the 
 morning meals of his pigeons, in a few letters onward to Mr. 
 Unwin, he adds, "if your wish should be accomplished, and you 
 should find yourself furnished with the wings of a dove, I 
 shall undoubtedly find you amongst them. Only be so good, 
 if that should be the case, to announce yourself by some means 
 or other. For I imagine your crop will require something 
 better than tares to fill it."-f Here are figures in abundance, 
 
 * Letter xx. t Letter xxxvii, 
 
 VOL. III. — 35 
 
H8 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 but any man of common understanding will at once perceive 
 they are figures. He will be in no danger of misconceiving 
 their import. He will not be deceived for a moment into the 
 idea of it being possible for Mr. Unwin to be metamorphosed 
 into a pigeon; for a real worm to eat away friendship — for 
 friendship itself to be possessed of a bud or a heart, or for an 
 agriculturist to cultivate the Jield of affection. I now turn to 
 Burke on the French Revolution. I open him, in like man- 
 ner, and I read the following passage in the first page I meet 
 with, where he endeavours to rebut the idea, that the radical 
 spouters of the Old Jewry and the London Tavern are the fair 
 representatives of English feeling. "Because half a dozen 
 grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their im- 
 portunate chink, whilst thousands of great cattle, reposed be- 
 neath the shadow of the British oak, chew the cud and are silent, 
 pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the 
 inhabitants of the field; that of course, they are many in num- 
 ber; or that, after all, they are more than the little shrivelled, 
 meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome insects of the 
 hour."* Now here we have nothing but figure, and yet the 
 figure is so plain throughout, we at once perceive the similitude, 
 which is drawn between the grasshoppers and the noisy revo- 
 lutionary debaters of the Tavern, on the one hand; and between 
 the nobler animals of the pasture, whose tranquillity they dis- 
 turb not, and the rational population of Great Britain on the 
 other. Yet does this passage of our great orator, more nearly 
 approximate to the style of parable, than what we usually 
 meet with in compositions that delight in imagery. A parable 
 however, is but an expanded figure, applied to the illustration 
 of a fact, or series of facts, in which the actors are shadowed 
 out by metaphors, that are allusive to their respective charac- 
 ters and conduct. The books of Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, 
 almost entirely consist of figures of the common kind, as ap- 
 plied to moral truths. — As for instance, "the name of the Lord 
 is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it and is safe. 
 The rich man's wealth is his strong city, and as an high wall 
 in his own conceit," Prov. xviii. 10 — II. No man can be at 
 a loss to understand the thoughts intended to be conveyed by 
 this highly figurative language. Nay, they are far more vividly 
 presented to the mind than they could possibly be, without the 
 use of figure. Every epithet which denotes securit}', would 
 be accumulated in vain, to express the righteous man's safety, 
 with half the force which those few words convey. To say 
 he is secure is nothing; but to describe him as possessed of an 
 impregnable fortress, in the name of the Lord — the Word Je- 
 ♦ Burke's Works. — Lond. Rivington, 1815, vol. v. p. 1G5. 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 119 
 
 hovah, whither he betakes himself for shelter, when danger is 
 at hand, with all the speed of a running man, is to set before 
 us at once, in the strongest possible light, the unassailable ob- 
 ject of his trust; and at the same time, the life of watchful- 
 ness it is his to lead, and that active habitude of mind, which 
 causes an immediate unloitering recurrence to his strong hold, 
 when a lion is in his path. While the notion is vastly in- 
 creased by the contrast of the avaricious man, with vain confi- 
 dence, indolently reposing in the midst of his wealth, and 
 regarding it not merely as a confined tower, but as a well for- 
 tified city, through whose ample dimensions he may seek his 
 pastime, when his lethargy will allow him, without apprehen- 
 sion or alarm. The constant use of figure in the writings of 
 the wise man, has never been urged as an argument in proof of 
 the obscurity of this portion of scripture, or as any reason why 
 a mystic sense should be resorted to in the interpretation, in 
 preference to the literal import. In the narrative of the crea- 
 tion I find it said, that the Spirit of God moved, fluttered or 
 brooded, an expression taken from the action of a mother bird, 
 tremulously engaged in the work of incubation, wpon the faces 
 of the waters, — the faces of the waters! In this one sentence I 
 ihave two figures employed, would I therefore, be justified in 
 saying, that the narrative of the creation ought to be taken 
 figuratively; or that in the sense ordinarily attached to the 
 words, "God said, let there be light, and there was light," we 
 have been giving credit to a fable; that light also is a figure, 
 and may denote the diff'usion of knowledge, at a time ante- 
 rior to Adam; that the earth being tmformed, and hollow, ina 
 may signify the uncivilized, and insincere state of society, be- 
 fore the era of authentic history; and that the darkness, which 
 covered the faces of the waters, or riotous multitude, a sense 
 in which the word is elsewhere used, implies no more than 
 Isaiah meant, when he said, "darkness shall cover the earth, 
 and gross darkness the people," Isa. Ix. 2} I believe there is 
 scarcely a narrative in existence, sacred, or profane, in which 
 figure is not employed, are we therefore at liberty to torture 
 all history, and mould into such mystic shape as may please 
 us best, and twist it into such reticulated network, as will most 
 harmonize with our notions of the concatenations of events? 
 But hold, — what words are these, which I have caught myself 
 in using? — torture — mould — twist — net-work. I pray you to 
 observe that they are mental, not manual operations, to which 
 I refer; and, with this caution, I beg you to understand me 
 literally. What I demand for myself, I now proceed to claim 
 for the sacred writers. When we speak of persons, who are 
 under moral or physical restraint, there can be no more com- 
 
120 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 mon figure of speech than that, which describes the restrained 
 jDarties as being enchained, or in bonds. Thus, when we speak 
 of the Roman Catholic peasantry, as being in bondage to their 
 priests, we are at once understood to mean, that a fearful 
 tyranny, of a moral nature, is exercised over their minds to a 
 degree, which forbids the due exercise of their mental facul- 
 ties; and though we neither meant, nor were understood to 
 affirm, that the bodies of these wretched dupes were manacled 
 with material fetters, yet no suspicion lurks in the minds of 
 those, to whom we address ourselves, that our general state- 
 ment is to be taken figuratively, because we happened to em- 
 ploy this figure in speaking. In like manner, when Paul speaks 
 of ''false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily 
 to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, that 
 they might bring us into bondage,^' Gal. ii. 4; no one ever sup- 
 posed him to attribute to these false brethren, the design of 
 casting him into bonds; and yet have they never argued from 
 hence, or from the other figures, with which even this chapter 
 abounds, that the epistle to the Galatians is a figurative book, 
 which we are not at liberty to understand literally- I meet 
 with this same figure in Prov. i. 8, 9, "My son, hear the in- 
 struction of thy Father, and forsake not the law of thy mother; 
 for they shall be an ornament of grace," or a graceful wreath, 
 ^'unto thy head, and chains about thy neck;" a statement which 
 was never understood of actual captivity, but of that moral re- 
 straint, which wise instruction imposeth on the corruption of 
 the fiesh, placing, as it were, the willing neck of the obedient 
 pupil, under the ornamental yoke of sound discipline, render- 
 ing his character attractive, and crowning him with an unfad- 
 ing wreath of moral beauty. Asaph, on the other hand, says of 
 the wicked, "pride compasseth them about, as a chain, violence 
 covereth them as a garment," Psalms Ixxiii. 6. Nothing of 
 moral loveliness is here, but the wretched victims of infidelity 
 clothed with the garment of violence, are represented as the 
 miserable captives of the pride that ruins them. Now the 
 occurrence of this figure, in a Psalm, or in Proverbs, or in Ga- 
 latians, or in ordinary conversation or writing, presents no dif- 
 ficulty; and we are at once able to understand the meaning 
 attached to it, without calling in the aid of a Beyman, or a 
 Scott. I know no reason, therefore, why we should find it 
 necessary to invite their guidance, when we come to Rev. xx. 2. 
 I can understand the apostle there, as describing the efiectual 
 restraint imposed on Satan in the abyss, during the period of 
 the thousand years, without considering myself any more bound 
 to depart from the literal sense, in my interpretation of this 
 jH'ediction, than I am bound to do so in my interpretation of 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 121 
 
 Psalms, Proverbs, and Galatians. But Revelations is entirely 
 a figurative book! This I distinctly deny. It is not one 
 twentieth part as figurative as the book of Proverbs. But 
 though it is xioi figurative, it is symbolical. 
 
 A SYMBOL I would define to be, some sensible object, capa- 
 ble of being presented to the eye, with some definite, well 
 understood meaning, attached to it, by which it may be fitted 
 to speak to us with a degree of precision, with which no words 
 in any spoken language since the confusion of tongues can do. 
 Symbolic language so copiously employed in prophecy, is a 
 universal language, intelligible to every kindred, and tongue, 
 and tribe, and people. It is a pictorial language, painting as it 
 were on canvass, with inimitable precision, every object that 
 is to be presented to the mind. It is the unspoken pantomime, 
 wherein the great drama of all prophecy is exhibited by mute 
 action, with an accuracy that defies mistake, when vision is 
 perfect. It is in just such language the principal portion of 
 the book of Revelations is penned, interrupted occasionally 
 with oracular utterances from the mercy seat, or the interlocu- 
 tion of the Apostle with the interpreting Angel. But the 
 lano-uage of symbol is occasionally departed from, and the 
 plafnesl language that can be used, is employed, to discourse 
 to us of things to come. If such be the structure of this 
 mysterious book, it may be asked, whence the numerous mis- 
 takes, into which men have fallen, in their attempts to expound 
 it? Some regarding no portion of it fulfilled yet, and others 
 interpreting it as if it were all accomplished. I answer at 
 once by attributing all the error to their ignorance of or inat- 
 tention to symbols, or to their defect of vision. If we are 
 acquainted with symbolic language, we shall be at once able 
 to translate it into our ordinary dialect, and if the scenic 
 representation passes before our eyes in the same order, 
 wherein it did before the eyes of John, there can be no room 
 for misconception. If men will attach meanings to symbols 
 they were never designed to have; if they deny the existence 
 of symbol, where symbol is obvious; or if they misplace the 
 symbolic scenes, we shall have great abundance of error. But 
 where can we obtain a symbolic dictionary? In the Bible 
 itself. Thus after the first vision in the Apocalypse we are 
 given the exposition of the leading symbols — "The seven stars 
 are the angels of the seven churches; and the seven candle- 
 sticks which thou sawest are the seven churches," (Rev. i. 20;) 
 while he who walked among the churches, and who held their 
 ano-els in his right hand, describes himself in plain and un- 
 equivocal language, thus — "I am the first and the last; I am he 
 that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore," 
 35* 
 
122 
 
 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 which character of himself, together with the Apostle's note in 
 the commencement, that he was 07ie. like imto the Son of Ma?i, 
 can leave no doubt on the mind, that it was Jesus, the great 
 Shepherd of the sheep, with the vision of whom, in his glory, 
 he was thus favoured. All that remains of this vision now is 
 the description of his person, in which indeed we meet with 
 abundant use of figure in the way of illustration — wool, snow, 
 a flame of fire, heated brass, the sound of many waters, the sun 
 shining in its strength, are all expressly used as similes, by 
 John, to give some faint ideas of the glorious person of Mes- 
 siah. But are we to conclude, because these figures are 
 employed by him to describe what he actually saw, although 
 we meet with them also in other parts of Scripture, as charac- 
 teristic of his person, that his appearance does not literally 
 correspond with what St. John here describes it? Now, from 
 this example you will perceive that while both symbol and 
 figure are employed to furnish out this vision, the whole 
 description is neither symbolical nor figurative, but plain 
 matter of fact, as Messiah's description of himself, and his 
 command to John, "write the things which thou hast seen, 
 and the things which are, and the things which shall be here- 
 after." What is symbolical is translated for us into plain 
 language; and what is figurative is obvious to the meanest capa- 
 city. For the exposition of every vision, however, that is 
 contained in this book, we have not always the same helps at 
 hand; and yet I venture to say they are within the reach of 
 the patient investigator, and will reward his diligent search if 
 he be found relying, not on his own expositorial skill, but on 
 the teaching of the Holy Spirit. The above vision, thus 
 graciously expounded for us, appears very mercifully to have 
 been prefixed to the whole book, as a kind of easy lesson, by 
 which we may learn the nature of symbolic writing, and 
 acquire a facility in reading and comprehending it, before we 
 advance in our enquiries, through the whole range of symbols. 
 All is literally true of the churches, of the angels who super- 
 intend them, and of the Chief Shepherd himself, which is here 
 predicated of their respective symbols. It is not allowable to 
 mysticise the whole description — Jesus does walk among the 
 churches, he does hold their angels in his hand. Walk! 
 Hand! Here is figure or symbol, it matters not which. Is 
 the one expression more obscure or unintelligible than what is 
 written, Ps. cxvii. 16, "the right hand of the Lord is exalted, 
 the right hand of the Lord doelh valiantly," or Ps. xviii. 35, 
 "thv right hand hath holden me up?" And is the other expres- 
 sion more difficult of solution than the statement, which we meet 
 with amongst a mass of Levitical precepts, Deut. xxiii. 14, 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 123 
 
 "For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp," 
 or the words of Ps. civ. 3, "Who walketh upon the wings of 
 the wind?" From all this you will perceive, that my canon 
 of interpretation, as it regards any symbolical writing, is, — 
 "translate the symbols first into ordinary language, and then 
 expound it as you would any other composition." Should I 
 be found guilty of a departure from this rule myself, by omit- 
 ting to translate symbols where they exist, or by attempting 
 to translate as a symbol, that which is not a symbol, my 
 inconsistency will not vitiate the correctness of the rule. I 
 beg this remark to be taken into consideration, as I might 
 otherwise have my errors charged upon all millenarian exposi- 
 tors; as Mr. Gipps inconsiderately has charged the inconsis- 
 tencies of two anonymously quoted writers of canons on all, 
 who happen to support their general views. I beg that my 
 dear brethren, who are looking with me for the personal 
 advent of our beloved Redeemer, to reign on his father David's 
 throne, may be exempted from censure on account of any 
 errors of exposition, or inconsistencies in the views, which, 
 through the ignorance that is in me, I may rashly express. 
 One rule of interpretation reasoned on by Mr. Gipps, is, as 
 quoted by him, from whom I know not, that "we are bound 
 to give a literal interpretation, where it is possible, according 
 to the nature of things." If this be applied to symbolical 
 writing, and be designed to guide us in the discovery of 
 symbols; and if by literal interpretation be meant the obvious 
 import, which any figures that meet us in the course of expo- 
 sition, as in the passages already quoted from Burke and 
 Cowper, I know not but that this canon may be very rational 
 and just. But Mr. Gipps has applied it to predictions, which 
 are not symbolical, and perhaps there is also some difference 
 of opinion as to what a literal interpretation signifies. I would 
 call him a literal interpreter of Burke's work on the French 
 Revolution, who with cold philosophic glance, viewing the 
 flowers of speech that exhale their sweets on every hand, and 
 rise indigenously, throughout that rich meadow of rhetoric, in 
 which it was his delight to luxuriate, would content himself 
 with expounding the plain unadorned thoughts of that great 
 writer. 
 
 Now I proceed to apply the rule I have laid down above, to 
 the cases produced by Mr. Gipps. The first is, the prediction 
 of Isaiah, that animals of opposite tendencies, shall herd and 
 feed together, and beasts of prey become graminivorous, (Isa. 
 xi. 6 — 8.) This he triumphantly argues, would not be accord- 
 ing to "/Ae nature of things," which the author before cited, 
 requires to be the case, where the interpretation is literal, but 
 
224 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 that it would be "an entirely new nature of things.^' Though 
 it would, however, be quite a change of nature to the lower 
 animals, were they to acquire these properties, yet is there 
 something of a quibble on the word nature, for it may be 
 according to the nature of things, though not according to the 
 nature of beasts, that this change in their habits should take 
 place. And I maintain this to be the fact. It is in the nature 
 of things that the Creator should produce whatever change he 
 pleases in their habits, and having assured us it is his pleasure 
 that this change shall talce place, we reckon assuredly that it 
 must needs literally come to pass. This view of the matter 
 brings abundant satisfaction to my mind, but let us refer to the 
 prophec}' itself, concerning these beasts. Neither figure nor 
 symbol can I find throughout it. — Not a note of similitude do 
 we meet with. — If I look to the context indeed, I find two 
 symbols, and but two, which are employed, by universal con- 
 sent, to sliadow out the Redeemer. — This contrivance seems 
 to be resorted to, to avoid naming him, and yet to mark him 
 out, with a precision inimitable, as identical at once, with the 
 Man of Sorrows, and with the future King of Zion, — The 
 opening of the chapter, presents him before us as a rod, or 
 humble tzvig, shooting out of the decayed stump of Jesse, a 
 Branch or Nazarene, nxj, becoming fruitful, as it ariseth out of 
 that ancient root. — Though scripture elsewhere afforded me no 
 other information, than what the prophecy itself affords, I 
 should at once perceive from the actions and character ascribed 
 to this twig, that it must symbolize some mighty personage, 
 eminent for moral purity, and llie righteous exei-cise of regal 
 power over the earth, hereafter to arise from the reduced family 
 of David's sire. The Spirit of Jehovah, of wisdom, understand- 
 ing, counsel, might, knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord, 
 could not, in the nature of things, abide on a mere vegetable 
 cutting. No offset from any tree of the forest, however 
 vigorous, could be endowed, unless it were first metamorphosed 
 into a rational being, of which no hint is given us, with the 
 intelligent properties, and judicial prerogatives, and regal 
 power, and animal organs of sight, and hearing, and speech, 
 and pulmonary action, here ascribed to the Branch. — The 
 natural actions of a just Prince, enforcing the rights of the 
 poor, and vindicating the meek of the earth; nay more, the 
 supernatural acts of divine power, smiting the earth with the 
 rod, or rather, blast of his mouth, and slaying the wicked one 
 with the breath of his lips, are all attributed to this lordly 
 sucker from Jesse's stump. — A symbol therefore, that sucker 
 must manifestly be, and yet all that is affirmed concerning it, 
 is literally true of him, whom that symbol represents. — Yet, 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 125 
 
 in the description which is given of it, not a figure is employed, 
 till in the fifth verse we meet with these words, righteousiiess 
 shall be the girdle of his loins; and faithfulness the girdle 
 OF his reins. Can the occurrence of such a figure by which the 
 moral properties of his reign are illustrated by the cincture, 
 which, binding up the flowing vesture of the Prince, prevents 
 him from being impeded in discharging the active duties of 
 office, offer any impediment to the literal exposition of this 
 plain and blessed prophecy? Now it is in direct connection 
 with these words, yea, and immediately consecutive to them, 
 that the prophecy concerning the lower animals, as dwelling 
 anew together, in all the peace and harmony of Eden, occurs, 
 without the indication of any figure or symbol, that I can 
 discern. It is introduced simply as another feature of that 
 glorious era, in which Jesse's Branch shall reign, in righteous- 
 ness. — Just as it is said that righteousness shall be the girdle of 
 his loins so is it said that the wolf and the lamb, the leopard 
 and the kid, the calf and the young lion and the fatling shall 
 dwell and repose together, and be led by a little child; that the 
 cow and the she bear shall amicably brouse upon the same 
 pasture, while their young ones slumber together on the same 
 bank; and that the lion, carnivorous as he is now, shall then 
 be satisfied with straw, like the ox. Besides we know that 
 the digestive organs will, without any miracle, adapt them- 
 selves to the food that is habitually provided for them. Such 
 a state of things, we verily believe existed once, — namely, 
 before the fall of man and the curse — and it may, therefore, 
 exist again. "Every kind of beasts and of birds, and of ser- 
 pents and of sea monsters is tamed, and hath been tamed of 
 mankind," (James iii. 7.) If it be in the nature of things, 
 that man can counteract the predial propensities, which his 
 own original offence introduced amongst the beasts of the field 
 and the birds of the air; it must surely be within the nature of 
 things, not to speak of the assurances of prophecy on the sub- 
 ject, that he who originally framed them the loving and peace- 
 able dependants of his vice-gerent, in this lower world, should 
 again render them submissive to him 
 
 Whom once, as delegate of God on caiih, 
 They feared, and as his perfect image, loved. 
 
 Not so marvellous would be the exercise of that taming power, 
 which should restore them to their original inoffensive charac- 
 ter, as is the daily miracle, which is wrought, when the evil 
 tongue of the regenerated sinner, which wo ma?i can tame, by 
 grace is tamed; and the poison of asps, which was as constantly 
 generated as its saliva, ceases to be secreted within the glands 
 that supplied it. 
 
126 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 But we have hitherto reasoned upon this subject, as if 
 Scripture afforded us no further information, yet are we 
 expressly taught by St. Paul, not indeed without figure, but 
 still with no more of figure than on other subjects he employs, 
 that "the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the 
 manifestation of the sons of God, (for the creature was made 
 subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath 
 subjected the same,) in hope that the creature itself also shall 
 be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious 
 liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole 
 creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, 
 and not only they but ourselves also, who have the first fruits 
 of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, wait- 
 ing for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body." 
 (Rom. viii. 19-23.) I will satisfy myself with the mere 
 quotation of this most important passage; but, as ingenious 
 attempts have been made to extract from it any other mean- 
 ing than that, which is its obvious and natural import, I send 
 you a copy of a letter which may, in some measure, serve for 
 its rescue from perversion.* 
 
 1 have alread}^ observed, that a second symbol occurs in the 
 context of this prediction, concerning the future condition of 
 the lower animals, and that by universal consent, it shadows 
 out the Redeemer. The first represented him as an humble 
 twig, out-sprouting from Jesse's root, to whom all those fea- 
 tures are attributed as universal King, which we have just 
 noticed. The second describes him as the root from which 
 Jesse sprang. The one exhibits him as the Word made flesh, the 
 natural descendant of a favoured family; the other, as himself, 
 the progenitor, because the Creator of him from whom, in 
 common with that family of royal ancestry, though of de- 
 crowned greatness, he had himself as man derived his man- 
 hood. The spirit of Prophecy, by this artificial alliance of 
 symbols, in themselves, apparently incongruous, did herein 
 contrive to set before the churcii, ere Jesus' birth, the wondrous 
 mystery of God manifest i?i the flesh, the mighty and adorable 
 Theanlhrope, who has appropriated to himself, all that by those 
 symbols was expressed, saying, *'I am the root and offspring 
 of David," (Rev. xxii. 16.) Turn now to the statement, in 
 which this symbol is embodied — a?id in that day, when the 
 fruit-bearing scion from Jesse's root shall exercise his righteous 
 rule, slay the wicked one, and vindicate the meek; when the 
 lower animals shall be at peace; when none shall hurt or 
 destroy upon the holy mountain, and the earth shall be full of 
 the knowledge of Jehovah, as a personal God, manifested 
 * See Appendix. 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. X27 
 
 before the eyes of men; *'In that day, there shall be the root 
 of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; of him 
 shall the Gentiles oracularly enquire, and his resting place 
 shall be glorious.^' When he attains to all this dignity and 
 renown, who was once manifested as a mere Branch, he shall 
 also be manifested as Jesse's root — the Almighty Creator of 
 all men. If his coming forth, as a rod, out of Jesse's stump, 
 denoted his actual manifestation to Israel, as the suffering 
 Messiah; then, by every rule of right interpretation, when as 
 Jesse's root, he shall become the gathering point of the peo- 
 ples, according to that which was written of Shiloh, he must 
 needs be manifested after the same manner to the Gentiles, as 
 the object of their visible worship and willing obedience, from 
 whom they may immediately obtain oracular responses, and 
 the glory of whose resting place their very eyes may discern. 
 We have before referred to the remainder of this chapter, as 
 expressing the Lord's purpose in that day, to recover the 
 remnant of Israel from all nations, to put an end to the envy 
 between the two houses, vanquish their enemies before them, 
 and make a highway for their return from Assyria in as mar- 
 vellous a manner as he did before, when they came out of the 
 land of Egypt. — Thus, literally, am I compelled to take all 
 that in this chapter is written of the branch and root of Jesse, 
 of the lower animals, and of Israel's future restoration. It 
 requires no common ingenuity to construe all these statements 
 into figure; and his imagination must be very active, who can 
 give any thing approaching to a consistent interpretation of 
 every verse, upon the principle, that it is not designed to con- 
 vey the ideas, which are naturally suggested by its perusal. 
 But if the reasoning be correct, which denies a literal inter- 
 pretation to what is predicted of the lower animals, I know 
 not in what way we should meet a Jew, who taking up Mr. 
 Gipps' weapons, should argue, that it is too much to reason 
 from the symbolical expressions of Jesse's branch and Jesse's 
 root, that Messiah was to be both God and Man; that while 
 the former denotes his lineage, the latter only respects the 
 succour he shall yield to Jesse's family at an after period; or 
 who, denying that Messiah is represented by either expression, 
 should contrive to place some ingenious comment of his own 
 upon the place, and plead his right to regard it in his own way, 
 upon the ground of highly figurative language. — Yet, if there 
 be a plain prophecy in Scripture, it is this very chapter, and if 
 we have no right to interpret it literally, there is nothing 
 literal in Scripture. 
 
 But we are told that, according to the same rule, we ought to 
 interpret Isaiah Iv. 12, 13, literally also. Let us therefore 
 
228 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 examine this place. — "Ye shall go out with joy, and be led 
 forth with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth 
 before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap 
 their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, 
 and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree, and it 
 shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign, that 
 shall not be cut off." — Here I find nothing of symbol; and 
 making due allowance for obvious figure, I am not ashamed to 
 own, that I am forced to give this statement a literal interpre- 
 tation. Hills and mountains never possessed any more than 
 they do now, vocal organs; nor were trees ever furnished any 
 more than they are at present, with hands. Neither do I find 
 in any part of Scripture, the slightest indication, that it is the 
 Lord's will at any future period, to transform hills and trees 
 into organic matter, or to endow them with animal functions. 
 I at once perceive, therefore, that the prophet has so far re- 
 sorted to figure, and to figure of a very expressive and ener- 
 getic kind. — The sombre hue of mountains, clothed with 
 diluvial relics, in mourning, as it were, for the pristine beauty, 
 with which they came forth from the Creator's hand, rejoicing 
 in the verdure of perpetual spring, shall be exchanged for the 
 more becoming robe of festivity, when the world, at large, 
 has laid aside the worn-out garments of the curse, and has 
 joined in the general joy of Israel's recovery, which shall be 
 as life from the dead. — The leafy honours of the forest are now 
 as nothing to what shall then be exhibited, and they shall then 
 express their glad sense of that refreshing season, as audibly, 
 as if they were furnished with hands. Their boughs shall 
 answer every breeze of heaven that is borne onward with the 
 echo of Israel's joy. Thorns and briers, which were indebted 
 for their propagation to the sin of m.an, shall be supplanted, 
 when the year of the redeemed is come, by the fir-tree and 
 the myrtle. — Such is the natural and literal sense of the Pro- 
 phet, and let our lovers of figure, whose keen sense of the 
 unnatural can convert it at once, into what best pleases their 
 imagination or caprice, regard it in what light they may; and 
 let them pronounce it accomplished by the meagre return of a 
 local and persecuted body, across an ungenial and dreary 
 desert from Babylon if they will; but for my own part, I dare 
 not thus treat the word of the faithful and true witness, and 
 must express my full agreement with what Houbigant has 
 said. 
 
 "Hsec non convenire in reditum Babylonc Judoeorum, videbit 
 quisquis perleget historiam sacram, imo quisquis hunc ipsum 
 locum attente considerabit. Nam pollicetur Deus, quae mira- 
 cula reditum Judaeorum comitabuntur, eorum miraculorum 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. J29 
 
 vestigia nunquatn deletum iri; quae accommodarl non possunl, 
 nisi ad ultimum reditum Judaeorum." 
 
 "In Isaiah xxxv. 9," writes Mr. Gipps, <<it is said, "No 
 lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, 
 it shall not be found there." This is evidently connected with 
 the coming, of Christ, foretold in ver. 4; in the same way as 
 Isa. xi. 6-8, was connected with his coming, as foretold in ver. 
 1 of that chapter. According to their own rule, they (mille- 
 narians) are bound to give a literal interpretation of ver. 9, 
 and to understand it of real animals. They discard, however, 
 their own rule in this case; and take these expressions, not in 
 a literal but figurative sense; although the literal meaning is 
 possible in this passage, according to the nature of things, and 
 is not so in Isa. xi. 6-8" — I am not one of those Millenarians 
 who discard the rule in this place. It is an important admis- 
 sion, which is made above, that this prediction is connected 
 with the coming of Christ, foretold in ver. 4. — But the coming 
 of Christ, which is foretold, is evidently his future coming; for 
 at the first coming, the wilderness and the desert did not 
 acquire the promised fertility, blossom or flourish luxuriantly 
 as the rose; nor did streams of water gush forth to irrigate their 
 arid soil; Lebanon, and Carmel, and Sharon, and the well 
 watered plain of Jordan were not illuminated with the glory of 
 Jehovah, nor beheld the excellency, or rather the majesty of our 
 God, for they were only trod by the weary feet of the man of 
 sorrows, in whom there was no recognised comeliness; though 
 some blind, deaf, dumb, and lame persons were then delivered 
 — yet the blind, the deaf, the dumb, the lame, remained as dis- 
 tinct afflicted classes still; the haunts of dragons were not 
 improved; and the ransomed of the Lord did not return to 
 Zion, — To return there, they must have been its former occu- 
 pants, — the Gentiles never were occupants, either of the Jeru- 
 salem which now is, or of that which is above, and is the 
 mother of us all. — No restoration of Israelites took place, and 
 the whole prophecy, the analysis of which we have thus 
 negatively given, remains to be fulfilled. That portion of it, 
 to which we have been referred, has inconsiderately been 
 introduced into the inquiry before us, from the errors into 
 which our translators have more especially fallen, owing to an 
 undue deference to the authority of the Jews, who absurdly 
 divided the eighth verse in the middle of a sentence, as noticed 
 by Lowth. His version of the ninth and tenth verses I will 
 now quote, along with Horsley's of the eighth. — 
 
 8. And a causey, and a way shall be there, 
 
 And it shall be called the way of the Holy One. 
 The unclean shall not pass over it, 
 VOL. III. — 36 
 
130 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 But He (that is, the Holy One) shall be with them, walking in the way. 
 And tools shall not go astray.* 
 
 9. No lion shall be there; 
 
 Nor shall the Tyrant of the beasts come up thither. 
 Neither shall he be found there; 
 But the redeemed shall walk in it. 
 
 10. Yea, the ransomed of Jehovah shall return. 
 They shall come to Zion with triumph; 
 
 And perpetual gladness shall crown their heads, 
 Joy and gladness shall they obtain, 
 And sorrow and sighing shall flee awa)^ 
 
 I find no difficulty whatever in taking all this in a literal 
 sense. I have no doubt whatever, that it ought to be so taken. 
 "We may spiritualize it if we will, and I have no objection to 
 accommodation, wlien it is avowed to be accommodation. I be- 
 lieve we are fully justified in doing so. There is an intimate 
 analog}' between all the divine proceedings, whether of mercy 
 or of judgment; and these analogies the inspiring Spirit con- 
 tinually delighteth to express in type, in symbol, in figure, in 
 literal statement. Israel's future restoration is to be, as in the 
 day of Egypt, which is at once the type of her approaching de- 
 liverance from the nations, under whose yoke she has passed, 
 of the salvation of the elect, of their rescue from Satan, and 
 of the final escape of the persecuted Church herself, from the 
 gripe of Antichrist. What is said of the one, must therefore be 
 true of the other, either in the way of type, or of antitype. 
 That they who are now enjoying the present blessing, and the 
 future hope of the Church, should seize on so beautiful a pas- 
 sage as this, as if it were wholly applicable to themselves, does 
 not much surprise me. But it is undoubtedly of Israel, not- 
 withstanding that these things are spoken here. A miracu- 
 lous pathway shall be provided for Israel's return, (compare 
 Isa. xi. 16.) which shall be called the pathway of the Holy 
 One; since He shall be himself the guide of the happy travel- 
 lers, who shall express the joyous feelings of their souls in the 
 language of praise, as they pass along it to Zion. No Lion, 
 literally, shall im.pede their path; and as to the Tyrant of the 
 Beasts, he shall be unable to molest them, being himself se- 
 cured in the bottomless pit. Our common version gave a 
 colour, I admit, to the idea of mere figure being resorted to 
 here, by the Prophet. The pathivay of holiness might readily 
 be supposed to denote the path of the just, or the holiness 
 
 * The eighth verse runs thus in the Breeches Bible of 1589. A7id there 
 shall be a path and a way, and the way shall be called holy, the polluted shall not 
 pass by it; for he shall be with them and loal/ce in the luay, amd the foolcs shall 
 nut eire. A marginal nole on the wt)r(ls he shall be with them, thus interprets 
 them; "God shal leade and guide them, alluding to the going forth of Egypt." 
 — The same reading is retained, in the margin of Barker and Bill's Bible of 
 1G30, "He shall be with them." 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 131 
 
 of their walk in life, which it would be impossible, in the na- 
 ture of things, for ravenous or irrational creatures to tread. 
 Yet, even under this impression, there might have lurked some 
 suspicion of a right conception of the passage; for, though the 
 path of the just shineth more and more, unto the perfect day, 
 yet is it untrue to affirm concerning them, that they are unas- 
 sailed in their pilgrimage, by wild passions, fierce temptations 
 from tlie world, or the fiery darts of that evil one, who is here 
 emblematically named the Tyrant of the Beasts. This name 
 I apprehend, is conferred on him in allusion to the fact that he 
 is the influencing director of the wild symbolic Beast, to whom 
 he giveth his power, his throne, and great authority, Rev. xiii. 2. 
 Millenarians are next charged, but falsely, with a violation 
 of their own rule, in the interpretation of Rev. xx. 4, 5, first, 
 because they take souls there, to denote material bodies, "Upon 
 their own rule," Mr. Gipps writes, "they are bound to inter- 
 pret this, as foretelling a resurrection of the souls, because such 
 a resurrection is possible, according to tlie nature of things, as 
 described in various passages of Scripture, (Eph. ii. 5, 6, and 
 V. 14, and Col. ii. 13, &c.") Could Mr. Gipps have been seri- 
 ous, when he wrote this? or could he have been ignorant of 
 the fact, that in the grave, historical page of Scripture, without 
 the smallest indication of figure, this same word souls, meets 
 us perpetually, as synonymous with the wov(\ persons! Not to 
 multiply quotations, I would ask, were the three thousaiid souls, 
 who were added to the Church, on the occasion of Peter's dis- 
 course, at the day of Pentecost, disembodied Spirits, Acts ii. 
 41? or the two hundred, three score, and six souls, who were 
 wrecked, with Paul, off Melita, were they also incorporeal 
 beings, ship's company, centurion, and soldiers, all ghosts? It 
 xnwsijirst be proved, that such passages as these are figurative 
 before the charge, vvhicli is brought against Millenarians for 
 their interpretation of Rev. xx. 4, can justly lie at their door. 
 To proceed to the next argument, ^^Secondbj, If we take the 
 literal meaning of the designation of those who reign rvith 
 Christ, as signified in ver. 4, it would include only a very small 
 number of the saints. This, therefore, would prove that ver. 
 4, cannot be intended to foretell the reigning with Christ after 
 his second coming, because that will include all the saints; and 
 consequently that the Millenarian view of the first resurrec- 
 tion, cannot be the true one." I have replied to this by anti- 
 cipation, in my first letter, and shewn, from the structure of 
 the Greek, and from the analysis of the whole passage, that 
 this statement arises from an entire misconception of what is 
 written. I only quote it now, lest I might be thought to evade 
 its force on the one hand; and, on the other, that I may point 
 
132 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 out, by the way, the fallacy of Mr. Gipps' unprecedented ex- 
 position of the place. According to him, those who reign with 
 Christ, are not persons who have died, or have been mar- 
 tyred, and are risen again from the grave, after experiencing 
 greater longevity than even Melchisedech, but persons who 
 are to be martyred, and are to die. With him "the living and 
 reigning of the persons there described, foretells their spiritual 
 life, and reigning over the fear of man, and the errors and 
 seductions of the beasts, over sin, and the world, &c." The 
 reignifig ivith Christ, then is only over "the fear of man," rather 
 a curious subject, for the exercise of monarchical authority; 
 and over "the errors and seductions of the beasts," — what ac- 
 tive service these can render their rulers, or how tliey are to 
 express their homage, my knowledge of figure does not ena- 
 ble me to point out; — "over sin," to which the same remark 
 applies; — and over "the world," this were a more tangible 
 platform of empire, were the earth itself, with its inhabitants, 
 included in the expression, which it is not, as used here by our 
 author; while the "^c. " if we were at liberty to interpret it 
 largely, might include the universe, as it ought. But has it 
 been overlooked that the reignifig with Christ obviously implies 
 a participation with him in his supreme authority, and is that 
 authority only concerned in the suppression of evil propensi- 
 ties, in certain of the redeemed, at a particular epoch of the 
 world? Alas, to what subterfuges are men reduced, who are 
 unwilling to submit their judgments to the written word. 
 
 I proceed now to follow Mr. Gipps in his endeavour to 
 ascertain, in accordance with certain rules, which he lays down, 
 "in what sense the Holy Ghost uses the term resurrection, in 
 Rev. XX. 4, 5. His rules are important. He would decide 
 between a literal and figurative interpretation by considering, 
 Jirst, the general character of the book — secondly, the character 
 of the context, especially the introduction of the passage — 
 thirdly, the harmony of the interpretation with other unequi- 
 vocal passages of Scripture. 
 
 First, the character of the book. In the case before us this 
 is pronouneed to he figurative. I have already shewn it to be 
 symbolical. He refers for proof of its figurative character to 
 Rev. vi. 12, because some writers, I suppose, owing to fanciful 
 analogies they have thought proper to adopt, have determined 
 this prophecy to have been fulfilled already, which, however, 
 I take the liberty to deny. Yet fulfilled or unfulfilled, there 
 certainly is figure here. The figures are expressed and unde- 
 niable, "the Sun became black as sack cloth of hair, and the 
 moon became as blood, and the stars of heaven fell unto the 
 earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. X33 
 
 shaken by a mighty wind." The astronomical signs I under- 
 stand to be symbols, the things to which they are likened,^^?/res. 
 Again, we are referred to the witnesses, Rev. xi. 4-12. It is 
 taken for granted, that their dead bodies, graves, stajiding oti their 
 feet, SfC. are figurative expressions, because some writers have 
 so regarded them. I am not one of those, who so view them. 
 I believe that all this will literally come to pass — that the 
 Lord's real children, when this dispensation of testimony is 
 brought to its close, will have to pass through martyrdom to 
 their crown. But though these expressions were indeed figu- 
 rative, they would not prove the book to be so. I find as many 
 figures in the Gospel of St. John, to which we are referred, as 
 a literal book. I there find Christ set forth as the Light of 
 the world, as the brazen serpent, as bread, a door, a Shepherd, a 
 Vitie, &c. And yet the Gospel of St. John is justly considered 
 a literal book. 
 
 Secondly, "the introducing context." — This is pronounced 
 to be "not literal, but figurative; John saw in vision, "an angel 
 comedown from heaven, having a key," and "a great chain in 
 his hand — lay hold on a great dragon — bind him — cast him into 
 the bottomless pit, and shut him up — set a seal upon him." 
 John surely had this vision; he saw these things literally be- 
 fore his eyes; — The question is, what literal facts were they 
 designed to symbolize? I believe there were never two 
 opinions on the subject. — But even so, the book explains them. 
 — On the word chain, we have already had some observations. 
 If its import be plain in other places, and in ordinary compo- 
 sitions, 1 take it for granted, that it likewise is plain enough 
 here. The dragon, who is forcibly arrested, and placed in 
 hold, is unequivocally declared to be the Devil. — This is surely 
 literal, if any thing be literal. — The key in the angel's hand, is 
 a symbol that meets us in the vision of Jesus, as the Universal 
 Bishop, in the first chapter. "I have the keys of Hades, and 
 of death;" and again, in the epistle to Philadelphia, these things, 
 saith he "that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of 
 David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, 
 and no man openeth," Rev. iii. 7; where we have not only the 
 symbol, but its import, the power of opening and of shutting. 
 But there is a seal also used, to secure the old serpent. Resort 
 was had to this device, to secure the sepulchre, and we can 
 therefore be at no loss to understand its import here. He then 
 who is deterred at the threshold by symbols, such as these; 
 and deems from hence, the whole prophecy figurative, for the 
 exposition of which, he may tax his own ingenuity, might as 
 well close the book. The symbols are all self-evident — The 
 great culprit is to be restrained — he is therefore, said to be 
 36* 
 
J34 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 chaified — The bottomless pit is to receive him — it must there- 
 fore be opened, and a key is provided — Escape is to be render- 
 ed impossible — the prison, therefore, is not only to be locked, 
 but retributive justice affixes a seal which cannot be broken; 
 unlike that vain thing, which Satan's agents aforetime attached 
 to the tomb of Jesus. Such are the appropriate and intelligi- 
 ble symbols, which constitute the vision. The design of the 
 incarceration, "that he should deceive the nations no more, 
 till the thousand years should be fulfilled;" and the term of 
 his confinement, a ihousarid years; and his subsequent enlarge- 
 ment, ''after that, he must be loosed a little season;" are all 
 expressed in common language. This running commentary 
 on the vision, is no more figurative than what I am now writ- 
 ing. It is called, however "the introductory context." I 
 deem it rather a separate vision, the true introduction to which 
 consists of the words following, And I saxv. — It is certainly 
 related to other visions, for of those who were seen by John, it 
 is recorded "they lived and reigned with Christ the thousand 
 years," during ivhich Satan was to remain bound; yet it is in- 
 dependenlly exhibited and expounded. Whether we regard, 
 however, the true introduction, or the allied vision which pre- 
 cedes it, there is nothing which requires us to consider it as a 
 highly wrought and figurative delineation of an unexpressed 
 somewhat, for the discovery of which, we must either draw 
 largely on our fancy, or employ no common share of logical 
 ingenuity. — One great defect in this argument has been over- 
 looked ioy Mr. Gipps. — It proves too much for his own 
 scheme. — If this introductory context be all figure, bidding 
 defiance to all literal interpretation; and if the succeeding 
 vision, or prophecy of the first resurrection, must needs par- 
 take of the same unintelligible character; then must the con- 
 cluding context, to which all this is introductory, be nothing 
 else than figure also — the transactions, which it describes as 
 taking place before the great white throne, must relate to any 
 thing rather than the general judgment — and the committal of 
 all, who were not written in the Book of Life, to the lake of 
 fire, must be the description only of some national or ecclesi- 
 astical convulsion, revolution, or — reformal.io7i for aught I know. 
 — In these days of lebuke and blasphemy and liberalism, revo- 
 lution, by a new stride, which the march of mind has taken 
 into the region of figure, has come to signify reformation. 
 
 Thirdlij, the harmony of the interpretation with other un- 
 equivocal passages of scripture. — Under this head, Mr. Gipps 
 at once determines, that the first resurrection cannot be taken 
 "in amalerial sense, as referring to the resurrection of the 
 bodies of the saints," as such an interpretation would not bar- 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. I35 
 
 monize with the import he has attached to those numerous 
 plain passages of Scripture, that have already passed under our 
 review. — I might satisfy myself with the expression of a con- 
 trary conclusion, after what I have already written on the sub- 
 ject, were it not that I deem it expedient to examine it a little 
 more minutely. — 1st, I would observe, concerning the vision 
 of the first resurrection, that there was but o;?e symbol exhi- 
 bited to the apostle's view, and that was thrones; the unnamed 
 sitters upon the thrones are not even described symbolically; 
 with them are associated m rule, the martyrs of all ages, and 
 the faithful confessors of Christ, who rejected the delusions 
 and opposed the authority of the beast. — 2ndly, The remaining 
 portion of the prediction, in perfect analogy with the running 
 commentary on "the introductory context," consists of plain 
 unfigured prophecy. The absence indeed of symbol is so ob- 
 vious throughout it, that those who would fain transform it 
 into figure, invariably have recourse, like Mr. Gipps, to the 
 introductory context for the discovery of symbol — If there be 
 no symbol here, there is symbol there, and this becomes the 
 basis of their allegation, that ''all, all is figure!" A throne is 
 so obvious a symbol, no obscurity is attached to it; of this, 
 therefore, we hear little, and that the rather, as it would be 
 somewhat dangerous to their own literal interpretation of the 
 succeeding vision of the ichile throne, were they to involve this 
 symbol in the common cloud of darkness, in which they en- 
 deavour to envelope the great mass of symbolic prophecy. — 
 I say, the great mass, for with singular inconsistency, symbol 
 is no obstruction in their vvay, when they come to expound 
 the vision of the scarlet whore, as she rides the ten-horned 
 beast; or to interpret any prophecy which can furnish them 
 with an argument against the Papacy. — 3dly, In this place I 
 would point out the first express harmony which there exists 
 between one verse in this prediction, and a plain, unequivocal 
 statement in the book of Proverbs. — It is written, "but the 
 rest of the dead lived not again till the thousand years were 
 finished," ver. 5. I now turn to Prov. xxi. 16, and I there 
 find the corresponding statement, "the man that wandereth out 
 of the way of understanding, shall remain in the congregation of 
 the dead." Heb. the Rephaim, those who are to greet the mys- 
 tic king of Assyria on his descent to Hades, Isa. xiv. 9, and 
 who are in prison, iuKHKM, safe keeping, 1 Pet. iii. 19, reserved 
 in chains unto judgment, 2 Pet. ii. 4. Their remaining in the 
 congregation of the dead would be, in itself, — and irrespect- 
 ively of the punitive evils which they may experience in that 
 condition — no greater privation than that, which befalls the 
 whole mass of separate spirits, were their abode there, not to 
 
J36 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 be protracted beyond that of tlie righteous. — But protracted 
 beyond that of the righteous, their abode shall be, and their con- 
 dition there, precisely similar to that of Satan, as appears from 
 the two places in Peter, to which I have referred, where we 
 have the same expressions employed exactly which are used 
 in Rev. xx. — for it is not only said of Satan, he shall he chained, 
 but that he is to be loosed out of his own prison, or place of 
 security, ( wtjk <pvx«x»c stt/Tiu — ver. 7) — I observe, in passing, that 
 the imprisoning of the messengers, or angels, who preserved 
 not their principality, and are reserved in chains, are expres- 
 sions which never led to the idea, that Peter's epistles are all 
 figurative, though their occurrence in this prophecy has led to 
 so much argument on the subject. — I now would direct atten- 
 tion to the symbol of the thrones, and those who sat on them. 
 — I find this admirably harmonizes with Hanna's prayer. — 
 "He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beg- 
 gar from the dunghill, to set them among princes and to make 
 them inherit the throne of glory,'" 1 Sam. ii. 8. These poor 
 beggars, pensioners continually dependant upon the divine 
 bounty, can be no other than the poor in spirit; who have dis- 
 covered the humiliating fact, that, let their present circum- 
 stances be what they may, they are miserable, and poor, and 
 blind, and naked — Possessing the unsearchable riches of Christ, 
 they possess all things in promise, and reversion, poor though 
 they be; and the throne they inherit, is the thione of the Mes- 
 siah, (Rev. iii. 21,) under the whole heaven, and tlierefore over 
 the whole earth, (Dan. vii. 27.) This will appear further, froni 
 considering the reason assigned by the inspiring Spirit in con- 
 firmation of this, their exaltation, "For the pillars of the earth 
 are the Lord's and he hath set the world upon them," (vei*. 
 S.) This reference to the creative fiat can have no other mean- 
 ing than this, that he who has established the earth, possesses 
 the power and the right to govern, by whom he may; to give 
 the government thereof, — to the poor, and to the beggar. He, 
 himself, vindicates his own proceedings in providence, by an 
 appeal to the same argument, (Jobxxxviii. 4 — 7.) The throne 
 of glory, being the throne of the Messiah, must have its locali- 
 ty, in Jerusalem, according to Ps. ii. 6, and also, to that which 
 is written (Jer. iii. 17,) "At that time they shall call Jerusa- 
 lem the //wowe of Jehovah; and all the nations shall be gathered 
 unto it, to the name of Jehovah, to Jerusalem, neither shall 
 they walk any more after the imagination of their own evil 
 heart." Jerusalem is also so named in tiie jjenitential confes- 
 sion, hereafter to be used. "Do not abhor us for thy name's 
 sake; do not disgrace the //iroweo/' /A?/ e-Zor^/," (Jer. xiv. 21.) Fur- 
 ther it is said, ^*a glorious high throne from the beginning, is the 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 137 
 
 place of our sanctuary. (Jer. xvii. 12.) It may be said, that 
 all these expressions relate to the theocracy, under which the 
 Jews were once placed. But not to refer again, to the prophe- 
 cies concerning Messiah's right to, and future possession of 
 David's throne, I observe that the circumstances of Israel, 
 were all typical of a future state of things, when the throne of 
 Jesus, being established in Jerusalem, Jehovah shall be king 
 over all the earth. What was once adumbrated by the glory 
 in the sanctuary, shall be then realized, when the Son of Man 
 shall sit on the throne of his glory. I find a statement in 
 every respect parallel to that of Hanna's, in (Ps. cxiii.) that 
 splendid Hallel, which shall be sung, when Jehovah's name 
 shall be blessed from that time, even for evermore; when his 
 name shall be praised, from the rising of the sun to the going 
 down of the same — when he shall be high above all nations, 
 and his glory above the heavens. Condescending to behold 
 the things that are in heaven, and in earth, he shall then "raise 
 the poor out of the dust, and lift the needy out of the dung- 
 hill, that he may set him with princes, even with the princes 
 of his people." His people are the Jews, and who can these 
 princes of the Jews be, amongst whom, the poor and needy are 
 to take their co-equal stations, except the Patriarchs, the Pro- 
 phets, the Apostles — those twelve who are to sit on thrones, 
 judging the twelve tribes of Israel? But the last words of the 
 psalm, which follow those just quoted, pin down their exalta- 
 tion of the poor and needy, to the locality of Canaan, and the 
 period of Israel's blessedness. He makelh the barren wo- 
 man to keep house (or rather cause it to be inhabited), and to be 
 a joyful mother of children. Hallelujah. Poor Judali has long 
 since learned, and that most justly, to view herself, as the barren 
 woman, hereafter to be blessed with a most abundant progeny. 
 The Targum thus interprets the place; '*who makes the con- 
 gregation of Israel, vi'hich is like to a barren woman, that 
 sitteth sorrowful, to dwell with the man of her house, full 
 of multitudes." Long repudiated for her incontinence, and 
 spiritual fornication, she shall be restored to the full enjoy- 
 ment of all her conjugal rights, by her Maker, who is himself 
 her husband. So are we taught, not by the Targum, but by 
 that infallible expositor, who has penned his own mind, by his 
 well instructed scribe Hosea, as at large set forth in the book 
 of his prophecy; and who has thus further expressed it by the 
 mouth of his servant Isaiah. — "Sing, barren, thou that didst 
 not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst 
 not travail with child; for more are the children of the desolate, 
 than the children of the married wife," (or Gentile Church, 
 by which her place was supplied for a season,) "saith the 
 
138 
 
 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 Lord. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch 
 forth the curtains of thy habitations; spare not, lengthen thy 
 cords, and strengthen thy stakes; for thou shall break forth 
 ("sobolesces," Houbigant, "burst forth with increase," Lowth) 
 on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall mherit the 
 Gefililes,^ and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. Fear 
 not; for thou shalt not be ashamed; neither be thou confounded 
 for thou shalt not be put to shame, for thou shalt forget the 
 shame of thy youth, (her incontinence) and shalt not remember 
 the reproach of thy widowhood (her punishment) any more. 
 For thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of Hosts is his 
 name; and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. The God 
 of the whole earth, shall he be called. For the Lord hath 
 called thee as a woman forsaken, and grieved in spirit, (how 
 like unto Hannah, her appointed type,) and a wife of youth, 
 when thou wast refused, saith tliy God. For a small moment 
 have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather 
 thee," (Isa. liv. 1-7.) In the conclusion of that memorable 
 recapitulation of the Lord's goodness, and wonderful works, 
 for the grateful confession and acknowledgment whereof hy 
 the children of men, the inspiring spirit expresses such re- 
 iterated desire, (Ps. cvii. 40-43,) the downfall of earthly 
 princes, and the exaltation of the poor, in their room, is pre- 
 dicted. "He pourelh contempt upon princes, and causeth 
 them to wander in the wild place, where there is no way. 
 Yet, setteth he the poor on high, after affliction, and maketh 
 Him, (Messiah, personal, and mystical,) families like a flock. 
 The righteous shall see it, and rejoice; and all iniquity shall 
 stop her mouth." This hath not all iniquity done yet. — She 
 is more vociferous, and foul-mouthed than ever. — Soon, how- 
 ever, shall she be silent in darkness. — She shall go into the 
 trackless waste with the confederate princes of Antichrist, 
 when the righteous, with joy, shall behold the triumph, and 
 participate in the glory of the exalted One; when he shall 
 succeed to the crown of all the earth, whose princes are laid 
 prostrate in the dust; and when "the final restoration from the 
 dispersion," shall take place, as a "Thanksgiving," for which, 
 as Horsley rightly judged, this Psalm was composed. "Whoso 
 is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall under- 
 stand the loving kindness of the Lord." May we be given 
 grace to ponder them aright; and never be unmindful of the 
 kindred promise addressed to us, in tlie opening of the Apoca- 
 lypse, (Rev. i. 3.) Recurring now to Hannah's prayer, I find 
 
 * "Here the person addressed is clearly distinguished, from the Gentiles, 
 which shewed that the Hebrew Church, not the Church of the Gentiles is 
 intended." — Horsley in loco. 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. I39 
 
 the exaltation of the poor similarly connected with the over- 
 throw of the rebel rout and the establishment of Messiah's 
 kingdom. — "He will keep the feet of his Holy One and the 
 wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength no man 
 shall prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to 
 pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them. — Jehovah 
 shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength 
 unto his King, and exalt the horn of his Messiah." — "The 
 king, of whom Hannah speaks," says D. Kimchi, "is the 
 Messiah" — He could be no other. — There was at this time no 
 king in Israel. — My task would never end, were I to produce 
 all the proofs which are at hand, to establish the general 
 harmony of Scripture, with Rev. xx. 4-9. I must therefore 
 content myself with a reference to those places which Mr. 
 Gipps has mentioned. 
 
 1. Zech. xiv. 1-11. We have here a description of the 
 DAY OP THE Lord. It is to be marked by the destruction of 
 the assembled nations, who went forth against Jerusalem; by 
 Jehovah's going forth against them; by his taking his station 
 on Mount Olivet, which shall then divide in twain; by the 
 coming of all his saints along with him; by his acquisition of 
 the undisputed sovereignty of earth; and by the safe re-occu- 
 pation of Jerusalem by its rightful possessors. — Mr. Gipps 
 imagined that the earth would immediately be burnt up on the 
 appearing of Christ, and he therefore concluded,_that this going 
 forth of the Lord, and this coming of Messiah, must either be 
 a figurative coming, or else, his first coming as embracing its 
 results. If the earth was to be burned up at the moment of 
 his coming in glory, it would be quite impossible that these 
 events could then take place on its surface. — But let it be even 
 granted, that 2 Pet. iii. contains no one symbolical allusion, 
 yet, does it not contain a single syllable to justify the idea that 
 the earth and the heavens should be burned up at the very 
 moment of his coming. The conflagration, indeed, is identi- 
 fied with ihe day of the Lord; but so also is this very chapter 
 of Zechariah; and if it be plain, from this latter place, that 
 that day is connected with a series of occurrences, which are 
 to take place on the surface of the earth, leading to the safe 
 inhabitation of Jerusalem, and the periodical celebration of the 
 feast of Tabernacles by all the families of the earth; then does 
 it needs follow, that the day of the Lord denoteth a long 
 season, and not a day of four and twenty hours only in dura- 
 tion. Again, Mr. Gipps imagined, incorrectly, as we have seen, 
 that all the ungodly will be destroyed when "the Lord Jesus 
 shall be revealed from heaven in fiaming fire," 2 Thess. i. 7; 
 and he therefore argued, that tiiis must be a different coming 
 
140 
 
 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 of Messiah which is predicted, because "ungodly persons 
 remain after this going forth of the Lord, in open enmity and 
 rebellion against him and his people, and subsequently fight 
 against Jerusalem, ver. 12-15, IS, 19." The two latter verses 
 indeed, prove, that ungodly persons will remain after this 
 going forth of the Lord, because their punishment will be 
 inflicted for their refusal to worship the King, the Lord of 
 Hosts; but not so the former, for while it follows the descrip- 
 tion of the going forth of Jehovah, it is but a more detailed 
 account of the manner in which he shall smite the gathered 
 nations, when he shall come, attended by his saints. To these 
 considerations he added, what he called, the absurdity of sup- 
 posing that Christ would thus fight in person, — an exceedingly 
 bad mode of reasoning, as applied to revelation; — and that 
 nations of ungodly men, in their present bodies, would fight 
 against him. — Had he weighed the statement, "then shall 
 Jehovah go forth and fight against those nations, as when he 
 fought in the day of battle,'^ the day of Egypt, the grand type 
 of this great crisis would have been recalled to his recollection 
 — he would have remembered the precedent afibrded for this 
 madness, by the impious precipitation with which the enemies 
 then rushed against the bosses of the Almighty's buckler, 
 when, from the dread pillar of fire he frowned upon their 
 daring hosts. — *'Moses said unto the people, in that day, Fear 
 ye not, stand still and see the salvation of the Jehovah, which 
 he will show to you to day; for the Egyptians whom ye have 
 seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. Je- 
 hovah shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace." 
 (Exod. xiv. 13, 14.) "And it came to pass, that in the 
 morning watch, Jehovah looked unto the host of the Egyptians, 
 through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the 
 host of the Egyptians; and took off their chariot wheels that 
 they drave them heavily; so that the Egyptians said, let us flee 
 from the face of Israel, for Jehovah fighteth for them against 
 the Egyptians," (ver. 23, 24.) Lastly, Mr. Gipps took it 
 for granted, that the word day, night, evening, light, routers, 
 in ver. 6, 7, 8, were all figures, and therefore judged himself 
 at liberty, upon the principle combated alread}'^ in the com- 
 mencement of this letter, to pronounce the whole prophecy all 
 figure, that is OjUite unintelligible. — And, in truth, this chapter 
 must be wholly unintelligible to those, who deny the doctrine 
 of the first resurrection, and the Saviour's future reign on 
 earth. But I deny that the expressions above referred to, are 
 figures. — Following our own version, the intermediate period 
 between the thick-darkness of night, and the full blaze of 
 meridian day, corresponding precisely with the morning watch, 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 141 
 
 when Jehovah looked forth on the Egyptians, is pointed out 
 as the period, when the Messiah shall break in on the fancied 
 security of the assembled nations. However, archbishop New- 
 come renders it thus, 
 
 6. And it shall come to pass in that day, 
 There shall not be a bright light and" darkness; 
 
 7. But there shall be one day. 
 This is known unto Jehovah. 
 
 There shall not be day, and there shall not be night, 
 
 But it shall come to pass, that, at eventide, there shall be light. 
 
 Fry, who follows Newcombe, says, "The meaning I take to 
 be simply this; at the time predicted, as far as regards the 
 holy mountain of the Lord's house, there shall no longer be 
 the ordinary vicissitudes of day and night." "There shall not 
 be brightening light, neither shall there be condeiising darkness," 
 but all shall be one entire day; not day and night as now — or 
 as then, perhaps, to the rest of the earth — but at the time 
 of even, light shall appear to shine, even the glory of Jehovah. 
 This is parallel to Isaiah, Ix."* Of the literal character of the 
 waters, I entertain no doubt. 
 
 II. Luke XX. 34-36. "The children of this age marry, and 
 are given in marriage; but they which shall be accounted 
 worthy to obtain that age, and the resurrection that out of dead 
 ones, Tn; ctvcts-rcca-io); Tn; IX. viKfoiv [when ihey shaW rise, Mark] neither 
 marry, nor are given in marriage; neither can they die any 
 more, for they are la-sLyyihot equal unto the angels, (angel-like, 
 Campbell) {ce;a.yyi\oi Matthcw and Mark, as angels) and are the 
 children of God, being the children of the resurrection." Mat- 
 thew, who omitteth in his record of this discourse, what is 
 said above of those, who are worthy to obtain that age, and 
 the resurrection out of the dead ones, here addeth, "but as 
 touching the resurrection of the dead; have you not read that 
 which was spoken unto you, by God, saying, &c." Instead 
 of the substantive ava<rTA<ri;, in this sentence, the Evangelists, 
 Mark and Luke, substitute the verb iynpovT^it, "as touching the 
 dead that they rise. — Now that the dead «?-e raised; even Moses 
 shewed you in the bush, when he calleth the Lord, the God 
 of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." All 
 the dead, of whom the Lord is God, must be raised, for this is 
 involved in the very mystery of the name of God D^nVx- In 
 this Title is included the necessity of bringing forth life out of 
 death, of reviving those whom he hath slain. "See now that 
 I, even I, am He, and there is no God with me," literally 
 "standing by me," that is, united with me, or giving me aid, 
 "I kill, and 1 make alive; I wound, and I heal," (Deut. xxxii. 
 
 * Fry, on Second Advent, vol. ii. p. 122. 
 VOL. III. — 37 
 
142 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 39.) "The Lord killeth, and maketh alive," (1 Sam. ii. 6.) 
 Therefore was it, that being instructed in the mystery of this 
 name, the king rent his clothes, on the Syrian's application to 
 him to heal Naaman of his leprosy, saying, "am I God to kill 
 and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover 
 a man of his leprosy?" (2 Kings v. 7.) He who killeth, and 
 maketh alive, is the God of all men, and therefore shall all 
 men be raised, but every man in his own order. This truth 
 is involved in the very name by which the Lord revealed him- 
 self, in the bush, for he is not the God of Abraham, of Isaac, 
 and of Jacob only; and when Christ therefore, appealed to this 
 name, in proof of the resurrection out of dead ones, he was of 
 necessity, led to suggest the doctrine of the general resurrec- 
 tion. So obviously however, was the resurrection out of the 
 dead ones, limited to the angel-like just, the co-ordinate mes- 
 sengers, the children of God, in the commencement of his 
 reply to the Sadducees, as above given, that even Campbell's 
 note on those who are worthy to share it, attempts thus 
 strangely to account for it. "It may be remarked in passing, 
 that our Lord, agreeably to the Jewish style of that period, calls 
 that only the resurrection, which is a resurrection to glory." 
 The shifts to which men resort, are very surprising. Truly 
 derogatory to our Lord, would it have been, had he in com- 
 pliance with any erring form of speech, lent the countenance 
 of his authority, even by implication, to any false impression, 
 which existed in the popular mind. In combating one error, 
 he could never have insinuated his agreement with another. 
 But the Jewish style, in speaking of the resurrection at that 
 period, was, in fact, far more evangelical than Mr. CampbelTs; 
 and they understood the character of it better, for they fully 
 believed that the patriarchs in particular, and the righteous in 
 general, would arise from the dead, and be put in possession of 
 Canaan.* This they regarded as the resurrection out of dead 
 ones; and when our Lord adopted this phraseology, he sanc- 
 tioned also their doctrine. They gathered from the promises 
 to Abraham, and his seed, that the friend of God, and all his 
 righteous descendants, would arise from the dead in the days 
 of the Messiah, and inherit Canaan. So strong was this im- 
 pression on their minds, and so just was their reasoning on the 
 subject, that Mede contends our Lord's argument in favour of 
 the resurrection, from Jehovah's title as the God of Abraham, 
 of Isaac, and of Jacob, can only be understood when it is 
 regarded as involving a direct reference to the covenant esta- 
 blished with each of those Patriarchs, to put them in personal 
 * See T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 90-2. 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 143 
 
 possession of the land of promise.* And it surely was thus 
 that he revealed himself to them, as the God, who maketh 
 alive. Now, I do put it to the common sense of the Church, 
 whether our Lord would have employed language so liable to 
 misconstruction, when addressing such an audience, if he had 
 not designed to corroborate the judgment of the Jewish Doc- 
 tors? While he spends all his shafts upon the Sadducees he 
 not only directs none upon the subject, against the Pharisees, 
 but tacitly, and by positive statements, allows it to be under- 
 stood, that he is the supporter of their views. Not a single 
 sentence has been left on record, as uttered by him, in repre- 
 hension of that view of the resurrection, which, by the 
 Pharisees was entertained. He appears always as their advo- 
 cate in this matter; as did his Apostles after him. Very 
 memorable was the course taken before the council, by the 
 great Apostle of the Gentiles. "When Paul perceived that 
 the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried 
 out in the counsel, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son 
 of a Pharisee, of the hope and resurrection of dead ones, I am 
 called in question," Acts xxiii. f>. The resurrection of dead ones, 
 (not Tcevvufim of the dead,) in the Pharasaic sense, was secured 
 by, as the example was also given in, the resurrection of our 
 Lord, from the Sepulchre. Whether, therefore, I consider 
 the argument of the Lord; the opinions of the Jews, concern- 
 ing the resurrection of the Patriarchs, and of the just out of 
 the dead, to which his sanction was given; or the very language 
 he employed, the resurrection that out of dead ones; I am com- 
 pelled to believe that the righteous shall arise out of the mass 
 of the dead, in order to enjoy that age, which is peculiarly the 
 age or dispensation or millennial reign of Messiah. A portion 
 of this argument would indeed be vitiated, were Mr. Gipps' 
 statement borne out, "although the resurrection from the dead, in 
 Luke XX. 35, refers, I conceive, to the resurrection of blessed- 
 ness of the Saints, yet, as the same discourse is recorded in 
 Matt. xxii. 29-32, and as the same resurrection, is there 
 noticed, (ver. 31,) as the resurrection of the dead, without the 
 preposition «*, we could not, I conceive, infer that the Holy 
 Ghost intended any stress to be laid upon the use of the pre- 
 position, in Luke xx. 35, or it would certainly have occurred 
 in Matt. xxii. 31, also." From the analysis I have above 
 given of both evangelists, it appears, that the supplementary 
 words given by Matthew, relate to another resurrection alto- 
 gether, or rather to the resurrection in general. The fact of a 
 resurrection of all men, being established, it follows at once, 
 that the particular resurrection of the just to the enjoyment of 
 * See Mede's Letter to Dr. Twiss; Works, Book iv. Let. xliii. 
 
144 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 that age, will take place. This at once accounts for the words 
 we meet with in St. Matthew, and which are omitted by StT. 
 Luke. 
 
 III. It has been likewise attempted to evade the force of the 
 preposition, «», of, or out of, as it occurs in Acts iv. 2. "And 
 as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of 
 the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them, being grieved 
 that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the 
 resurrection that out of dead ones," rnv av^s-Taa-iv mv (n vixpmv. This, it 
 is said, does not relate "to the resurrection of believers only. 
 For 1st. Jesus will raise the ungodly as well as the godly" 
 (John v. 28, 29). But here the question is not what he will do, 
 but wiiat the apostle said he would do; and 2nd. The resur- 
 rection which the apostle preached, appears to be connected 
 with the destruction of the ungodly: compare chapter iii. 23. 
 We proceed to show, from the preceding discourse, that what 
 they spake unto the people was in perfect accordance with the 
 Millenarian view; that they did not speak of the resurrection 
 of the ungodly or of their ultimate destruction, and that they 
 did speak of the first resurrection. What the apostles, Peter 
 and John, thus spake related to the cure of the lame man, who 
 sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple. This miracle 
 of healing, they ascribed to the Prince of Life, whom God 
 had raised from the dead, nycfiviKviKpcey, out of dead ones; and then 
 ascribing the crucifixion of the Messiah to the ignorance of the 
 multitude and of their rulers, thus exhorted them, chapter 
 iii. 19. 
 
 19. "Repent ye, therefore, and be converted that your sins 
 may be blotted out, that the times of reanimation may come 
 from the presence of the Lord; 20, and that he may send Jesus 
 Christ, Trponixiipta-jutvov the before designed for you, whom the 
 heaven inust receive [contain] until the seasons of re-establish- 
 ing of all things, which God hath spoken of by the mouth of 
 all his holy prophets from the age. 22, For Moses truly said 
 unto the Fathers — A prophet shall the Lord your God, (umarna-u) 
 raise up unto you, (sjc tw a/s^^av,) out of the brethren, like unto me; 
 him shall ye hear in all things, whatsoever he shall say unto 
 you. 23, And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which 
 will not hear that prophet, shall be exterminated out of the 
 people [I'^oMBpiuSxcmai ix. tou Ktou). 24, Yea, and all the prophets 
 from Samuel, and those that follow after, as many as have 
 spoken, have likewise foretold of the days, those, {th; njuepat 
 ixuTo.;.) 25, Ye are the children of the prophets and of the 
 covenant, which God confirmed to our fathers, saying unto 
 Abraham — And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth 
 be blessed. 26, God, having raised up, (avxa-THTac,) his own Son 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 145 
 
 Jesus, hath sent him to you first blessing you, in the turning 
 back each of you from your iniquities." 
 
 The resurrection, that out of dead ones, referred to in this 
 searching exhortation, is identified with the seasons of reani- 
 mation, and re-establishing of all things, when that Jesus, 
 whom heaven must retain till then, shall return, according to 
 the covenant made with Abraham, to bless all the families, 
 UccTft^t) OP THE EARTH. All the prophcts have spoken 
 of the general resurrection. He must, therefore, come before 
 the general resurrection to re-establish all things, in the times 
 of re-animation. His future coming when all that the Pro- 
 phets have spoken shall be accomplished, will be thus marked 
 by a resurrection— an *va4t/^K— but it will be the resurrection, 
 that, out of dead ones. He was first raised up as a Prophet 
 like unto Moses, to bless the Jews by turning each of them 
 from their iniquities. His being thus raised up as a Prophet, 
 it would seem, was allusive to his exaltation as such to the 
 right hand, as well as to his selection from the brethren and 
 appointment to the office. His testimony, however, as a Pro. 
 phet, was not to receive entire credence, and they who wilfully 
 rejected it were to be exterminated, as history tells us they 
 most miserably were. But the multitude was assured on this 
 occasion, that though in ignorance they had not embraced his 
 instructions, when personally addressed to them, the exter- 
 mination would not ensue straightway unless they now re- 
 jected the testimony concerning him, refused the present 
 blessing, and continued in iniquity. But on the contrary, 
 that the return of the Lord Jesus was in some sort dependant, 
 so to speak, on the repentance of their nation. Such is the 
 fair and obvious bearing of the whole exhortation. But I 
 observe further, that we have here three remarkable examples 
 of the use of the preposition «x, out of. 1. The Prince of Life 
 was raised out of the dead ones; 2. The Prophet like to Moses 
 was raised out of the brethren; 3. The obdurate rejectors of 
 Messiah were to be exterminated oiit of the people. In each 
 of these cases it is expressly implied that the parties referred 
 to were respectively severed from the mass to which they 
 belonged. — The crucified Redeemer was separated from the 
 dead— the anointed Prophet from the brethren— and the ob- 
 stinate revolters from the people. Strange would it be indeed, 
 if the same preposition, when used two verses after this dis- 
 course, should have lost its property and have ceased to convey 
 the same idea! There would be nothing definite in language if 
 the resurrection that out of dead ones did not imply a severing of 
 some out of the mass of the dead, that they might be distin- 
 37* 
 
j^g THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 guished as the children of the resurrection, while the residue 
 continued in the state of death. 
 
 IV. Though the words out of, when applied to a thing or a 
 person taken from a mass, necessarily exclude the notion of 
 universality, yet great would be the paucity of language, if it 
 were incapable of expressing the same idea without the use of 
 this expression. Very inconclusive, therefore, is the following 
 reasoning: — "The xv. chapter of 1 Cor. treats, as these writers 
 allow," you have already perceived I am not of the number, 
 "only of the resurrection of those who are Christ's (ver. 24). 
 In this we have the word resurrection in connexion with vw;w 
 of the dead, in four verses; namely, 12, 13, 21, 42. If, there- 
 fore, there was any foundation for the argument, we should 
 certainly find, that in each and all of these verses, the preposi- 
 tion ix. would occur. Instead of this it does not occur in one 
 of them." Passing by the fallacy in this syllogism, I turn to 
 these verses and I find them particularly confirmatory of the 
 argument. JVozv if Christ be preached that he rose, mwipaiv, out of 
 dead ones, (an undeniable example of the true use of the prepo- 
 sition. Comp. 1. Pet. i. 3.) "how say some among you that 
 there is not a resurrection of dead ones? But if there be not 
 a resurrection of dead ones, then is Christ not risen." Some 
 amongst these Corinthians, the false teachers, &c. had pro- 
 ceeded to greater lengths than modern spiritualizers have done, 
 and denied, in the true Sadducean spirit, any resurrection at 
 all. With them he argues the question and shows that if the 
 idea of a resurrection is to be regarded as an impossible, 
 absurd, or carnal thing, then it would equally have been 
 so in the case of Christ, that the doctrine of his resurrection 
 would have been fabulous, and that the whole superstructure 
 of Christianity would, necessarily, fall to the ground. But 
 having shewn, upon irresistible evidence, that his resurrection 
 had taken place, he thence draws the conclusion that he had 
 risen as the first fruits of the sleepers, "for since by man the 
 death, so by man resurrection of dead ones; for as in the Adam 
 all die, even so in the Christ shall all be made alive. But 
 every one in his own order," &c. While he establishes the 
 doctrine of a resurrection of all, he takes care to discriminate 
 between the respective epochs at which the several bands shall 
 arise, thus resorting to a more unequivocal form of speech, 
 than if he had even adopted the formula elsewhere met with, 
 viz. — the resurrection that out of dead ones. Thus we perceive, 
 that however meagre language may be, in man's use of it, the 
 Holy Ghost knoweth how to render it expressive, and is not 
 restricted to any one mode of convej'ing an idea through such 
 a channel, imperfect as it is. Returning again to the general 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 147 
 
 doctrine of a resurrection, which he illustrates by a reference 
 to the uprising of vegetable substances from decayed seeds; 
 and strengthens by contrasting the existing varieties of animal 
 flesh, of mortal and of immortal bodies, with the widely 
 differing character of the luminous orbs of heaven, he proceeds 
 to add — "So also is the resurrection of the dead," ver. 42. 
 Now had he here written, "so also is the resurrection out of 
 dead ones," he would have excluded the resurrection of the 
 unjust, and have left his argument imperfect. The absence of 
 the preposition here is, therefore, in my judgment, a con- 
 vincing proof of its true force where it is really employed. 
 
 V. Phil. iii. 11. "If by any means I might attain unto the 
 resurrection from the dead," Vulgate & Douay. Though I 
 dispute the idea attached to ss^vacrTao-K oi oulrisins from the grave, 
 I am not unwilling to admit the general law, laid down by Mr. 
 Gipps, that vvhere prepositions of motion «, s|, or o-tto, occur in 
 composition with a substantive, they do not govern the geni- 
 tive which follows, but some other substantive understood, or 
 as his words are, "the sense of the preposition does not belong 
 to the genitive case, which follows, but to some substantives 
 understood.'^ But why may not, vMfm, the dead, be the sub- 
 stantive understood here as well as Hades aScvl Now the fact 
 is, I believe, there is no substantive understood. I agree with 
 Dr. Hales, that the preposition here is intensive, and that the 
 word s|:tw<rTtfo-K denotes the extraordinary resurrection — just as 
 ixSix^y-i^t^v denotes the extraordinary anxiety, with which the 
 multitude of diseased persons at Bethesda's pool, awaited the 
 stirring of the water, John v. 3; — as ^o^(iiv>,n signifies that 
 thorough disregard, as if he were no one, with which Paul 
 forbids the Corinthians to view Timothy; but addeth he, 
 "conduct him forth in peace for I wait with extraordinary 
 anxiety, mhx'^fjiat, for him with the brethren," 1 Cor. xvi. 11; — 
 and as £|sTa(r*Ts, search diligently, signifies the extraordinary dili- 
 gence, with which Herod exhorted the wise men to seek the 
 young child at Bethlehem. Math. ii. 8. But lest there might 
 be some magic in a substantive thus compounded and followed 
 by a genitive, I present 3'ou with the following example: "and 
 shall not (jod 5ro/«crs/ t^v £«/««!r<v t*v skasktsiv at/Tou cxeculo the extru- 
 ordinary avejigement of his own extraordinarily chosen ones, 
 which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with 
 them. I tell you that he will execute the extraordinary 
 avengement of those very ones speedily," tw tx-ity-^ic-iv avrm iv rctxu. 
 Luke xviii. 7, 8. These quotations, which might be greatly 
 multiplied, fully establish the sense, which I annex to the 
 word (s|avi<7Ta!r/;.) But the sentence in which it occurs, re- 
 quires that it should denote something more than a mere 
 
J48 THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 
 
 resurrection. It is certain that all men, whatever their cha- 
 racter may have been, will arise from the grave; but the very 
 language that Paul employs here denotes that the resurrection 
 to which he desires to attain, is by no means secure to all men, 
 and it must therefore be some particular or extraordinary 
 resurrection. I have above intimated that outrising is not and 
 cannot be the literal import of (^uv^ta-TcLo-t;. When it was so 
 expressed it must have been forgotten that a second preposition 
 enters into the composition of this word, which signifies again, 
 so that were we to render it according to the full force of its 
 component parts, we should employ the periphrasis, the rising 
 again out of. The primitive idea attached to the preposition 
 tx. in composition, when it becomes intensive, we may possibly 
 arrive at, by examining its employment, in the word i^»Si\<po; a 
 nephew, one who cometh out of the loins of a brother, a graft, 
 an excision from a brother, where the sense of the preposition 
 is reflective, or belongs to the word brother, with which it is 
 conjoined. A viceroy, by allowable fiction, being regarded as 
 one, who had proceeded out of the supreme ruler, was, in like 
 manner styled an Ex-arch, i^^px'^^- ^^ one was concentered a 
 brother's nature, and a brother's likeness, and in the other 
 was concentered, as it were, the imperial dignity and power. 
 Thus an Ex-anastasis, or extraordinary resurrection, is the 
 concentered outgoing of the whole resurrection, represented 
 in the outraised Saints, who are the first fruits unto God, and 
 the Lamb. As this word does not occur elsewhere, it is the 
 more difficult to establish its import. But we meet with a 
 kindred expression, in 1 Cor. vi. 14. o ^•t eto; km tov Kvpioy nynfn kai 
 vju^; e^iyipti. "But God hath both raised the Lord, and will out- 
 raise, or pre-eminently raise you." That the word {i^iyipu) pos- 
 sesses this intense force, can admit of no doubt, when we find 
 it employed thus remarkably in Rom. ix. 27; "the scripture 
 saith unto Pharoah, even for this same purpose, have I raised 
 thee up, i^ttyup^cri remarkably elevated thee, that I might shew 
 my power in thee." While for the sake of argument, I have 
 admitted Mr. Gipps' rule, concerning the force of the com- 
 pounded prepositions of motion, I would just add, that the 
 general sense of the passage, must ever determine the import 
 of the word. — For instance a.7rc0aviiv rov nrTrm is good Greek, to 
 express the act of alighting from a horse, and no Grecian could 
 understand it to express the act of the horse itself, in alighting, 
 unless indeed, the context proved that the horse, and not the 
 rider, was the descending animal. According to this view of 
 the subject, tiierefore, if it can be proved, as I consider it can, 
 from Rev. xx. 4. and other places, that the just shall arise, to 
 reign with Christ on earth, before the general resurrection, 1 
 
THE FIRST RESURRECTION. 149 
 
 know no law of interpretation, which can forbid our under- 
 standing the (oulrisi?ig of dead ones) e^Avnc-TsLo-i; Tutimfm with many 
 eminent Greek scholars, as for instance, the author of the 
 letters signed Basilicus, as importing the resurrection out of 
 dead ones, if it should be preferred to that, for which I have 
 argued, and which amounts to precisely the same thing, in 
 the end. 
 
 VI. Twelve pages of Mr. Gipps' third chapter are devoted 
 to prove, that the resurrection of the just will be distinguished 
 from that of the unjust according to his own theory, in a way 
 of transcendant blessing, which would be sufficient to account 
 as he judged for the strong language employed, Luke xiv. 14; 
 XX. 35, 36 ; Phil. iii. 11; Heb. xi. 35. I feel it, however, quite 
 needless to follow him, and certainly do not design to pursue 
 the system unfolded in his fourth and fflh chapters. I fear I 
 have already wearied you with my remarks, and have no de- 
 sire to trespass longer on your patience. I would, however, 
 just observe, that it is not enough to prove, that the parties, 
 who arise, will be distinguised from each other; but that it is 
 also necessary to demonstrate that the resurrection in which 
 they respectively will obtain a part is distinct also, before it 
 can be possible to evade the force of the above places. May 
 we, dear brother, and all for whom we are interested, obtain a 
 part in the first resurrection. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Kilcoleman Parsonage 
 17th March, 1832. 
 
 I need offer no apology for requesting your attention to a 
 more connected expression of what I believe to be the mind of 
 the spirit in Rom. viii. 19, 23, than the unexpected discussion, 
 extreme nervousness, and much interruption enabled me to do 
 at our late meeting. This, I shall endeavour to attempt in as 
 brief a way as possible, and in the words of others, as far as 
 possible, rather than my own. As the question hinges on the 
 meaning of the word uncnc creature or creation, I will first try 
 to ascertain its proper sense. 
 
 I remember to have stated, that the word jct/w never signi- 
 fies the new creation without the addition of the word new. I 
 have since justified the remark by reference to Schmidii Con- 
 cordantia. The word exactly occurs nineteen times in the New 
 Testament. 
 
 Three times in Mark, viz. chap. x. 6. — xiii. 19 — xvi. 15. 
 
 In the two former it manifestly signifies the visible creation. 
 In the last it may denote merely the intelligent creation, but the 
 true rendering is, ''going into the whole world an?iounce the glad 
 tidings for the whole creation;^' and I believe it to refer to" the 
 material creation also. For Christ has redeemed the material, 
 out of which man's body was made, as well as the immaterial. 
 
 Seven times in Rom. i. 20, 25 — Rom. viii. 19,20,21,22, 39. 
 
 The two verses in the first chapter, and verse 39 in chapter 
 viii. plainly describe the visible creation. The remaining 
 verses are those at present in dispute. 
 
 Twice in Colossians, viz. i. chap. i. 15. 
 
 The first begotten of every creature. If we read Tr^teroTUt,; in- 
 stead of ^g«T3Tcxi!f,* (which is indeed no various reading, our 
 
 * Homer uses it in the sense of v^unoyom. I quote the following remarks 
 from Isidorus Pelusiot, Lib. iii. Ep. 31. Ophelia Grammalico. "Tristis ac 
 pervulgatis omissis, aperte, quod senlio, dicam; eiiam si quibusdam videri pos- 
 sim novara interpretationis viam inire, o ^rgaiTOToxoct (id est primogenitus) si 
 secunda syllaba acuatur, eum qui primus natus est, significat. Si autem pe- 
 
 t Omitti potest in interpret. ^ 
 
X52 APPENDIX. 
 
 MSS. being without accents,) the true rendering will be the first 
 producer of the whole creation. This is plain from the words 
 which follow, furnishing us as they do, with the proof of this 
 title of Messiah, For by him were all things created, SfC. 
 
 Again, chap. i. 23. — Which was preached to every creature zohich 
 was under heaven. The gospel had not been preached to every 
 individual under heaven. It should be rendered preached iv in 
 or "through the whole creation under heaven." This esta- 
 blishes the true meaning of Mark xvi. 15. 
 
 nultima, eura qui primum genuit. Atque id vobis preserlim, qnos Homeri 
 lectio delectat, comperlum et exploratum est. Trgan-oTinotJirct enim, ea quae pri- 
 mum peperit, ab ipso dicta est. Probabile itaque, imo necessarium fuerit ani- 
 madvertere, hujusmodi quodam sensu hie quoque divinum Paulum usum 
 fuisse, cum Christum omnis creaturse primogenitum dixit. Hoc quippe voca- 
 bulo non eum primum ex omnibus rebus conditis creatura esse docet, (absit) 
 quippe qui splendorem gloriiK, et patern^ substantia? characterem ipsum ap- 
 pellet verum eum resconditas primo peperisse, hoc est effecisse: ita ut (tertia 
 syllaba acuto accentu notata) 7rga>Tcyovo( non Tr^ceToyivn; i. e. primo gignens, non 
 primogenitus, Tr^eeTOKria-Tn; non Tr^oTox.Tia-To; id est, primo creans, non primo 
 creatus. Q,nod auteino toxjc hoc loco pro creatione accipiatur, non est quod 
 quisquam miretur, cum alio etiam loco dictum sit, Deum, qui te genuit, dere- 
 liquisti. Atque alio item, Filios genui, et exaltavi. Ac rursum. Ego dixi, Dii 
 estis et filii excelsi omnes. Cluonian enim et cum Deus genuit, citra pas- 
 sionem ullam genuit, et cum creaf, citra omnem passionem, et modo divi- 
 nitati consentaneo, ac sine ullo labore creat, idcirca Scriptura his vocabu- 
 lis usa est, non ut per generationem creationem, et per creationem gene- 
 rationem intelligamus, (quemadmodum improbe ac vetaratorie hseretici 
 affirmare videntur) sed ut faciliiatem, Deique ab omni perpessione vacuita- 
 tem ostendat. Q,uod si quis ei dumtaxat, qua prius ipsius animus imbutus 
 est, opinioni addictus, ac non veritatem sibi ante oculos proponens verbis meis 
 refragetur, nee mihi ipse judex ero, nee item ipsum sibi ipsi judicem esse 
 requum fuerit. Cluocirca incorruptisjudicibus negotium committamus. ac nos- 
 trse disputationis arbitri sint auditores. Itaque si ille aliquid demonstrare 
 queat, demonstret. Sin autem a me demonstrationem exigit, hunc ipsum qui 
 his verbis usus est, testem proferam. Postquam enim dixit Primogenitus 
 omnis creaturse, mox hfec verba subjunxit, Cluoniam in ipso creata sunt omnia, 
 quae in ccelis sunt et quce in terra. Cluamobrem si dixit, Post eum creata sunt, 
 quin secundum adversariam pronuncietis, causam baud dico. Si autem, in 
 ipso (etenim in Creatore rerum omnium procrealio et conservatio est. Gluod 
 quidem etiam alio loco explanans, dixit. In ipso enim vivimus, et movemnr, 
 et sumus) sine controversia, ut opinor, nostra est victoria. Q,uod si ea etiam, 
 quae sequuntur narravero, luculentius adhuc trophasum erit. Ait enim, Et 
 ipse est ante omnia. Non dixit. Ipse I'actus est ante omnia, sed. Est ante om- 
 nia. Et omnia in ipso constitnta sunt. Non dixit, Cum ipso nee. Post eum 
 creata sunt — Cluid autem est quamobrem cos rejiciunt, qui eum diviniratis ra- 
 tione unigenilum dictum esse aiunt, humanae autem naturte respect u primo- 
 genitum omnis creaturae'? Nam si nee ita intelligatur, nee item 7r^aiTcx.Ti:i-T>t; 
 vocetur, promogeniti vox, siquidem unigenito copuletur, nobilitatem dcsignare 
 potest (potest enim quispiam et primogenitus et unigenitus filiiis esse) si 
 autem rebus creatis, ocum non habet. Aut enim /uovchtij-toc, id est, solus cre- 
 atus aut primogenitus erit. Alterutrum enim altcrutrum de medio toliit. Cluid 
 autem prohibcbat, quo minus aperte ipse dicerel, ^rgaTJxr/o-Tic omnis creaturse. 
 Jam si TT^urcKTicTToc, i. e. primus creatus intelligatur, quonam pacto unigenitus 
 estl Nam quod solum est, aliud haudquaquam admittit. Ac primum item 
 solum repudiat. Cluidnam autem juxta hoc ipsum rebus conditis praestat, si 
 ipse quoque creatus estl Gluin autem erubescimt, creaturam adoranles, ac 
 saismet ipsi senlentiis adversanles; quippe qui, cum res creaias adorari vetent, 
 
APPENDIX. 153 
 
 Twice in Hebrews, viz. chap. iv. 12, which I translate, 
 
 "Even creation is not unexposed to his view; but all things," 
 evidently throughout nature, "are naked and open to the eyes 
 of him with whom we have to do." 
 
 "There is not a creature, all things created. That is, every 
 creature whatever, whether they be persons, or things, angels, 
 men, devils, professors, persecutors, all men of all sorts, and 
 all things concerning them." Ozcen i?i loco. 
 
 Chap. ix. 11. — The tabernacle, of which Christ is the High 
 Priest, is not of this crealion. In both these places the visible 
 creation is spoken of. 
 
 Once in 1 Peter, chap. ii. 13. 
 
 Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man. The Greek is 
 "every human creation." Macknight adds, to supply the 
 sense, "of magistrates," they are appointed by man; but, being 
 elevated by the providence of God, are to be submitted to. 
 Leighton says, "although civil authority in regard of particu- 
 lar forms of government, and the choice of persons to govern, 
 is but a human ordinance or man's creature, as the word is, 
 yet both the good of government, and the duty of subjection 
 to it, is God's ordinance, and therefore, for his sake, submit 
 yourselves. 
 
 Once in 2 Peter, viz. chap. iii. 4. 
 
 From the beginning of the creation. Without any distinction 
 of creation into animate or inanimate. 
 
 Once in Rev. viz. chap. iii. 14. 
 
 Christ is called the beginning of the creation of God, the 
 chief, prince, first cause, and supporter of all nature. The 
 word it^x» here translated beginning, is translated elsewhere, as 
 Eph. vi. 12, where it occurs in the plural, principalities. 
 
 The word Jtr/w creation occurs also in connection with the 
 word nezv, in 2 Cor. v. 17; Gal. vi. 15. Except in these two 
 places, and in 1 Peter ii. 13, I maintain that the world at large, 
 material and immaterial, visible and invisible, is denoted. 
 
 I ask, then, how the occurrence of the word in Galatians and 
 Corinthians with a limiting adjunct, marking out a certain por- 
 
 lU Gentilium errorem, ipsi tamen se hoc facere minime animadvertantl quin 
 illud quoque nosse operee pretiiim est, eadetn vocabula non semper easdem res 
 significare, neque homonymiam synonymiam omni modo designari. De Filio 
 enim generatio propria dicilur, de conditis aiUem rebus, improprie: de illo 
 inquam ob veritatem eandemque substantiam; de his autem, honoris et adop- 
 tionis causa. Volens enim genuit nos verbo verilatis. Cliiocirca homonymia 
 hoc loco honoris aequalitatem no pariat; nee quae improprie dictse sunt, pro- 
 prie dicta esse quisquam existimet. duandoquidem nee furorem, nee iram, 
 nee alia omnia, quae, cum divinee naturae minime conveniat, per abusuni dicta 
 sunt, quisquam mentis compos proprie usurpatae esse dixerit. Perspicuum 
 enim est, quod unicuique loco, et cuilibet dictioni, congrua et consentanea in- 
 tcrpretatio adhibita, veritatem parlurit." 
 VOL. III. — 38 
 
154 APPENDIX. 
 
 tion of creation that is made new, can alter its primitive and 
 invariable import, so as to make it capable of conveying that 
 restricted sense, though the limiting and defining adjunct be 
 wanting? If it be capable of this sense, I may then say, that 
 the creation is in Christ Jesus — that the creation is foreknown, 
 predestinated, called, justified, glorified, without prefixing the 
 word 7iew. This recondite sen?eof the word would have been 
 unknown to the Romans, without the key furnished by Gala- 
 tians and Corinthians, which they had not; and we must there- 
 fore interpret it, as they would have interpreted it, according 
 to the known use of words. Suppose, however, that we admit 
 this new canon of criticism, and that 2i substantive may be taken 
 to mean what an adjective at times joined with it, constrains it 
 under such circumstances to signify, then may we put another 
 construction on the place not as yet imagined. The word K-ria-u 
 with the adjunct avt3ga)7r/v« in 1 Pet. iii. 13, signifies the supreme 
 magistracy. We therefore may maintain that it is the su- 
 preme magistracy, which, with eager expectation, awaiteth the 
 manifestation of the sons of God. This is not the way where- 
 in we would deal with any other writing. A traveller relates 
 in the course of his journal, that he passed through a Rhodo- 
 dendron forest. He afterwards takes notice of a number of 
 other forests through which he has passed, or which he has 
 seen in the distance, vvithout specifying the kind of trees of 
 which these forests are composed. Is there any man, possess- 
 ing a due regard for truth, who would venture to assert, on the 
 authority of this traveller's journal, that all the forests, through 
 which he had passed, were forests of Rhododendrons? In the 
 history of America, we read at an early stage, of the circum- 
 stances attending the discovery of what is there called the New 
 World; its productions, inhabitants, &c., are described in glow- 
 ing terms. Whenever we meet in subsequent pages with the 
 word world, without the adjunct 7iew prefixed, should we be 
 justified in supposing it was understood? 
 
 Some one in Grotius suggested the idea of supplying the 
 word 71670 heioYQ creation, in Rom. viii. 19, 22, as did also Vor- 
 tius. The very replies, which I ofl'ered to this notion, are, I 
 find, given in Poole's Syn. Crit. Vortius, it appears, endea- 
 voured to bolster up his view by pleading, that the 7iova crea- 
 tura was spoken of, ex more Hebrcrorum, qui simplicia saepe pro 
 compositis usurpant; to which it is answered, sed ii simpliciter 
 et sine additamento kti^i; non vocantur. Neque satis cohaeret 
 sermo, si (idem sint una-i; et filii Dei. Gill, who understands 
 the Gentile world as opposed to the Jewish, by the word crea- 
 ture, replies to the notion of its signifying those who are 7iezv 
 creatures, "these cannot be said to be in a state of bondage to 
 
APPENDIX. - 155 
 
 corruption, for they are freed from the dominion of sin, and are 
 become servants of righteousness." But further, let us take 
 the literal rendering of the Greek, which is thus correctly given 
 by Macknight, (who states in a note, that "some commenta- 
 tors consider verse 20, as a parenthesis, and join verse 19 and 
 20 together, thus: 21. 'Hhe earnest desire of the creature look- 
 eth for the revelation of the sons of God, 21, In hope, &c.") 
 
 21. "In hope that the creature itself shall be liberated from 
 the bondage of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the 
 children of God." 
 
 You will at once perceive that as bondage and freedom are 
 opposed to each other; so also are corruption and glory. The 
 former <f>95g* signifies mortality, decay, which now tyrannizes as a 
 slave-oxmer over creation,* which is looking forward for a 
 change of masters, hoping (aTrojwgaJ^cKw) with an anxious stretch- 
 ing forth of the head, to be placed under the liberating rule of 
 the glory, which belongeth to the children of God. When 
 their {a.-7roKXKv].t?) apocalypse shall take place, the event for which 
 the K-TitrtQ is thus looking, freedom shall be proclaimed to the 
 bounden — there shall be an entire exemption from that bond- 
 age, under which all nature now groaneth. Thus, by a most 
 beautiful figure of speech, all nature is represented as one com- 
 pound personage intensely looking out for the arrival of a glad 
 and glorious era. For the oustretched head of creation looketh 
 for {ATfiKSiXira-i see Phil. iii. 20.) the manifestation of the sons of 
 God. The transitory sufferings of the present time can never 
 be put in competition with the glory which shall be apocalypsed 
 IN us; for even the creation itself, which shall not possess the 
 glory, shall nevertheless derive from them such real solid 
 benefit, such true freedom from real ills, that she also is desir- 
 ous of our APOCALYPSE. The figure, by which the affections 
 of the mind are attributed to inanimate nature, need not startle 
 us. It is common in the Bible. The trees of the wood are re- 
 quired to rejoice, in common with the joyful field, before Jeho- 
 vah when he comelh, &c. Psalm cxcvi. 12, 13; Is. 42: 10-12. 
 The same idea, with some variation, is expressed in Psalm 
 xcviii. 8. "Let the floods clap their hands, let the hills be 
 joyful together before the Jehovah," &c. Psalm cxlviii., con- 
 sists solely of an invitation to all creation, animate and inani- 
 mate, material and immaterial, angels and men, the starry hea- 
 vens and the depths of ocean, fire, hail, snow, vapours, moun- 
 tains, and all hills, beasts and all cattle, creeping things, and 
 birds of every wing, to praise the then only exalted name of 
 
 * The heathen according to Macknight, who inconsistently restricts the 
 blessing here universally predicated of the xT/a-« to those who believe amongst 
 the heathen! 
 
156 APPENDIX. 
 
 him, whose glory is above the earth and heaven ; and who shall 
 at that time exalt the horn oHi'is people, the praise of all his saints, 
 even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. Praise ye the 
 Lord, Why this is the very counterpart of Paul's statement 
 which we have been considering, and marks the period of Israel's 
 recovery and blessedness, as synchronizing with the epoch of 
 the manifestation of the sons of God. The fact then is, that 
 the place before us simply expresses the desire of all nature 
 for that blissful change in the constitution of the world, which 
 is predicted in the Psalms above referred to, as also in Isaiah 
 Xi. 6, 9.; Ixv. 25; Ezek. xxxiv. 25; Hos. ii. IS. The best 
 commentary I know on the place is the following splendid pas- 
 sage of one, who was himself a master of figure, our own sweet 
 poet, Cowper: — 
 
 The groans of nature in this lower world 
 Which heaven has heard for ages, have an end, 
 Foretold by prophets and by poets sung, 
 Whose fire was kindled at the prophet's lamp, 
 The time of rest, the promised sabbath comes. 
 Six thousand years of sorrow have well nigh 
 Fulfilled their tardy and disastrous course 
 Over a sinful world; and what remains 
 Of this tempestuous state of human things, 
 Ts merely as the working of a sea 
 Before a calm, that rocks itself to rest; 
 For he whose car the winds are, and the clouds 
 The dust, that waits upon his sultry march, 
 When sin hath moved him, and his wrath is hot. 
 Shall visit earth in mercy; shall descend 
 Propitious in his chariot paved with love; 
 And what his storms have blasted and defaced, 
 For man's revolt, shall with a smile repair. 
 ******* 
 ****** 
 O scenes surpassing fable, and yet true; 
 Scenes of accoiiiplished bliss! which who can see, 
 Though but in distant prospect, and not feel 
 His soul refreshed with foretaste of the joyl 
 Rivers of gladness water all the earth. 
 And clothe all climes with beauty; the reproach 
 Of barrenness is past. The fruitful field 
 Laughs with abundance; and the land once lean, 
 Or fertile only in its own disgrace, 
 Exults to see its thistly curse repealed. 
 The various seasons woven into one, 
 And that one season an eternal spring. 
 The garden i''ears no blight, and needs no fence, 
 For there is none to covet, all are full. 
 The lion, and the libbard, and the bear, 
 Graze with the fearless flocks; all bask at noon 
 Together, or all gambol in the shade 
 Of the same grove, and drink one common stream. 
 , Antipathies are none. No foe to man 
 
 Lurks in the serpent now; the mother sees, 
 And smiles to see, her infant's playful hand 
 Stretched forth to dally with the crested worm, 
 
' APPENDIX. 157 
 
 To stroke his azure neck, or to receive 
 The lambent homage of his arrowy tongue. 
 All creatures worship man, and all mankind 
 One Lord, one Father. Error has no place; 
 That creeping pestilence is driven away; 
 The breath of heaven has chased it. In the breast 
 No passion touches a discordant string. 
 But all is harmony and love. Disease 
 Is not; the pure and uncontaminate blood 
 Holds its due course, nor fears the frost of age. 
 One song employs ail nations; and all cry, 
 "Worthy the lamb, for he was slain for us!'' 
 
 The remainder of the passage is too long to be transcribed. 
 I conclude then, that universal nature is looking out for a 
 most joyous event. To avoid pain, secure its cessation, and 
 ensure happiness, is the object of all animal existence. The 
 nobler vegetables, when the care of the cultivator is absent, 
 struggle to maintain their superiority over the thistle and the 
 briar. While earth groaning audibly, (under the anguish of 
 the curse) in the earthquake and the volcano, has already 
 attempted to vomit forth the fire that preyeth on her vitals. 
 Yea, she has wrought hard to antedate the time, when nations 
 shall be born in a day, and there shall be no more sea, by the 
 heaving forth of island after island from the depths of the abyss. 
 The manifestation of the sons of God is the event, for the 
 occurrence of which, all nature is so big with anticipation. 
 She longeth for this event, because her liberation is dependant 
 on the glory, which shall be revealed in the children of God, 
 when they obtain the adoption. But not only is creation at 
 large groaning and travailing in labour pains for the arrival of 
 this period, but "we ourselves also which have the first fruits 
 of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, wait- 
 ing for the adoption, the redemption of the body." We do so 
 with still greater propriety, with a deeper sense of personal 
 interest; for that event, the adoption, or, as before expressed, 
 the APOCALYPSE OF THE SONS OF GOD shall provc the redemplion 
 of OUR bodies, bodies that now harass us, and are subject to 
 such disease and suffering, bodies which we cheerfully mortify, 
 bodies in which we hail reproach, and endure sufferingybr and 
 with Christ; knowing that when he shall appear, with whom 
 we jointly suffer, we shall be like him and be jointly glorified 
 with him. If nature then, involuntarily subjected to vanity, 
 shall then be emancipated, what and how great vvill be our 
 glory, when the very manifestation m ?/s shall bring such benefit 
 to the world at large? So exceeding great will be the weight 
 thereof as to mock all comparison with our present light afflic- 
 tions, which are but for a moment. 
 
 Such for many years has been the view I have taken of the 
 Apostle's reasoning. I was willing, for the sake of the argu- 
 3S* 
 
J 58 APPENDIX. 
 
 nient, to -take lower ground in the recent discussion, which 
 took place, and, to show that even were the expression, the 
 creation and the xvhole creation, understood to denote mankind 
 merely, without embracing, (as I have no doubt whatever they 
 do,) the lower animals and the ground still subject to the curse 
 for man's sake, the argument would still be weighty enough 
 to overturn all the schemes of our spiritualizers; and the pas- 
 sage direct us to an era, when the condition of mankind, then 
 subject to the rule of Christ and his joint heirs, shall be un- 
 speakably improved. I feel that I left the argument, on that 
 occasion, imperfect; and therefore deem it necessary to add 
 these remarks for the cause of truth — truth, in my apprehen- 
 sion, the most cheering, spiritual, and edifying — the very 
 truth for the realization of which we are taught in the divine 
 word, to hope. 1 would refer you in addition to Fry's com- 
 mentary on the passage, which contains many weighty obser- 
 vations. I could write much more, and quote largely from 
 ponderous folios, since there is such an overweening regard 
 for authority. One observation and I have done. All the 
 difficulties with which this passage has been surrounded, have 
 arisen from the indisposition to admit the doctrine of the 
 renovation of nature at the apocalypse of the sons of God, 
 which it obviously teaches, when suffered to speak for itself; 
 and is not tortured from its plain and grammatical import, 
 except by those who would be wise above that which is 
 v^'ritten. I annex a quotation from Doddridge, which shews 
 the readiness with which men resolve on departing from the 
 letter of Scripture, when they find it opposed to their own 
 system. I have the honour to remain, &c. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM DODDRIDGE ABOVE REFERRED TO. 
 
 Verse 19. "T/ie earnest expect, ^-c. This, and the following 
 verses, have been generally, and not without reason, accounted 
 as difficult as any part of this epistle. The difficulty has per- 
 haps been something increased by rendering ktuti; creation in 
 one clause, and creature in another. To explain it, as chiefly 
 referring to the brutal or inanimate creation is insufferable; 
 since the day of the redemption of our bodies will be attended 
 with the conflagration, which will put an end to them!!!" 
 This was his own unfounded assumption which he does not 
 pause to prove, and which no man can prove. According to 
 his theory, however, this was to be the case, and, because this 
 passage opposes his theory, its plain import is to be rejected. 
 
APPENDIX. J59 
 
 He proceeds, "The interpretation, therefore, by which Dr- 
 Whitby and Mr. Grove refer it to the Gentile world is much 
 preferable to this." Why? Apply his own argument to this 
 interpretation, and how much better will it be? Is the Gentile 
 world to survive and be improved after the conflagration, 
 which, according to his opinion, has put an end to the whole? 
 He was not, however, satisfied with this stretch of Whitby's 
 expositorial skill, and therefore he adds as follows, endeavour- 
 ing to apply to the present condition of things what is said of 
 the future — "But, on the whole, I think, it gives a much sub- 
 limer and nobler sense to suppose it a bold prosopopaia, by 
 which, on account of the calamity sin brought, and continued 
 on the whole unevangelized world,* (though few of its inha- 
 bitants saw so much of their misery, as actually to desire the 
 remedy,) it is represented as looking out xvith eager expectation 
 (as the word aoroj^aga/iixw exactly signifies) for such a remedy 
 and relief as the Gospel brings, by the prevalency of which 
 human nature would be rescued from vanity and corruption, 
 and inferior creatures from tyranny and abuse. Nothing is 
 , more common than to represent a /a«c/ as mourning oy rejoicing, 
 as calling for rain <^c." 
 
 * For the introduction of the adjunct uneva.ngclized he has still less authority 
 than our friends who supplied us so gratuitously with the adjunct neu\ 
 
IQQ APPENDIX. 
 
 Note to page 33. 
 
 This generation shall not pass away till all be fulfilled, 
 Luke 21: 32; Mark 13: 30; Matth. 24: 34. Non prseteribit 
 generalio hasc — non transibit generatio haec Vulgate. Jerome 
 on Matth. 24, 34, gives the following gloss on the word 
 generalio. Omne genus hominum significat, aut specialiter 
 Judaeorum. The Glossa Ordifiaria as it is called, is as follows: 
 omne genus hominum, vel gens Judaeorum quae non deficiet 
 donee veniat dies Domini. De Lyra, understands by genera- 
 tio, congregatio fidelium, that is, the church shall not pass 
 away — it shall be preserved until all be fulfilled. 
 
 Jerome, although not the author of the Latin version, called 
 the Vulgate, must be considered a competent expositor of the 
 meaning of the Latin word generatio, so far at least as to prove 
 that the word was deemed in his day to admit of either sense 
 he gives it. 
 
 Piscator translates the word (^sisa) genea in the verses under 
 consideration, a^las, Beza translates the word (jin:t) sometimes 
 gens and sometimes nalio. Montanus, Fabricius, and Tre- 
 mellius translate it gewerafto in these places. Erasmus trans- 
 lates it cztas in Matth. and Luke, and ge?ieralio in Mark. The 
 word gens has a broader import than ?iatio. For example we 
 may say gens Germanorum and 7}atio Saxonum, but the word 
 generatio is less restricted in its use than either. We may say 
 for example generatio avium as well as generalio hominum. 
 Cicero uses the word in the sense of ortus, procreatio, and the 
 word >6v«* may be used in the same broad sense. Its synonyms 
 are ytm yema-n p-jo-k riKm*, and it may be translated, if the context 
 require it, by the words progenies, aetas, nobilitas, natura, 
 ortus, familia, liberi,as well as receive the sense of (universum 
 tempus humanae vitae, or spatium triginta annorum) — a life 
 time. Plato has the phrase ^i^yinM quo genere ortus. 
 
 The word (sSvo?) etfuws, also frequently occurs in the N. T. 
 See Matth. 21: 43; Luke 7: 5; John 11: 48, 50, 52 — 18: 35. 
 It may be useful to refer to these places in order to observe 
 the different use of the words iBvc; and yivii.. "The kingdom of 
 God shall be taken from you (i. e. from your nation) and 
 given to a (livu) nation bringing forth the fruits thereof" For 
 he (the centurion) loveth our (ibvoc) nation, and he hath built us 
 a synagogue." "If we let him thus alone, &c. the Romans 
 will come and take away both our place and (eSvo?) nation." 
 "Nor consider that it is expedient, that one man should die, 
 &c. and that the whole {i^vo;) nation perish not. This he spake 
 not of himself, but, &c., he prophesied that Jesus should die for 
 
APPENDIX. 161 
 
 that («9voc) nation, and not for that ((6m) nation only, but that 
 he should also gather together," &c. "Pilate answered thine 
 own (idm) nation hath delivered thee to me," &c. 
 
 In all these places the word Sm is restricted to the Jewish 
 race {ym=t) then living. The word (ymx) race in the extended 
 sense above suggested would have been inapposite. The 
 word (iQvo;) can properly be applied only to a body of men 
 existing together in a community. The word (>m*) race, will 
 admit of that use, and also of being applied to a race of men 
 descended from the same stock in a dispersed condition, as 
 the Jews have now been for nearly eighteen centuries. The 
 Jews have long ceased to be an sSw, but they are still a >evs*. 
 They are indeed the people of whom it was prophesied, "Lo! 
 the people shall dwell alone (nat iv tSvi^tv ou a-uKKcyt<r6iio-iTsii, Ixx.) 
 and shall not be reckoned among the nations." Numb. 23: 9. 
 Still as their dispersion is temporary, and comparatively 
 speaking brief, and as the purpose of God to restore and build 
 them is immutable, they are spoken of in prophecy as a nation, 
 and as a people that shall not cease from being a nation, 
 Jeremiah 31: 35. 
 
 Assuming then for a moment that our Lord (in Luke 21: 32 
 for example) intended to declare that the Jewish race, should 
 be preserved through the awful and long continued desolations 
 which should come upon them during the treading down of 
 Jerusalem by the Gentile powers, and during their captivity 
 and dispersion among all nations, even until the period allotted 
 to the existence of the nations should elapse, and until the day 
 of the appearance of the Son of Man in a cloud with power 
 and great glory — assuming this, how apposite was the choice 
 of the word ymu.1 Obviously the word s9wc would not serve 
 that purpose, for Jerusalem was to be utterly destroyed within 
 a few years from that time, and the Romans, as the High 
 Priest feared, were to come and take away their (sflvoc) nation, 
 and their existence as a community or body politic was to 
 cease. But their (>m«) race was to remain distinct and dis- 
 tinguishable during a long tract of time, as the event has 
 proved, and that too under circumstances which demonstrate 
 the unceasing watchfulness of God over them as a race of 
 men. 
 
 But even if the meaning of the word were doubtful — the 
 text in which it stands, alone being considered — events have 
 made the meaning clear. The Lord Jesus Christ foresaw the 
 event, and when speaking of what he foresaw, he must be 
 supposed to have used the word in a sense commensurate with 
 his sense of the subject of which he spoke. When he said, 
 Jerusalem shall be trodden down of nations, till their times 
 
252 APPENDIX. 
 
 (i. e. the appointed times of their continuance or existence as 
 communities, Acts 17: 26; Dan. 2nd Chapt.) should elapse, he 
 foresaw all that has since occurred, and spoke of all that has 
 occurred or shall occur until the time of the end, and the event 
 has given a fulness of meaning to the expression which the 
 Christians of the early ages of the church did not perceive. 
 If the infidel should reply, it is begging the question to say 
 that the Lord Jesus Christ foresaw all that has occurred, and 
 therefore meant it, let him explain how it has happened that 
 in accordance with the declaration so understood, the Jewish 
 race without any great physical peculiarities, has been pre- 
 served distinct, during so long a period — why their desolated 
 city retains its name, in spile of imperial authority to change 
 it — why the hearts of the Jews, uninfluenced by the love of 
 home, and the scenes of their early recollection, and all those 
 strictly natural feelings, which bind far the greater portion of 
 mankind to the neighbourhood of their nativity (and which in 
 the case of those Jews who were dispersed by the swords of 
 the Romans, were extinguished only with their lives,) should 
 long for and expect under the most forbidding appearances, 
 their own actual return to their Zion — to their Jerusalem. 
 Patriotism it cannot be; nor can it be accounted for upon any 
 natural principles; but he who uttered the prophecy, and who 
 will order all things so that they shall conspire to its fulfilment 
 at the appointed hour, has watched over and preserved the 
 race, and with it a feeling a-kin to that instinct or passion, 
 which we call patriotism, in those who have a country and 
 have been separated from it, but which in no other case has 
 been transmitted, or can, by any natural causes, be transmitted 
 in a dispersed people, from father to son during a succession 
 of more than fifty generations. This preservation appeared to 
 Celsus — an infidel writer who flourished probably in the reign 
 of Hadrian — so improbable that he ventured to predict the 
 extinction of the Jews as a race, not long after his own time. 
 This writer had witnessed their second rebellion and its con- 
 sequences to them as a nation. — But the event has falsified the 
 presage of this infidel, and justified the words of our Lord, 
 and of the Old Testament prophets. (See Is. 43: 1-G.) 
 Although the Jewish people have been the object of contempt 
 and hatred to other nations during so long a time, they still 
 subsist. In fact they have survived all sorts of oppressions 
 and calamities, which must have annihilated them, or swal- 
 lowed them up as a deluge, or consumed them as a conflagra- 
 tion, and effaced every thing appertaining to them from the 
 earth, had not an invisible and an omnipotent hand sustained 
 
APPENDIX. 163 
 
 and preserved them contrary to the ordinary course of human 
 things. 
 
 Let the people of Israel be dispersed and beaten by the 
 most violent tempests, they shall not perish. — Let them be 
 borne on the whirlwind of the wrath of God. like the vile dust 
 of the earth, to the extremities of the worid, they shall always 
 subsist before God as a peculiar people, and shall not be 
 mingled with the nations. Jeremiah explains and confirms 
 this truth by a comparison taken from the invariable laws of 
 Nature. "Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for 
 a light by day — the ordinances of the moon and of the stars 
 for a light by night, which divideth the sea, when the vvaves 
 thereof roar, — The Lord of Hosts is his name — if those ordi- 
 nances depart from before me, saith the Lord, the seed of 
 Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever," 
 &c. See Jeremiah 31: 35 to the end. 
 
 Other nations may become confounded together and be 
 dissolved one in another — they may lose their name, their 
 political state, and all traces of their origin, as in fact has hap- 
 pened to all the ancient nations, — the Egyptians, Babylonians, 
 Medes, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Gauls, Anglo-Saxons and 
 others. Perhaps few, very few of the families which for- 
 merly composed those nations, have continued to propagate 
 themselves unmixed to our times, — certainly there is not one 
 family, nor even an individual among us, who can ascend, by 
 a well authenticated pedigree, back to the times of those 
 national bodies, politic, of which his ancestors were members 
 — that is to say, through a descent of eighteen or twenty 
 centuries. 
 
 The Jews on the contrary, though they have been so long 
 dispersed among the nations, subsist without commingling 
 with them. They can ascend by an incontestable pedigree to 
 the parent stock. The registers of their tribes may have 
 perished, but the Israelites, scattered through all places of the 
 earth, know well that they have all descended from Abraham, 
 Isaac and Jacob, and none can with reason dispute their claim, 
 "Fear thou not, Jacob my servant, saith the Lord, for I am 
 with thee; for I will make a full end of all the nations whither 
 I have driven thee; but I will not make a full end of thee, but 
 correct thee in measure; yet will I not leave thee wholly 
 unpunished." Jer. 46:28. 
 
 But to return to the passage in question: The expression, 
 "This generation shall not pass away," &c. is a prophecy. 
 As if our Lord had said — The enemies of the Jews shall 
 encompass this city and destroy it, and tread it down, during 
 the whole period of their existence as nations, although the 
 
164 APPENDIX. 
 
 Jews themselves shall fall by the edge of the sword and be 
 carried away captives, not into one nation only, as formerly 
 they were to Babylon, but into all nations, — although evils 
 and calamities shall come upon them which would exterminate 
 any other nation, and which, according to the common course 
 of human things, would exterminate tlie race of the Jews, yet 
 shall they be preserved through them all, — this race shall not 
 pass away — until the Son of Man shall come again in a cloud 
 with power and great glory. 
 
 One observation more: If these views are correct, the papal 
 idea of embracing all nations and kindreds (and the Jews 
 among the rest) in their communion, is founded on a mistaken 
 view of God's purposes in relation to the Jews. — God's mercy 
 has been shown to the Jews and Gentiles by turns, Rom. 11: 
 30, 31. — It was continued to the Jews from Abraham, till 
 they rejected and crucified the Lord of glory, and wrath then 
 came upon them, which will continue (e;? Ttx^ 1 Thess. 2: 16,) 
 until the end of this dispensation. Paul's hope in preaching 
 the gospel to his kindred, was, that he might jg-am some of them, 
 Rom. 11: 14. He did not expect their universal conversion 
 and amalgamation with the Gentiles in the Christian Church, 
 Rom. 11: 25. The papal church cannot expect to survive the 
 times of the Gentiles, and yet the blindness of the Jews as a 
 nation, will continue during the times of the Gentiles, and as 
 long as Jerusalem siiall be tiodden down by them. The per- 
 secutions, therefore, which that people have suffered from 
 the Roman church on account of their religion, were the off- 
 spring of false theology, as well as of pride and cruelty, and 
 that church has been a co-worker with pagan Rome, with the 
 Saracens and the Turks, in executing those judgments which 
 the Lord predicted should come upon them and continue until 
 he should come a second time for their deliverance. 
 
 The Church of Rome has always regarded the Jews as 
 heretics, and canons of different councils forbade Christians to 
 eat with them, or have any dealings with them on pain of 
 excommunication.* The Inquisition expelled 800,000 Jews 
 from Spain during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, and 
 those persecuted people despairing of finding an asylum in 
 Catholic Europe, took refuge in the Ottoman Empire. 
 Emanuel, King of Portugal, required that Jewish children 
 under 14 years of age, should be separated from their parents 
 and forced to adopt the Roman Catholic Religion. Our Lord, 
 when he uttered the prophesy in question, foresaw all these 
 
 * The civil law, which ia very many places bears the marks of Papal influ- 
 ence, does not allow Jews to be produced as witnesses against the orthodox. 
 Judai et heretici contra orthodoxos produci injudicio testes ncqueunt. 
 
APPENDIX. 165 
 
 things, yet he declared that the race should be preserved until 
 this vast fabric of political and ecclesiastical tyranny should be 
 destroyed by the brightness of his coming. 
 
 Note to page 39. 
 
 When the prophets speak of the earth, and sometimes when 
 they speak of the world, we must understand them to intend 
 merely the territories of the four monarchies, — or the empire 
 symbolized by the statue described in the 2nd chap, of the 
 prophet Daniel. This has been called tiie prophetic earth, or 
 world, which is nothing more than such parts of the world as 
 were known by the ancients. It is important to observe that 
 the empires of the monarchies represented in the statue, are in 
 an important sense but one empire, which was commenced by 
 the king of Babylon, who was represented by the head of the 
 statue, — continued by the Persian and JNIedes, represented by 
 the arms and the breast of the same statue, and by the Grecian 
 kings, who were represented by the belly and the tbighs, and 
 completed by the Latin kings, who were represented by the 
 legs and the feet of the image. These different kings and 
 kingdoms being represented by the component parts of a 
 human body of gigantic size, may be considered together as 
 one form, or as forming one whole kingdom; because these 
 several parts are correlative, and the existence of one part 
 implies the coexistence and connexion of the other parts. 
 Were we to see the head for example to rise into view, we 
 should expect the other parts to be in their proper place, 
 though concealed at the moment from our observation. 
 
 From this mode of considering these four kingdoms {viz. 
 the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Grecian and the Ro- 
 man) — as component parts of one larger kingdom, it results 
 that both in the Old and in the New Testaments, Rome (which 
 is represented by the legs and feet of the image) is called 
 Babylon, (which is the head of it:) Because, in the mind of the 
 Holy Spirit, which embraces, under one glance, the whole 
 series of the times of the kingdoms represented in the image, 
 the empire of Babylon was but the beginning of the Roman 
 empire, as the head was but the upper part of the image, while 
 the Roman empire in its turn was nothing else but Babylon in 
 its development, as the legs and feet were but the completion 
 of the image. See Rev. chaps. 17 and 18. 
 
 This very simple view of the subject supplies a reason for 
 giving to Rome the name of Babylon* mysticall3\ 
 
 * Babylon is mentioned twelve times in the N. T. viz; four times by Matth. 
 VOL. III. — 39 
 
IQQ APPENDIX. 
 
 Some persons have thought that the special territory of each 
 of the four monarchies, is that which it possessed at the 
 moment when Jerusalem or the people of God became subject 
 to them respectively, — in other words, that these kingdoms 
 successively entered into and became a part of the image, at 
 the time when the Jewish people became subject to them 
 respectively. So that in order to determine the geographical 
 extent of each kingdom as viewed in prophec}-, we must 
 ascertain its territorial limits at and before the submission or 
 subjugation of the Jews to it. 
 
 In order to determine the extent of the kingdom of Baby- 
 Ion, according to this principle, vve must exclude from its 
 ultimate extent, Armenia, Asia Minor, Persia, Tyre, Egypt, 
 Africa and Spain, (a part of which Nebuchadnezzar is said to 
 have conquered) because all these conquests were preceded by 
 the taking of Jerusalem. 
 
 So in determining the extent of the Medo-Persian kingdom, 
 we must exclude from its greatest extent, Egypt and Asia 
 Minor. 
 
 On this principle, the Grecian kingdom will be composed of 
 all Greece, all Asia Minor, all Syria, and the whole of Egypt; 
 
 1: 11, 12, 17 — once by Stephen the proto-martyr, Acts 7: 43, in which places 
 we are to understand the word literally — once by Peter in his salutations, 
 1 Epist.5: 13, where perhaps we should understand the word literally, although 
 the Romanists say that Rome here is meant — and six times by John in Rev. 
 14: 8—16: 19—17: 5—18: 2, 10, 21. Isaiah (in chaps. 13th and 14th) contains a 
 prophecy of the destruction of Babylon, which was uttered about 130 years 
 before the Jews were carried into captivity, and about 200 years before the 
 destruction of Babylon by Cyrus. Isaiah does not foretell the captivity of the 
 Jews, but their deliverance only. Was not this omission designed to give the 
 prophecy a double aspectl Is it not in one of its aspects a prophecy of things 
 yet to come on the mystical Babylonl — Observe the abruptness with which 
 John introduces the name of Babylon into the Revelation. The first t/iing 
 he says of it is, "Babylon is fallen — is fallen," Etti^iv tTnn Bot^ukm » vrcxtc » 
 ,Ms>ax». — John informs us, that he saw six angels appearing in succession. 
 The first had the everlasting gospel to preach to all the dwellers of the earth — 
 His message was, "fear God and give glory to Him; for the hour (season, 
 period ig*) of his judgment is come." The second angel followed, saying 
 "Babylon, the city, the great one, is fallen, is fallen." He had told us nothing 
 of Babylon before, nor what evil it had done, but assuming its existence, he 
 announces its fall, and then assigns the reason, "because she had made all 
 nations (nol the Jews) drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication," 
 Rev. 14: 8. The next time he mentions it, is immediately after the seventh 
 vial was poured in the air. This was followed by great commotions, "the great 
 city was divided into three parts — the cities of the nations fell, and great 
 Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give her the cup of the wine of 
 the fierceness of his wrath." How intense this expressit)n! The next time he 
 mentions Babylon, he gives us her character. It is mystery Babylon the great, 
 the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. In chap. 18 he mentions 
 Babylon as fallen, (ver. 2) as the great city — that mighty city suddenly brought 
 to judgment, {vew 10) and thrown down as a great millstone is cast into the 
 sea, (ver. 21.) This symbolical act, marks her utter and hopeless ruin. 
 
APPENDIX. 167 
 
 as Alexander had conquered all these countries, before he 
 became master of Jerusalem. 
 
 Coming now to the fourth, or the Roman kingdom, this 
 principle requires us to exclude from it England, Holland and 
 lower Germany, because neither of these countries was subdued 
 by the Romans, until after they had conquered the Jews. In 
 the year B. C. 65, Pompey destroyed the kingdom of Syria. 
 In 63 B. C. the same Roman general took Jerusalem by 
 assault: In the year B. C. 30, Augustus Caesar destroyed the 
 Greek kingdom of the Ptolemies in Egypt, and fully esta- 
 blished his authority in Jerusalem. At the accession of 
 Augustus Caesar, the limits of the Roman Empire were said to 
 be, the river Danube on the North — the Rhine on the East — 
 the Atlantic ocean on the West, and Mount Atlas in Africa on 
 the South. Those who adopt this principle, look for the ten 
 kingdoms within the geographical limits thus determined, and 
 of course they exclude Britain, Holland, Prussia and Russia. 
 
 In confirmation of this principle, it is said that the geogra- 
 phy or particular territory of each of the four monarchies, 
 may be determined by the language peculiar to each. Thus 
 the Chaldean language continued to be spoken between the 
 Euphrates and Tigris, and towards the mouth of the Euphrates 
 — the Persian to the East of the Tigris — the Greek throughout 
 Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, Thrace, Macedonia as far as the 
 Danube, and the Mountains of Illyricum: and finally the 
 Latin language prevailed in Africa as far as to Mount Atlas, in 
 Europe on the west bank of the Rhine, and the whole right bank 
 of the Danube to the Mediterranean sea, and to the ocean. The 
 French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese languages, are little 
 more than so many diflferent corruptions of the Latin, and the 
 religious worship of all these countries is performed in Latin 
 by the Roman Catholics. They pray, and sing, and say mass 
 in Latin, and the Pope employs the Latin language in his 
 letters and public decrees. 
 
 Note to pages 45 to 47. 
 
 Peter (in 3 Epist. 3: 6) speaks of the earth as it existed 
 before the flood, as the world which then was, (a TOTmoa-y.^^.) In 
 ver. 7 he speaks of the earth as it has existed since the flood, 
 as the heavens and the earth which are now, (o/Jsvt/v oi/gavo* xa/ w^n.) 
 In ver. 13th he declares his expectation of new heavens and a 
 new earth, {k-j.ivoij; ovgAvcv; nAiym namv.) Thus in three verses (6, 
 7, 13,) this apostle speaks of three worlds, the first two of 
 which were only different organizations or modifications of 
 this same planet. 
 
Jgg APPENDIX. 
 
 The Apostle Paul in Heb. 2: 5, speaks of the world to come, 
 which is not to be put in subjection unto angels as the present 
 world is, Heb. 1: 14. The word (oix-ovjuivnv) which is here 
 translated world, is never used in the N. T. or elsewhere to 
 signify heaven. (See Luke 4: 5 — 2: 1 — 21: 26. Matth. 24: 
 14. Acts 11:28 — 17:6,31 — 19:27—24:5. Rom. 10:18. 
 Heb. 1: 6—2: 5. Rev. 3: 10 — 12: 9—16: 14, which are all the 
 places in which it occurs.) The word in fact is a participle of 
 the feminine gender, and the word ynv is to be supplied, (quasi 
 Tuvynv oix-otifAmv.) Examples of the use of this word are the 
 following: The devil shewed him all the kingdoms of the 
 world. Csesar decreed that all the world shotdd be taxed, &c. 
 See the places referred to. Paul then refers to an habitable 
 earth* to come, or some future condition of this planet which 
 shall differ in the same sense, though it may be in a far greater 
 degree, from the world that now is — or the habitable earth in 
 its present condition, as the world that now is, differs from the 
 world that was before the flood. 
 
 We have then, three zcorlds {x.ocyfxoi if a plural is allowable in 
 such a connexion) spoken of in scripture as existing on this 
 planet: viz. The world before the flood — the world which 
 now is — the habitable earth to come, according to Paul's 
 expression, or the new heavens and the new earth, according to 
 Peter's. It may be observed too, that the word [icoafAOi trans- 
 lated) world is derived from noc-fxice, to adorn, organize or reduce 
 to order, garnish. (See Matth. 25: 7—12: 44. 1 Tim. 2: 9. 
 1 Pet. 3: 3, y-ocri^^io? bene compositus, honestus, gravis.) This 
 word (jcoiT^sc) icorld, therefore, is adapted to express the idea of 
 a certain physical or organized condition of the planet, which 
 in some sort is accidental, rather than essential; and which 
 may pass away or be changed, while the planet as a body 
 remains. — This may explain the expression of Paul in 1 Cor. 
 7: 31, ^^^^yuro o-;in/ui:t Tau noa-juou the fashiou of the world — that is 
 its entire condition as an organized body considered as existing 
 in a certain form or physical condition — passeth away. The 
 expression to o-x^hm'^ th^ o-x.nv>i; Tra^ayu means that the scene changes 
 and presents a new appearance; and Grotius says the expres- 
 sion of the apostle is borrowed from the theatre. This 
 expression is an example of the present tense used for the 
 future. The apostle means that the scheme or physical condi- 
 tion of the world is destined to an entire change. Yet accord- 
 
 * Owen obsei'TCS upon this expression, that it denotes "a certain state and 
 condition of things in this world; lor the apostle does not treat directly con- 
 cerning heaven," and to call heaven, the world to come because we ai^e to go 
 info it, is (said Beza) "rather harsh." 
 
APPENDIX. 169 
 
 ing to this same apostle, it is to be followed by a new 
 habitable earth, another world, Heb. 2: 5. 
 
 Again, the scriptures teach that each of these three great 
 periods (or worlds) is to be consummated by a great judgment, 
 involving the ruin of the wicked. The first, or antediluvian 
 world was consummated, as we know, by a universal deluge, 
 which destroyed the race, except eight persons. The world 
 to come, or the future habitable earth, will be consummated by 
 the general resurrection, and the last judgment before the 
 great white throne, and the final separation of the righteous 
 and the wicked, (Rev. 20: 11-15.) And the world which 
 now is, also will be terminated by a fearful judgment, though 
 not such as will destroy the entire race. See Haggai2: 21,22. 
 Other prophecies which relate to this intermediary judgment 
 are, Jer. chap. 30. Joel chap. 2. Zeph. chap. 1. 2 Pet. 3 
 chap. 2Thess. 1: 1-7. Is. 30: 27, 30— 66: 12, 16— 13: 5-13 
 — 24: 1-6, 16,22 — 34: 1-8. The calamities described in such 
 scriptures as these, (the slain of the Lord shall be many — there 
 shall hQ feio me7i left, &c. &c.) do not comport with the idea of 
 the final judgment, when all the dead shall be raised to life, and 
 after being judged, shall be sent away to everlasting punish- 
 ment. Hence it is, that we expect these scriptures will be 
 fulfilled, at the close of this dispensation, and will precede, in 
 the order of occurrence, the world to come, whereof Paul 
 speaks in Heb. 2: 5. 
 
 These observations prepare the way for considering the 
 answer of our Lord to Pilate, recorded in John IS: 36. My 
 kingdom is not of this world, {i)(,Tov Mo-y.m toutov.) Our Lord 
 appeared in the flesh during the second of the worlds whei'eof 
 we have spoken — in the world that now is, whose scheme or 
 fashion is destined to pass away. When, therefore, he said to 
 Pilate "my kingdom is not of this world," he affirmed that he 
 should establish no outward visible kingdom on the earth in 
 its present condition. But can it be inferred from what he 
 said, that he will not establish an outward and visible kingdom 
 with power, on the earth hereafter, when, by his almighty 
 energies, he shall have transformed it into another and very 
 different physical condition — in fact into another world! Sin 
 and Satan have marred this portion of the creation of God; 
 and God has not only withdrawn his glory from it, but has let 
 his curse fall and rest upon it and its inhabitants. "Never- 
 theless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens 
 and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness," 2 Pet. 3: 
 13. Then Satan shall be bound — the curse shall be removed 
 — briars and thorns, — a part of the curse, shall no more grow 
 — the favour of God shall return — the earth. shall no more 
 
170 APPENDIX. 
 
 withhold her increase (Ezek. 24: 27. Hosea 2: 21, 22), but 
 its productions, like the widow's pittance of meal and oil, shall 
 multiply without stint, and yield a supply adequate to the 
 wants of all its dwellers. 
 
 Now, if we may suppose that Paul in Heb. 2: 5 had respect 
 to a future condition of this earth, which shall be free from the 
 curse, — if Peter also, had respect to the same condition, when 
 he spoke of the ?iew earth, wherein dwellelh righteousness, 
 would it not be in the proper sense of the word another world, 
 a 71670 world, though existing upon the same material sphere, 
 preserving the same relative position in the vast fabric of the 
 creation? And did not our Lord mean to declare merely, 
 that his earthly, outward, visible kingdom would not co-exist 
 with this accursed condition of the earth? — that his kingdom 
 would commence in the utter expulsion of Satan and the curse 
 from the world, and the restitution of all things to perhaps a 
 greater beauty and glory than that which existed before the 
 fall of man and the curse — in a TraTnyymcia. or generation of things 
 anew? If such was the meaning of our Lord's reply to Pilate, 
 Caesar had nothing to fear from the earthly kingdom of Christ, 
 so long as Satan should be permitted to retain his usurpation 
 over the world. But in the millenary state, when all things 
 shall be made anew, who can say that all dominions will not 
 serve and obey the outward, visible dominion of the Lord 
 Christ? The work of recreating, regenerating, restoring all 
 things to their primeval beauty and glory will not be done, for 
 the sake of the great enemy of God and man, but for the sake 
 of him whose right they are. 
 
 The Roman Catholic Church, therefore, has anticipated the 
 period of an oecumenical see, and of a central worship by the 
 whole of this present dispensation. That church has also — 
 while denying to the Church of Christ, or its head, any 
 temporal or earthly power — in fact exercised for centuries a 
 controlling influence in the affairs of this world. If the forego- 
 ing remarks are well founded, this too is an anticipation of an 
 attribute, which really belongs to the Church of Christ, but 
 which our Lord declared should not be put in exercise during 
 the present condition of things. But when the angel, who has 
 the key of the abyss shall descend, and lay hold of the dragon, 
 that old serpent, the Devil and Satan, and bind him and cast 
 him into the abyss, and set a seal upon him, that he shall 
 deceive the nations no more," (Rom. 20: 1-3) then the king- 
 dom and dominion and greatness of the kingdom under the 
 whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the Saints of the 
 Most High, Dan. 7: 27. And they will exercise the power of 
 the kingdom over earthly things openly and confessedly, and 
 by direct and positive claim under their adorable Head. 
 
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