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THE 
 
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 KINGDOM OF GRACE; 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE MILLENARIAN THEORY 
 
 RIGIDLY EXAMINED 
 
 AND 
 
 DEMONSTRATED TO BE FALSE 
 
 BY AN ANTI-MILLENARIAN, 
 
 PUBLISHED AT CINCINNATI. 
 
 PRINTED BY E, GOODMAN, CORNER OF MAIN AND FIFTH STREETS, 
 
 1843. 
 

 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the Clerk's Office of the 
 District Court of Ohio, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hun- 
 dred and forty-three. 
 
 
 O 
 
 The Library 
 
 of Congress 
 
 washington 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The opinion seeming to make considerable head- 
 way of late, that the Messiah is to come, in person, 
 at some period not very remote, to establish his 
 kingdom, and reign on the earth in power and great 
 glory, for the space of a thousand years, the author 
 of the present work has taken it in hand, to exhibit, 
 in a plain manner, what he considers unanswerable 
 objections to said opinion. All vain and unprofita- 
 ble speculations he has carefully avoided, in the pro- 
 secution of the task which he proposed to himself. 
 This method of argument he is willing to leave to 
 Mr. Miller and all those of visionary heads, who, 
 like him, are skill ad in the computation of days and 
 weeks, and other similar calculations. 
 
 He has been content to take qp facts and general 
 principles, such as all can understand, and know to 
 be in accordance with the teachings of the Bible, 
 and with the dictates of right reason ; and these 
 facts and reasons he has endeavored to bring home 
 to the common sense of all, even the most unlearn- 
 
 
PREFACE* 
 
 ed readers, demonstrating that the Millenarian The- 
 ory is utterly without any foundation. Let him that 
 readeth understand. 
 
 There is ever a fondness for novelty, and a predis- 
 position in the human family to take up with any 
 thing that can strike the senses. This is perhaps 
 the most prolific source of errors in matters of reli- 
 gion. It is the cause^ why, to this day, the Jews 
 are a despised and dispersed people. They wanted 
 a temporal Saviour and prince, and a religion more 
 resembling their former system of splendid forms and 
 ceremonies. The same is doubtless the cause of the 
 thousand superstitions and abominations of Rome. 
 They wanted a system which could make its appeal 
 to the senses of men. Therefore it will not be a 
 matter of surprise to us, if, for the same reason, there 
 should be found many advocates^ for this doctrine of 
 a personal reign, unscriptural and absurd as it is. 
 The spiritual kingdom of Christ, or the glorious 
 kingdom of grace, is not sufficiently adapted to the 
 external senses of men, and they would have the 
 kingdom of glory, i, e., heaven itself in this world, 
 even before the Saviour has delivered up the media- 
 torial kingdom to God, even the Father. But time, 
 which proves all things, will witness, as we venture 
 to predict, the final extinction of that error, which 
 is now so rife and popular. 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
THE KINGDOM OF GRACE; 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 That Christ's Kingdom is a Kingdom of Grace— the peculiar glory an4 
 excellency thereof. 
 
 May we not suppose it to be in perfect harmony 
 with the principles of religion to say, that this earth 
 was created on purpose to afford a proper theatre, 
 on which to exhibit the scenes of redemption. For, 
 certainly, no more important event has ever been 
 wrought by Deity himself, or exhibited to the eyes 
 of an intelligent universe, than that which was 
 enacted on Calvary. If the purpose to save man by 
 the blood of atonement was not an after-thought 
 with God, it must have been prior, in the order of 
 things, to the purpose to bring this world into exis- 
 tence ; unless we suppose that, in the mind of Deity, 
 things of the first magnitude yield to those which 
 
 are of but secondary importance. 
 1* 
 
6 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 We believe that in the deep counsels of eternity, 
 there was a covenant of the Father made with the 
 Son, in which he promised him a seed to serve him, 
 saying that he should "see of the travail of his soul, 
 and be satisfied." We have the fullest testimony 
 in favor of this belief, in such passages of Scripture 
 as the following : " All that the Father hath given 
 me" said the Saviour, "shall come unto me;" and 
 again, in his prayer to the Father, " Thine they 
 were, and thou gavest them me" etc. ; plainly intima- 
 ting that there was a transaction with the Son, in 
 which those whom he hath redeemed with his blood, 
 were given to him before the foundation of the world. 
 
 The eternal Father might have given unto his 
 Son a temporal kingdom, glorious and magnificent, 
 and thousands of millions of subjects, of a more ex- 
 cellent nature even than Adam before the fall — a 
 kingdom in which sin had never found any place ; 
 but it would not have been like the kingdom which 
 he hath bought with his blood. For no song of re- 
 deeming love would ever have been celebratad by 
 the subjects of it. As high as the heavens are above 
 the earth, so much higher and more excellent is the 
 kingdom of our blessed Immanuel, than any king- 
 dom on which the riches of heaven could have been 
 expended, but in which grace had never reigned. 
 It is written, that there is "joy in heaven over one 
 sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and 
 nine just persons which need no repentance ;" from 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED, / 
 
 which we clearly understand, that Christ is glorified 
 more in the salvation of one redeemed sinner, than in 
 the mere creation or existence of ninety and nine 
 just persons, who never knew any thing about sin. 
 In the creation of the heavens and the earth, the 
 glory of God is seen ; that is, his wisdom and his 
 power are manifested in them ; and so they would 
 be in a far higher degree, in the multiplication of 
 holy and intelligent existences, who could drink in 
 the exuberant displays of his goodness. But his 
 mercy could never thus be made known, his justice 
 nor his boundless love. These brightest attributes 
 of his character must have remained forever un- 
 known to the whole universe of created beings. 
 Christ might have reigned eternally over an empire 
 of angelic beings without any knowledge of sin ; 
 and they would have praised him for their existence, 
 but never for redemption through his blood. 
 
 Who will sing the most glorious song in Heaven? 
 Not the angels, who never sinned, nor were redeem- 
 ed ; but ransomed sinners of Adam's race, when they 
 shall be permitted to sing this song, "Unto him that 
 loved us, and washed us from our sins, in his own 
 blood, and hath made us kings and princes unto 
 God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion 
 forever and ever." Yea, we cannot but think that 
 the blood-washed, and white-robed company of the 
 ransomed, will be a more privileged order of the 
 blest above, than even the sinless angels. They will 
 
8 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 owe inconceivably more than angels to the love of 
 the Saviour; and if they but feel their obligations 
 in a corresponding degree, they will be better able 
 to sound the depths of praise. And this is the reason 
 that there is joy in Heaven over one sinner that re- 
 penteth, more than over ninety and nine just per- 
 sons that need no repentance. One redeemed sin- 
 ner will tell more to the glory of God's grace, than 
 a created universe besides. For in the redemption 
 of one sinner, he would make such an exhibition of 
 his moral perfections, as no created intelligence 
 could have conceived possible to be made. Every 
 such trophy of grace, therefore, will be the occasion 
 of awakening emotions of unutterable joy in Hea- 
 ven, and will be an everlasting monument to the 
 praise of that Grace. 
 
 So then, the very highest praise of the kingdom 
 of Christ, is that it is a Kingdom of Grace. If there 
 be a single truth taught in the Bib ] e, which makes 
 the bosom of the Christian to swell with emotions 
 which cannot be described, it is that God chose to 
 make known his Love in Christ Jesus, to our ruined 
 world. As it is written, "For God so loved the world, 
 that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoso- 
 ever believeth in Him, might not perish, but have 
 eternal life." If this truth were generally well un- 
 derstood, it would help to remove the obscurity of 
 these w r ords of the Apostle Paul, "Moreover, the 
 law entered [or was given] that sin might abound. 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 9 
 
 But where sin abounded, Grace did much more 
 abound, that, as sin hath reigned unto death, even 
 so might grace reign, through righteousness, unto 
 eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord." 
 
 Who then could imagine that there are those, pro- 
 fessing to be subjects of the kingdom of grace too, 
 who desire that it shall come to an end, and who 
 even pray for it. I allude now to the frequent peti- 
 tions which we meet with in their newspaper com- 
 munications on the Second Advent, in which they 
 repeat these words of John in Revelations, "Come 
 Lord Jesus, even so, come quickly;" that is, as we 
 understand them, (millenarians,) "Come, put an end 
 to the present age or dispensation; let the Gospel 
 cease to be preached to sinners; multiply no more 
 the trophies of thy \ictorious grace; let there be no 
 more joy in Heaven over sinners that repent; finish 
 the number of thine elect.'' Perhaps they design 
 not that this construction shall be put upon their 
 words, yet every syllable of it is clearly implied. 
 They teach that when Christ shall come in the be- 
 ginning of the Millenium, the present age or dispen- 
 sation shall close; that the saints will be raised from 
 the dead, and the wicked will be destroyed, and 
 hence that there will be no sinners, to whom the 
 Gospel may be preached during the Millenium; that 
 as there will be none but Christ and his glorified 
 saints on the earth during that period, there will be 
 no more death, nor propagation of the race by mar- 
 
10 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 riage, and hence that a!l the elect of Christ will 
 have been gathered in at the commencement of the 
 Millenium. So then, every time they offer up this 
 petition, "Come Lord Jesus, come quickly," they do 
 intentionally pray, that the gospel dispensation may 
 quickly end, and that the number of the elect may be 
 limited and cut off, rather than increased. But surely 
 the inspired John never used the words in this sense. 
 With Paul, he could have said, U I am not ashamed of 
 the gospel of Christ; [that is, the gospel dispensa- 
 tion,] for it is the power of God unto salvation, to 
 every one that believeth." So far as he was person- 
 ally concerned, he doubtless desired that the Saviour 
 would come quickly; and he uses the word in the 
 sense in which Jesus himself uses it, when comfort- 
 ing his disciples on account of his expected depar- 
 ture from them. "In my Father's house are many 
 mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; 
 I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and pre- 
 pare a place for you, I will COME AGAIN and 
 receive you to myself, that where I am there ye may 
 be also." This was spoken for the consolation of 
 the Twelve, in their loss of the visible presence of 
 their Lord and Master. He did come again and re- 
 ceive them to himself, when they rested from their 
 labors, and were introduced again to the visible 
 pre sence of their Saviour in Heaven. 
 
 But it seems to me, that John explains his own 
 meaning to all such as have no favorite theory to 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 11 
 
 establish. "Behold I come quickly" or "very soon" 
 as I suppose the word certainly means. Eighteen 
 hundred years have passed away, since this was spo- 
 ken, and yet the Saviour has not come in person* And 
 if he may delay his coming for so long a period, and 
 yet this text remain (rue, then I see no reason why it 
 may not be equally true, though he should defer his 
 coming for another thousand years. "And my re- 
 ward is with me, to give to every man according as 
 his work shall be." This clause, on the principles 
 of Millenarians, can have no reference to the wick- 
 ed, but only to the righteous; inasmuch as the 
 wicked will not be raised from the dead, to be re- 
 warded and judged according to the deeds done in 
 the body, till after the thousand years of Millenial 
 blessedness are expired. But as I intend to have 
 something on this topic, in a subsequent chapter, I 
 shall for the present leave this digression. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Kingdom of Grace, a Spiritual Kingdom. 
 
 The Mediatorial Kingdom is spiritual in its na- 
 ture. It is not a kingdom of this world. It is not 
 temporal in any other sense, than as to the term of 
 its duration in this world. As our Saviour said to 
 the Pharisees, demanding of Him when the kingdom 
 of God should come, "The kingdom of God cometh 
 not with observation; neither shall they say, lo here, 
 or lo there ; for behold, the kingdom of God is WITH- 
 IN YOU." As much as if he had said, you shall 
 not see it; it will not come with external pomp, 
 or attended with outward and visible signs of splen- 
 dor and royalty. There will be no no visible and 
 temporal prince, occupying a literal and material 
 throne, and ruling with a temporal sceptre, over the 
 sovereignties of this world; but the kingdom of God 
 is within you, — in your hearts. Unless this expres- 
 sion, "kingdom of God" as here used, is wholly in- 
 explicable as to its import, we should think that this 
 declaration alone, so clear and explicit as it seems 
 to be, would be enough to silence all those who 
 contend for a personal reign of Christ in his king- 
 dom on earth. He has here, most unequivocally, 
 taught that his kingdom is of a spiritual nature. 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 13 
 
 Again, the same truth is expressed with equal 
 clearness hy the Saviour himself at the bar of Pilate, 
 when questioned as to his kingly character and 
 office, he says, "My kingdom is not of this world; if 
 my kingdom were of this world, then would my ser- 
 vants fight, that I should not be delivered to the 
 Jews; but now is my kingdom not from hence." No 
 candid reader can possibly mistake or misconceive 
 the import of these words. For if the Lord Jesus 
 had expressly designed to combat the error of those 
 how believe in a personal reign, it would not be easy 
 to imagine in what plainer or more direct terms he 
 could have done so, than he has here used. He an- 
 nounces distinctly that he has a kingdom; and at the 
 same time declares plainly that his kingdom is not of 
 this world. "Pilate said unto him again, art thou a 
 KING then? Jesus answered thou sayest that / am 
 a KING. To this end was I born; and for this cause 
 came I into the world, that I should bear witness to 
 the truth." 
 
 He disclaims not his right to the appellation of 
 KING, but owns that he is the King of the Jews. 
 This was one of the accusations brought against 
 him, on the ground of which he was condemned to 
 be crucified. For "Pilate wrote a TITLE, and put 
 it on the cross, and the writing was, Jesus of Naza- 
 reth, the KING OF THE JEWS. Then said the 
 
 thief priests of the Jews to Pilate, write not the 
 
 2 
 
14 THE KINGDOM OP GRACE 
 
 king of the Jews, but that he said) I am the King of 
 the Jews." 
 
 Here then are two facts most clearly revealed in 
 the sacred narrative; first, that Christ avowed him- 
 self to be a king; and secondly, that he made no 
 pretensions to any temporal throne or kingdom, but 
 on the contrary, denied that his kingdom was of this 
 nature. Was there any mental reservation in this 
 case? Was our Saviour aware at the time when he 
 used the above language, that he was the heir of the 
 literal and material throne of David, which in due 
 time he was destinad to occupy? Then, in giving 
 his disciples and the Jews to understand that his 
 kingdom was not of this world, nor a temporal king- 
 dom, he was guilty of an egregious and palpable de- 
 ception. The advocates of the personal and pre- 
 millenial advent, are forced into a disagreeable di- 
 lemma, who by implication bring such a charge 
 against the Lord of Life and Glory, in order to 
 maintain their theory. 
 
 I shall here give a specimen illustrative of the 
 manner in which they reason in defence of their pe- 
 culiar tenets, from a late work printed at Cincinnati, 
 in which the author speaks as follows; "I argue the 
 personal reign, in the first place, from the promise 
 made to the Virgin Mary, which is the same in sub- 
 stance with that which is often mentioned in the 
 Old Testament. The promise, is, that the Messiah, 
 the man Christ Jesus, God rnanifest in the flesh, in 
 
OR THE MXLLENARIA1S THEORY REFUTED. 15 
 
 the visible glories of his humanity, shall sit upon the 
 throne of David. For, as we have already stated, the 
 promise is made to Christ as man, as the incarnate 
 Immanuel, the offspring of the Virgin Mary, and 
 the lineal descendant of David, and consequently, the 
 rightful heir io David's throne. Now what is the 
 meaning of the expression "David's Throne?" Ifc 
 cannot mean a throne in some distant part of the 
 universe, called Heaven; for David never had a 
 throne there. For what says Peter, in his sermon 
 on the day of Pentecost, recorded in the 2nd chap, 
 of the Acts of the Apostles? He says that David 
 is not ascended unto the Heavens. (Acts. ii. 34.) 
 Of course, if he had not ascended into heaven, but 
 was still in the separate state of departed spirits, he 
 could not have had a throne in heaven. Nor can 
 the expression before us, mean a throne in the Gentile 
 church; for David never had a throne there. In- 
 deed, in David's time, the manifestation of Christ to 
 the Gentiles had not occurred . It was not till the 
 death of Christ that the middle wall of partition, 
 between Jew and Gentile, was broken down. 
 
 "Now suppose i(: had been said to the mother of 
 George IV. that the Lord should give to him the 
 throne of his father, George III., or to the mother 
 of Edward VI. that the Lord should give to him the 
 throne of his grand- father, Henry VII. , what would 
 have been meant by such language? It would obvi- 
 ously have meant the throne of England; and to sit 
 
16 THE KINGDOM OF GRA.CE 
 
 upon the throne of a kingdom, signifies according 
 to the established use of language, to reign person- 
 ally over that kingdom. In like manner, agreeably 
 to the fair import of the words when it was prom- 
 ised to the Virgin Mary, that her Son, the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, should sit upon the throne of his Fa- 
 ther David, the angel Gabriel meant, and the mother 
 of the man Christ Jesus, accustomed as she was to 
 Jewish phraseology, could have understood him to 
 mean nothing else, — the angel meant, I say, that the 
 Messiah should reign in person, where David reign= 
 ed, i. e. in the literal land of Palestine over the 
 twelve tribes of Israel."* 
 
 The above is presented as a fair specimen of the 
 manner in which Millenarians generally explain 
 those Scriptures which have any bearing on the sub- 
 ject of Christ's kingdom; and it is a proof what 
 havoc they are compelled to make of truth, in order 
 to maintain their theory. The whole scope and de- 
 sign of the preceding criticism on the expression, 
 "David's throne," contained in the promise made to 
 the Virgin Mary, is to show that, as David had not 
 a spiritual throne, nor a throne in heaven, nor a 
 throne in the Gentile church, but only a literal throne 
 in the literal land of Palestine over the literal twelve 
 tribes of Israel, therefore Christ as the lineal de- 
 scendant, and the rightful heir of David's throne, 
 cannot have a spiritual throne, a throne in heaven, 
 
 * Winthrop's Lectures, p, 195—106. 
 
OB THIS MIIXENARIAN SYSTEM REFUTE©. 17 
 
 nor a throne in the Gentile church, but must occupy 
 the literal throne of his father David, in the literal 
 land of Palestine, and literally over the twelve 
 tribes of Israel, (not over the Gentiles.) How dif- 
 ferent the views of this writer concerning the Sa- 
 viour's kingdom, from those which the Saviour him- 
 self has advanced as before alluded to. He persist- 
 ed to the very last, that he was the KING of the 
 Jews, and of course the rightful heir of David's 
 throne. But never once did he set up any claim to 
 the literal and material throne on which David sat. 
 
 Indeed, if the principle of interpretation should 
 be rigidly carried out which this writer seems to 
 have adopted, it would prove too much, even for his 
 own theory. David's literal and material throne 
 would needs be raised from its dust and ruins, or 
 neither Christ nor any other lineal descendant could 
 ever sit upon it. For whatever principle of inter- 
 pretation one may choose to adopt, the rules of logic 
 require that when he has adopted it, he adhere to 
 it strictly. And if God is able to raise up from the 
 dead the identical subjects over whom David reign- 
 ed and to give them to Christ as his subjects, and to 
 establish him in Palestine, because David reigned 
 there, he is just as able to raise up again, the very 
 identical throne on which David sat, and to place 
 his heir and successor the man Christ Jesus upon it. 
 But it is much to be questioned, whether this writer 
 does adhere so strictly to his own rule of interpre- 
 2* 
 
18 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE 
 
 tation. For, in this same chapter on "the personal 
 reign of Christ" from which I made the above ex- 
 tract, he has the following language: u The Jew's 
 mistake, like that of the fifth-monarchy men in the 
 time of Cromwell, was that they did not perceive 
 lhat it was the risen, changed and glorified saints, 
 and not the saints in the flesh, who were to be the 
 chief princes and rulers in the kingdom of our Lord; 
 and if any persons in the flesh should expect in these 
 days, to establish the kingdom of the saints by the 
 organization of a military force, they would be lia- 
 ble to the same censure with the fanatics in the time 
 of Cromwell. We must wait, my Mends, for the glo* 
 rious appearing of our Lord; and then he and the 
 armies which follow him out of heaven (Rev. xix. 14) 
 will establish the kingdom. It is a kingdom of hea- 
 venly origin, and not of earthly origin; and hence it 
 is to be established by heavenly power."* 
 
 Did the author forget, before he had time to write 
 ten pages, that Christ was to reign, according to his 
 own showing, over the kingdom of Israel, and on 
 the literal throne of David? But was David's king- 
 dom a kingdom of heavenly origin, and was it 
 therefore established by heavenly power? Were 
 risen, changed, and glorified saints, the chief princes 
 and rulers in the kingdom of David? Thus it is 
 that men will necessarily contradict themselves, and 
 
 * Winthrop's Lectures, p. 211. 
 
OK THE MILLENARIAX THEORY REFUTED. 19 
 
 get confused, when they undertake to defend em> 
 neous opinions. 
 
 The truth is, Christ could easily have made him- 
 self master of the throne of Israel, if he had desired 
 it. For the Jews, on one occasion, wished to take 
 him by force, and make him a king. But he did 
 not permit himself to be seated on the throne of his 
 father David, although he was born a king, and was 
 really "the King of the Jews" and had, therefore, a 
 right to the temporal and visible throne of David. 
 But it is said that the time w r as not yet come for 
 Messiah to take possession of, and reign on his 
 throne. Yet our Saviour did not give this as a rea- 
 son for declining to accept, at that time, the crown 
 and the sceptre of the kingdom of Israel. The 
 time was not yet come, and why? Because the 
 Saviour " had not passed through his humiliation, 
 and finished the atonement," which he came to 
 make, by giving himself a sacrifice for sin. But all 
 this was over, when he arose in triumph from the 
 grave, leading "captivitj* captive. 5 ' Why did he 
 not then assume the crown, and sit down on the 
 throne of David? Many long and dark centuries 
 of sin and woe have rolled away, since those pre- 
 cious words "it is finished" died away on his lips, 
 and still he has never come to occupy his long, too 
 long vacant throne. If that hour, when he gave up 
 the ghost on the cross, it was FINISHED; if when 
 he ascended as a conqueror from the g ave, the 
 
20 THE KINGTOSI OF GRACE, 
 
 foundations of his kingdom were thoroughly laid, 
 why has he never yet, through so many ages, come 
 to take possession of, and reign over his kingdom? 
 Is he not a KING? And if he be a King, has he 
 not a THRONE? O if indeed he was born the 
 heir only of the temporal throne of David, we 
 cannot but think that he came into the world, at 
 lea.^t, eighteen hundred years too soon. His first 
 coming in the flesh, should have been deferred for 
 a little season longer, if the fulness of time was not 
 yet come to put him in possession of his kingdom* 
 A king without a kingdom would be an anomaly. 
 He not only has a kingdom, but he is in his kingdom, 
 and reigns over it. 
 
 When this kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Je- 
 sus Christ was first established in the world, is a 
 question which I shall undertake to discuss in anoth- 
 er chapter, as it would not be in order to discuss it 
 here. But it is certain that so long ago as the day 
 of John the Baptist, it was near at hand. He ex- 
 horted the Jews saying, " Repent, for the kingdom 
 of heaven is al hand" But w r hat kingdom did John 
 mean ? Evidently he meant the Gospel dispensa- 
 tion. But here a Millenarian will interpose and say, 
 i: No ; John could not have meant the Gospel dis- 
 pensation ; for that is not the kingdom of heaven. 
 He meant the kingdom of the resurrection, and the 
 kingdom of glory which Christ was to set up more 
 than eighteen hundred years hence." But would 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 21 
 
 John have announced that it was near at hand, when 
 it was so far distant ? Or could the Jews have sup- 
 posed that he spoke to them in hyperbole, meaning 
 by the phrase, "is at hand" that more than eighteen 
 centuries were to pass away, before that kingdom 
 should come ? They could not have understood him 
 thus ; and John would not have allowed himself to 
 use language in addressing them, which he knew 
 they would misunderstand. Therefore it is quite 
 certain, that he meant the Gospel dispensation ; and 
 he calls that dispensation " THE KINGDOM OF 
 HEAVEN." This is high authority ; but we have 
 still higher, viz., that of the great Head of the 
 Church himself: "Suffer little children," said he, 
 " to come unto mc 5 and forbid them not ; for of such 
 is the kingdom of heaven" All Christendom, I be- 
 lieve, has ever understood this expression to mean 
 the Church on earth, or the Gospel dispensation. 
 And to deny it, would be to take away the strongest 
 support we have in the New Testament, for the sa- 
 cred rite of infant baptism. 
 
 I will now give another extract from a Millena- 
 rian author, to show how they pervert the meaning 
 of the plainest Scriptures, (ignorantly, as, in chanty, 
 we are bound to suppose,) in order to make them 
 suit their theory. It is taken from the same work, 
 before referred to, and is a paraphrase on Jeremiah 
 xxiii, 5, 8 : " Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, 
 that I will raise unto David, a righteous Branch* and 
 
22 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 a kingdom shall reign and prosper, and shall execute 
 judgment and justice in the earth. In his days 
 Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely ; 
 and this is his name whereby he shall be called, 
 THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. There- 
 fore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that 
 they shall no more say, The Lord liveth which 
 brought the children of Israel out of the land of 
 Egypt. But, the Lord liveth which brought up, and 
 which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the 
 north country, and from all countries, whither I had 
 driven them, and they shall dwell in their own land." 
 On this passage the author has the following re- 
 marks : " This, as we have already shown, is clearly 
 a literal return of the Jews to the land of their 
 fathers. Now where is the warrant for giving to 
 this part of the prophecy a literal interpretation, and 
 giving to the other part of it, an interpretation ex- 
 clusively spiritual or figurative? The Lord says that 
 he will raise unto David a 'right, ous Branch. 5 
 Does not this mean a literal descendant of King 
 David 1 This is admitted by all. The prophecy 
 then proceeds thus — "and a KING shall reign and 
 prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in 
 the earth. In his days, Judah shall be saved," etc. 
 Is not this exactly the language that would be used 
 to describe the personal reign of a lineal descendant 
 of King David, ruling over the restored Jewish na- 
 tion, and administering a righteous and prosperous 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 23 
 
 government ? There is not the shadow of a war- 
 ranty either in the connection and context, or in the 
 known nature of the subject, for giving to the pas- 
 sage, in its relation to the reign of Christ, an import 
 exclusively figurative arid spiritual. I am aware 
 that some of the language is metaphorical, as for in- 
 stance, ; a righteous Branch ;' but the established 
 usage of such words show that in a connection like 
 this, the expression means the literal descendant of 
 a particular family, just as the branch of a tree 
 springs from the parent stock. If it be said that 
 other passages of Scripture speak of a spiritual reign 
 of the Messiah in the hearts of men, we grant it. 
 The question, however, is, not whether Christ is to 
 reign spiritually, but whether, at the same time, he 
 is not to reign personally also* And we maintain 
 that the language of Jeremiah in the connection 
 and context, clearly points out the literal and personal 
 reign of a lineal descendant of King David — the 
 legal heir to his throne — the promised Messiah — 
 THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.'** Un- 
 less this author makes "personal " and " literal " to 
 be synonymous terms, we see no objection to giving 
 to this prophecy in Jeremiah? as literal an interpre- 
 tation as he even can desire, and yet it would not 
 follow that Christ is to reign, in his bodily person, on 
 the literal throne of David. Has not a RIGH- 
 TEOUS BRANCH been literally raised up unto 
 
 * Lectures, page 201. 
 
24 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 David ; that is, a lineal descendant, according to 
 the flesh ? And does he not literally reign, as a King, 
 in the Church ; and will he not reign literally over 
 the whole world, when all nations shall be compre- 
 hended within the pale of the Church ? And will 
 not Judah literally be saved ; and will not Israel 
 literally dwell in safety, when they shall submit to 
 his sceptre of righteousness ? There is no necessity 
 whatever for the conclusion, from giving to this pro- 
 phecy a literal interpretation, that there will be, 
 therefore, a visible and personal enthronement of 
 the Messiah, on the visible and material throne of 
 David. And no one could ever see any such neces- 
 sity except through a very distorted vision. 
 
 There is a prediction in Isaiah which is not very 
 dissimilar as to its import, to the one in Jeremiah, 
 on which we have just remarked : "For unto us a 
 Child is born ; unto us a Son is given ; and the gov- 
 ernment shall be upon his shoulder ; and his name 
 shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty 
 God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. 
 Of the increase of his government and peace, there 
 shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon 
 his kingdom, to order it and to establish it with judg- 
 ment and justice, from henceforth, even forever,*' 
 Isaiah ix, 6, 7. This prophecy has been fulfilled, or 
 is now in the course of fulfillment. His government 
 is rapidly increasing* "Of the increase of his gov- 
 ernment and;> eace, there shall be no end,'" etc. 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY RFFUTED. 25 
 
 This expression is, in my view, fatal to the theory of 
 Millenarians ; for, according to the principles of 
 that theory, the government of Christ is to have no 
 increase, after the second advent. The elect will 
 all have been gathered in against that great Day, 
 when the Son is to be revealed in glory from heaven. 
 We believe that Jesus Christ is the King in Zion, 
 and that he sits upon a throne of glory. As it is 
 written in REVELATIONS, " To him that over- 
 cometh, will I grant to sit down with me in MY 
 THRONE, even as I also overcame, and am set 
 down with my Father in his throne." Having over- 
 come, he'has been crowned ; and he is NOW en- 
 throned in the very heart of his Church ; yea, he sits 
 upon his throne. But he does not occupy the visible 
 and literal throne of David, and there is not any 
 probability that he ever will. If the Redeemer and 
 King of Zion should remove his visible throne from 
 heaven to earth, what advantage would be gained 
 to the Church or the world 1 If he should establish 
 his government and his residence at Jerusalem, "in 
 the literal land of Palestine," still he would be in- 
 visible, except to a very small portion of the inhab- 
 itants of this world. He could not be seen by those 
 who live in China, or those who live in this country, 
 unless they should have new organs of vision given 
 them, by which they should be able to penetrate 
 through this opaque globe, or to look around it at a 
 single glance, and to have a view of objects at a 
 
26 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 very remote distance. And therefore the conclu- 
 sion is, that he could not reign over them otherwise 
 than as he now reigns, viz., by his Holy Spirit, ruling 
 in their hearts, and conforming them to his Divine 
 will. So that I think his kingdom would still be a 
 spiritual kingdom^ even though he were personally 
 present on the earth. 
 
 Here I shall take the liberty to transfer to my 
 pages another quotation from the book to which I 
 am already so largely indebted. I give paragraphs 
 entire, to the end that I may not be charged with a 
 design to misrepresent and pervert the views of the 
 authors I quote from, by giving detached and bro- 
 ken sentences from their writings. From the grant 
 made to Adam, this author undertakes to maintain 
 the doctrine of the personal reign as follows: "This 
 leads me to recur to the original grant of dominion 
 given to Adam. You will find it in the first chap- 
 ter of Genesis, the 26th, 27th and 28th verses, where 
 we read as follows; 'And God said, let us make man 
 in our own image, after our likeness; and let them 
 have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the 
 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the 
 earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth 
 upon the earth. So God created man in his own 
 image; in the image of God created he him: male and 
 female created he them. And God blessed them, and 
 God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply and re- 
 plenish the earth, and subdue it; and have domi- 
 nion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 27 
 
 air, and over every living thing that moveth upon 
 the earth." This was the original grant of domi- 
 nion to Adam, the first man. He lost it in the fall. 
 It was then usurped by Satan, who is called the God 
 of this world, and the prince of the power of the 
 air. But the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, 
 as the Scriptures inform us, is to restore all that was 
 lost in the fall; and hence, in the 8th Psalm, 
 which had always been applied to the Messiah, 
 we read *'0 Lord, our Lord, how excellent is 
 thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory 
 above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and 
 sucklings, hast thou ordained strength, because of 
 thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy 
 and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens, 
 the work of thy fingers; the moon and the stars 
 which thou hast ordained, what is man, that thou 
 art mindful of him? and the SON OF MAN that 
 thou visiteth him? For thou hast made him a little 
 lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with 
 glory and honor. Thou madest him to have domi- 
 nion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all 
 things under his feet^ all sheep and oxen, yea, and 
 the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the 
 fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the 
 paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent 
 is thy name in all the earth!" Here the language 
 is almost identical with that of the original grant, 
 recorded in the first chapter of Genesis, and the 
 
28 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 meaning is precisely the same. This Psalm, there- 
 fore, represents Messiah the second Adam, as re- 
 ceiving and recovering the dominion over the crea- 
 tion, which the first Adam had lost, and which is at 
 present usurped by Satan the God of this world. 
 
 "Now if you have any doubt that this Psalm re- 
 fers to the Messiah, you will have your doubts en- 
 tirely removed, when you* examine the inspired com- 
 ment on it, given by SL Paul in the 2nd chapter of 
 his Epistle to the Hebrews. Beginning at the 5th 
 verse we read thus: "For unto the angels hath he 
 not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we 
 speak." The Greek word which is here translated 
 "world," is oikoumene, and means the habitable 
 earth; and the passage should have been rendered? 
 "not the world to come," but "the habitable earth to 
 come;" that is, the new earth, of which we spoke in 
 our last lecture, and which is described by St. Peter? 
 in the 3d chapter of his second Epistle. The word 
 oikoumene, is a Greek participle, and means inha- 
 bited or habitable; the word ge, being understood, 
 which means the earthy or the land; hence the mean- 
 ing of the expression in this passage, as we have 
 already stated, is, " habitable earth" But to proceed : 
 " For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection, 
 the habitable earth to come, whereof we speak? (i. c, 
 the new earth.) But one, in a certain place,, testi- 
 fied saying — here Paul quotes from the 8th Psalm — 
 " What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN SYSTEM REFUTED. 29 
 
 Son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest 
 him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst 
 him with glory and honor, and didst set him over 
 the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things 
 in subjection under his feet. For in that he hath 
 put all in subjection under him, he left nothing, that 
 is not put under him. But now we see not, yet, all 
 things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was 
 made a little lower than the angels for the suffering 
 of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he, 
 by the grace of God, should taste death for every 
 man," Heb. ii, 5-9. Such is the comment given by 
 St. Paul. He speaks of the Messiah, you observe, 
 in three conditions; first, that of sub-angelic humil- 
 iation — "we see Jesus, who was made a little lower 
 than the angels,-' Heb. ii, 8; secondly, that of hea- 
 venly exaltation— "crowned with glory and honor," 
 Heb. ii, 9. and sitting at the right hand of his Fath- 
 er; and thirdly, that of earthly dominion — "we see 
 not yet all things put under him," Heb. ii, 8; intima- 
 ting that though he is not yet possessed of his full 
 reward, still, on the future habitable earth (Heb. 
 ii. 5, 6, 8, andPs. viii.) Christ will be the mani. 
 fested head of creation, the second Adam, the Lord 
 from heaven, ruling over land and sea, and making 
 Jehovah's name glorious to the ends of the world."* 
 If I were a Socinian, I could subscribe with all 
 my heart to every sentiment embodied in the pre- 
 
 * Winthrop's Lectures pp. 197—109. 
 
 3* 
 
30 THE KINGDOM OF GliACE, 
 
 ceding extract. I am not now guessing that the mind 
 of the author may be tinctured with the Socinian he- 
 resy; nor would I assert that it is the source and 
 root of Millenarianism. But I can discover a strong 
 affinity between them, and a necessary tendency of 
 the one towards the other. Hence I venture to 
 foretel that the principal converts to Millenarianism 
 will be from the ranks of Unitarians. The promi- 
 ses and predictions are so plain and so numerous to 
 this effect, that they cannot deny that Jesus is to 
 possess a future and glorious dominion over the na- 
 tions of this earth. But if he is not divine, he can- 
 not possess and exercise a spiritual government. 
 God could, by his spirit, rule in the hearts of men, 
 and bring all nations into subjection to his will; but 
 this dominion would -not belong to the Saviour, on 
 the supposition that he is not God, but only a crea- 
 ture. Therefore, it will be necessary for him to re- 
 visit earth and reign in his bodily person, else the 
 prophecies concerning his future dominion can never 
 be fulfilled. 
 
 But I will examine with somewhat of critical 
 severity, the learned exegesis contained in the fore- 
 going extract. To Adam, the first man, it is said, 
 was granted the dominion over the creation; viz: 
 "over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the 
 air, and over the earth, and over every creeping 
 thing that creepeth upon the earth." And from 
 hence it is argued that the second Adam, the MAN 
 
OP. THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 31 
 
 Christ Jcsus,\sto receive and recover back again the 
 lost dominion of this world; and that, as the first 
 Adam reigned personally over the works of creation, 
 so Christ, the second Adam, is to reign personally 
 over the same creation, viz: over the fish of the sea, 
 and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and 
 over all the earth, and over every creeping thing, that 
 crcepeth upon the earth ! What a glorious kingdom 
 this will be, of our blessed Saviour! But we did 
 not know that this was the kingdom, which he 
 bought with his precious blood! And our author, 
 very appropriately and learnedly, quotes the 8th 
 Psalm, as corroborative of this view of the nature 
 of that Dominion which Christ, as the second Adam, 
 is to possess: "When I consider thy heavens, the 
 work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which 
 thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mind- 
 ful of him? And the Son of Man that thou visitest 
 him? For thou hast made him a little lower than 
 the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and 
 honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over 
 the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things 
 under his ieet; all sheep and oxen; yea, and the 
 beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish 
 of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the 
 paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how excel- 
 lent is thy name in all the earth." 
 
 Many readers will, doubtless, feel themselves in- 
 debted to this author for the information, that the 
 
32 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 expression "Son of Man" in the above quotation, 
 had the remotest allusion whatever to the Man 
 Christ Jesus. Though there is no mention made of 
 men, of the elect, of believers, of redeemed sinners, in 
 this grant of dominion, given to the Son, as the price 
 of his sufferings, still, all sheep are given to him, and 
 oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field, the fowl of the 
 air, and the fish of the sea," and whatsoever passeth 
 through the paths of the seas!" And of course he 
 is to reign over them in person, because the first 
 Adam did. The writer has not explained, however, 
 whether these animals over which Christ is to have 
 personal dominion, will be raised from the dead. 
 He indeed explains in another place, as we have 
 already seen, that the chief princes and rulers, in 
 the future glorious kingdom of our Lord, will be the 
 risen, changed, and glorified saints, and not saints in 
 the flesh. His readers would have felt that they 
 owed still greater obligations to him, if he had also 
 explained whether these inferior subjects of Christ's 
 glorious kingdom, all sheep, oxen, etc. will be raised 
 from the dead t; after the final conflagration. For this 
 is a mooted question, and some able writers are of the 
 affirmative opinion. 
 
 To remove all doubt that this 8th Psalm refers to 
 the Messiah, the author cites us to the 2nd chapter 
 of Hebrews, where he says that Paul himself quotes 
 it, as having reference to him, (the Messiah.) I must 
 object to his criticism on the expression, " The world 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED, 33 
 
 to come" All plain readers of the Bible, who have 
 not so much skill in Greek, and in supplying Greek 
 terms when they seem to be wanting, as the author, 
 w r ould have supposed this expression to refer only to 
 the future state of men, after death. But he makes 
 it refer to the new earth, which is to be created after 
 the present world shall have been destroyed by fire. 
 He admits that Paul does not say, the "new earth to 
 come." But perhaps Paul inadvertently omitted 
 the word new, or the Greek term answering to it; and 
 he supposes that the wordge, which means the earth 
 or the land, is understood, i. e. was omitted by Paul. 
 Here I cannot neglect the opportunity to remark, 
 that if it be lawful and proper, whenever it may 
 suit our convenience, or the hypothesis we advo- 
 cate, to supply a word in the Scriptures, or to sup- 
 pose that a word is understood, i. e. was omitted by 
 the inspired writer, then we can easily establish 
 from the Scriptures, any theory which we choose to 
 adopt. But how does our author show that Paul 
 makes the expression " Son of man," in the 8th 
 Psalm, rofer to the Messiah ? Or what is there in 
 the passage quoted from Hebrews, which shows that 
 the name Jesus, u but we see Jesus," in the 9th verse, 
 is identical with "Son of Man," in the 6th verse? 
 Scarcely have I seen a more palpable perversion of 
 Scripture than this. "We see not yet all things put 
 under hirn." Whom? Man or Jesus? This was 
 the question which the author went about to settle, 
 
34 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 But has he done it? Read the 9th verse again, in 
 connection with these words, "we see not yet all 
 things put under him." "But (9th verse) we see 
 Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, 
 for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and 
 honor, that he, by the grace of God, should taste 
 death for every many Now the name "Jesus" or 
 "mem," may either be referred to the pronoun "him" 
 in the preceding verse. And the difference between 
 us and this author is, that he makes the pronoun 
 "him" in the phrase, "we see not yet all things put 
 under him" relate to Jesus as its noun, whereas we 
 make it relate to the generic term "man." Man 
 was in a state of condemnation. Man was himself 
 in need of a Saviour, so that all things could not be 
 said to have been put under him. How could he 
 be considered as the Lord and Head of this lower 
 creation, who had forfeited all things, and even his 
 life, by sin, and who had need of a Saviour to keep 
 him from hell. Therefore the last word in the 9th 
 verse, the word "MAN," and not the word 
 "JESUS," is that to which the pronoun "him" is 
 properly related. And when man shall be finally 
 redeemed from sin and death, we believe that he 
 will gain more than was lost by the fall. But there 
 are several important reasons why the name "Jesus" 
 in the 9th verse of this chapter, is not identical with 
 the expression " Son of man" in the 6th verse, which 
 I will state in numerical order: 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 35 
 
 T. And in the first place, if the expression, "Son 
 of man," as quoted by Paul from David, has a direct 
 reference to Jesus Christ, then, if we can understand 
 his language, Paul says one thing very plainly in 
 one verse, and another thing as plainly in the very 
 next verse. What does he say in the 8th verse ? 
 "We see not yet all things put under him," (i. e., 
 Jesus Christ.) And what does he say in the 9th 
 verse ? " But we see Jesus crowned with glory and 
 honor." This, to me, at least, looks very much like 
 a contradiction. 
 
 II. The expression, Son of man^ when it refers to 
 the man Christ Jesus, or the Messiah, always begins 
 with a capital letter, as in Luke xxi, 27 : " And then 
 shall they see the Son of man coming," etc. But 
 neither in David, nor in Paul, does it commence with 
 a capital letter. 
 
 III. The beautiful and impressive exclamation of 
 David, according to the interpretation our author 
 gives it, is unmeaning and senseless. " What is 
 man, that thou art mindful of him ? or the son of 
 man, that thou visitest him ?" It is an expression 
 of humility on the part of the Psalmist, and of de- 
 vout wonder at the infinite condescension of the 
 Most High, that he should stoop down from his high- 
 est heavens, to take any notice of a worm of earth. 
 So every reader would at first understand it ; and 
 as such, it has force and meaning. But if it is to 
 be understood with reference to the blessed Jesus, 
 
S<> The kingdom of grace, 
 
 its meaning is gone. David could not have exclaim- 
 ed, in wonder at the condescension of God, "Who 
 is Jesus Christ, that thou visitest him !" 
 
 The author adds, in conclusion, u He (Paul) speaks 
 of Jesus in three conditions; first, "that 'of sub- 
 angelic humiliation;" secondly, "that of heavenly 
 exaltation ;" and thirdly,"that of earthly dominion. " 
 Now every item of this, the strictest Socinian may 
 admit. Yes, if it was only the dominion over the 
 fish of the sea, and the fowl of the air, and over 
 every creeping thing that creepeth on the earth, 
 that was given to the Messiah, to the Man Christ 
 Jesus, we admit that he shall ultimately possess this 
 promised dominion ; and, moreover, that he will 
 rule over it in person, since, on the supposition that 
 he was a mere man, he could not reign in any other 
 manner — could not have a spiritual dominion. 
 
 It is conceded, that the dominion of this world, 
 which was lost by Adam, the first man, was "usurp- 
 ed by Satan, who is called the god of this world." 
 But how has Satan ruled over this world ? In per- 
 son, or by a spiritual agency ? I permit every reader 
 to answer this question for himself. Jf, therefore, 
 Christ, the second Adam, is "to receive and to re- 
 cover the dominion which Satan usurped," and 
 which he governed by the agency of dark and ma- 
 lignant spirits, we can see no difficulty whatever in 
 the supposition, that Christ may rule over the same 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 3? 
 
 dominion, by the agency of his Holy Spirit, and of 
 "ministering spirits. 5 ' 
 
 I have given, perhaps, too much attention to the 
 writer, on whose views I have ventured so freely to 
 animadvert ; and if his eye should meet with this 
 volume, he may feel flattered by the notice which I 
 have taken of him. Yet I can most sincerely affirm, 
 that I have been influenced by no motive but a de- 
 sire to expose the sophistry, by which attempts are 
 made, to build up and sustain a dangerous and false 
 system of religious faith. A house that is built upon 
 sand, must fall. 
 
 I shall now proceed to offer more direct proof 
 from the Scriptures, for the spiritual nature of Christ's 
 kingdom on earth. But it will not be necessary to 
 multiply passages for this purpose. A very few shall 
 therefore suffice. The Prophet Ezekiel speaks thus : 
 "And I will sanctify my great Name, which was 
 profaned among the heathen, which ye have pro- 
 faned in the midst of them ; and the heathen shall 
 know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when 
 I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. For 
 I will take you from among the heathen, and gathet 
 you out of all countries, and will bring you into your 
 own land. Then will / sprinkle clean water upon 
 you, and ye shall be clean. From all your filthiness, 
 and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new 
 heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put 
 
 within you; and I will take away the stony heart 
 4 
 
38 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart offlesh« 
 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you 
 to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judg- 
 ments and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land 
 that 1 gave to your fathers, and ye shall be my peo- 
 ple, and I will be your God," Ezek. xxxvi, 23-28* 
 Now in ascertaining the full import of this prophe- 
 cy, several things are to be noticed : 
 
 1. The Jews, God's ancient people, are to be ta- 
 ken from among the heathen and brought into their 
 own land again. This I believe will be literally ful- 
 filled. 
 
 2. God himself or his Son Jesus Christ, who is 
 acknowledged to be God, is to separate his people 
 from among the nations whither they are dispersed, 
 and to lead them into their own land again; this 
 also will be literally fulfilled, though he will not do 
 it in person. 
 
 3. They are to be initiated into his visible church 
 on earth, by the ordinance of baptism, or the sprink- 
 ling of clean water upon them, which is a symbol 
 of the cleansing influences of the Holy Spirit, by 
 which they shall be purified from all their moral fil- 
 thiness. 
 
 4. It is also foretold, that God shall put his Spirit 
 within them, to cause them to walk in his statutes 
 and to keep his judgments and do them. 
 
 Now all these things we believe will be literally 
 accomplished; and what more will be necessarj to 
 
OR THE MILLENARXAN THEORY REFUTED. 39 
 
 the complete establishment of the Messiah's king- 
 dom? They are to be his people, and he is to be 
 "their God." But he is to rule over them by his 
 Spirit within them, causing them to walk in his sta- 
 tutes, etc. This, as I conceive, can be nothing else 
 than a spiritual kingdom; and there is not the mosfc 
 distant intimation of any personal advent, which so 
 many speak of in these times. 
 
 There is a similar prediction in the 37th chap- 
 ter, 11 — 14th verses. "Then said he unto me, 
 son of man" — this expression is not to be un- 
 derstood as having reference to Jesus Christ, but to 
 the prophet Ezekiel himself; — "Son of man, these 
 bones are the whole house of Israel ; 55 i. e. represent 
 the whole house of Israel — "behold they say, our 
 bones are dried; 55 i. e. we are thoroughly dead — 
 "and our hope is lost, we are cut off for our parts. 55 
 Of course they were not naturally, but morally 
 dead, seeing they could reason the case in this man- 
 ner. — "Therefore prophesy, and say unto them, thus 
 saith the Lord God, behold, O my people, I will 
 open your graves and cause you to come up out of 
 your graves; 55 i. e. from your state of moral and 
 temporal desolation — "and will bring you into the 
 land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the 
 Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my peo- 
 ple, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall 
 put my spirit in you, and ye shall live; 55 i. e. shall 
 have spiritual life, because ye were spiritually dead, 
 
40 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 and because I put my Spirit within you, — "and I 
 shall place you in your own land; then shall ye 
 know that I, the Lord, have spoken it, and performed 
 it, saith the Lord." 
 
 If the Jews themselves, knew and understood the 
 spiritual meaning of all such clear predictions as 
 these, in their sacred books of prophecy, they would 
 not be scattered and peeled, as at present, and be a 
 by-word and a hissing among all nations. Being 
 judicially blinded by sin, they rejected Christ, the 
 spiritual Prince and Messiah, who came to redeem 
 them, and have ever been looking and waiting for a 
 temporal Saviour and Prince — a king, who is to come 
 and reign over them in person. But if the theory 
 which I have been examining be true, they have 
 not been looking or waiting in vain. For, accord- 
 ing to this theory, Christ is shortly to come in per- 
 son, to gather his people the Israelites, out of all 
 countries, to settle them in their own land, and to 
 reign over them, visibly, at Jerusalem, in the literal 
 land of Palestine, and on the literal throne of David. 
 Who, then, are most in error on this subject, the 
 Millenarians cr the Jews? for I do not perceive 
 that there is any essential difference between them. 
 The Jews, however, as I must think, are the most 
 consistent in their conclusions; for they have never 
 looked for more than one personal advent of the Mes- 
 siah. The Millenarians profess to believe, (and we 
 cannot doubt their sincerity,) that the Messiah has 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 4l 
 
 made his personal appearance once; and they expect 
 that he is to come in person a second time, before his 
 kingdom will be universally established in this world. 
 It is really painful to a Christian, to be compelled 
 seriously to undertake to refute opinions, so palpa- 
 bly false and absurd. 
 
 There are some things in the second chapter of 
 Daniel, which are wholly irreconcilable to the Mil- 
 lenarian theory. The kingdom which the God of 
 heaven was to set up in the days of the four kings, 
 is represented to Daniel under the image of a stone, 
 cut out of the mountains without hands. And these 
 three or four particulars are to be noticed in regard 
 to it. 
 
 I. It was a "stone cut out of the mountain;" from 
 which we are to understand, that the kingdom of 
 the Most High, which he was to set up, was to have 
 a small beginning. 
 
 II. It was cut out of the mountain without hands % 
 which can signify nothing else, than that it was to 
 be a spiritual, and not a temporal kingdom. 
 
 III. That it became a great mountain, and filled 
 the whole earth; which means, that, from being very 
 insignificant in its inception, it was to wax greater 
 and greater, until it should become co-extensive with 
 the whole earth. 
 
 IV. Lastly, that this kingdom was to be set up, 
 in the days of the four preceding kings, or in the 
 
 days of the Roman Monarchy. 
 
 4* 
 
42 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 Now how can this prophecy of Daniel ever be 
 fulfilled, in either of the above particulars, agreea- 
 bly to the theory of Millenarians? They admit that 
 when Christ shall come again in person, to set up 
 his glorious kingdom, the Gospel age or dispensation 
 will have come to an end; in other words, that the 
 spiritual kingdom now in existence, will have passed 
 away. This cannot, therefore, be the kingdom that 
 Daniel saw set up, which was to continue forever. 
 They admit that the new and glorious kingdom, 
 which they anticipate that Christ will set up, at his 
 second coming, will be established, in all its glory, at 
 once; and consequently, it cannot be the stone cut 
 out of the mountain, small indeed, at the first, but 
 which became a great mountain, and filled all the 
 earth. And they will doubtless admit, that, though 
 Christ should even come this year, according to the 
 calculations of Mr. Miller, still there could not be 
 a fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy, which declared 
 that it should be set up in the days of the four kings; 
 unless they will say, contrary to all history, that the 
 Roman Monarchy, which succeeded the other three, 
 has existed in the world to the present time, which 
 I hardly think any would be fool-hardy enough to 
 do, merely to make out a theory. 
 
 In this, and the preceding chapter, I have insisted 
 chiefly on two points. I have shown, first, that the 
 kingdom of Jesus Christ is a kingdom of grace; and 
 secondly, that it is a spiritual kingdom. That it is a 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 43 
 
 kingdom of grace, is indeed the lustre and glory 
 thereof. I might have dwelt longer on this theme; 
 and perhaps I ought to say more upon it; for this is 
 the highest theme that ever occupied the tongue or 
 the pen of mortals. It is the theme which angels 
 will study with the greatest wonder and delight, 
 through eternity. Angels desire to look into the 
 mysteries of redemption, and they tune their harps 
 to praise, when but one sinner becomes interested 
 in the blood of Atonement, and is made an heir of 
 immortal glory. And why? Because they behold 
 a manifestation of the Divine perfections, which, 
 otherwise, they never could have had. And if but 
 one subject should ever enter the kingdom of grace 
 and glory, redeemed by the blood of Christ, I am 
 not backward to say, that that one redeemed sinner 
 would be a more illustrious monument to his praise, 
 and a gem in his universal diadem, reflecting brigh- 
 ter rays of glory on his character than the creation 
 of ten thousand myriads of suns, which his hand had 
 fixed immovably as the centres of systems, embra- 
 cing a thousand times as many habitable w r orlds. 
 Shall we then put up our daily petition, that the 
 kingdom of grace, or the Gospel dispensation, may 
 speedily come to an end? Rather let our prayer 
 be, Go forth, thou King of saints, in the chariot of 
 thy Gospel, conquering and to conquer! 
 
 It is an undisputed article of the Christian faith, 
 that this dispensation, or the kingdom of grace, is 
 
44 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 finally to have an end; for he shall deliver up the 
 kingdom (the mediatorial) to God the Father, that 
 God may he all in all. The period cometh when 
 he shall give up his mediatorial office; but this will 
 be after he shall have gathered in all his elect, and 
 after the scenes of the general judgment shall have 
 closed. Then he will be known no more as a Me- 
 diator or Saviour, but only ap the KING of kings, 
 and Lord of lords; and he shall reign visibly, on the 
 throne of the universe, forever and ever. 
 
 None among the Millenarians, I believe, deny that 
 Christ's kingdom is of a spiritual nature. But, with 
 one accord, they affirm, that he is to reign also, in 
 temporal and visible majesty, and by his personal pres- 
 ence on the earth, for, at least, a thousand years after 
 the present dispensation shall have passed away. 
 But, as before intimated, if the King of Zion were 
 to remove his present visible throne from heaven to 
 earth, and were to locate himself at Jerusalem on 
 the temporal throne of David, there would be no 
 special benefit gained, either to the Church or the 
 world. For, the form of the earth being the same 
 that it now is, it would be superlatively absurd to 
 say, that he would be visible at the same moment to 
 all the inhabitants of the world; and, therefore, 
 his reign would be a very partial reign. A few only 
 would enjoy intercourse with him, and have the un- 
 speakable delight of beholding the King face to 
 face, viz., the favored few, whose privilege it might 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 45 
 
 be to dwell in the immediate vicinity of Jerusalem. 
 It will be the happiness of the redeemed in heaven, 
 that they shall be evermore with the Lord their Sa- 
 viour. 
 
 Here I anticipate that it might be said, " But Christ 
 will be visible to the inhabitants of the whole world, 
 when he shall come to judgment; because it is said 
 that 'every eye shall see him.' " Yes, I reply; but 
 the eyents of that day will be grand and miraculous 
 in the highest degree. He will erect his blazing 
 throne, not on the earth, nor at Jerusalem, but in 
 the clouds. And if the sun in the firmament, which 
 gives light to the world, is visible to all its inhabit- 
 ants; much more w r ill God the Son, in glory, before 
 whose face the heavens and the earth shall flee 
 away, make himself visible to the myriads of earth's 
 trembling hosts, in the last day. But should he 
 come, as Millenarians say, with that literal and iden- 
 tical body, which was raised from the dead, and con- 
 fine himself to some particular spot of the earth, as, 
 for example, at Jerusalem in Palestine; and should 
 he, as the literal man Christ Jesus, reign literally, 
 as the legal heir, on the temporal throne of David, 
 then it is not possible that he could be visible in all 
 parts of the earth. 
 
 But suppose that he should come, and reign at 
 Jerusalem, in the manner that it is contended he 
 will, how would his government be administered? 
 How would he issue and execute his commands? 
 
46 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, &C. 
 
 Let us, for a moment, fancy him on his throne at Je- 
 rusalem, the present administration having passed 
 away. How would all who live in these United 
 States, so far from the seat of Government, learn 
 his will? He would necessarily give out his orders 
 and decrees to his first and chief princes of govern- 
 ment; they would communicate them, perhaps, to 
 other subordinate agents, and these, traversing lands 
 and seas, would make them known to the subjects 
 of his government. In short, it would necessarily 
 be a government carried on, after a manner, as all 
 human governments are administered. His com- 
 mands could not be made known, nor executed with 
 the same promptness, which can be secured under 
 the existing form of his government, which is main- 
 tained by a spiritual agency; the Holy Spirit work- 
 ing in the hearts of the children of men, " both to 
 will and to do, of his own good pleasure." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Duration of the Kingdom of Grace. 
 
 As long as there has been a church in the world, 
 so long has the Redeemer had a visible kingdom. 
 For I hold that the Catholic or Universal Church 
 of Christ, and the mediatorial kingdom of Christ, 
 are expressions which are identical in their import. 
 And if so, it is an idle question which has sometimes 
 been discussed, whether the Church has existed in 
 the world from the days of Adam, or from the insti- 
 tution of the covenant with Abraham, or only re- 
 ceived a visible form and existence when Christ 
 himself came in the flesh to set it up. 
 
 A moment's consideration of one or two simple 
 questions, will place this point in a clear light. And 
 first, is the church on earth, or the body of the 
 faithful, a true and visible representation of Christ's 
 kingdom, — the Kingdom of Grace, — the mediatorial 
 kingdom, which he purchased with his blood, over 
 which he now reigns, and which he is finally to de- 
 liver up to God the Father, that he may be all in all? 
 And secondly, are all the elect, all who are saved 
 by grace, subjects and members of this mediatorial 
 kingdom? These are questions which it cannot be 
 necessary to debate with any believer in God's 
 
48 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE} 
 
 Word. And I cannot but re-affirm what has been 
 already stated, that the Catholic or Universal 
 Church of Jesus Christ, and the mediatorial kingdom, 
 or kingdom of Grace, are titles of the same import. 
 
 The appellation of King, as applied to the Re- 
 deemer, has a two-fold meaning. He is styled the 
 "King of Saints," and also sometimes "King of 
 Zion," which titles are applied to him : with refer- 
 ence to his mediatorial character. But he is 
 also the "King of kings, and Lord of lords." As 
 the "Mighty God," and "the Everlasting Father," 
 he is from eternity, and to eternity, an absolute 
 sovereign, doing all his pleasure among the armies 
 of Heaven above> and the inhabitants of this lower 
 world. This absolute and eternal dominion over 
 all things he can never surrender. But his media- 
 torial kingdom had a commencement, and it will 
 also have an end. And the question we want to 
 settle now is, when did that kingdom commence, 
 and when will it end? 
 
 Here I shall state several principles in theology, 
 which appear to me to be self-evident. 
 
 I. It is granted, that the Kingdom of Grace, or 
 the Church of Jesus Christ, consists of all those who 
 are washed from their sins, and saved through his 
 atoning blood. 
 
 II. It is granted that, by consequence, it has been 
 in existence ever since there were any sinners in 
 the world saved by grace. 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED; 49 
 
 III. It is granted further, that there is no way of 
 Salvation but through Christ, and that Noah, Enoch, 
 Seth and Adam„ if saved at all, were saved through 
 him alone; from which it follows irresistibly, that 
 they were in the kingdom of grace, or Church 
 Universal, which therefore has been in existence 
 ever since the days of Adam. 
 
 It cannot be thought essential to the real and 
 visible existence of the kingdom of grace, that the 
 subjects of it should worship Christ after some par- 
 ticular manner, and according to some prescribed 
 mode, rather than another. The elect are saved 
 by Grace, through faith. There has never been 
 any other way of salvation but this. And the heirs 
 of salvation in old times, Adam, Seth, Noah, Abra- 
 ham-, etc. could worship Christ, and look forward 
 to him, by faith, through their types and shadows, 
 through the victims which they sacrificed, and 
 which were designed to pGint them to the great 
 Sacrifice for Sin; as well as the heirs of grace, under 
 the present dispensation, can worship the same Sa 
 viour, and look back to him by the eye of faith, 
 through the symbols of his broken body, and his shed 
 blood, which are designed as perpetual memorials 
 to keep before their minds the atonement which he 
 made by the sacrifice of himself on Calvary. 
 The elect are saved under both dispensations, 
 through faith in the Great Mediator of the new and 
 everlasting covenant. I can see no essential differ- 
 
50 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 ence in the manner of their salvation, except that 
 the faith of those under the old dispensation looked 
 forward to a Saviour as yet to come; whereas, the 
 faith of those under the present dispensation, looks 
 backward to a Saviour as having already come. But 
 this difference certainly affords no ground for the 
 conclusion, that, in the days of Adam, Enoch, Noah, 
 Abraham, and the host of the patriarchs and proph- 
 ets, there was no kingdom of grace, no church of 
 Christ on earth. The patriarchal church, there- 
 fore, the Jewish church, and the Christian church, 
 are but different names of the same church, existing 
 under different administrations. They were all the 
 Church of Christ, of which he is the great HEAD, 
 and the chief corner stone. 
 
 But to these views I am aware that an objection 
 may be brought from the preaching of John the 
 Baptist. He exhorted and warned the Jews, say- 
 ing, K Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at 
 hand. " But it may be asked, how could the king- 
 dom of Heaven have been just then approaching in 
 the time of John, if it had been in existence from 
 the days of Adam? This question, seeming to have 
 much plausibility, is worthy of a passing considera- 
 tion. I reply that though the kingdom of grace, 
 or the church of the Redeemer, had existed in the 
 world from so early a date, and the patriarchs and 
 prophets had been subjects of that kingdom, and 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 51 
 
 had died in it in the triumphs of faith, jet that it 
 had existed under types. 
 
 The Church, under former administrations, ex- 
 isted in a typical state. Their sacrifices and their 
 various rites were on] j the " shadow of good things 
 to come. " These types and shadows were now, 
 when John came, ahout to pass away. The sym- 
 bolical sacrifices would be no more needed, now 
 that the Great Sacrifice was to be offered, once for 
 all. A new and more perfect administration of the 
 kingdom was now to be commenced. 
 
 Or we may suppose that John the Baptist might 
 have preached in the following strain to his Jewish 
 audience, " Repent, i. e. prepare your hearts, and 
 make yourselves ready to receive your King him- 
 self, who is now to make his appearance among 
 you. You have been waiting for his coming. 
 Hitherto he has only sent you his messengers, but 
 now he comes himself. His advent has long been 
 the subject of prophecy. Moses, your Lawgiver, 
 clearly foretold his birth, saying, "another prophet 
 shall the Lord your God raise up like unto me, him 
 shall ye hear." And Isaiah spake of him, saying, 
 " unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given; and 
 the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his 
 name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the 
 Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince 
 of Peace*" And Micah predicted his coming, say- 
 ing, "And thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou 
 
52 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of 
 thee shall he come forth to me, that is to be ruler 
 over my people Israel. " Yea, Daniel and many of 
 the Prophets foretold his birth. Prepare yourselves, 
 therefore, to receive him, in whom "all the nations 
 of the earth are to be blessed;" him, who is to 
 reign on the throne of his father David forever ; 
 by whom, through faith in him, the Patriarchs and 
 Prophets were saved; whose one great and all-suf- 
 ficient offering for sin, has been kept visibly before 
 your eyes, in your daily sacrifices; this Saviour, 
 this King, the Messiah, now comes, who is to set up 
 his kingdom in reality. The types and shadows 
 will now pass away." That John, the harbinger, 
 meant any thing more than this, will not be affirm- 
 ed by any. 
 
 Another objection to the early existence of a 
 kingdom of grace, may be drawn from what is 
 written in John i. 17: "For the law was given by 
 Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ,-' 
 and from other similar declarations in the Word of 
 God. I reply, that the truth of this Scripture is 
 easily granted; but it cannot be urged as proof 
 against the doctrine that there was a dispensation 
 of grace prior to the time of Christ's personal ap- 
 pearance on earth. It would be to reason as logi- 
 cally from this passage to say, that there was no law 
 till Moses- time, as that men were not saved by a 
 dispensation of grace, till Christ was manifested in 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 53 
 
 the flesh. For the same Scripture which saith, that 
 " grace and truth came by Jesus Christ," saith also 
 that " the law came by Moses. " It must be evident, 
 on a moment's reflection, that when John says "the 
 law, " he means a particular form or edition of the 
 law, viz: that which was issued at Mount Sinai, as 
 it would not be pretended that the earlier patriarchs 
 as Adam, Noah, Abraham, and others, had no law 
 at all. Likewise it is equally manifest, that when 
 he says "grace and truth came by Jesus Christ," he 
 means nothing more than a dispensation of grace 
 under some particular form* 
 
 But if we take these words of John in their most 
 obvious sense, can it be proved from them that grace 
 and truth did not come till more than a thousand 
 years after the promulgation of the law at Mount 
 Sinai ? If so, then it can equally be proved from 
 them that Moses existed more than a thousand 
 years before Christ had any existence at all. And 
 then what meaning is to be attached to another 
 Scripture, which speaketh of Christ as the Lamb 
 of God, "slain from the foundation of the world?" 
 Rev. xiii. 8. The whole verse is as follows: " And 
 all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him (the 
 beast), whose names are not written in the Book of 
 Life, of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
 world." So that we may put the two passages to- 
 gether, and then we shall have this result: " Grace 
 5* 
 
54 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 and truth came by Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain from 
 the foundation of the world. " 
 
 But let me dwell longer on this text in Revela- 
 tions. There were certain names "written in the 
 Book of Life." Here is a positive transaction 
 spoken of, which must have taken place, in whatever 
 sense we may suppose. But in what book were 
 those names written ? "The Book of Life, of the 
 Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Now 
 if it be admitted that the Lamb was slain from the 
 foundation of the world, and that he had a Book of 
 Life from the foundation of the world, and that 
 there were certain names written in that book, in 
 whatever sense we choose to understand these ex- 
 pressions, then I may here ask an opponent, do the 
 names written in the Lamb's Book from the foun- 
 dation of the world include the names of the Old 
 Testament saints, or do they not? If they do, then 
 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the ancient 
 Prophets who died and went to glory, were saved 
 through the blood of "the Lamb, slain from the 
 foundation of the world." But if they were saved 
 through the blood of Christ, then they were saved 
 by grace; and, if saved by grace, they were heirs 
 of the Kingdom of Grace: Therefore, it is not 
 true, that the kingdom of grace had no existence 
 till Christ made his appearance in the flesh. And 
 by the kingdom of grace, I repeat what I have 
 already before twice stated, that I mean the Catho- 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 55 
 
 lie or Universal Church of the Redeemer, including 
 the names of all the elect, all who will finally have 
 a part in that song of the ransomed, u unto him that 
 loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own 
 blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto 
 God and his Father, unto him be glory and domin- 
 ion, forever and ever." 
 
 This is the Church the Apostle Paul spcaketh of, 
 Eph. ii. 19 — 22: "Now, therefore, ye are no more 
 strangers and foreigners, hut fellow-citizens with the 
 saints, and of the household of God; and are built 
 upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus 
 Christ himself being the CHIEF corner stone; in 
 whom all the building fitly framed together, gro we th 
 unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are 
 builded together for an habitation of God, through 
 the spirit." Here a " household of God" is spoken 
 of, "a holy temple in the Lord," "a building*" "a 
 habitation of God," etc. Now what holy temple 
 or building of God is this? That glorious edifice, 
 the Church, reared upon " the foundation of the 
 apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the 
 chief corner stone." The old building is not des- 
 troyed,'^ foundation is not taken away. How could 
 it be, without removing also the chief corner stone? 
 The apostles and prophets occupy the same place in 
 the building of God, and hold the same relation to 
 Jesus Christ, who is the Head of the Church, and 
 the chief corner stone in the great and glorious 
 
56 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 temple of salvation. The old Testament saints 
 were a part of the building of God. And saints 
 under the new dispensation are said to be builded 
 together with them, into the same building, "for 
 an habitation of God. " 
 
 The Building or Church of Christ, under the 
 Old Testament dispensation, was not perfect. It 
 wa^s, however, commenced, and it has been growing 
 to perfection — "In whom all the building fitly framed 
 together, groweth unto an holy Temple in the Lord. 
 
 Let me ask an objector, whether to deny the visi- 
 ble existence of any kingdom of grace, previous to 
 the institution of that particular form of it, under 
 which we live^ would not be to deny that any were 
 ever saved by grace, previous to the birth of Christ? 
 And therefore the holy r^en of old, who died before 
 the first advent of the Messiah, and were justified 
 by their faith, imputed to them for righteousness, 
 will have no part in the song of the redeemed in 
 bliss. They will be a separate company in heaven! 
 But they who can believe this, will certainly learn, 
 if they shall ever arrive at the climes of glory 
 themselves, that those worthies of old, were a part 
 of the same building, in which we also are builded 
 together, "for an habitation of God, through the 
 Spirit." 
 
 There is another inquiry now before us, which 
 merits, perhaps, a share of our consideration. It is 
 this, viz: when was the kingdom of Heaven, or the 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY RFFUTED. 57 
 
 Gospel dispensation, of which John spake, first 
 permanently and visibly set up among men? Was 
 it when John began to preach the baptism of water 
 unto repentance, when Christ himself began to 
 publish the Gospel of his kingdom, and ordained the 
 Twelve, having given them power over unclean 
 spirits, &c, or was it not till the day of Pentecost, 
 when the promise of the gift of the Holy Ghost 
 was so remarkably verified to the Apostles, and the 
 three thousand were converted to God, under 
 their preaching, and added to the church? Though 
 I bestow a little attention on this inquiry, I attach 
 no sort of consequence to it whatever. 
 
 It will be admitted that, during the whole period 
 of the Saviour's stay on earth, the evidences of his 
 divinity, and his heavenly mission, were constantly 
 accumulating; that, during his whole ministry, he 
 was employed in laying the foundations of the Chris- 
 tian dispensation, and in qualifying his Apostles for 
 the important work, which they had to do after his 
 death. So that the glorious work of setting up the 
 present visible kingdom of Christ in the world, was 
 not an instantaneous work; it was a gradual work, 
 commenced when the angel announced a Saviour's 
 birth to the shepherds who watched their flocks by 
 night, on the plains of Judea; and completed, when 
 having given his last commission to his disciples, he 
 ascended from Mount Olivet in a cloud of glory to 
 heaven. 
 
58 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 The effusion of the Spirit on the day of Pente- 
 cost, or the sermon of Peter, and the conversion 
 of the three thousand, had no more connection 
 with the work of setting up the gospel kingdom, 
 than a remarkable outpouring of the Spirit, and a 
 powerful revival of religion now would have. The 
 work was already previously done, and on the day 
 of Pentecost, the results of the work which Christ 
 had accomplished, began first to be witnessed. His 
 final commission to his Apostles, was the last act of 
 his ministry; "Go ye into all the world, and preach 
 the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth 
 and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth 
 not shall be damned/' It was in the authority of 
 this commission, that Peter preached on the day of 
 Pentecost. And it is by authority of the same 
 commission, that every true minister of Jesus Christ, 
 has ever preached the gospel from that day to the 
 present time, or ever will preach it, to the end of 
 the world. I know no difference, in this respect, 
 between the sermon of Peter and a faithful message 
 of the gospel by any other minister; accompanied 
 by the powerful influences of the same Holy Spirit 
 convincing and converting sinners. 
 
 The terms of the commission, as it seems to me, 
 settle authoritatively and forever the question, how 
 long the gospel of Jesus Christ is to be preached in 
 the world. As recorded by Matthew, it reads thus, 
 "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAIS THEORY REFUTED. 59 
 
 them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 
 of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all 
 things, whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, 
 I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." 
 Matt, xxviii. 19, 20. This last clause, " unto the 
 end of the world," does not signify to the remotest 
 geographical limits of the habitable earth. The 
 Greek will not bear this construction. The phrase, 
 u sunteleias tou aionos" has relation to time or dura- 
 tion, and not to geographical boundaries. No 
 Greek scholar will deny that this is a promise of the 
 Saviour to be with his ministers, not to the utmost 
 limits of the earth, but to the end of time. 
 
 It is with this blessed promise, and this commission 
 in his hand, that the missionary of Christ ventures 
 to traverse pathless oceans, and desert and dreary 
 regions of country, and fix his permanent abode 
 among the untutored and savage tribes of mankind. 
 And, indeed, he could have little encouragement to 
 deny himself the endearments of this life, to aban- 
 don the home of his childhood, and devote himself 
 to a life of toil and self-denial, in Pagan lands, if he 
 had no commission for this, and no pledge of the 
 presence of his Saviour, in his labors of disinterest- 
 ed and Christian benevolence. But here, he reads 
 his commission — a commission sealed with blood: 
 " Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel 
 to every creature." It is sacred and divine. And 
 here also is his encouragement, in the promise, "lo, 
 
60 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 lam with you always, even unto the end of the world" 
 And while the world shall continue, or time endure, 
 the servant of Jesus, relying on this, his only and all- 
 sufficient credentials, may count it the very acme of 
 honor and dignity in this world, to preach the Gospel 
 of Christ; though it be in the frozen regions of Green- 
 land, or on the burning sands of Africa, or in his 
 own more favored and happy country. 
 
 The reader will be able to make, for himself, the 
 inference which I am about to draw from this com- 
 mission of Christ. The Gospel is to be preached 
 in all the world, and he has promised to be with his 
 ministers always, even until the end of time. The 
 inference is, that the Gospel dispensation is to con- 
 tinue as long as time shall endure. But in taking 
 this position, I necessarily come into collision with 
 the doctrines of the Millenarians, though it be a po- 
 sition so evidently supported by this plain commis- 
 sion and last command of our Saviour. They hold, 
 that, for the last thousand years of the continuation 
 of this world, the Gospel is not to be preached, and that 
 there will be no increase of the kingdom of Messiah. 
 
 Some few among them might, indeed, object to 
 this, as a fair representation of their views on this 
 point. But I am confident that I am not mistaken 
 in saying, that it is the opinion of the great body of 
 them. Do they not teach that, at the second per- 
 sonal advent of Christ, the present age or dispensation 
 is to terminate; that the wicked, who shall be alive 
 
OR THE MILLENARXAN THEORY REFUTED. Gl 
 
 on the earth at that time, are to be destroyed, that 
 the whole world will be burned up, or purified by a 
 general conflagration, and that there will be a new 
 heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righ- 
 teousness? If the end of the present age or dispensa- 
 tion—if the final destruction of this world by fire, 
 and the end of death and mortality, may be proper- 
 ly regarded as the end of time, then it will take 
 place, according to their theory, before the thousand 
 years' reign of. Christ on earth is expired. During 
 that blessed era of ;i universal light, love and holi- 
 ness,"* there will be no Gospel, no kingdom of grace 
 in existence. The Messiah will have a kingdom; 
 but it will be one of glory ^ like that which is estab- 
 lished over angels. This opinion is clearly expres- 
 sed in their writings. 
 
 Mortality is the daughter of time; and when time 
 shall cease to be, mortality shall be swallowed up of 
 immortality. At the dissolution of the present order 
 of things, when death shall lose its dominion over 
 the works of God, when new and glorious bodies 
 shall be given to the saints, then will begin the reign 
 of immortality; for they shall be immortal after the 
 resurrection; Of consequence, the new order of 
 things will be introduced at least a thousand, years be- 
 fore the resurrection and final judgment of the wicked. 
 The bare statement of this proposition is enough to 
 
 * Language of a Millenanan. 
 
62 THE KINGDOM OF GIIACE, 
 
 expose its absurdity. It involves these four follow- 
 ing incongruities and difficulties. 
 
 I. That, during the Millenium, there will be no 
 kingdom of grace in the world. 
 
 II. That there will be no Gospel preached on earth 
 for a thousand years, previous to the general judg- 
 ment, and that final separation, between the righ- 
 teous and (.he wicked, so frequently mentioned in 
 the Scriptures. 
 
 III. That, if there shall be a Gospel dispensation, 
 during the Millenium, it will be preached only to 
 saints, risen^ changed, and glorified; because there 
 will be none others living on the earth during that 
 period. But they will have no need of a Gospel, 
 any more than the sinless angels. 
 
 IV. That if time shall cease, as it must, when 
 mortality shall cease, it will end at least a thousand 
 years before the final judgment, and the last battle, 
 spoken of in Revelations xx. 7-9. 
 
 The truth is, that the gracious kingdom of the 
 Saviour, now in existence, shall continue, without 
 any change, not only till the commencement, but 
 during the whole period of the Millenium. And 
 now, have we any warrant for this opinion? Wheth- 
 er we have or not, it is an opinion which does not 
 conflict with the dictates of right reason. But there 
 is a superabundance of Scripture testimony in favor 
 of the sentiment now advanced, in opposition to that 
 of Millenarians. The terms of the Saviours last 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY EEFUTED. 63 
 
 commission, as already shown, incontrovertible estab- 
 lish it. The prophecy of Daniel, 2d chapter, is cor- 
 roborative of the same opinion. The God of hea- 
 ven shall 4i set up a kingdom, which shall never be 
 destroyed." This kingdom, of which Daniel here 
 speaks, cannot be the kingdom of glory, which Mil- 
 lenarians say that Christ is to set up at the com- 
 mencement of the Millenium. For it was to be set 
 up in the days of the four kings, (Dan. ii. 44.) The 
 Gospel kingdom was commenced in the days of the 
 Roman Monarchy; and, therefore, it mast be the 
 kingdom of which Daniel spake. In what sense 
 are all those predictions to be understood, which 
 speak of the increase of the Saviour's kingdom^ un- 
 less it be in the universal spread of the Gospel through 
 the earth, and the fullness of the Gentiles being 
 brought into the Church, in the time of the Millen- 
 ium? 
 
 But when will the thousand years, or the Millen- 
 ium, commence? This is the question of questions — 
 the perplexing Gordian knot, with all those who so 
 abound in speculations concerning the second advent ; 
 and which many, Alexander-like, have presumptu- 
 ously attempted to cut, because they could not fairly 
 untie it. 
 
 When will the stone cut out of the mountains with- 
 out hands, become itself a great mountain, and fill 
 the w r hole earth? When will the King of Zion be 
 firmly established on his throne, and reign King of 
 
64 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 nations, as he is King of saints'? We must leave 
 the decision of all such questions to those who are 
 better skilled in prophetical calculations and chro- 
 nological tables than we are, and who have more 
 leisure than we can find, to devote to such specula- 
 tive musings. We commit this matter altogether to 
 those sages who pretend to tell with mathematical 
 precision, how many years ago this earth arose out 
 of chaos, without an error in their calculations, even 
 of a single year; who, accordingly, know exactly 
 when the seven thousandth year, or the period of the 
 grand Sabbath of the world, is to begin — the period 
 of millenial blessedness; who have ascertained with 
 certainty, and beyond all doubt, that the seven 
 thousandth year from the creation is to be the com- 
 mencement of the Millenium; who have discovered 
 in the progress of their calculations, that a day, in 
 the language of the prophecies, sometimes means a 
 literal day, sometimes three hundred and sixty days, 
 and sometimes a thousand years; and who have at- 
 tained to such wonderful skill in calculations of this 
 sort, that they can tell exactly, (by figures probably,) 
 when it means a day, when it means a year, and 
 when it stands prophetically for a thousand years. 
 The Christian world will, doubtless, consider itself 
 greatly indebted to the men, who have brought the 
 useful art of numbers to such a degree of perfection ; 
 the men who can tell you with unerring certainty, 
 what is meant by the "time, times, and the dividing 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 65 
 
 of time," of Daniel; whether the Two Thousand 
 and Three Hundred days are so many days or years ; 
 and who can give you the very date from which to 
 begin to count them, as also the 1290 days, and the 
 1335 days in the 12th ch.; who can tell, by their 
 figures, exactly in what year Anti-Christ, or the Man 
 of sin arose ; whether in the first century, (Paul said 
 "the mystery of iniquity doth already work,") in 
 the year 606, or sometime in the 8th century, etc. 
 etc. 
 
 It is to be deeply regretted, however, that there 
 is such a discrepancy in the reckonings of these 
 men ; since no two among them can be found to 
 agree in every particular. Their conclusions are as 
 different sometimes, nearly as their own names. I 
 therefore leave them to the satisfaction which they 
 can be supposed to derive from their own vain dream- 
 ings. As for me, I profess to be able to read the 
 signs of the times better than I can understand their 
 calculations. 
 
 To speak plainly, my opinion is, that no man liv- 
 ings can know the times and seasons, "which the Fa- 
 ther hath put into his own hands" — can decipher, 
 out of any data contained in the sacred oracles, the 
 precise period or year when the Millenium is to be- 
 gin ; and when the Son of Man is to come the sec- 
 ond time, in power and great glory ; — or begin to 
 explain the Book of Revelations. And the many 
 failures of those who have attempted it, should serve 
 6* 
 
G6 THE" KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 as a caution to future visionaries and enthusiasts, who 
 may venture to hatch new speculations, on the sub- 
 ject of the prophecies. 
 
 But lest this manner of disposing of the question, 
 relative to the time of the beginning of the Thou- 
 sand years' Reign on earth, might seem to some 
 readers, rather unsatisfactory and inconclusive, I 
 shall simply remark, in dismissing the subject, that 
 the thousand years will begin with the binding of 
 Satan, as recorded in the 20th chapter of Revela- 
 tions, and will continue as long as he shall remain 
 bound, whether that period be longer or shorter. — 
 And if any one desires to know at what period Satan 
 is to be bound, I have only to remark, that no man 
 can tell the very year. It may, however, be safely 
 affirmed, that he is steadily losing his dominion in 
 this world, and that, if the moral and religious refor- 
 mation goes on, which has been commenced, the 
 time must come, when he will have no longer any 
 place or foot-hold on earth. Whenever that period 
 shall come, that the Gospel shall have a universal 
 ascendancy, and the christian religion shall prevail 
 throughout the world, thai will be the last age, the 
 golden age of the world • when, according to the 
 prophecy, Satan shall be bound. 
 
 By a reference to the signs of the times, there is 
 probable evidence in favor of the opinion, that this 
 blessed consummation, so ardently hoped for, may 
 be realized within the lapse of the present century. 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 67 
 
 A fair estimate of the instrumentalities now in ope- 
 ration, with the blessing of heaven to crown them, 
 as heretofore, brings us to this conclusion. 
 
 But how long will this future golden age of the 
 world continue? This is another question nearly 
 allied to that which has just been the topic of re- 
 mark, but which can never be determinately settled 
 by any ability of learning or genius which man pos- 
 sesses. The probability is, that the expression " a 
 thousand years " means neither a thousand years ex- 
 actly, as measured by the chronometers which we 
 use, nor three hundred and sixty thousand years, but 
 an indefinitely long period, during which Christ is 
 to reign on the earth. There is sufficient ground 
 to justify this conclusion, in the acknowledged fact, 
 that in this same book of Revelations, definite names 
 and numbers too, are repeatedly put for indefinite 
 names and numbers. As, for example, in this 20th 
 chapter, in which this expression "a thousand years" 
 several times occurs, " Gog and Magog" are definite 
 names put for indefinite. The number of the twen- 
 ty-four elders before the throne, is doubtless a defi- 
 nite put for an indefinite number. The one hundred 
 and forty-four thousand of Israel that were sealed, is 
 confessedly such a number. For no christian could 
 ever persuade himself that Jesus has no more than 
 one hundred and forty-four thousand elect people to 
 the end of time among the chosen nation, the Jews. 
 But in these and other specifications which might be 
 
68 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, &C. 
 
 made, I simply argue against the propriety of as- 
 suming (for it is only an assumption) that the expres- 
 sion "a thousand years" must signify a thousand 
 years of our measured time, no mere nor less. I am 
 not at all, however, averse to the opinion that this 
 may be its true signification. But we can have no 
 certainty of this. 
 
 It is futile and vain to waste our time and breath 
 in disputing on questions of the kind which have 
 now been glanced at, that can never be settled by 
 us, and that, if settled to our satisfaction, could not 
 administer in the least to our spiritual advantage. — 
 The Church of the Redeemer is to spread over the 
 whole earth, and to prevail and flourish for an in- 
 definitely long period of our time. This is the gen- 
 eral import of the prediction; and this we can all 
 understand. JESUS "shall see of the travail of 
 his soul, and be satisfied," and "his name shall be 
 GREAT among the Gentiles." 
 
 The rise and continuance of the kingdom of 
 grace have now been considered perhaps at suffi- 
 cient length. The extent of that kingdom claims 
 next in order to be treated of. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Extent of the Kingdom of G.ace. 
 
 The kingdom of our Divine Lord is always in 
 the Scriptures, represented as being very small and 
 insignificant in its inceptive state. How often did 
 lie, while present with his disciples, endeavor to im- 
 press this idea upon their minds. For this purpose 
 he used various illustrations and comparisons, such 
 as the following, "Whereunto shall we liken the 
 kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we 
 compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, 
 which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all 
 the seeds that be in the earth; but when it is sown, 
 it growethup, andbecometh greater than all herbs, 
 and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls 
 of the air may lodge under the shadow of it," 
 (Mark iv. 30 — 32.) The prediction of Daniel al- 
 ready repeatedly referred to, is of the same import. 
 It (the kingdom) is spoken of under the image of 
 a stone, "cut out of the mountain without hands." 
 
 How well these descriptions apply to the kingdom 
 of our Immanuel, which he set up in the world, by 
 the aid of his Twelve Apostles, more than eighteen 
 centuries ago, — the gospel kingdom. It w r as not 
 reared, as most other kingdoms have been, by the 
 
70 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 aid of money, of arms, and of men. It has literally 
 been, like the stone which Daniel saw in his vision^ 
 cut out of the mountain without hands. But these 
 Scripture comparisons, etc. respecting the origin of 
 the kingdom of heaven, have no archetype in that 
 kingdom of glory and power, which Millenarians 
 imagine that Christ is to set up, at his second person- 
 al advent. One of them has such language as the 
 following, "We must wait for the glorious appearing 
 of our Lord; and then he, and the armies which fol- 
 low him out of heaven, (Rev. xix. 14,) will establish 
 the kingdom. It is a kingdom of heavenly, and not 
 of earthly origin; and it is to be established by heavenly 
 power." 
 
 I must now, while discoursing on the origin and 
 growth of the kingdom of grace, dwell a little on 
 that expression in Daniel, in which it is figuratively 
 called, 4< a stone cut out of the mountain without 
 hands." It is a remarkable expression; and in a most 
 remarkable manner has it been fulfilled. This is 
 calculated to excite our surprise. 
 
 Every other kingdom that has been very power- 
 ful, or existed long in the world, has been aided, di- 
 rectly or indirectly, by the influence of men, arms, 
 and money. The empire of the False Prophet is 
 an example. At first, he had money alone. But 
 when he discovered that arms would be still more 
 effective in the accomplishment of his ambitious 
 aims, he did not hesitate to avail himself of the aid 
 
OR THE MILLENAHIAN THEORY REFUTED. 71 
 
 which could be derived from them. And having a 
 good purse at his disposal, it was not difficult for him 
 to attach the sword also to his cause. 
 
 But let us contemplate, for a moment, the primi- 
 tive institution of Christianity. Its Author was 
 poor, without money, or arms, or men, except twelve 
 illiterate fishermen, whom he seems to have chosen 
 rather on account of their poverty than any tempo- 
 ral advantages which they possessed. Was this the 
 man, and under such auspices, who seemed likely to 
 succeed in a project to found a mighty empire, and 
 to introduce a new order of things among mankind? 
 The impostor, Jo. Smith, counting merely on human 
 probabilities, has, at this day r a fairer prospect of 
 success, if his object be to revolutionize nations 
 and kingdoms, than the Saviour began with. But 
 inauspicious as was the commencement of the 
 Christian Religion, in three centuries it became the 
 religion of the Roman Empire, and Jesus Christ in 
 that time, had usurped the thrones of its false Dei- 
 ties. The "stone cut out of the mountain," wax- 
 ed great, and "brake in pieces" and "consumed" 
 the kingdoms. 
 
 The victories of Christianity, however, have ev- 
 er been, and ever will be bloodless victories. And 
 this is the glory of the Christian dispensation. It 
 conquers by love. I know that some among Millen- 
 arian authors, if we were to regard them as repre- 
 sentatives of Christianity, have exhibited a very 
 
72 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 different spirit in their writings. They breathe 
 the very spirit of war and revenge— the very spirit 
 that rules in the hearts of ambitious heroes, and 
 blood-stained conquerors. And they seem to have 
 no blush of shame, while they can deliberately re- 
 cord their opinion, that when the kingdom of Mil- 
 lenial glory shall be established, the saints shall exe- 
 cute vengeance, and bathe their swords in the blood of 
 enemies. O, but this will be a congenial and blessed 
 employment, for the risen, changed and glorified 
 saints! Here I will be permitted to introduce a 
 quotation from one of their books, as a confirmation 
 of what I have just affirmed. For whatever else 
 may be said about this little volume, Millcnarians 
 shall not have reason to say that it contains any 
 slanders against them, or a misrepresentation of 
 their views. The extract I give, is as follows: " He 
 shall judge and reign over the whole earth $ for to 
 him and to his saints, shall be given the kingdom 
 and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom 
 under the whole heaven." (Dan. vii. 14, 27.) To 
 this period, we refer the 14th Psalm, in which the 
 saints, i. e. the risen, changed and glorified saints, 
 are represented as employed to execute vengeance on 
 the wicked, "Let the high praises of God be in 
 their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hands, 
 to execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punish- 
 ment upon the people ; to bind their kings with 
 chains; and their nobles with fetters of iron : to 
 
On THE MILLED ARIAJi THEORY REFUTED. 
 
 73 
 
 execute upon them the judgments written ; THIS 
 HONOR HAVE ALL HIS SAINTS. Praise 
 ye the Lord." (Psalm cxlix. 6,9: Rev. xix. II, 
 16.) St. Paul says, it is a righteous thing for God 
 to recompense rest to the troubled saints, and tribu- 
 lation to their wicked persecutors. ( I. Thess. i. 6, 
 7. ) And when it becomes a righteous God to do 
 this, it will be righteous for the saints to rejoice that 
 he does it. So perfectly will their hearts be in uni- 
 son with his, that, as they have sympathized with 
 Messiah, in his sufferings, so shall they share with 
 him in his triumphs. In the language of the Psalm- 
 ist, as recorded in Psalm lviii. 18. " The righteous 
 shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance ; he shall 
 wash his feet in the blood of the wicked." And if 
 you ask, where is the scene of these judgments, the 
 next verse informs us; it is not in some unknown, 
 untried quarter of creation, but the very globe on 
 which we live. " So that a man shall say, verily, 
 there is a reward for the righteous ; verily, there is 
 a God that judgeth the earth."* 
 
 Such, according to this writer, will be the employ- 
 ment of the redeemed saints — the " risen, changed, 
 and glorified saints " after the Millenium shall have 
 commenced. Surely, the authors of such senti- 
 ments must be entirely unmindful of the peculiar 
 nature and genius of the Christian religion. In 
 their attempts to maintain a false theory, they seem 
 
 *Winthrop'a Lectures, p 93. 
 
 7 
 
74 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 to be almost unconscious what shocking absurdities 
 they give utterance to. But I have digressed from 
 the subject in hand. 
 
 I remarked that the victories of Christianity are 
 bloodless victories. They are not achieved, like 
 those of earthly conquerors, " with confused noise, 
 and garments rolled in blood. " (Isa. ix. 5.) The 
 kingdom of the Messiah is a kingdom of peace. His 
 first advent to this earth was ushered in with this 
 song — " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth 
 peace, good will tow r ards men." (Luke ii, 13.) It is 
 true, that his kingdom, as Daniel has foretold, shall 
 not be left to other people, but " shall break in 
 pieces, and consume all these kingdoms." (Dan. ii. 
 44.) But this does not mean that it shall literally 
 break in pieces, braise, mangle, and destroy the people 
 of these kingdoms, but their tyrannical forms of gov- 
 ernment, their false systems of religion, their wicked' 
 ness. How much more congenial to the spirit of the 
 gospel would such triumphs be, than conquests 
 marked with foot-prints in blood, striding over heaps 
 of the slain! And how much more consonant to 
 the character of him who said, " Blessed are the 
 merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." Matt. v. 7. 
 
 Every form of government reared in cruelty and 
 injustice, and maintained by the iron hand of des- 
 potism, the genius of the Christian religion is des- 
 tined, ultimately, to overturn; every system of false 
 religion, and the temples of all heathen divinities, 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 
 
 75 
 
 It is utterly to subvert and destroy. Of this nature 
 have its conquests hitherto been, and I cannot but 
 think that it will continue to triumph in the same 
 manner that it has done. I have never allowed 
 myself to anticipate, that, after the resurrection, 
 when I shall be redeemed perfectly from sin, death, 
 and the grave, when I shall be clothed upon with 
 immortality, it will be necessary for me again to 
 stem the tide of battle , and literally to stain my 
 hands and wash my feet with the blood of the ene- 
 mies of the Lord. Nor can I envy that christian 
 his feelings, whose heart glows in the expectation of 
 participating in such scenes in the Millennia] day. 
 
 I will now cite a few passages from the propheti- 
 cal writings which foretell the universal extension 
 and prevalence of the Messiah's kingdom in the 
 latter days. These are very numerous; and it will 
 not be necessary to select except a very small part 
 of them. 
 
 " And there shall come forth a rod out of the 
 stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his 
 roots; and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon 
 him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the 
 spirit of counsel and might; the spirit of knowledge 
 and of the fear of the Lord; and he shall not judge 
 after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the 
 hearing of his ears; but with righteousness shall he 
 judge, and reprove with equity for the meek of the 
 earth; for he shall smite the earth with the rod of 
 
76 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 his mouth; and with the breath of his lips shall he 
 slay the wicked:" — i. e. with his spirit destroy the 
 wickedness of the wicked : so that they shall not be 
 found in his kingdom. Millenarians would explain 
 it to be a literal destruction of the persons of the 
 wicked in his vengeance. But how would this cor- 
 respond with what immediately follows? "And 
 righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faith- 
 fulness the girdle of his reins. The wolf also shall 
 dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down 
 with the kid, and the calf, and the young lion, and 
 the fatling together; and a little child shall lead 
 them; and the cow and the bear shall feed; their 
 young shall lie down together; and the lion shall 
 eat straw like the ox; and the sucking child shall 
 play on the hole of the asp; and the weaned child 
 shall put his hand on the cockatrice's den. They 
 shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain. 
 For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the 
 Lord as the waters cover the sea. And in that day, 
 there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for 
 an ensign of the people; to it shall the gentiles seek; 
 and his rest shall be glorious." Isa. xi. 1— -10. 
 
 " Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your 
 God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry 
 unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her 
 iniquity is pardoned; for she hath received of the 
 Lord's hand' double for all her sins. The voice of 
 him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 
 
 way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a high- 
 way for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, 
 and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and 
 the crookzd shall be made straight, and the rough 
 places plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be re- 
 vealed; and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth 
 of the Lord hath spoken it." Isa. xi. 1 — 5. 
 
 " How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet 
 of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth 
 peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that pub- 
 lisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, thy God 
 reigneth! Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; 
 with the voice together shall they sing; for they 
 shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again 
 Zion. Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste 
 places of Jerusalem; for the Lord hath comforted 
 his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. The 
 Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of 
 all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall 
 see the salvation of our God." Isa. lii. 7 — 10. 
 
 "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glo- 
 ry of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold the 
 darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness 
 the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and 
 his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles 
 shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of 
 thy rising. Lift up thine eyes round about, and see ; 
 all they gather themselves together, they come to 
 thee; thy sons shall come from far, and thy daugh- 
 
 *i* 
 
78 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 ters shall be nursed at thy side. Then thou shalt 
 see and flow together, and thine heart shall fear and 
 be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall 
 be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall 
 come unto thee" Isaiah Ix. 1-5. 
 
 "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O 
 daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy King cometh 
 unto thee; he is just, and having salvation; lowly? 
 and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of 
 an ass. And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim 9 
 and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle-bow 
 shall be cut off; and he shall speak peace unto the 
 heathen; and his dominion shall be from sea even to 
 sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth" 
 Zech. ix. 9, 10. 
 
 " And it shall be in that day, that living waters 
 shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward 
 the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder 
 sea; in summer and in winter shall it be. And the 
 Lord shall be KING over all the earth; in that day 
 shall there be one Lord, and his name one." Zech. 
 xiv. 8, 9. 
 
 " Now if the fall of them (the Jews) be the riches 
 of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches 
 of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness. For 
 if the casting away of them, be the reconciling of 
 the world, what shall the receiving of them be but 
 life from the dead ? For I would not, brethren, that 
 ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 79 
 
 be wise in your own conceits, that blindness, in part, 
 is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gen- 
 tiles COME IN." Rom. xi. 12, 15, 25. 
 
 Now can the above, and a multitude of other sim- 
 ilar prophecies, on any principles of interpretation, 
 be made to harmonize with the Millenarian theory? 
 If they can be possibly, I should be glad to learn 
 how. And so we are forced to this conclusion, that 
 the world is destined to undergo a great change be- 
 fore the end shall be. This change is now rapidly 
 taking place. The kingdom of the Redeemer is 
 extending itself far and wide. Knowledge is in- 
 creasing in the earth. Already, in many islands of 
 the sea, the banner of the cross has been unfurled. 
 Already, many tribes in Asia, in Africa, as well as in 
 Europe and among the aborigines of America, begin 
 to read the Scriptures of eternal life, in their own 
 tongues, and to bow the knee to the true God, in- 
 stead of worshipping idols. 
 
 A very cursory glance at the present moral aspect 
 of the world, will be enough to satisfy the Christian 
 that the "glorious things" spoken of Zion, are on 
 the eve of their accomplishment. And if God has 
 actually begun to fulfill the prophecies in their ob- 
 vious sense, will he not carry on to perfection the 
 work begun, to the final conversion of the entire 
 Gentile world? The signs of the times justify the 
 expectation that what has been begun, will be, ere 
 long, completed. But we are not to expect that 
 
80 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 the heathen will be given to Christ "for his inherit- 
 ance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his 
 possession " in a day, or in a year. If the King of 
 Zion continue to work, as he has done, by human in- 
 strumentality, for the establishment of his kingdom 
 in the earth, we cannot reasonably anticipate that 
 his kingdom will be universally set up in less than 
 thirty or forty years. Perhaps, as many believe, 
 this grand consummation, which Christians have so 
 long and earnestly prayed for, may be realized as 
 early as the year 66, of the current century. And 
 if so, then many, now on the stage of active life, 
 may hope to see that day dawn on the world. 
 
 Millenarians do not, and cannot believe, that the 
 prophecies which have been enumerated have ever 
 yet been fulfilled; do they believe that they ever 
 will be? Or do they imagine that they are not to 
 have their fulfillment till after the heathen shall have 
 been consumed in the world's final conflagration? 
 If this is their belief, I dissent from them, toto c&lo. 
 
 From the prophecies which have been cited, and 
 others of the same kind, four things appear to be 
 clearly evident, which I will state in order: 
 
 I. It is evident from these prophecies, that the 
 Gentiles are to be converted to God; as it is written, 
 " The forces of the Gentiles are to be converted 
 unto thee." "The fullness of the Gentiles" is to 
 "come in" And again, he is to be the "King over 
 the whole earth" 
 
OR THE MXLLENARIAN THEORY EEFUTED. 81 
 
 II. They are to be brought into the Gospel king- 
 dom. For they are to be redeemed from a state of 
 sin, and from all their idolatries. And there is no 
 way for sinners into the favor of God, but by repen- 
 tance and faith. But repentance and faith are the 
 peculiar features of the Gospel dispensation. 
 
 III. They are to be made members and subjects 
 of the kingdom of grace. Salvation is to be preach- 
 ed to them. And " all flesh" it is said, " shall see 
 the salvation of God." JBut there is, and can be no 
 salvation, except in a kingdom of grace. 
 
 IV. The Gentiles are to possess the kingdom or 
 the heavenly inheritance which the Jews lost by 
 their unbelief; which can be none other but the 
 Gospel dispensation. 
 
 Now I shall not permit myself to believe that any 
 class of Millenarians would deny either of the prin- 
 ciples above laid down; for to me they appear to be 
 undeniable. And if they be, they utterly subvert 
 the foundations of the Millenarian's faith. Nay, if 
 but one of the points above laid down be establish- 
 ed, his whole system falls to the ground. Let us try 
 the test in regard to the first. Let it be granted 
 that the heathen are to be converted to Christ; that 
 every false god and false religion in the world, is 
 to be destroyed, and that he is to reign as King over 
 all the earth, and how can their theory be true? 
 How could the Lord Jesus come now in flaming fire, 
 to take vengeance on them that know not God, and 
 
82 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 that obey not the Gospel, bringing all his saints with 
 him, and punishing the wicked with everlasting de- 
 struction? Should he come soon — say this year — 
 as some have dreamed, perhaps three-fourths of the 
 inhabitants of this earth, would be found in a state 
 of open hostility to him, sunk to the lowest depths 
 of moral degradation and misery — would they be 
 saved or destroyed by him, at his coming? If they 
 will all be saved, what advantage will real Chris- 
 tians enjoy over them in that great day? If they 
 are all to be saved, certainly it will not be because 
 they were his servants while in the flesh, and pre- 
 vious to his coming. If this is what they under- 
 stand by the conversion of the heathen, in the lat- 
 ter-day glory of the Church, then I must confess that 
 I have never yet properly apprehended the mean- 
 ing of that expression in David, " The wicked shall 
 be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget 
 God." If the object of the Messiah's coming, the 
 second time, in power and great glory, is not to re- 
 ward the good and punish the wicked, but to make 
 them good, or to convert them, there is another text in 
 John, the meaning of which is equally unintelligi- 
 ble, viz : " For the hour cometh, when all that are 
 in the grave shall hear his voice, and shall come 
 forth, they that have done good, to the resurrection of 
 life, and they that have done evil, to the resurrection 
 of damnation." How can this doctrine, I ask with 
 emphasis, be reconciled to that theory which I am 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 83 
 
 now examining, which teaches that a great part of 
 the heathen w r orld are to be converted to Jesus Christ, 
 at or after the time of his second coming? 
 
 Let us now try their theory by the test of the sec- 
 ond principle or position which I laid down above, 
 viz : that the heathen are to be brought out of their 
 idolatries and sin, into the gospel kingdom, through 
 repentance and faith* May I not safely assume this 
 position, as one that will not be disputed ? The 
 Gentiles are, by nature, all in a state of sin, and, con- 
 sequently, of condemnation. And if so, there is no 
 way for them to the favor and mercy of God, but 
 through repentance and faith. But repentance and 
 faith belong exclusively to a gospel dispensation. — 
 For, how could they repent, — how could they be- 
 lieve, — or on whom would they believe ? unless the 
 gospel were preached to them ? So, then, the con- 
 clusion is, and it cannot be evaded, that the heathen 
 are to be converted and saved under a gospel dis- 
 pensation, to wit : the same as that under which we 
 live, and which Millenarians think, is to end with the 
 Second Advent. 
 
 It would be a work of supererogation for me to 
 follow out this chain of reasoning. I have proceed- 
 ed quite far enough to satisfy any sincere and can- 
 did inquirer after truth. The arguments which 
 have been submitted, amount to little less than posi- 
 tive demonstrations, which should convince the judg- 
 ment of Millenarians themselves, and make them re- 
 
84 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 nounce a theory which is so untenable, contradicto- 
 ry, and false. 
 
 Intimately connected with the subject of the con- 
 version of the heathen, is the question concerning 
 the restoration of the Jews to the land of Palestine. 
 Will the descendants of Abraham, the long-afflicted, 
 and dispersed, and despised outcasts of Israel, return 
 again literally, according to the plain import of the 
 Scriptures, to the land of their forefathers ? I know 
 that commentators are divided in their opinion on 
 this question. The settlement of it, however, one 
 way or the other, will be of no consequence to our 
 main argument. Some writers, even among the 
 Millenarians, favor the opinion that this portion of 
 the prophecies are to be understood in a literal sense, 
 and others of them are opposed to this opinion. — 
 They are disagreed among themselves on this point, 
 as I shall have occasion to show they are on many 
 others. I shall not here enumerate the predictions 
 which foretell the return of the Jews to their own 
 country, out of every nation whither they are scat- 
 tered abroad. These must be familiar to every at- 
 tentive reader of the Bible ; but I shall here state 
 several reasons why I consider that they are to be 
 taken in their literal and obvious sense. 
 
 I. In the first place, these prophecies relative to 
 the dispersion and gathering together again of the 
 Jews, were uttered before they were scattered 
 abroad among all nations ; and as the one part has 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 85 
 
 been so exactly fulfilled, in their literal dispersion, I 
 cannot but think that the remaining part of them 
 will be, in like manner, verified in their literal resto- 
 ration to their own land, from which they have been 
 so scattered abroad. The present dispersed condi- 
 tion of God's ancient and chosen people, is a stand- 
 ing and living monument in the midst of surrounding 
 nations, to declare the truth of these prophecies.— 
 The very existence of that people, in their present 
 state, is an argument, though a silent one, which in- 
 fidels are not able to answer. They have been " scat- 
 tered and peeled," as it was foretold. The predic- 
 tions of their return to their own country, are equal- 
 ly explicit and clear. Shall we understand the one 
 part literally, but give to the other part a spiritual 
 sense ? .> ^ t , 
 
 II. The utter destruction, and long desolation of 
 Jerusalem, the glorious city, was foretold ; and we 
 who live in the present day, are witnesses of the lit- 
 eral fulfillment of this prophecy* But Jerusalem is 
 to be trodden down, only " till the times of the Gen- 
 tiles be fulfilled." We conclude, therefore, that it is 
 to be rebuilt, and once more inhabited by the chas- 
 tised and afflicted children of Israel. I know of no 
 rule of interpretation which authorizes us to give to 
 one part of any prophecy, one meaning, and to the 
 counter part of it, an entirely opposite meaning. 
 
 III. The Jews, from the prophecies contained in 
 
 their own sacred book, expect to return to Judea 
 
 8 
 
86 THE KINGEOM OF GRACE, 
 
 and Jerusalem. They know that the displeasure of 
 Heaven is resting upon their nation. They are not 
 ignorant that their present condition--their dis- 
 persion over the whole earth, is a literal fulfillment 
 of prophecies recorded in their own scriptures. — 
 Those which predict their return, are equally clear 
 and intelligible, and on these their expectations are 
 founded. 
 
 IV. If they be not to be restored again to their 
 own land, why has God wrought a perpetual miracle 
 in preserving them distinct and separate from, though 
 scattered among, all nations ? Will it be said, to 
 convince the nations of the truth of the Christian Re- 
 ligion ? If this be the reason, how much more po- 
 tent and convincing will it be, when they shall also 
 be restored to their country, after their long disper- 
 sion. What nation of people, or what infidel, who 
 shall witness this long wished-for event, would be 
 able longer to withhold their assent to the truth of 
 the Scriptures ? It would be the signal for the com- 
 mencement of the Millenium, and of that period 
 when a " nation shall be born in a day." Yea, it 
 will be as " LIFE from the dead, " to a long-slum- 
 bering world. 
 
 The fore-mentioned reasons, together with others 
 which might be specified, have determined my mind 
 in favor of the opinion that the Scriptures which 
 speak of the Jews' return to Palestine — the inher- 
 itance of their forefathers — are to be taken in their 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 87 
 
 literal sense. Mr. Miller, and his fanatical follow- 
 ers, for a very obvious reason, are compelled to op- 
 pose this interpretation. They know that the ful- 
 fillment of these prophecies could not, in a natural 
 way, take place within the time which they have 
 assigned as the period beyond which the present dis- 
 pensation is not to continue. And those among the 
 Millenarians who teach us to look daily and hourly 
 for the Second Advent, are compelled, for the same 
 reason, to take the same ground. 
 
 How true it is, in religion not less than in politics, 
 that when we have a favorite theory to maintain, 
 we readily make every Scripture and every conflict- 
 ing principle bend thereto, according to our pleas- 
 ure. The ingenuity of human sagacity has never 
 been at a loss for ways or means of reconciling any 
 passage or verse in the Bible, with their pre-con- 
 ceived opinions, no matter how absurd their opinions 
 were. 
 
 It is a pleasing anticipation, to the mind of the 
 Christian, that the church of the Redeemer is des- 
 tined to become a "praise <mdjoy in all the earth." 
 How many trials — how many struggles, has she been 
 called to pass through ! Enemies without, and en- 
 emies within, have often vied with one another for 
 her destruction. She has often mourned, in sack- 
 cloth and sorrow, over her children, slain as martyrs 
 for the Truth. But the blood of martyrs is the seed 
 
88 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, &C. 
 
 of the church, from which she has gathered, and is to 
 gather, a rich and blessed harvest. 
 
 There is to be ONE CHURCH. One Sabbath 
 is to be celebrated. One Name is to be worship- 
 ped. It is the name of Immanuel. To him every 
 knee shall bow, and every tongue confess. He 
 " shall see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied." 
 O come, that blessed day, " when He shall reign 
 whose right it is " ! 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Whether the Kingdom of Grace will include every individual who shall 
 live on the earth during the Millenium. 
 
 The question is often asked, and with considera- 
 ble interest, whether every man, woman, and child, 
 who shall live on the earth in the time of the Mil- 
 lenium, will be a christian, in reality as well as in 
 name. To the consideration of this speculative 
 question, I shall devote a short space in the present 
 chapter. 
 
 Many, even of those who are opposed to the Mil- 
 lenarian theory, are in favor of the affirmative of 
 the question which stands as the caption of this 
 chapter. As much as I would be naturally inclined 
 to this opinion, and as sanguine as are my faith and 
 hopes respecting the future triumphs and glory of 
 the church, I cannot find sufficient evidence in the 
 Word of God, to justify this conclusion. 
 
 I believe that, during the Millenial Reign, the 
 principles of Christianity will prevail throughout the 
 world. The morality of the Bible will be appreci- 
 ated and practised. There will be no systems of 
 false religion known. Violence, war, and every 
 species of external wickedness, shall be entirely sup- 
 pressed. But still I am not prepared to admit, that 
 
 all who shall live on the earth, during that period, 
 
 8* 
 
90 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 will be saints, in heart as well as in life. Nothing 
 but an impartial regard for the truth, could possibly 
 induce me to take this position ; for my predilec- 
 tions, and my natural feelings, would certainly 
 prompt me to advocate the opposite opinion. 
 
 The first passage of Scripture which I offer, as 
 being unfavorable to the opinion that all will be 
 practically pious, during the period of Christ's uni- 
 versal reign, is in Isaiah. " There shall be no more 
 thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath 
 not filled his measure of days : for the child shall 
 die a hundred years old : but the sinner, being a 
 hundred years old, shall be accursed." Isa. ixv. 20. 
 The context, in which these words are found, as all 
 agree, have undoubted reference to the happy state 
 of this earth, in the last days. Some Millenarians 
 say that there will be no sinners on the earth during 
 the thousand years. But they are not all agreed on 
 this point. Others of them suppose that there will 
 be some in thejlesh during that period, and who will 
 live and die sinners. And they refer to this express- 
 ion, in Isaiah, to prove it — " But the sinner, being a 
 hundred years old, shall be accursed." And to my 
 mind, I confess that it appears incredible that, in a 
 description, which all admit to be a description of 
 the earth, in its latter-day glory, such an expression 
 should occur, if there were to be no sinners during 
 that blissful age of the world. Mr. Winthrop, after 
 quoting the above passage, comments on it thus : — 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 91 
 
 a It would seem from this, th.t, although in the Mil- 
 lenium the great majority of the people will be right- 
 eous, just as a large majority are now wicked, still 
 there will be, during that happy era, some few whom 
 the prophet calls sinners, and who, he says, shall be 
 accursed. Some of these, perhaps, are the individ- 
 uals to whom Lactantius refers, when, after speak- 
 ing of the personal reign of Christ and the saints in 
 the following language, "And they that shall be 
 raised from the dead, shall be over the living as judg- 
 es" — (these judges, of course, are the risen, changed 
 and glorified saints, the children of the first resurrec- 
 tion) — he continues, "and the Gentiles shall not be 
 utterly extinguished ; but some shall be left for the 
 victory of God, that they may be triumphed over by 
 the just, and reduced to perpetual servitude. These, 
 zee say are perhaps some of the individuals of whom 
 Jsaiah speaks as sinners, and as being accursed."* 
 
 "Reduced to perpetual servitude!!" Say, Rea- 
 son, where wast thou when the above sentence was 
 penned? And is SLAVERY to be a, perpetual insti- 
 tution during the age of millenial glory, and the 
 Messiah's reign? Lactantius had but a short time 
 emerged from the darkness of Paganism, and he 
 could not have had the same views on the subject of 
 slavery, which are entertained by the pious and hu- 
 mane, in all Churches of the present age. But we 
 should not have expected a Christian author, writing 
 
 * Winthrop's Lectures pp. 170 — 171. 
 
92 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 in these times, to have quoted such a sentiment, with 
 approbation, from Lactantius. It may be, however, 
 that it was done without reflection. I am not will- 
 ing to believe that the author intended to give it as 
 his deliberate opinion, that any portion of the race 
 of Adam will be "triumphed over by the just" and 
 reduced to "perpetual servitude" during the times of 
 the latter-day glory. 
 
 But what I intended to prove by the quotation 
 which I have just given from this work, was, not 
 that there will be slavery, but that there will be sin- 
 ners on the earth, during the Millenium, agreeably 
 to the doctrines of Millenarians themselves. Some 
 among them, however, may be of a different opinion. 
 
 The next passage which I adduce in proof of my 
 present position, viz : that all will not be Christians 
 really, i. e. in heart, as well as in outward practice, is 
 the parable of the tares and wheat, Matt, xiii, 
 24-30: " Another parable put he forth unto them, 
 saying, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man 
 which sowed good seed in his field: but while men 
 slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the 
 wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was 
 sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared 
 the tares also. So the servants of the householder 
 came, and said unto him, Sir, didst thou not sow 
 good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it 
 tares? He said unto them, an enemy hath done 
 this. The servants said unto him, wilt thou then 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEOKY REFUTED. 93 
 
 that we go and gather them up? But he said, nay; 
 lest, while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also 
 the wheat with them. Let both grow together until 
 the harvest; and in the time of harvest, I will say to 
 the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and 
 bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the 
 wheat into my barn." 
 
 This parable, as the words by which it is introdu- 
 ced show, was spoken with the avowed design of 
 teaching us what the kingdom of heaven is like. 
 "The kingdom of heaven is like," etc. I barely 
 throw out this suggestion to stop the mouths of Mil- 
 lenarians, since they say that the kingdom of heaven 
 is not yet set up. Let them then explain what it is 
 which our Saviour here calls the kingdom of heaven, 
 and which he says is M like unto a man," etc. But I 
 design not here a comment on this parable. The 
 inspired comment which our Saviour has given us, 
 will be sufficient for my purpose. "He answered 
 and said unto them, he that soweth the good seed is 
 the Son of man; the field is the world; the good 
 seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares 
 are the children of the wicked one: the enemy 
 that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end 
 of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As, 
 therefore, the tares are gathered and burned in the 
 fire, so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son 
 of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall 
 gather out of his kingdom all things thai offend, and 
 
94 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 them which do iniquity. And shall cast them into a 
 furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing 
 of teeth," Matt. xiii. 37-42. I shall leave this pas- 
 sage by simply requesting the reader to note the 
 words, "They shall gather out of his kingdom," etc. 
 If he will do this, no long process of reasoning will 
 be necessary to convince him that the angels will 
 be sent forth, at the end of the world, not to set up 
 a new kingdom, which never had any previous exist- 
 ence, but to gather out of his kingdom — a kingdom, 
 of course, which already existed, or the wicked could 
 not have been in it — " all things that offend, and them 
 which do iniquity." An explanation of this parable 
 will come up again, in the progress of this work. I 
 therefore dismiss it for the present. 
 
 My third and last proof is in Revelations. " And 
 when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be 
 loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive 
 the nations which are in the four quarters of the 
 earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to 
 battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the 
 sea." Rev. xx. 7, 8. It would indeed be a difficult 
 task so to pervert or distort this passage as to make 
 it suit the Millenarian theory. Why it is that they 
 nearly all pass it over in silence, I cannot conjecture, 
 unless it be because it is too stubborn to bend to their 
 will. x\nd this silence in regard to it is the more 
 unaccountable, since they all devote much time and 
 space to the two or three verses immediately pre- 
 
OR THE MXLLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 
 
 95 
 
 ceding, which speak of the first resurrection. There 
 are several important questions arising out of the 
 passage which has just been quoted, which I would 
 like to ask the advocates of the pre-millenial advent, 
 and which I think it incumbent on them to answer, 
 if they would maintain their theory on Scriptural 
 grounds. 
 
 I. Whom is Satan to deceive at the expiration of 
 the thousand years? 
 
 II. Who will compose his immense army, saints 
 or sinners? If sinners, will they be sinners in the 
 flesh, or immortals? 
 
 III. And where is this last great battle to be 
 fought 5 on the theatre of this present earth, or on 
 the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, which 
 shall be created after the destruction of this w r orld 
 by fire? 
 
 I urged these difficulties on my opponent, in a late 
 newspaper controversy on the subject of the second 
 advent. He had no way to extricate himself or his 
 system, but by asserting that the army which Satan 
 will gather together, after the thousand years are ex- 
 pired, will be composed of immortals! I expressed 
 surprise at this; for I could not imagine how Satan 
 will deceive the wicked, after their resurrection from 
 the grave, and after he had once deceived them 
 while in the flesh ; and after they have been with 
 him at least a thousand years in hell. Were they 
 to enjoy a second term of probation, and was he to 
 
96 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 be permitted to deceive them a second time, after 
 their resurrection? I asked for information on these 
 perplexing questions; but my opponent, a professed 
 Millenarian who has done his best to disseminate his 
 views, deigned me no further reply. He quietly, 
 and in a most becoming and dignified manner, reti- 
 red from a discussion which he had invited and pro- 
 voked, and left my questions unanswered, and me to 
 obtain the desired information elsewhere. 
 
 It is true he had remarked that the common 
 opinion seemed to him " utterly inconsistent, that, 
 out of the last generation of men, who shall live on 
 earth, Satan shall collect together an army of the 
 most heaven-daring reprobates that ever lived on 
 earth, in numbers as the sand of the sea; and that 
 after Messiah has reigned (in any way you please) 
 at least a thousand years on earth in universal light, 
 love, and holiness." And also that "the very na- 
 ture of this hellish enterprise proves that the beings 
 Satan shall deceive, and gather together, must be 
 immortal beings, and not men in the flesh." But 
 any further explanation of this, I could not elicit 
 from him. And when I suggested that the " little 
 season " during which Satan was to be loosed, might 
 mean, not a single generation only, but several gen- 
 erations; and that, during the Millenium, accord- 
 ing to the opinion of many learned divines, there 
 might be multitudes on the earth, Christians in name 
 and externals only, over whom the gospel might 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED, 
 
 97 
 
 gradually lose its influence, during the *< little sea- 
 son," so that they might become easy and willing 
 victims to the deceptive arts of the wicked one: and 
 he might gather them together into an army, to 
 make war against the saints. My opponent did not 
 say yea or nay to this, but wrapped himself up in a 
 calm and dignified silence. 
 
 But I willingly admit that, if men are not to lire 
 in the flesh during the Millenium, and if Satan is not 
 to deceive men in the flesh, then the last battle is not 
 to be fought by men in the flesh, but by immortals! 
 And how shall I answer this assertion? for indeed it 
 is a bare assertion, resting on no proof whatever. 
 How shall I go about seriously to prove, that the 
 last, great army will not be composed of immortals! 
 An army composed of immortals! Indeed, one is 
 reminded by this of Milton's sublime description of 
 the battle between the fallen and unfallen spirits 
 in Heaven. But christians, in this enlightened day, 
 will not submit to be persuaded that they have bat- 
 tles to fight a thousand years hence, after the warfare 
 of this life shall have closed, and when they shall 
 have put on their immortal robes. The saints of 
 the Lord are to fight all their battles in this present 
 state of conflict and suffering; and then, after the 
 resurrection, they shall wear their crowns, arid their 
 palm-wreaths of victory. 
 9 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 What is said about the second coming of Christ in his kingdom* 
 
 Much has been said and written on the subject of 
 the second advent. It is the principal and favorite 
 theme with Millenarians. They are sanguine in 
 the belief that his second coming in person will be 
 pre-millenial. The proof which they produce from 
 the Scriptures in favor of this belief I shall endeavor 
 to examine in the course of this chapter. 
 
 Their reasons for seeming so devoutly to wish and 
 pray for this event, can be known of course only to 
 themselves. But it is uncharitable in them to attri- 
 bute a want of sympathy with them in this opinion 
 on the part of anti-millenarians, to their love for 
 this present sinful world. If their theory should 
 happen to be the true one, we shall reign with Christ 
 and enjoy his visible presence here on earth. But 
 if ours should prove to be the true theory, if our 
 hopes are well founded, we shall be introduced, at 
 death, which certainly cannot be far distant, to the 
 immediate and beatific presence of the Saviour in 
 Heaven, and enjoy the society of angels, and of the 
 spirits of the just made perfect in glory. Death will 
 come much sooner than many of us will be found 
 ready for his summons, and, in all probability, soon- 
 
THE KINGDOM OP GRACE, &C. 
 
 99 
 
 er than the period of their anticipated glorification, 
 Their system, therefore, has, in this respect, no ad- 
 vantage over ours, unless they suppose that it is 
 transcendently more blessed to be with Christ on 
 this earth, than to reign with him in those many 
 mansions, and in that third heaven to which Paul 
 was caught up, where he heard and saw things which 
 it was unlawful for him to utter. And so it is their 
 belief, and not ours, that seems to betray a sort of 
 undue and lingering attachment for this old residence 
 of earth. 
 
 Christians of all sects and namas, it is presumed^ 
 Relieve in the second advent of Christ. And we 
 are as sincere as any others can be, in the belief, 
 that he will "com , again, the second time, without 
 sin, unto salvation. " The " coming ." of our Lord, 
 as it is used in the Scriptures, is a word which has 
 different significations, as any one, who will take the 
 pains to examine, may be easily satisfied. Some- 
 times it refers to his coming in his divine provi- 
 dence, to remove his followers by death from this 
 state militant to their everlasting reward. Some- 
 times it refers to his spiritual presence with believers. 
 Again, as in Matthew xxiv., it is supposed to mean 
 his coming in judgment to destroy the temporal and 
 ecclesiastical polity of the Jewish nation. And, 
 lastly, as in the 25th chapter, it doubtless has a 
 direct reference to his second personal advent, at 
 the end of the world, to raise the dead, and adjudge 
 
100 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 both the righteous and the wicked to their everlast- 
 ing destinies. The connection and context must, 
 in every case, govern us in determining which of 
 these meanings it is to receive. But, with the due 
 exercise of our judgment, we need never to be at a 
 serious loss to determine, in any case. 
 
 I. In the first place^ as I stated, the coming of 
 Christ so often alluded to in the New Testament, 
 sometimes means his coming at death to receive his 
 own followers to himself, that they may be with him 
 where he is. In this sense is it used in John xiv. 23: 
 "In my Fathers house are many mansions, if it were 
 not so, I would have told you; I go to prepare 
 a place for you. And if I go and prepare a 
 place for you, I will COME AGAIN, and re- 
 ceive you to myself, that where I am, there ye may 
 be also." Mark the expression, " will come again" 
 i. e. the second time, evidently conveying an allu- 
 sion to his first advent. Now we wish to ascertain 
 what is meant by this second coming, here spoken of. 
 And I cannot hesitate to say, that a teachable and 
 child-like christian would never be at a moment's 
 loss for the meaning of it. The sense seems to be 
 obvious as soon as it is read. The Saviour has an 
 affecting interview with his disciples before Iris de- 
 cease. He tells them of his death and his separa- 
 tion from them. They are filled with sorrow. He 
 comforts them: "Let not your hearts be troubled," 
 &c. He is to be separated from them but for a 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 101 
 
 short period, and will corns again and receive them 
 to himself, that where he is, there they might be also. 
 Now has this promise ever been fulfilled to the 
 twelve apostles, the immediate companions of our 
 Lord in tribulation? If it has heen, it was when 
 he came by sending his messenger death, and setting 
 them free from their earthly bondage, and receiving 
 them to the mansions in his Father's house above. 
 
 But if the second coming of our Lord, as alluded 
 to by himself in this passage, has reference to his 
 final and personal advent, in the clouds of heaven, 
 &c, as Millenarians affirm, then vain was the com- 
 fort which he designed to administer to the twelve 
 disciples, in view of their anticipated loss of his bo- 
 dily presence with them. For he has neve?' yet come 
 to receive them to himself. 
 
 But will they explain to us where that house is, and 
 
 where those many mansions are, which Jesus went 
 
 away on purpose to prepare for his disciples? Yes, 
 
 they tell us, it is in this world. Jesus hath gone 
 
 away to receive a kingdom, to prepare a place of 
 
 glory and mansions of blessedness, and he will come 
 
 again, bringing that kingdom of glory with him, to 
 
 set it up in this world, and then he will receive his 
 
 followers to himself. But where are the apostles 
 
 now, and the first martyrs who followed the Saviour, 
 
 and died in the triumphs of faith, and where have 
 
 they been for these eighteen hundred years? Where 
 
 is the soul of the first martyr, Stephen, to whose en- 
 9* 
 
102 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 raptured vision the heavens were opened, and who, 
 with his last breath, prayed, saying, "Lord Jesus, 
 receive my spirit" It was a vain prayer, if his soul 
 is yet "in the separate state of departed spirits."* 
 I know not whether this writer, whose language I 
 quote, has expressed the sentiment of all Millena- 
 rians on this point; but neither do I know what 
 other sentiment they can, consistently, hold. If that 
 place, or those blissful mansions which the Saviour 
 went away to prepare for his own, were on this 
 earth, it was not necessary for him to go away in 
 order to prepare them. If the kingdom of glory 
 was to be set up here, and the mansions were to be 
 prepared here, this would have been the proper the- 
 atre on which to have commenced his operations. 
 But if the apostles have not yet entered into those 
 mansions, where are they? 
 
 There are but two answers which can be given 
 to this question. Either they are in a middle state, 
 i. e. the separate state of departed spirits, according 
 to Mr. Winthrop; i. e. in purgatory, according to 
 the Roman Catholic belief; or they are in the grave 
 in a state of unconsciousness, in which state they will 
 remain till the light of the resurrection morn shall 
 dispel their slumbers. 
 
 But I design not here to combat the Papal heresy 
 of a middle state, or purgatory for departed spirits. 
 This might be necessary, if I were engaged in adis- 
 
 * Winthrop 's Lecture*. 
 
OR THE 3IILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 
 
 103 
 
 cussion with Catholics; and I am not quite willing 
 to believe that Mr. W. has spoken the sentiments 
 of Millenarians generally on this point. Our Sa- 
 viour said to the thief on the cross, " To-day shalt 
 thou be with me in Paradise." This "Paradise," I 
 believe, means the eternal Paradise above. It can- 
 not mean a purgatorial state, nor a state of uncon- 
 sciousness, neither of which states can be considered, 
 in any sense, as a state of enjoyment. But the word 
 paradise, which, literally, means a garden, always 
 implies this. It is said that the thief could not have 
 been with the Saviour in heaven the same day on 
 which he was crucified, because the Saviour did not 
 ascend thither for some days afterwards. To this, 
 which, to a Unitarian, may seem specious reasoning, 
 the answer is easy, viz : that though, as to his hu- 
 man nature, he did not ascend to heaven immediate- 
 ly from the cross, jet, as to his Divine nature, he 
 was always in heaven; so that he could have mani- 
 fested his presence to the thief in heaven, immedi- 
 ately when his redeemed spirit was emancipated 
 from its clay tenement which was suspended on the 
 cross. His prayer was, " Lord, remember me when 
 thou contest in thy kingdom." And who can for a 
 moment doubt, that the answer which the Saviour 
 made him, had respect to his request, "To-day shalt 
 thou be with me in Paradise, 5 ' that is, where thou 
 hast desired to be, viz : in my kingdom. If the 
 Church universal — the kingdom of grace — is the 
 
104 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 kingdom of Jesus Christ, would it not be preposter- 
 ous to say that he has left that kingdom, and that he 
 is not now in his kingdom, though he is exalted on a 
 throne of glory in heaven? 
 
 Our Lord taught that death is not a state of sleep, 
 in an argument with the Pharisees, " It is written, I 
 am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and 
 the God of Jacob." But, added the Saviour, God 
 is not the God of the dead, but of the living. The 
 inference from this is unavoidable; and I shall not 
 attempt, by any feeble argument of mine, to fortify 
 an argument of the Son of God himself, which is so 
 very plain as to its import. 
 
 The circumstance of the Saviour's transfiguration 
 on the Mount, proves the position which I now main- 
 tain. There appeared with him, on the Mount, 
 Moses and Elias, talking with him. These ancient 
 servants and prophets of God, therefore, had not re- 
 mained in a dormant state, from the time of their 
 exit from the stage of this mortal life. 
 
 The apostle could not have considered it so much 
 better to depart and be with Christ, if he had sup- 
 posed death to be a state of sleep; or that the souls of 
 departed saints remain in a middle state, or purgatory, 
 until the resurrection. But how he could have been 
 with Christ on this last supposition, unless Christ too 
 is in a middle state, it is not easy to conjecture. But 
 I must return from this digression. 
 
 II. I remark in the second place, that the coming 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 105 
 
 of our Lord may, sometimes, refer to his spiritual 
 presence with believers, in this life. In this sense we 
 must understand it, as used in the following passage: 
 "Judas saith unto him, (not Iscariot,) Lord, how is it 
 that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto 
 the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, if a 
 man love me, he will keep my words; and my Fath- 
 er will love him, and we will come unto him, and 
 make our abode with him." John xiv. 22, 23. 
 
 III. Thirdly, there is a coming of the Son of man 
 which has allusion alone, as we think, to that awful 
 temporal visitation, when a final end was put to the 
 ecclesiastical and state polity of the Jews. Jesus 
 had foretold, Matt. xxiv. 2, the utter destruction of 
 the glorious Temple, in words which had left a sol- 
 emn impression on the minds of his disciples. "They 
 came to him privately, as he sat upon the Mount of 
 Olive?, saying, tell us when shall these things be? 
 And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of 
 the end of the world?" As their minds were yet 
 almost entirely in the dark, with regard to the na- 
 ture of Christ's kingdom, they thought that when he 
 spoke of such an utter destruction of the Temple, 
 and the Jewish state, he included, of course, the de- 
 struction of all things. For, looking on that mag- 
 nificent pile, they might well have imagined that it 
 must stand while the world continued. Therefore, 
 in their inquiries, they seem to have connected the 
 two together. 
 
106 THE KINGDOM OP GRACE, 
 
 The greater part of this 24th chapter is taken up 
 with the answer to their inquiries. The expression, 
 " This generation shall not pass away, till all these 
 things shall be fulfilled," is sufficient proof to the 
 mind of every candid reader, that the events fore- 
 told in the preceding verses, must have had their ful- 
 fillment before the generation of men, living at that 
 time, when the Saviour uttered the prophecy, had 
 all passed away, which must, therefore, have been 
 in the destruction of Jerusalem. 
 
 It is true that the ingenuity of Millenarians has 
 enabled them to discover a way to extricate them- 
 selves even from this difficulty. They suppose that 
 the word generation does not mean the individuals 
 who were then living in the world, but the nation of 
 the Jews, as a distinct race or people; and so they 
 would construe the passage as follows: "Verily, I 
 say unto you, this generation," i. e. the Jewish na- 
 tion, as a distinct race of people, " shall not pass 
 away," or cease to exist, " till all these things be ful- 
 filled." I would advise the author or authors of this 
 interpretation, to study the rules of interpretation, 
 which Archbishop Whateley has laid down in his 
 admirable treatise, a late work, entitled the "King- 
 dom of Christ." Suppose that we substitute this 
 meaning of the word generation in another pas- 
 sage, for the word itself, to see whether it will make 
 good sense, as for example in Matt. i. 17: "So all 
 the generations," i. e. distinct races or nations of 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 107 
 
 people, " are fourteen generations," etc. The ab- 
 surdity of the criticism or interpretation is seen at 
 once. But is it the fact that our Lord designed to 
 teach that the Jews were ever to cease from exist- 
 ence, as a distinct race of people? If not, what 
 sense or propriety was there in using the expression? 
 Millenarians do not themselves believe that the Jews, 
 as a nation, a peculiar and distinct nation too, are 
 ever to pass away, at least, while time shall endure. 
 Suppose our Saviour had said, " eternity shall not 
 pass away, till all these things be fulfilled." This 
 language would have contained as definite a propo- 
 sition as that which these learned critics have made 
 the Saviour teach, viz: " that the Jews, as a distinct 
 race of people, shall not cease to be, till all these 
 things be fulfilled." But the Jewish nation will never 
 pass away, neither will eternity ever have an end. 
 To make, therefore, the certainty of events foretold 
 depend on any such impossible contingency, had 
 been extremely absurd. Any one, whether he be 
 the son of a prophet or not, might easily make pre- 
 dictions of this kind. I could foretell that the sun 
 is to be changed into a globe of green cheese, and 
 give a pledge of the fulfillment of the prediction, by 
 saying that eternity shall not pass away till this be 
 accomplished. As eternity would never come to an 
 end, the prediction could never be known to be false, 
 and it would in fact be no prediction at all. Yet 
 of this nature are the predictions of our Saviour, 
 
108 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 recorded in this chapter, according to the interpre- 
 tation of Millenarians, unless they believe that the 
 Jewish nation are to pass away, and no longer have 
 any existence. 
 
 But, sometimes the advocates of error, by conces- 
 sions, unguardedly made, and by contradictions, sub- 
 vert and destroy their own theories. So it is in this 
 case. Mr. Winthrop has unintentionally borne tes- 
 timony that the Disciples and the Jewish Christians 
 understood the prophecies in this chapter as ha\ing 
 reference to the siege and destruction of Jerusalem. 
 " Suppose, " says he, page 88, " that the early chris- 
 tians had done the same with respect to Jerusalem " — 
 i. e. had neglected the study of the prophecies — 
 " they would have perished in tKe calamities of the 
 siege. As it was, they fled to Pella, and were safe. " 
 But there were no prophecies, save those of our 
 Lord, in this chapter, which could have served as a 
 warning to those christian Jews. Of course they 
 understood them as Mr. W. admits they did, and 
 being warned by them, they escaped the terrible 
 destruction which came upon the Jews. 
 
 There are other predictions of the coming of our 
 Lord, which are to be explained with reference to 
 the same awful catastrophe. That, for example, in 
 Mat. x. 23. " But 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." Did our blessed Re- 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED, 109 
 
 deemer design, by this language, to make a false 
 impression on the minds of his disciples ? Unless 
 he did, he designed to teach what we have just seen 
 is taught in the 24th chapter, viz : that very soon, 
 or during the generation then living on the earth, 
 he was to come again. He instructs his disciples 
 that they were not to tarry long in any city where 
 they preached. He tells them, when persecuted in 
 one city, to flee — haste to another ; and adds, as a 
 reason, that they would not have time to go over the 
 cities of Israel, before the Son of man should come* 
 I need not stop here to notice an unpardonable per- 
 version which has been made of this Scripture. 
 
 The apostle Paul, writing to the christian Jews^ 
 Heb. x. 37, speaks of the same coming of our Lord, 
 saying, " for yet a little while, and he that shall 
 come, will come, and will not tarry. " To the 
 warnings which they had received from the Saviour 
 himself, the apostle adds this caution, that they might 
 not be taken by surprise. And how explicit is the 
 language he uses — <s a little while "< — " will come " — 
 and " will not tarry, " &c. Was the apostle himself 
 mistaken ? Is it possible that, when he used such 
 language, he spoke of a coming which those Jews 
 were never to witness, and which was yet distant 
 more than eighteen hundred years? It is not possi- 
 ble. And therefore he had no reference to the final 
 Advent, when Christ is to come in power and great 
 
 glory to judge the world. If the christian Jews 
 10 
 
110 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 were deceived as to the time of his coming, the 
 apostle would have undeceived them, and would not 
 have used the very words that were calculated to 
 confirm them in a false belief. 
 
 That I am right in this conjecture, I will prove 
 by the testimony of a Millenarian. Mr. Winthrop 
 says, in his Lectures, page 108, " And this reminds 
 me of my last argument for the pre-rnillenial return 
 of Christ ; and that is, the constant admonitions 
 of Scripture to wait and watch for this event. — 
 The believers of the apostolic age, did not know 
 but that it might take place during their life-time ; 
 and hence, as they knew neither the day nor the 
 hour, they kept their lamps trimmed and burning, 
 in order to be ready to welcome the Bridegroom. 
 But if the coming of Christ is not to take place till 
 after the Millenium, it must still be at least a thou- 
 sand years off; and how could they, or how can we be 
 expecting, and watching, and waiting for that which 
 we know to be distant a thousand years?" 
 
 I do not question the correctness of this reasoning. 
 But the inference which I make from il, is very dif- 
 ferent from that which the author himself made. 
 From his statemant it would appsar that the prim- 
 itive christians, and the apostles themselves, were 
 mistaken in their calculations, as to the time of the 
 Saviour's second personal advent. They expected 
 it to take place in that age in which they lived. But 
 it was yet future more than eighteen hundred years. 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. Ill 
 
 From this, I would make the following inference : if 
 those who lived in the age of the apostles, and en- 
 joyed their ministry, committed so great a mistake, 
 supposing that the second coming was to take place 
 immediately, when it was jet more than eighteen 
 hundred years distant, may we not conclude that Mil- 
 lenarians mistake the time of his coming, by at least 
 a thousand years? A thousand years is not so great 
 an error as eighteen hundred. And it would be, 
 moreover, immodest and unbecoming to claim to be 
 more infallible than the apostles and primitive chris- 
 tians, or to have a better understanding of the proph- 
 ecies than they had. 
 
 The author asks, ''how could they have been ex- 
 pecting, and watching, and waiting for that which 
 they knew to be distant a thousand years?" And 
 would he infer from this that they did not? But he 
 will not deny the fact. The inference, therefore, 
 is against his own conclusion. I might put the ques- 
 tion in a different form. How could the apostles have 
 taught believers of that age to expect and wait for 
 that as immediately at hand which they knew to be 
 a thousand years distant ? 
 
 The truth in the case is, that the apostles and 
 early christians were not mistaken as to the period 
 of the Saviour's coming. They knew from their 
 own personal intercourse with him that he had spo- 
 ken of his coming in immediate connection with, 
 and as having a reference to the destruction of Je- 
 
112 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 rusalem, and of the glorious temple, and the end of 
 the Jewish church and state polity* And, as, in an- 
 swer to their inquiries, he had carried their minds 
 down from that event to the end of the world, and 
 the final judgment, which also he glanced at, they 
 may have received the impression that the two 
 events were to be connected together in their ac- 
 complishment. But if this was the impression 
 which they received, time has sufficiently shown the 
 fallacy thereof* This supposition is not at all at 
 variance with the idea of the inspiration of the 
 apostles. For it was possible for them not only to 
 be ignorant of the meaning of certain prophecies^ 
 but even to utter predictions which they could not 
 themselves understand* 
 
 Lastly, I remark, that there is a coming of the 
 Son of man spoken of, which can have reference 
 only to the end of the world, and the final judg- 
 ment* And never till that period shall arrive,, w r iM 
 he come again r the second time, in person* 
 
 I shall here bring together in juxtaposition, seve- 
 ral of the more prominent passages which allude to 
 the final and post-millenia! advent of the Lord Je~ 
 hovah from heaven, and then state some of the rea- 
 sons why their fulfillment must take place subsequent- 
 ly to the expiration of Christ's reign on earth. The 
 first I make is from the prophecies of Daniel, who 
 seems to have been permitted to look further into 
 the future, and who described more accurately the 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 113 
 
 rise and fall of nations yet unborn, than any other 
 prophet: 
 
 "And at that time shall Michael stand up, the 
 great Prince which standeth for the children of 
 thy people, and there shall be a time of trouble, 
 such as never was since there was a nation, even to 
 that same time; and at that time, thy people shall 
 be delivered, every one that shall be found written 
 in the book. And many of them that sleep in the 
 dust of the earth, shall awake, some to everlasting 
 life, and some to shame, and everlasting contempt. 
 And they that be wise, shall shine as the brightness 
 of the firmament; and they that turn many to righ- 
 teousness, as the stars forever and ever." Daniel, 
 xii. 1 — 3. 
 
 44 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, 
 
 and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit 
 
 upon the throne of his glory; and before him shall 
 
 be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them 
 
 one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep 
 
 from the goats; and he shall set his sheep on his 
 
 right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall 
 
 the King say unto them on his right hand, come ye 
 
 blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared 
 
 for you from the foundation of the world; for I was 
 
 an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, 
 
 and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye 
 
 took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, 
 
 and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came 
 10* 
 
1 14 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him^ 
 saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, 
 and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? 
 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? 
 or naked and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee 
 sick or in prison, and came unto thee? And the 
 King shall answer and say unto them, inasmuch as 
 ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my 
 brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he 
 say also unto them on the left hand, depart from me, 
 ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the 
 devil and his angels. For I was an hungered, and 
 ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me 
 no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; 
 naked, and ye clothed me not; sick, and in prison, 
 and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer 
 him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, 
 or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in pris- 
 on, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he 
 answer them, saying, verily, I say unto you, inasmuch 
 as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it 
 not to me. And these shall go away into everlast- 
 ing punishment, hut the righteous into life eternal." 
 Matt. xxv. 31—46. 
 
 "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth 
 my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath 
 everlasting life, and shall not come into condemna- 
 tion; but is passed from death unto life. Verily, 
 verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 115 
 
 is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of 
 God, and they that hear shall live. For as the 
 Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the 
 Son to have life in himself; and hath given him au- 
 thority to execute judgment also, because he is the 
 Son of man. Marvel not at this; for the hour is 
 coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear 
 his voice, and shall come forth, they that have done good 
 unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done 
 evil, unto the resurrection of damnation* " John v. 
 24—29. 
 
 "And the times of this ignorance, God winked at, 
 but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent; 
 because he hath appointed a day in the which he 
 will judge the world in righteousness by that man 
 whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given as- 
 surance unto all men, in that he hath raised him 
 from the dead," Acts xvii. 30 — 31. 
 
 " But I would not have you to be ignorant, breth- 
 ren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sor- 
 row not even as others which have no hope. For if 
 we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so 
 them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with 
 him. For this we say unto you by the word of the 
 Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the 
 coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which 
 are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend 
 from heaven with a shout, and with the voice of the 
 archangel, and with the trump of God. And the 
 
116 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are 
 alive and remain, shall be caught up together with 
 them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and 
 so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, com- 
 fort one another with these words." 1 Thess. 
 iv. 13—18. 
 
 "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat 
 on it, from whose face the earth and the heavens fled 
 away; and there was no place found for them. 
 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before 
 God; and the books were opened: and another 
 book was opened, which is the book of life; and 
 the dead were judged out of those things which 
 were written in the books, according to their works. 
 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and 
 death and hell delivered up the dead which were in 
 them; and they were judged, every man according 
 to their works. And death and hell were cast into 
 the lake of fire. This is the second death. And 
 whosoever was not found written in the book of 
 life, was cast into the lake of fire." Rev. xx. 11-15. 
 
 Many other passages besides the above might be 
 adduced, but there is no necessity for more. And 
 further, the sophistry that can wrest and turn aside 
 a few texts of Scripture, can do the same with ma- 
 ny. The last quotation given above, from the Book 
 of Revelations, it is admitted even by Millenarians, 
 alludes to events which are to have their fulfillment 
 subsequently to the Millenium. Every other pas- 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 117 
 
 sage quoted, is made to refer to events and a period 
 which will be pre-millenial. I shall now state sev- 
 eral reasons to show that this is a perversion of their 
 meaning. 
 
 I. And in the first place, the passages which have 
 been referred to, plainly teach the doctrine of a 
 general resurrection from the dead v both of the righ- 
 teous and the wicked. But this event will be post- 
 millenial, as all must admit. Millenarians say that 
 the resurrection of the righteous is to take place at 
 the commencement of the thousand years, when 
 Christ shall come to set up his throne on earth; but 
 that the wicked will not be raised till the close of 
 his millenial reign, there being a thousand years be- 
 tween the two resurrections. But this is to take a 
 position which is clearly at variance with the doc- 
 trine contained in those passages which have been 
 cited. What says Daniel? "Many of them that 
 sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to 
 everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting con- 
 tempt." Now we ask by what kind of logic, or 
 even sophistry, can the inference from this text be 
 avoided? They admit that the vyhole prophecy, of 
 which this text is but a part, is to have its fulfillment 
 at the commencement of the Millenium. And they 
 say too, that the first clause of the verse, which as- 
 serts the resurrection of the just, will be literally 
 fulfilled. But, strange as it may seem, they deny 
 that we are to understand the latter clause, which 
 
118 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 asserts the resurrection also of the wicked, in the 
 same sense. I need not, and I will not waste any 
 portion of these pages in examining the puerile crit- 
 icisms which they make upon this passage, in order 
 to make it bend to their own theory. 
 
 But how do they get over the difficulties which 
 the passage in the 25th chapter of Matthew inter- 
 poses to their views? O, nothing in the world, hard- 
 ly, so easy. The chapter says not one word at all 
 about a resurrection; and therefore they are not the 
 risen dead, but nations in the flesh, those who shall 
 be living on the earth at his coming, who are to be 
 gathered before him. But there is to be a separa- 
 tion made between them, and thev are to be reward- 
 ed and punished, every one according to the deeds 
 done in the body. The wicked, viz: those compar- 
 ed to the goats, are to be banished into everlasting 
 fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. But can 
 men in the Jlesh dwell in everlasting fire, prepared 
 for the devil and his angels? Or are men in the 
 Jlesh to be sent into everlasting punishment? And 
 why not, if it is so determined? That I may not be 
 supposed to misrepresent their view r s, I will here in- 
 troduce an extract from one of their latest and most 
 spirited writers. It is a comment on the latter part 
 of this 25th chapter of Matthew. ? The events 
 here particularly referred to, are to characterize the 
 well understood epoch of his coming, of which he 
 had spoken. Those events are the gathering of the 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 119 
 
 nations in the flesh before him, the separating between 
 the righteous arid the wicked found in them, and the 
 gathering of the elect. Not a word is said about a 
 resurrection. The phrase nation is never applied to 
 the dead, but always to masses of men and women liv- 
 ing on the earth together, under some form or other of 
 organized government* This being the most common 
 meaning and use of the word, we cannot extend its 
 import according to the objection we are consider- 
 ing, so as to embrace the innumerable hosts that have 
 gone down to the grave, in all ages, and from all 
 nations. They exist not, as nations, in the regions 
 of the dead, and therefore cannot come forth to 
 judgment, as nations, but shall come as the throng of 
 " the dead," just as John, who more especially speaks 
 of their judgment, describes. Such being the fact, 
 we are not at liberty to assume, that the Saviour, 
 when speaking of all nations being gathered before 
 him, out of which the goats shall be separated from 
 the sheep, is describing the process of final judg- 
 ment to be passed upon the dead. Wherefore the 
 account he gives of the gathering of the nations be- 
 fore him, and separating the sheep and the goats, 
 must be understood as applying solely to the nations in 
 the flesh, at the time of his coming, and not to the 
 hosts of the righteous and the wicked, as though 
 they were simultaneously raised from the dead, at a 
 final judgment." 
 
 " The everlasting fire into which the goats are 
 
120 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 sent, is said to be prepared for the devil and his an- 
 gels, and is identically the same with the lake of fire, 
 into which Satan is to be cast, and tormented day 
 and night forever and ever. Now the phrase ' pre- 
 pared for' implies plainly, that the devil and his an- 
 gels had not yet been cast into it, when the goats are 
 ordered to depart into it. Satan is bound for a 
 thousand years at the coming of Christ; and the 
 goats are cast into the fire long before him. But in 
 John's account, the wicked dead, at the last act of 
 judgment, are cast into the lake of fire, after Satan 
 had been cast there. The ; nations' and 'the dead' 
 therefore, cannot be the same"* 
 
 I need not spend much time in an examination of 
 the many singular and unfounded assertions contain- 
 ed in the above extract. I will, however, specify 
 several of them, in order that readers may judge 
 for themselves, how much safety is to be expected 
 from following a guide who errs so grossly. 
 
 I. He has asserted that the " nations" who are to 
 be gathered before the Son of man, when he shall 
 come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, 
 will be the nations in the fiesh, and not the risen dead. 
 
 II. That the word nations is never applied to the 
 dead, but always to " masses of men and women liv- 
 ing on the earth." Dr. D. knew, when he penned 
 this sentence, of the existence of that passage in 
 Revelations, where it is said of Satan, that he " shall 
 
 *Duffield on the Prophecies, pp. 340-342. 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 121 
 
 go out into the nations that are in the four quarters 
 of the earth, to deceive them," &c. And Dr. D. 
 knows, moreover, that he makes the word "na- 
 tions," as it there occurs, to mean the nations of the 
 risen dead. But let him prove that this word is 
 never, in the Scriptures, applied to the risen dead, 
 but always to men in the flesh, and his system is 
 gone. 
 
 III. He asserts that the goats, i. e. wicked men 
 in the fleshy are to be sent into u everlasting jire; " 
 which fire is identically the same with " the lake of 
 jire, " into which Satan is to be cast. 
 
 IV. He asserts that the phrase " prepared for," 
 implies plainly, " that the Devil and his angels had 
 not yet been cast into it, when the goats are order- 
 ed to depart into it, " so that the goats are cast into 
 the fire long before him. Peter, however, tells us 
 differently, when he speaks of the angels who kept 
 not their first estate, and says that they were " cast 
 down into hell, [lake of fire?] and delivered into 
 chains of darkness, to be reserved unto the judg- 
 ment" of the great day. But if not, perhaps Dr. 
 D. will inform his readers, in the next book he writes, 
 where the devil and the fallen angels have been 
 confined from the time of their fall until the close of 
 the Millenium, till which time he says they are not 
 to be cast into the lake of fire. 
 
 It would, perhaps, be entertaining to the reader, 
 to review the whole of the singular comment which 
 11 
 
122 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 this author has published to the world, on the latter 
 part of this 25th chapter of Matthew. It occupies 
 about thirty pages, and I cannot afford space, in this 
 little volume, for a critical review thereof* I will, 
 however, give a brief summary of his views on this 
 portion of the word of God* The coming of the 
 Son of man, here described, according to Dr. Duf- 
 field, will be, of course, pre-millenial. The angels 
 who attend him, will be the risen, changed, and glo- 
 rified saints. The sheep will not be the universal 
 righteous, of all ages and nations of the world, nor 
 all the righteous who shall then be alive on the earth. 
 Who then will they be? "The preservation and 
 gathering together of the remnant of converted Jews, in 
 the midst of these frightful scenes, is therefore the 
 gathering of the elect, of which the Saviour speaks," 
 whom he will separate from the goats in that great 
 day. They are not the risen wicked of all ages 
 of the world, nor even the wicked who shall then, 
 at his coming, be found on the earth; but the goats 
 are those nations who have persecuted the Jews, and 
 who shall then be living on the earth. 
 
 It is a fundamental principle in the Millenarian 
 theory, that there is to be no resurrection of the 
 wicked till after the thousand years are expired. 
 Therefore, according to the views of this writer, if, 
 when the Saviour shall come in person, all persecu- 
 tion of the Jews and of the Church in the world 
 shall have ceased, and there shall be no persecuting 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED, 1 23 
 
 nations then living, there will be no goats to be pla- 
 ced on the left hand, and sentenced into everlasting 
 fire. But some nations once bitterly persecuted the 
 Jews, which have long ceased to persecute them; 
 will they not be raised from the dead? Certainly 
 not, according to the doctrine of this book. The 
 English nation then, will not be among the goats, at 
 the coming of the Saviour; for they do not now per- 
 secute the elect and chosen people of God, though 
 they once did. The people of these United States 
 will not be among the goats, when that great sepa- 
 ration shall take place, for they have never persecu- 
 ted the Jews. 
 
 In short, when Christ shall come in the clouds of 
 heaven, with power and great glory, all Christian 
 converts among the Gentiles, will be changed in the 
 twinkling of an eye, and caught up in the air, to 
 meet the Lord at his coming. They will then be 
 sent forth, as his angels, to gather together his sheep, 
 i. e. the converted Jews, out of all nations whither 
 they are scattered; and these converted Jews will 
 continue in the flesh, while the Gentile saints are to 
 reign in a risen, changed, and glorified state. This 
 is the doctrine Dr. Duffield's book contains.. 
 
 The passage which I quoted from the 5th chapter 
 of John, I have never seen explained by any advo- 
 cate of Millenarian views. Indeed, I do not know 
 that they are aware of the existence of that passage. 
 There the Saviour is made to sav, " The hour is com- 
 
124 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 ing, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear 
 his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done 
 good, to the resurrection of life; and they that have 
 done evil, to the resurrection of damnation." There 
 are but two ways which will enable them to sur- 
 mount the difficulty which meets them in this pas- 
 sage. The first is, to suppose that the first clause 
 of the verse, which speaks of the resurrection of 
 those who have done good, is to be understood liter- 
 ally; but that the latter clause of the same verse is, 
 probably, a figure. The other plan is, to suppose 
 that the word hour, means a thousand years. This is 
 a more specious explanation than the one first sug- 
 gested. The prophetic day means, sometimes, as 
 we have already seen, a literal day, sometimes a 
 year, and sometimes a thousand years; and why may 
 not an hour signify a thousand years too? 
 
 The passage in 1 Thess. iv., has nothing, it is true, 
 about the resurrection of the wicked, but only of 
 the righteous. The reason is obvious to every 
 reader. The apostle designed the words here re- 
 corded, touching the rising of the saints, as words 
 of consolation to the bereaved, who had buried their 
 pious relatives. The context clearly shows this: 
 " Wherefore," he says, "comfort one another with 
 these words." The passage is thus introduced: "I 
 would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, con- 
 cerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, 
 even as others which have no hope." Wherefore 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY EEFUTED. 125 
 
 there was no need of his speaking of the resurrec- 
 tion of the wicked, in a description which was only 
 incidental, and designed as a means of consolation 
 to the bereaved. Nothing, therefore, can be infer- 
 red from the passage against such a resurrection of 
 the wicked. The apostle denies not that they will 
 be raised-, he says nothing about it; but simply 
 asserts that " the dead in Christ shall rise first, i. e. 
 shall be with Christ, even before the living are caught 
 up to meet him in the air. 
 
 The passage in the 20th chapter of Revelations, 
 unquestionably, teaches a universal resurrection: " I 
 saw the dead, small and great, stand before God." 
 "And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; 
 and death and hell delivered up the dead, which 
 were in them; and they were judged, every man ac- 
 cording to their works," This means, if we allow the 
 interpretation of Millenarians, that all the wicked 
 will be judged according to their works; for they 
 say that the resurrection here spoken of, is the last 
 resurrection, and has reference to the wicked alone. 
 But I consider it entirely unnecessary to dwell lon- 
 ger on this point. 
 
 II. A second reason for thinking that the personal 
 and last advent of the Son of God to our world, will 
 be after the Millenium, is, that when he shall come, 
 according to the Scriptures, the final separation be- 
 tween the righteous and the wicked is to take place. 
 
 We have seen how Dr. DufSeld explains the sepa- 
 II* 
 
126 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 ration described in the 25th chapter of Matthew, 
 and he may be supposed to speak the sentiments of 
 Millenarians generally. According to him, this 
 separation will be, by no means, universal and thor- 
 ough. But even Dr. D. will not deny that the sep- 
 aration spoken of in that chapter, is the same, and 
 has a reference to the same awful event, as that de- 
 scribed in the 13th chapter, viz: in the parable of 
 the tares and the wheat. The only difference is, 
 that in the one case, the comparison is made by the 
 figure of the tares and wheat; in the other, by the 
 figure of the sheep and goats. Our Divine Lord 
 has given us a full explanation of the parable of the 
 tares and wheat j* therefore, any uninspired expla- 
 nation of it is wholly unnecessary and unauthorized. 
 In this explanation we may note several things as 
 worthy of particular attention. 
 
 1. The tares (the goats) are called "the children 
 of the wicked one;" therefore they cannot be per- 
 secutors of the Jews alone. For all the wicked, of 
 every grade and character, may be said to be the 
 children of the wicked one. Even the wicked Jews 
 have received that appellation from our Saviour him- 
 self. John viii. 44. 
 
 2. The tares are sowed by the devil; therefore, 
 as the tares are the children of the wicked one, and 
 they are sowed by the devil, we have data from 
 which we can determine the period when they were 
 
 * Matthew xiii. 37-43. 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 127 
 
 sowed. As long as there have been sinners in the 
 world, there have been tares in the kingdom; hut 
 they could not have been in the kingdom before 
 they were sowed by the wicked one. 
 
 3. The angels are to gather out of the kingdom 
 " all things that offend, and them which do iniquity" 
 The separation then, will be thorough and entire, 
 whether we suppose that it shall take place before 
 or after the Millenium. It will not be confined to 
 a particular class of sinners, viz: those who persecu- 
 ted the Jews, according to the theory of Dr. Duf- 
 field. If we are to believe this writer, the remote 
 Gentile nations, who never heard or rejected the 
 Gospel, nor had any hand in persecuting Jews, will 
 remain in the kingdom after this separation shall have 
 been made, and will not be burned nor cast into the 
 everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. 
 From whence it would follow, either that the king- 
 dom of the Saviour, will not extend all over the 
 world ; or that it will contain very many of such as 
 work iniquity, after this expurgation spoken of. 
 Yea, after the separation of the sheep and the goats, 
 or the tares and wheat, there will remain in the king- 
 dom a great multitude of idolaters, whoremongers, 
 thieves, liars, robbers, murderers, covetous, &c, for all 
 the heathen are such; contrary to what is expressly 
 written, viz: that none of these can enter into the 
 kingdom of God. And are these to remain in the 
 kingdom of "universal light, love, and holiness'' 
 
128 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 after it shall have been set up? No, but they are 
 to be converted after that event, by the ministry of 
 the "raised and quickened saints, through whom the 
 sway of Heaven is to be extended over the earfch."* 
 But how are they to be converted? By the preach- 
 ing of the Gospel, or otherwise? As the Gospel 
 dispensation will have come to an end, Dr. D. will 
 explain this difficulty, in his next work on the pro- 
 phecies, for he has partially promised his readers 
 another volume. 
 
 III. A third reason for believing that the second 
 personal advent of the Son of God, will be post- 
 millenial, is, that he is then to pronounce the eter- 
 nal sentence, both of the righteous and of the 
 wicked. " These, " i. e. the wicked, " shall go 
 away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous 
 into life eternal. " Matt. xxv. 46. The pronouncing 
 of that sentence is to be the last act in the history 
 of this world, and the closing of all the scenes to be 
 enacted on this mortal drama. But according to 
 the theory which I am examining, that sentence is 
 to be pronounced, and the eternal states of, at least, 
 a portion of mankind, to be fixed a thousand years 
 before the resurrection of the wicked from their 
 graves, and before the "great white throne" in 
 heaven shall appear, before which "the dead, 
 small and great," shall stand to be judged, "every 
 man according to their works." 
 
 * Duffield on the Prophecies, p. 362. 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 129 
 
 It is admitted, on all hands, that the sentence 
 which will be pronounced on the " goats," whoever 
 they may be, whether the universal wicked, or only 
 a small part, will be inflicted on them in some other 
 place, and not in this world, viz: the "lake of fire" 
 "prepared for the devil and his angels." The 
 phrase, "shall go away," implies that they shall no 
 longer remain in this present evil world. With 
 equal clearness, it is taught, that the righteous shall 
 go away to " enter into life eternal. " The same 
 verb, apeleusontai, is understood in the latter clause 
 of the verse, which is expressed in the first clause. 
 It would be a total violation of one of the plainest 
 rules of grammar, to say that the noun has no verb, 
 and if it has a verb, it can be no other than the 
 verb apeleasontai, u shall go away," which is used in 
 the first clause of the verse. Therefore the righ- 
 teous are to leave this world as well as the wicked. 
 They are not to enjoy " eternal life " here. But 
 how does this correspond with the Millenarian 
 scheme, which teaches that the kingdom is to be set 
 up in this world, and that the righteous are to reign 
 in eternal life, on the earth, after that final sentence 
 has been pronounced. 
 
 Again, as the righteous go away "into life eternal" 
 wherever that state is, whether in this world or 
 another, it is eternal, and of course unchangeable. 
 If the saints are to receive a kingdom which shall 
 endure " forever and ever," according to the proph- 
 
130 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 ecy of Daniel, and if that kingdom is to be given 
 them in this world, at the commencement of the 
 millenial reign, then they are to inhabit this world 
 forever and ever* And who is willing to adopt this 
 as one of the tenets of his faith? But if this world 
 is to be the eternal abode of the " risen, changed, 
 and glorified saints, " it will, of course, be changed, 
 and made a fit residence for them. Hence, the final 
 conflagration, which is to purify this earth, and burn 
 up all the dross and sin, and render it an ethereal 
 and celestial abode, fit for the habitation of Christ 
 and his redeemed, in their glorious and heavenly 
 bodies, is to take place at the beginning of the Mil- 
 lenium. 
 
 IV. This is the fourth reason for believing that 
 the second coming is not pre-millenial, viz: that it 
 supposes that the general conflagration of this 
 world is to be before the millenial reign begins. 
 Whether all Millenarians believe this or not, I have 
 not ascertained. It is a point on which they are 
 not forward to declare their opinion. But I know 
 that some of them do believe that the burning up 
 of this world, which Peter speaks of, will be pre- 
 millenial. Indeed, the opposite opinion would not 
 be in harmony with their general theory. 
 
 Some of them may and do teach that in the fu- 
 ture glorious kingdom, which the Messiah is to set 
 up in this world at his second coming, there will be 
 men and women in the flesh. But who does not see 
 
Oil THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 131 
 
 that this is plainly contrary to the express words of 
 Paul: "Now this I say unto you, brethren, that flesh 
 and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither 
 doth corruption inherit incorruption. " 1 Cor. xv. 
 50. He teaches that in the resurrection we shall be 
 raised with spiritual bodies, incorruptible bodies, 
 celestial bodies. He teaches also, that the bodies of 
 the living will be changed, and for the reason be- 
 fore mentioned, to-wit, that " flesh and blood cannot 
 inherit the kingdom of God," i. e. the kingdom of 
 glory. It will never be possible for the advocates 
 of the Millenarian system to answer or remove this 
 objection. 
 
 They maintain that when the Saviour shall come 
 to reign personally on the earth, the saints, the dead 
 in Christ, will rise, and reign with him on the earth. 
 And as reason and Scripture, both, forbid the sup- 
 position that the wicked will exist and reign together 
 on the earth with Christ, and his risen, changed, and 
 glorified saints, it follows that they will be removed 
 hence. The sole occupants of this terrestial 
 sphere, in its redeemed and regenerate state, during 
 the latter-day glory, will be the King of Zion, with 
 his risen and glorified saints. From this, it follows, 
 as a necessary consequence, that the earth is to un- 
 dergo a great change, corresponding to the change 
 experienced by its inhabitants. For if it be true, 
 that "corruption cannot inherit incorruption" the con- 
 
132 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 verse is equally true, that corruption cannot be in- 
 herited by incorruption. 
 
 Every habitation, or state of existence, should be 
 adapted to the nature, powers and faculties of the 
 beings who inhabit it. But this earth, in its present 
 state, would be but ill-suited to the nature and ca- 
 pacities of celestial bodies, living and moving about 
 upon its surface; composed, as it is, of land and 
 water, and diversified with hills and valleys, lakes 
 and rivers, seas and continents, islands and deserts, 
 burning sands and regions of perpetual snow. How 
 would spiritual bodies, celestial bodies, not partaking 
 of the nature of flesh and blood, move about on the 
 surface of this earth, in its present physical state? 
 Would they travel by steam, over rail-roads, turn- 
 pikes, etc.? Or would they be transported on riv- 
 ers and oceans, in vessels of the same kind and 
 make as those now in use? What use would there 
 be in the resurrection for the vegetable and animal 
 productions, which the earth now yields so plente- 
 ously for the sustenance of man? Man, in his pres- 
 ent condition, cannot subsist, except by the con- 
 sumption of animal and vegetable substances. But 
 will he subsist in the same way in the future king- 
 dom of glory? Is it reasonable to suppose that bo- 
 dies, purely spiritual and celestial, and having noth- 
 ing of the nature of flesh and blood, could subsist 
 in this manner? And if not, is there not to be a 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 133 
 
 great change in the animal, vegetable, and mineral 
 kingdoms of nature ? 
 
 Again, the earth, in its present state, is, if I may 
 so express myself, morally deformed and corrupt. It 
 has, for ages, been literally the abode of misery and 
 death. There is scarcely any part of its surface 
 that has not, at sundry times, been moistened with 
 the tears and blood of its inhabitants. Tyranny, 
 oppression, and war, have made it a common field; 
 and nothing short of a thorough renovation will ren- 
 der it fit to be the residence of the King of glory, 
 and the myriads of his redeemed and blood-washed 
 saints. Therefore, on the Miilenarian theory, the 
 general conflagration of the last day, which is to pu- 
 rify this earth, must take place previously to the 
 commencement of the thousand years' reign. This 
 conclusion they cannot resist. Many of them do 
 not attempt it, but avow, openly and boldly, their 
 belief that the general conflagration of this world, 
 as foretold by St. Peter, will be pre-millenial. Oth- 
 ers of them have, probably, never reflected on this 
 particular point. But none that I know of, have 
 ever denied that that last and awful catastrophe in 
 the conclusion of this world's history, will be pre- 
 vious to the thousand years' reign. There will be 
 " a new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth 
 righteousness;" and these will be the eternal abode 
 of the risen and redeemed saints. Into this abode — 
 
 this second and brightest Paradise of God — they 
 12 
 
134 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, &C. 
 
 shall enter, as Millenarians say, at the commence- 
 ment of the thousand years. 
 
 From this it will follow, that when the thousand 
 years are expired, the last tremendous battle, spoken 
 of in the 20th chapter of Revelations, is to be fought, 
 not on the theatre of this earth, but on the NEW 
 EARTH; and also, that the resurrection of the 
 wicked, after the Millenium, will take place on the 
 same theatre, a thousand years after their bones and 
 dust have been consumed in the fires of the last day, in 
 which the old world had perished. 
 
 But these are points of so much importance, that 
 I must reserve the consideration of them for another 
 chapter or two. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The First Resurrection considered, which is spoken of in Rev. xx. 4-8. 
 
 There is some probability that a single passage 
 of Scripture in the Book of Revekitions, is the root 
 and source of all the difficulties with which Mille- 
 narians bewilder, perplex and confound themselves, 
 in their vain attempts to reconcile their views with 
 the doctrines of the Bible. That passage is the fol- 
 lowing, " And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, 
 and judgment was given unto them; and I saw the 
 souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of 
 Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not 
 worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had 
 received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their 
 hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a 
 thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not 
 again until the thousand years were finished. This 
 is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that 
 hath part in the first resurrection; on such the 
 second death hath no power, but they shall be priests 
 of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a 
 thousand years." Rev. xx. 4-6. This, as we have 
 reason to think, has been the origin of all the mis- 
 takes that have prevailed on the subject of the Mil- 
 lenium, from the earliest times down to the present 
 day. 
 
136 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 It is an admitted fact, that there are many passa- 
 ges in the word of God, which are of doubtful in- 
 terpretation, in the understanding of which, men 
 will greatly differ in their judgments. And this 
 Scripture concerning the first resurrection, is cer- 
 tainly one of those passages. And a right or a 
 wrong view of this passage, lays the foundation of 
 a right or a wrong system of religious faith. And 
 who cannot see that a want of spiritual apprehension, 
 and of the spiritual nature of Christ's kingdom, would 
 be very likely to prevent many persons from having 
 a proper understanding of this passage now under 
 consideration? 
 
 The advocates of Millenarian doctrines, are, in 
 genera], very particular and precise, in laying down 
 rules for interpreting the prophetical writings. And 
 it would, indeed, be very desirable to have correct 
 rules of this kind, which we might safely follow. 
 But certainly it is idle for any individual writer to 
 undertake to make rules for another writer, or for 
 all other writers and expounders, who are indepen- 
 dent and under no obligations to follow his rules' 
 and who are, perhaps, equally as capable of making 
 rules for expounding the Scriptures as himself. Ev- 
 ery commentator will follow the dictates of his own 
 judgment in this matter, and will not be trammelled 
 by the rules which another fallible man, and no bet- 
 ter acquainted with the subject than himself, may 
 have invented for him. Besides, every one who un- 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 137 
 
 derlakes to establish or define what he considers to 
 be the correct rules of interpretation, will, of course, 
 fix on those rules which are agreeable to his own 
 views of Scripture doctrine, and which will lead 
 others to entertain the same views. 
 
 I cannot, therefore, but think, that it was a super- 
 fluous work which Dr. Duffield performed, in devo- 
 ting the first half of his volume solely to the consid- 
 eration of the true and correct rule of interpreting 
 the prophecies. Notwithstanding all his labors and 
 research, not one of his readers will be a jot the 
 wiser for what he has written, or be able to explain 
 the prophecies with more ease and accuracy than 
 he could before. The long and the short of his ex- 
 tended and elaborate argument is just this, that the 
 Scriptures are always and invariably to be under- 
 stood in the plain and literal sense; but that some 
 parts of the Scriptures contain typical, symbolical, 
 metaphorical or figurative language, which, of course, 
 is to be explained accordingly. Now any old woman 
 that ever read the Bible in her life, could have laid 
 down as correct and definite a rule as this. The 
 great, the all-important question which involves the 
 whole difficulty in the case, is, which portions of the 
 Bible are written in typical, symbolical^ or meta- 
 phorical language; and which portions are written 
 in plain language? Has Dr. D. laid down any rules 
 in his work, or will he be able to lay down any, 
 which will help us, at all times, to decide this ques. 
 12* 
 
138 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE? 
 
 lion? To do this is not within the compass of possi- 
 bility. He might indeed go through the Bible, and 
 with his pen or his pencil, mark every chapter and 
 every verse with the word literal or the word figura- 
 tive^ and then we would know which passages to 
 explain in a literal sense, and which to understand 
 spiritually. But in that case, we should have to 
 abandon our own judgment entirely, and to follow 
 that of Dr. D. This would be to make for ourselves 
 a Protestant Pope, to explain for us the Word of 
 God. 
 
 Notwithstanding all this author has advanced in 
 favor of the literal system, it will be found, on ex- 
 amination, that he is as far from following his own 
 rules as the anti-Millenarians, whom, probably by 
 way of reproach, he calls spiritualists, and whose 
 paternity he pretends to trace back to Origen, the 
 allegorist. This is, without doubt, a most uncharita- 
 ble and unfounded insinuation, for which the author 
 may not expect to gain much applause, among the 
 respectable body of evangelical Christians, who are 
 opposed to his system. Not less unfounded is it, I 
 say, than it is uncharitable; for anti-Millenarians 
 have as little sympathy for Origen's method of alle- 
 gorizing even the plainest passages, as Dr. D. him- 
 self has. The truth of this I shall endeavor, in an- 
 other place, to make plain. 
 
 But to come to this 20th of Revelations; must we 
 explain it in a literal or a spiritual sense? One tells 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 139 
 
 us that we must adhere strictly to the rule of a lit- 
 eral interpretation^ only taking care, when types, met- 
 aphors, tropes, &c, are used, to give them their pro- 
 per meaning. Well, this is a safe rule enough, only 
 somewhat indefinite and vague, inasmuch as all the 
 difficulty is, in not knowing when figurative lan- 
 guage is used, and when not. Another tells us, 
 that "words are to he taken in their literal and pri- 
 mary import, unless there be some warrant, either 
 in the connection and context, or in the known na- 
 ture of the subject, to give them a secondary and 
 figurative import."* This is about as definite a rule 
 as the other, but not more so; as we are still left to 
 no other guidance than our own judgment, in deter- 
 mining when to give the words their literal sense, 
 and when to give them a figurative meaning. 
 
 The truth is just here — they wish us to interpret 
 those scriptures literally which they understand in a 
 literal sense, and those scriptures figuratively, which 
 they explain in the same manner; and because we 
 do not, they are pleased to call us allegorists. 
 
 And now let us come to the subject of the "first 
 resurrection," to see whether a literal interpretation 
 of that passage favors the views of Millenarians. 
 The chapter begins with these words: "And I saw 
 an angel come down from heaven, having the key 
 of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand." 
 Now are we to understand this verse in a literal, or 
 
 * Winthrop's Lectures. 
 
140 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 in a spiritual sense? Will the rule which Dr. Duf- 
 field has laid down and explained at such great 
 length, throw any light upon this question? It is 
 true that, according to his rule, we must explain it 
 in a strictly literal or grammatical sense, only taking 
 care to notice those words which are used as meta- 
 phors or figures, and to explain them accordingly. 
 But the question is, whether the verse contains any 
 terms which are used in a figurative sense; and if 
 so, which are those terms? Perhaps Dr. D. would 
 say the words pit, key, chain, &c, are terms of this 
 nature. "And he laid hold on the dragon, that old 
 serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound 
 him a thousand years; and shut him up, and set a 
 seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no 
 more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled; and 
 after that he should be loosed a little season." I 
 doubt whether even the most exact literalist, would 
 require us to give every word in this passage its pri- 
 mary and literal sense, because it would make the 
 reading of it ridiculous. Even Dr. D. would hardly 
 presume on our credulity so far as to ask us to be- 
 lieve that Satan is a literal serpent; or that the angel 
 literally laid his hands on him, and bound him literal- 
 ly with a huge chain, and set a literal seal upon him, 
 &c. We have no difficulty, then, till we come to 
 the following verses: " And I saw thrones, and they 
 sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them; 
 and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 141 
 
 the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and 
 which had not worshipped the beast, neither his im- 
 age, neither had received his mark upon their fore- 
 heads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned 
 with Christ a thousand years. Bui the rest of the 
 dead lived not again until the thousand years were 
 finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed 
 and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrec- 
 tion; on such the second death hath no power; hut 
 they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall 
 reign with him a thousand years." Now, Millena- 
 rians pretend to explain the whole of this passage 
 literally, and they require us to admit their explana- 
 tion. But if, as we have seen, many of the words 
 in the preceding verses of the chapter, and many, 
 as we could show, in the following verses, are used 
 in a metaphorical sense, why are we required to ex- 
 plain these three verses according to the letter? But 
 let us see whether they do really themselves adhere 
 to this rule of a literal interpretation, in reference 
 to this passage. The first important word that oc- 
 curs, is the word thrones: "And I saw thrones, and 
 they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto 
 them," &c. Now they have not told us whether 
 this word means literal thrones or not; so that we 
 must guess at their meaning. But this we shall have 
 no difficulty in doing, since it is their opinion that a 
 literal resurrection of the body is here spoken of, 
 and since the saints are to be literally kings and 
 
142 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 priests unto God. Of course, if the saints are to be 
 raised literally from their graves, and in their glori- 
 fied bodies to set upon thrones, they must be literal 
 and material thrones, (indeed they could sit upon no 
 other.) They may not be exactly such thrones as 
 the chief rulers and princes of this world occupy; 
 they may be far more glorious, but still they will be 
 literal and material thrones. But who sat on these 
 thrones? The inspired John says, "The souls of 
 them that were beheaded for- the witness of Jesus," 
 &c. Now, if this is to be taken in a literal sense, 
 it follows that the souls, and not the bodies, (there is 
 nothing said about bodies in the w T hole passage,) of 
 them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, 
 viz: the martyrs, are to sit on thrones and reign with 
 Jesus, during the thousand years. But Millena- 
 rians, pretending to explain this literally, require us 
 to believe that it includes all who are sawed through 
 Christ, whether they suffered as martyrs or died a 
 natural death, and were never persecuted at all for 
 righteousness' sake. This certainly does not seem 
 to us like following out their own rule of interpreta- 
 tion. But Mr. Winthrop, who is perhaps the clear- 
 est of any of their writers, justifies this view of the 
 passage, in the following manner: c; The construc- 
 tion, in the Greek, shows, and such indeed is the 
 general opinion of critical commentators, that the 
 word psuehas, translated 'souls,' is understood in the 
 middle of the sentence; and when the ellipsis is 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 143 
 
 supplied, the passage will read thus: "I saw the 
 souls of them that were beheaded for the witness 
 of Jesus, and for the word of God, and [the souls of 
 them] which had not worshipped the beast, neither 
 his image, neither had received his mark upon their 
 foreheads, or in their hands." Two classes are here 
 mentioned — one comprises the martyrs, those that 
 were beheaded, &c. — the other comprises those who 
 had not conformed to the abominations of Anti- 
 christ."* 
 
 We have seen before that this author does not 
 scruple to supply a word or an ellipsis, when it is 
 necessary to make out his sense. When he says 
 that the general opinion of critical commentators 
 sustains him in supplying this ellipsis, we under- 
 stand him, of course, to refer to Millenarian com- 
 mentators, though he does not say so; nor must we 
 suppose, that he gives it as the opinion of these 
 critical commentators that there is a single rule of 
 any grammar in the world which will justify the use 
 of this ellipsis. 
 
 Several verbs may be coupled with the same 
 noun, when they are all predicates thereof, without 
 the noun being repeated, as if it should be said, 
 "General Washington appointed to be captains in 
 the American Army, all those who had been wound- 
 ed in battle, and had been in the service three 
 years, and were thirty years of age;" would not 
 
 * Winthrop's Lectures, p, 132, 
 
144 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 every one understand that the three qualifications 
 here specified, were necessary to every one who 
 aspired to the rank of a captain? For there might 
 have been some in the army who had received no 
 wound in battle, nor were thirty years of age, but 
 who had been in the service three years; it is mani- 
 fest that, according to the preceding law, they could 
 not have been made captains* But suppose that it 
 should be said, "General Washington appointed to 
 be captains in the American Army, all those who 
 had been wounded in battle, and all those who 
 had been in the service three years, and all those 
 who were thirty years of age," we should understand 
 this very differently. Here would be three different 
 classes of persons pointed out, who, we should un- 
 derstand, were to be appointed as captains in the 
 American Army, But in the first case supposed, 
 there was but one class eligible to that office, viz: 
 those who possessed the three distinct qualifications 
 specified in the terms. So in every case, where 
 several things are predicated of the same noun, they 
 may be coupled together without a repetition of the 
 noun or pronoun; but where a number of things 
 are predicated of as many different classes of persons 
 or things, the noun or pronoun must be repeated in 
 every instance. The accuracy of grammatical con- 
 struction requires this. 
 
 Now let us apply this rule to the case in question: 
 " I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 145 
 
 the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and 
 which had not worshipped the beast, " etc. Mr. 
 Winthrop, in the passage already quoted from him, 
 asserts that here are two distinct classes of persons 
 described, who are to reign with Christ, &c. We 
 assert that there are two different characteristics 
 predicated concerning one and the same class of per- 
 sons. And this position will not be denied. For 
 example, many die a natural death, who do not suf- 
 fer as witnesses for the testimony of Jesus; will all 
 such, who have not worshipped the beast, reign on 
 the earth with Christ, during the thousand years? 
 According to the statement of Mr. W. they certain- 
 ly will. Therefore, the worshippers of the False 
 Prophet may and will reign with Christ; for they 
 worshipped not the beast. The Hindoos and the 
 heathen will reign too on the earth, during the Mil- 
 lenium ; for they never worshipped Antichrist. 
 Nay, the Protestant infidels in our own country, will 
 enjoy the same blessedness; for, though they die not 
 as martyrs for the witness of Jesus, yet neither do 
 they bow the knee to the image of the beast, if in- 
 deed it be true, as all Protestants suppose, that the 
 beast is Papal Rome. We see, therefore, the falla- 
 cy and absurdity of this supposed ellipsis, which Mr. 
 W., or somebody else invented, for the support of 
 their theory. Neither of the qualifications speci- 
 fied would alone be sufficient; both are necessary 
 13 
 
146 THE KINGCOxM OF GRACE, 
 
 as a passport to a throne in the kingdom of Mil- 
 lenial glory. 
 
 But now, suppose, that for a moment, we concede 
 what they cannot obtain by a distortion of the text, 
 viz: that all the saints are to live and reign, &c. 
 there is another difficulty, still greater, which meets 
 them here. We have before seen, that, upon their 
 principles, there will be none living on the earth 
 during the millenial reign, but the risen, changed, 
 and glorified saints. The dead saints are to be 
 raised, the living ones to be changed, and the wick- 
 ed are to be destroyed, at the coming of Christ. 
 The earth is to be purified with fire, and the king- 
 dom of glory to be set up, and, of course, nothing 
 that can offend will be left remaining in it. This 
 has already been demonstrated. If then there will 
 be none on the earth during the thousand years, but 
 the glorified saints, who shall be kings and priests 
 unto God, occupying literal thrones and executing 
 judgment, we ask who will be the subjects? Over 
 whom will they reign? Whom will they judge? 
 For it is but natural to suppose, that where there are 
 kings, there must be subjects. They will not judge 
 angels, for holy angels are not to be judged by the 
 saints; and wicked angels will not be on the earth, 
 but in hell, during the Millenium. They will not 
 judge wicked men, for those who are living shall be 
 destroyed at the second coming, and the rest are 
 not to be raised from the dead till the thousand 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 147 
 
 years are expired. I can see no way of escape from 
 this difficulty but that which has been furnished to 
 the hands of Mr. W. by Lactantius, viz: to suppose 
 that a certain number of the wicked will be left re- 
 maining on the earth during the Millenium, on pur- 
 pose to be triumphed over by the church of God, and 
 reduced to "perpetual servitude. " Such a kingdom 
 of glory, (what ideas of glory these writers may 
 have, I know not,) but such a kingdom of glory I 
 could almost pray that I might never be permitted 
 to see. 
 
 We see, then, that it will be better for their own 
 theory, if they want subjects as well as kings and 
 priests in the future kingdom of the Messiah, to 
 stick closer to the letter of the text A literal ex- 
 position, certainly, requires that no more than the 
 martyrs shall have a part in the first resurrection, at 
 the period when the Saviour shall descend from 
 heaven, to erect his throne of glory on this sin-ruin- 
 ed earth. 
 
 There cannot exist a greater contrariety of opin- 
 ion on any subject scarcely, than there is among 
 Millenarians on this very question. Some have it, 
 and they alone are consistent, that there will be no 
 subjects to constitute the kingdom of Christ during 
 the thousand years, but that all who shall then ex- 
 ist will be kings and priests unto God, Others 
 seem to imagine, that there will be multitudes of 
 people in the flesh during that period, and that these 
 
148 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 will be the subjects. Sometimes we are led to infer 
 from their writings that these multitudes in the flesh 
 will be wicked men; at others, that they will be 
 saints, being a second order, and inferior, of course, 
 to those who shall exist in a risen, changed, and 
 glorified state. Mr. Winthrop says in one place, 
 " It may here be well to observe, that where our 
 Saviour says, Hhey neither marry nor are given in 
 marriage, neither can they die any more, ' he refers 
 to the risen, changed, and glorified saints; and not to 
 individuals living in the flesh during the millenium, 
 who are the SUBJECTS, and not the rulers of that 
 kingdom which is administered by Christ, and those 
 who have a share in the first resurrection. Those, 
 who, from time to time, exist in the flesh during this 
 epoch of the world's history, as we infer from many 
 passages of Scripture, marry, and are given in mar- 
 riage; and after living to a great age, and replenish- 
 ing the earth, at length die. V.* From this we can 
 only infer, that^ there will be people in the flesh du- 
 ring that period; that they will marry and be given 
 in marriage, beget children, be subject to death, 
 &c. But we cannot infer from this passage wheth- 
 er they are to be righteous or wicked. 
 
 But again, he says in the same chapter, page 146, 
 "We have already shown, that the resurrection of 
 life, so far as the first resurrection is concerned, takes 
 place at the beginning of the thousand years, and 
 
 * Lectures, p- 142. 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 149 
 
 that the resurrection of damnation, does not take 
 place till after its close; at which time there is also 
 a resurrection to eternal life, of such of the righteous 
 as shall have lived in the flesh, after the first re- 
 surrection; and from time to time during the Mil- 
 lenium, but who, in the course of nature, after ar- 
 riving at a great age, have at length died. " Now 
 in this passage, several things are distinctly stated, 
 which I shall note down in order, as important to be 
 remembered. 
 
 I. That the resurrection of life is to take place at 
 the beginning of the thousand years, but that the 
 resurrection of damnation does not take place till 
 after its close. 
 
 II. That there will be, on the earth, some in the 
 flesh that will be righteous during the millenium. 
 
 III. That these righteous persons in the flesh, 
 after living to a great age, will at length DIE, 
 while the millenial reign is yet in continuance. 
 
 IV. That at the last resurrection, viz: the resur- 
 rection of damnation, these righteous persons will also 
 be raised to life, so that it will not be exclusively a 
 resurrection of damnation. 
 
 The author deserves praise for conciseness of 
 style. He has here expressed much in a very few 
 words. 
 
 But in another place, as I have had occasion to 
 notice elsewhere, he has expressed the opinion that 
 those in the flesh during the millenium will be sin- 
 13* 
 
150 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 mrs< On page 170, he says: "It would seem from 
 this, that, although in the millenium the great ma- 
 jority of the people will be righteous, just as a large 
 majority are now wicked, still, there will be, during 
 that happy period, some few whom the Prophet calls sin- 
 ners, and who, he says, shall be aceursed. " And 
 then he gives that memorable quotation from Lac- 
 tantius, as corroborative of the same view: "and 
 they that shall be raised from the dead shall be over 
 the living as judges. And the Gentiles shall not be 
 utterly extinguished; but some shall be left for the 
 victory of God, that they may be triumphed over by 
 the just, and reduced to perpetual servitude. 5? 
 
 Now the query is, whether there is not a contra- 
 diction here. In one place, this author teaches, that 
 those who shall live in the flesh, during the Millen- 
 ium, will be righteous; in another, that they will be 
 sinners. The one position seems to be an op-posi- 
 tion to the other. Perhaps it is meant that there 
 will be sinners, and that there will be righteous per- 
 sons both in the flesh, during the thousand years, as 
 well as saints in a risen, changed, and glorified state. 
 If this is the author's meaning, he will have a motley 
 mixture, indeed, in the future kingdom of righteous- 
 ness and glory, which is to be set up at the second 
 advent of our Lord. But how comes it to pass, that 
 there will be sinners in the jlesh and righteous persons 
 too, on the earth, during that blessed period "of uni- 
 versal light, love, and holiness?" Lactantius, as we 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 151 
 
 have seen, (and Mr. Winthrop adopts his view,) has 
 explained why some wicked Gentiles will be permit- 
 ted to live on the earth, at that time, viz: "for the 
 victory of Goof, that they may be triumphed over by 
 the just, and reduced to perpetual servitude" But why 
 are righteous persons also left in the flesh, during the 
 same period? Do they not teach that the saints who 
 shall be alive, at the second coming, will be chang- 
 ed " in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye," and 
 so rendered immortal? How is it, then, that there 
 are to be saints in the fiesh during the Millenium? 
 I confess that the farther I proceed in the examina- 
 tion of their theory, the more I am puzzled. Will 
 it be said that a part of the Gentile sinners, who are 
 not cut off in the general destruction at the burning 
 of the world, are converted, or become righteous, 
 subsequently to the commencement of the Millenium^ 
 and that this accounts for the fact of there being 
 saints, and also sinners in the flesh, during that pe- 
 riod? But this w 7 ould be to contradict their own 
 most positive declarations. Lactantius has said, and 
 Mr. Winthrop, in quoting Lactantius, has said, that 
 there will be some wicked left remaining on the 
 earth during the thousand years, not for the purpose 
 of being converted; not for the purpose of being 
 brought under, or continued under a Gospel dispen- 
 sation; but for the victory of God, that they may be 
 triumphed over, and reduced to perpetual servitude. 
 Millenarians do not believe that the Gospel is to be 
 
152 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 preached during the Millenial reign, and that sin-* 
 ners are to enjoy a day of probation, and the means 
 of grace, as now. It is a part of their system, that 
 the Gospel age or dispensation is to come to an end, 
 when the future and glorious kingdom of our Im- 
 manuel shall be set up. 
 
 I will proceed now to state the views of anti-mil- 
 lenarians, respecting this passage in Revelation on 
 the first resurrection: "I saw the souls of them that 
 were beheaded for the witness of Jesus," &c. " And 
 they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." 
 This has generally been explained as having refer- 
 ence to the spirit of deep and ardent piety, which 
 is to be predominant throughout the world, during 
 the Millenium. The spirit that was in the martyrs 
 is to actuate the generations who shall then live, so 
 that the race of martyrs may be said to be revived, 
 and to live again, in those possessed of their spirit 
 and principles. " But the rest of the dead lived not 
 again till the thousand years were finished;" i. e. 
 the spirit of wickedness — of the wicked dead — was 
 destroyed, and lived not again, i. e. ruled no more 
 in the hearts of men till the end of the thousand 
 years, when sin, or the spirit of the wicked is revived 
 again, and Satan deceives the nations once more, 
 and the last battle is fought. This explanation is, 
 perhaps, not more spiritual or allegorical than the 
 explanation which Millenarians themselves give to 
 some verses in this 20th chapter, and to many passa- 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 153 
 
 ges in the Book of Revelation. And the meaning 
 which has now been given, is sometimes vindicated 
 by a reference to the manner in which the prophe- 
 cies, contained in the Old Testament, are frequent- 
 ly explained by the inspired writers of the New; 
 especially that prophecy in Malachi, concerning 
 Elijah: "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he 
 shall prepare the way before me," &c. Mai. iii, 1. 
 And again, " Behold, I will send you Elijah the 
 prophet, before the coming of the great and dread- 
 ful day of the Lord." Mai. iv. 5. The Jews, and 
 even the disciples of our Lord, were led by these 
 prophecies, which are certainly as explicit and plain 
 as any in the Bible, and demand as literal an inter- 
 pretation, and the Jews did interpret them literally 
 too; I say that the Jews were led by these prophe- 
 cies to expect and to look for the personal advent and 
 appearance of the prophet Elijah, previous to the 
 coming of the Messiah. But John, in whom this 
 prophecy was fulfilled, was not really or literally 
 the prophet Elijah, and the prediction was not liter- 
 ally fulfilled. The Jews asked John whether he 
 was Elias, and he said that he was not. Yet Mille- 
 narians will not deny that our Saviour alludes to 
 John the Baptist, when he says, " But I say unto you 
 that Elias is come already; and they knew him not, 
 but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. 
 Then the disciples understood that he spake unto 
 them of John the Baptist." It is well that our 
 
154 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 blessed Lord explained this prophecy of Malachi; 
 because, if he had not, I am confident in the opin- 
 ion that many would say it has never yet been ful- 
 filled. For let it be remembered that the coming 
 of Elijah is connected with, and, as a sign, is to pre- 
 cede the great and dreadful day of the Lord, which, 
 they say, is yet future. Now, if this prophecy was 
 fulfilled in God's raising up John the Baptist, as the 
 messenger of Christ, who was not Elijah, but who 
 only possessed the spirit, and might, and power of 
 Elijah, who will censure us for believing that the 
 prophecy in Revelation is to be fulfilled in the very 
 same manner, viz: that the martyrs will be raised, 
 not literally from their graves, but will live and reign 
 with Christ, in the persons of those who will have 
 their spirit, and be like them. 
 
 I have now given the commonly received and or- 
 thodox view of the above passage, touching on the 
 first resurrection. If, to some readers, it should not 
 seem sufficiently literal, I here venture to give an- 
 other more literal, and the most literal interpretation 
 that has ever been given of this passage. But it is 
 given without any other authority in support of it, 
 than that of the writer of this volume. It is entire- 
 ly new and original. I make this remark that every 
 reader may pause and deliberate, before he shall 
 hastily adopt the explanation which will now be 
 given of the first resurrection. 
 
 It is to be kept in mind, that there is not a word 
 

 OR THE MXLLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 155 
 
 said about a resurrection of "the dead" or of "the 
 bodies" of them that were beheaded, etc. This is 
 always assumed by Millenarians. But John says, 
 " And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded," 
 etc. "And they [i. e. these souls] lived and reigned 
 with Christ a thousand years." Christ, the King of 
 saints, lives and reigns on the earth. Though he 
 sits upon a throne of glory in heaven, yet he has a 
 throne upon earth too. He reigns in the hearts of 
 his people, though invisible to them. In the same 
 manner he will reign on the earth during the Mil- 
 lenium, saving that his empire will be universal, ex- 
 tending over all nations. The souls of them " that 
 were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the 
 word of God, etc., will reign with him, in his king- 
 dom on earth, though they will be invisible to mor- 
 tal eyes. They will share with him in the honor of 
 his government, over his spiritual kingdom. This 
 will be their peculiar blessedness. We believe that 
 even the angels enjoy something of this unspeaka- 
 ble honor. Angels have often been sent on errands 
 of mercy to this sin-ruined world. We read that 
 they are "ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to 
 them who shall be heirs of salvation." But it is 
 said that "the rest of the dead lived not again till 
 the thousand years were finished:" that is, they lived 
 not as did the souls of the martyrs, WITH CHRIST 
 ON EARTH. They had no longer any connection 
 with his spiritual kingdom in this world. They rest 
 
156 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 us to their bodies, in the grave; as to their souls, in the 
 bosom of God, and the fruition of eternal glory. The 
 blessedness is not theirs of visiting earth again, or 
 taking part with the Messiah, in carrying on the 
 affairs of his kingdom. This is the honor of those 
 alone who shed their blood in the service of that 
 kingdom, while in the body. As their hearts were 
 engaged in his cause while they were in the world, 
 and as they died in defence of his cause, they are 
 permitted again, after death, to witness the triumphs of 
 his cause, and to have a part in them* This is called 
 the FIRST RESURRECTION. They die— they 
 cease in the body to aid the advancement of the Re- 
 deemer's kingdom; but they live again — they me to 
 a new life, in the land of blest spirits, and reign spir- 
 itually with Christ, and are permitted to come to 
 earth again. 
 
 If our eyes were opened, as were the eyes of the 
 prophet's servant, it is probable that we should be 
 able to see many of those spiritual beings who are 
 permitted to revisit this earth on errands of mercy. 
 And if we could know as we are known, doubtless 
 we should be able to recognize the holy souls of ma- 
 ny of the martyrs. The spirit of Stephen, or the 
 spirit of St. Paul, may visit us in our lonely retire- 
 ment — may hover over the congregation, when the 
 ambassador of Jesus is delivering his solemn mes- 
 sage — may witness and rejoice when one sinner re- 
 penteth, and may share largely in the honors of the 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 157 
 
 Saviours kingdom. It seems peculiarly fit that this 
 honor should be granted to those of the servants of 
 God who were worn out with toiling in his cause, 
 while in the body, and who sealed the truth with 
 their blood. It is meet and proper that they be dis- 
 tinguished in some appropriate manner from those 
 who led a life of indolent ease, and did compara- 
 tively nothing in the vineyard of the Saviour. And 
 we cannot conceive of any honor or distinction that 
 could be so appropriately conferred on them, as to 
 permit them to visit the earth again, the former scene 
 of their labors, as ministering spirits, and to share 
 with Jesus in his spiritual triumphs. 
 
 This view of the first resurrection is submitted 
 with diffidence on the part of the author, because 
 he is aware that it will seem entirely new to his read- 
 ers; and he hopes they will give it no more consid- 
 eration than, in their deliberate judgment, they may 
 think it is entitled to receive. He can see no ob- 
 jection, however, to the interpretation which has 
 now been offered, and it is decidedly the most literal 
 which has ever been given of the passage, by Mil- 
 
 lenarians or anti-Millenarians. 
 14 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 About the last battle which is to be fought after the expiration of the 
 thousand years. 
 
 In all the authors of Millenarian books, we find 
 much on the subject of a great battle, and the fear- 
 ful destruction of the wicked, which, it is supposed, 
 will take place at the commencement of the Mil- 
 lenium, when Messiah shall come in his glory with 
 all his holy angels with him. And terrible and 
 glowing descriptions thereof are published from the 
 pulpit and the press, of a nature well calculated to 
 arouse the unholy fears of the human heart. But it 
 is to be apprehended that all such appeals, drawn 
 forth only from a misguided imagination, will end 
 when the fears which gave rise to them shall have 
 subsided, or proved groundless, in a relapse into in- 
 difference or downright scepticism. 
 
 One writer expresses himself as follows: "Indeed, 
 from the beginning to the end of the Bible, you will 
 find the subject constantly referred to. It is amaz- 
 ing to see how often it is brought before our minds 
 in the Word of the Lord. My dear friends, it is 
 enough to make one's blood run cold to think of the 
 awful doom that some of us may live to see poured 
 out on the wicked. Sinner, I entreat you to repent 
 before it is too late. Every form of abomination 
 
THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, &C. 159 
 
 and delusion will soon be destroyed at the personal 
 coming of our Lord, when he " ariseth to shake ter- 
 ribly the earth. " I stand here on the watch-tower, 
 and sound the alarm, for I see the sword of coming 
 vengeance. In God's name, I beseech you to flee 
 from the wrath to come. That day of wrath — that 
 dreadful day is not far distant. Merciful God! will 
 not sinners take warning! Already we hear the 
 muttering of the approaching storm — already we 
 see the little black cloud just skirting the horizon. 
 Soon the tempest will shake the heavens and the 
 earth. Why sleep ye at your posts? Why fold ye 
 your arms in reckless indifference? Men and breth- 
 ren, arise, and be doing, and with fear and trem- 
 bling, work out your salvation.' 1 * 
 
 There is little confidence to be placed in any 
 conversions that might be effected by alarming ap- 
 peals, drawn from such motives, as that contained in 
 the foregoing extract. It is astonishing what facil- 
 ity is shown by these writers, in parading texts of 
 Scripture to prove their doctrine. If we were to 
 count the number of passages which are alleged to 
 prove that the millenial reign of Christ, a reign of 
 universal peace and righteousness, is to be ushered in 
 with the bloodiest and most awful conflict earth 
 ever witnessed, the number of them is indeed for- 
 midable. I do not know but that they refer nearly 
 all the national revolutions and wars that were ever 
 
 * Wi nthrop 's Lectures, p: 167, 
 
160 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 made the subject of prophecy, to that time of imagi- 
 nary conflict and wo, which is immediately to pre- 
 cede the Millenium. It would be entirely a super- 
 fluous and unnecessary task for me to undertake to 
 examine the half of these passages. But I must 
 notice a few of the most prominent, and on which 
 they most rely, lest it should be thought that the 
 Scripture proofs are all in their favor. And when 
 it shall be seen that they have perverted their 
 strongest texts, and turned them aside entirely from 
 their true meaning, it will be a short road to the 
 conclusion that they have done the same with the 
 remaining portion of them. 
 
 A principal passage, on which they mainly rely as 
 proof of this supposed pre-milienial and bloody con- 
 flict, in which the saints, under the banner of the 
 Great Captain of salvation, are to wash their feet in 
 the blood of the wicked, is in Isaiah Ixiii. 1 — 6: — - 
 " Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed 
 garments from Bozrah? This that is glorious in 
 his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his 
 strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to 
 save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, 
 and thy garments like him that treadeth in the 
 wine-fat? I have trodden the wine-press alone; 
 and of the people there was none with me. For I 
 will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in 
 my fury \ and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my 
 garments, and 1 will stain all my raiment. For the 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAK THEORY REFUTED. 161 
 
 day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of 
 my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there 
 was none to help; and I wondered that there was 
 none to uphold; therefore mine own arm brought 
 salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me; and 
 I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make 
 them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their 
 strength to the earth." From this passage three 
 things appear to be evident, even to a superficial 
 student of the prophecies, to- wit: 
 
 I. That it is the Lord Christ who speaks: 6: 1 
 have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the peo- 
 ple, there was none with me," &c. 
 
 II. That in the beginning of the passage, the 
 scene on Calvary is clearly referred to: " Where- 
 fore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments 
 like him that treadeth the wine-fat? I have trodden 
 the wine-press alone, and of the people, there was 
 none with me." It was on Calvary the Saviour 
 trod the wine-press of God's wrath. It was there 
 he stained his raiment with blood; it was there that 
 he was alone — given up, and deserted by the peo- 
 ple — the Jewish nation who rejected him, and cru- 
 cified him. 
 
 III. It is evident that the vengeance spoken of 
 in the succeeding verses, is referred to his rejection 
 and desertion by the people, as the cause thereof. 
 < ; I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the 
 people, there was none with me, for," — or, as it 
 
 14* 
 
162 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 would be better rendered, — "therefore, I will tread 
 them in mine anger* and trample them in my fury ; 
 and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, 
 and I will stain all my raiment." This is a different 
 staining of his garments from the other: "Where- 
 fore art thou red," &c. In the first instance, he is 
 stained in his own blood. In the second, he stains 
 himself with the blood of the people, because they 
 had left him alone — betrayed him — as it were, hid 
 their faces from him, when he trod the wine-press. 
 The whole passage seems to be a complaint put 
 into the mouth of the Messiah, because he was be- 
 trayed and abandoned by the people, and a vow of 
 revenge, because they had thus despised and reject- 
 ed him. "I looked, and there was none to help; 
 therefore, mine own arm" &;c. 
 
 IV. The inference, therefore, is very plain, that 
 the vengeance which was visited on the Jewish na- 
 tion, because of their rejection and crucifixion of 
 the Messiah, is the event clearly and particularly 
 signified by this prophecy. 
 
 The blessed Saviour himself announced their 
 doom, when he visited Jerusalem for the last time, 
 and, in view of the vengeance that was coming upon 
 them, wept over the city, saying, "O Jerusalem, 
 Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest 
 them that are sent unto thee; how often would I 
 have gathered thy children together, as a hen gath- 
 ereth her brood under her wings, and ye would not. 
 
OR THE MILLENARXAN THEORY REFUTED. 163 
 
 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate; for I say 
 unto you, that ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye 
 shall say, hlessed is he that cometh in the name of 
 the Lord." That Divine vengeance— that fury was 
 poured out on them when, as a nation, because they 
 had rejected and crucified the Lord of life and glory, 
 their name and place were taken away; when more 
 than a million of them perished by a miserable 
 slaughter, to which history can produce no parallel; 
 when their city and their glorious temple were laid 
 in ruins; when the oracles of God were taken from 
 them; and when they were removed, as a nation, 
 out of their own land, and scattered abroad even to 
 this day. All this was the vengeance which Isaiah 
 foretold. This was the time of trouble and calami- 
 ty, which Jesus himself contemplated, when he wept 
 over the doomed city; which he clearly foretold in 
 the 24th chapter of Matthew, as we have before 
 seen. And it was fulfilled, according to his word, 
 before that generation had entirely passed away. 
 It was the time of trouble which Daniel predicted, 
 12th chapter, 1st verse, which corresponds exactly 
 with the words of our Saviour concerning the time 
 of tribulation, such as had never been known, even 
 to that same time. The two predictions must refer 
 to the same event, else the one is contradictory of 
 the other. But it is evident that the prediction pro- 
 nounced by our Saviour, was fulfilled at the time of 
 
164 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 the destruction of Jerusalem, by the Romans, there- 
 fore, Daniel's must have been. 
 
 The same season of calamity and Divine ven- 
 geance is brought to view in the 59th chapter of 
 Isaiah, as also in the 66th, which, if it were com- 
 patible with my designs, might be made as evident, 
 as that the 63rd chapter, already examined, is a pre- 
 diction concerning that same day of wrath which 
 was to come on the Jews. 
 
 In several of the other prophets there are predic- 
 tions of the same nature, alluding to the same event. 
 Malachi, the last of the Old Testament prophets, is 
 rather more explicit than any who preceded him. 
 He speaks of the great day, as a day of fiery ven- 
 geance. He also gives a sign of the approach of 
 that day, " Behold, I will send you Elijah before the 
 coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord" 
 If Elijah was sent as a herald to announce the ap- 
 proach of that day, and to prepare the people for 
 the coming thereof, it would be infidelity in us to 
 suppose that more than eighteen hundred years were 
 to elapse between the coming of Elijah and that 
 great day, the approach of which he was sent to 
 proclaim. 
 
 There is a prophecy in the 38th chapter of Eze- 
 kiel, which I believe that Millenarians themselves 
 generally refer to the battle of Gog and Magog, 
 which is to be fought after the expiration of the 
 thousand years. There are several passages in Rev 
 
OR THE MXLLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 165 
 
 elations, which, whether they refer to the day of 
 judgment, or to great national conflicts and revolu- 
 tions, which have come to pass or are yet to come 
 to pass, I will not pretend to explain. I leave the 
 task to those who are better prophets than myself 
 and more skilled in the interpretation of symbolical 
 language. There is a passage, however, in 2 Thess* 
 ii. 2, 3, which claims a brief notice: tt For the mys- 
 tery of iniquity doth already work; only he who now 
 letteth, will let, until he be taken out of the way. 
 And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the 
 Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and 
 shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.' 7 
 It is admitted that the Man of sin, whose rise is here 
 alluded to, is Antichrist, or the Papal hierarchy; 
 also that this Antichrist is not a single Pope, or an in- 
 dividual, but a system of iniquity and the whole series 
 of Popes. "His coming/' here spoken of, is either 
 a spiritual coming, his coming in the spirit and power 
 of his glorious Gospel, to reduce all nations to his 
 mild and peaceful sway, or it is a personal and visi- 
 ble coming at the end of the world, to destroy the 
 wicked, and to reward the righteous eternally. If 
 it is to be understood in the first of these senses^ 
 then the Man of sin is to be literally destroyed, when 
 he shall be consumed, and melt away in the blaze 
 and brightness of the Sun of righteousness. They 
 contend for a literal interpretation. This is a lit- 
 eral interpretation, and the only one of which the 
 
166 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 passage is susceptible. But if this "corning" is to 
 be explained with reference to his personal and visi- 
 ble advent, in the great day of judgment, and that 
 Antichrist is to be destroyed then literally, by streams 
 of literal fire, proceeding from his mouth, there will 
 have to be a resurrection of all the wicked Popes — 
 the Gregorys, the Johns, the Alexanders, &c, who 
 have lived at different periods, from the beginning 
 of the reign of Antichrist, or they could not be de- 
 stroyed by the brightness of his coming. But this 
 resurrection is not, according to their own theory, to 
 take place till after the Millenium is past. 
 
 It is indeed to be lamented that a man of Dr. 
 Duffield's abilities should have written a long chap- 
 ter, on purpose to prove that the expressions, "spirit 
 of his mouth" "brightness of his coming" " a fiery 
 stream" etc., u are not metaphorical or figurative 
 expressions, and cannot possibly be construed as 
 such, but are always used in the strict literal sense;"* 
 teaching, therefore, that when he shall come, an aw- 
 ful stream of fire and tempest shall literally proceed 
 from his literal nostrils and mouth, which shall destroy 
 the wicked. It is, however, only another melan- 
 choly proof how great are the aberrations even of 
 the noblest intellect, when but one error has gained 
 the ascendancy over that intellect, and become the 
 governing principle thereof. One error will so take 
 possession of the human mind, and darken and ob- 
 
 *See Duffield on the Prophecies, pp. 310-312. 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED* 167 
 
 scure its powers, and turn reason from its throne, as 
 to prevent any truth from being seen in a true light. 
 But the question for our present consideration is, 
 whether there is to be a terrible and bloody conflict 
 immediately at the commencement of the Millenium, 
 and another at the close of it. If the design be to 
 effect an eternal separation between the righteous 
 and the wicked, and the final and total destruction 
 of the latter, how is this design to be accomplished 
 twice; once at the beginning of the thousand years, 
 and again at the close of that period? How will 
 the Millenarian relieve the theory which he advo- 
 cates from this embarrassment? It is admitted by 
 all parties, that a great battle — the last battle — is 
 to be fought at the close of the Millenium. The 
 passage in the 20th chapter of Revelation is so very 
 clear on this point, that it admits of no occasion for 
 quibble or doubt. "And when the thousand years 
 are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison; 
 and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in 
 the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to 
 gather them together to battle: the number of whom 
 is as the sand of the sea." Rev. xx. 7, 8. No Mil- 
 lenarian author that I have ever read, has presumed 
 to deny that the prediction here recorded, is to be 
 fulfilled after "the thousand years are expired." 
 From the above passage, these several things must 
 be apparent to every reader, viz: 
 
 I. That Satan will first deceive those whom he is 
 to gather together to battle. 
 
168 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 II. That they are the nations that shall dwell in the 
 four quarters of the earth, after the expiration of the 
 
 thousand years. He does not, therefore, bring them 
 out of the prison with him. 
 
 III. That they are living nations, and not the 
 dead, whom Satan is to deceive. He could not de- 
 ceive the dead, while in the grave; neither could 
 he raise them to life, for the purpose of deceiving 
 them — that power belongs to God alone. Again, 
 he could not deceive them after the resurrection, 
 unless they enjoy another term of probation; for 
 they had been already deceived, a thousand years 
 before. 
 
 But I must here avail myself of the advantage of 
 an argument, (it is so apropos,) which Dr. Duffield 
 has furnished to my hands, to prove that the army 
 of Satan, mentioned in this 20th chapter of Revela- 
 tion, will be composed of men in the flesh, and not 
 of the risen dead. He contends that the word " na- 
 tions" is never applied to the dead, in the Scriptures, 
 but always to masses of men and women living in 
 the flesh. Commenting on the 25th chapter of Mat- 
 thew, he says, " We remark, in the second place, 
 that the language of the Saviour, necessarily confines 
 his meaning to mankind existing on the earth, at the 
 time of his coming. The phrase nations is never ap- 
 plied to the dead, but always to masses of men and 
 women living on the earth together, under some form 
 or other of organized government. This being the 
 

 OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 169 
 
 most common meaning and use of the word, we can- 
 not extend its import, according to the objection we 
 are considering, so as to embrace the innumerable 
 hosts that have gone down to the grave, in all ages, 
 and from all nations. They exist not as nations, in 
 the regions of the dead; and therefore cannot come 
 forth to judgment, as nations, but shall come as the 
 throng of the dead; just as John, who more espe- 
 cially speaks of their judgment, describes: ' And I 
 saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; 
 and the books were opened, and another book was 
 opened, which is the book of life; and the dead 
 were judged out of those things which are written 
 in the books, according to their works. And the 
 sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death 
 and hell delivered up the dead which were in them, 
 and they were judged, every man, according to their 
 works.' "* 
 
 So then, I am authorized by this writer in saying, 
 that they are not the risen dead, but nations in the 
 flesh, and living on the earth together, under some 
 form or other of organized government, whom Sa- 
 tan will deceive, and gather together to the last 
 great battle. Now, it is remarkable, that the word 
 " nations," used in the 25th chapter of Matthew, 
 which Dr. D. says is never applied to the dead, is 
 the very same word, both in English and Greek, (ta 
 ethne,) which is used in this passage in Revelation. 
 
 * Duffield on the Prophecies, p. 34.1. 
 
 15 
 
170 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 And Dr. D. in the most unqualified manner, asserts 
 that it is never applied to the dead, but always to 
 masses of men and women living on the earth. 
 Consequently, in Revelation, it is necessarily confin- 
 ed to the nations living in the flesh on the earth, at 
 the close of the Millenium. 
 
 The reader will be astonished now, to learn that 
 this author himself makes the word nations (Rev. 
 xx. 8,) apply to the hosts of the risen dead, and not to 
 masses of men and women in the flesh, living on 
 the earth together, under some form or other of or- 
 ganized government. I quote now from the 166th 
 page, his account of this post-millenial battle alluded 
 to by John, in this passage now under consideration; 
 "tha,t at the close of this blessed period, [the Mil- 
 lenium,] the last act in the great work, andlfcty, or 
 dispensation of judgment, shall take place, when 
 Satan shall be released from his confinement, all the 
 nations of the wicked raised from the dead, the Gog 
 and Magog of John, metaphorically or typically 
 described by the Gog and Magog of Ezekiel, and 
 be summoned before Christ to receive their final 
 sentence; that then, in mad desperation, these hosts of 
 hell, led on by the devil and his angels, shall make their 
 last and violent assault upon the holy city, where Christ 
 and his saints dwell, and think to storm the heavenly 
 city; which shall be but the occasion for the last 
 signal interposition of Divine justice, and Almighty 
 vengeance for their eternal destruction; and that 
 
OR THE MILLENAIilAN THEORY REFUTED. 171 
 
 doomed and hurled to the bottomless abyss by the 
 power of Omnipotence, earth shall be forever purged 
 and redeemed from the dominion of Satan; placed 
 back again amidst the heavenly worlds, restored to more 
 than paradisaical beauty and glory — death forever 
 cease in it, and that state of glory and blessedness 
 be confirmed, in which the dominion of Heaven 
 shall be absolutely, immutably, and eternally estab- 
 lished in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy 
 Ghost; and this ransomed, renovated, and recovered 
 globe, shine resplendent in Heaven's brilliancy, 
 never more to be invaded or polluted by the en- 
 trance of sin. 
 
 " Well might the prophets, who caught a distant 
 glimpse of these stupendous glories, be wrapt in 
 ecstacy. Truly, 4 eye hath not seen, ear hath not 
 heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to 
 conceive, the things prepared for them that love 
 God.' ' Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and 
 it doth not yet appear what we shall be.' Loud 
 and ecstatic shall be the shout of triumph, when 
 earth and heaven shall mingle in full chorus, as ; the 
 voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many 
 waters, and as the voice of many thunderings, say- 
 ing, x\lleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth !' 
 My heart kindles at the prospect, and is ready to 
 catch the strain of heaven: 
 
 glory lo God, 
 
 And to the Lamb who bought us with his blood,' ' 5 &c. 
 
172 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 I have quoted more than was necessary to my 
 purpose. The description is highly wrought, indeed, 
 and if the judgment of the author were as correct 
 and well-balanced as his imagination is fanciful and 
 lively, he might be useful as a writer. Let three 
 things in the above extract, marked by the words in 
 italics, be particularly noted: 
 
 I. That the nations of the wicked dead are to com- 
 pose the army of Satan, spoken of in Rev. xx. 7,8. 
 
 II. That they, in mad desperation, will think to 
 ctorm the celestial city. 
 
 III. That the renovation of this earth, and it3 
 restoration to more than paradisaical purity and 
 glory, is to take place after their conquest, and they 
 have been " hurled to the bottomless abyss!" Now, 
 on all this, I take occasion to remark, 
 
 1. That it does not correspond with what the 
 author has said on page 341, where it is affirmed 
 that the word nations is never applied to the dead. 
 
 2. That it does not agree with what we read con- 
 cerning the dismay and overwhelming confusion of 
 the wicked, when the great day of his wrath shall 
 come. They will not think to make sublime con- 
 quests, even to storm the celestial city ; but they shall 
 shrink into nothing before the presence of the great 
 Judge, coming in his glory, and shall begin " to call 
 on the mountains and rocks to fall on them, and 
 hide them from the face of Him that sitteth on the 
 throne, and from the *vrath of the Lamb." 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED* 173 
 
 3. That it contradicts the theory of Millenarians 
 generally, who teach that the renovation or purifi- 
 cation of this earth is to take place at the commence- 
 ment of the thousand years, and not after the last 
 great battle shall have been fought, according to 
 this author, between the armies of the risen wicked, 
 under the banners of Satan, and the risen and re- 
 deemed saints, led on by the Son of God, in person. 
 
 It gives us no pleasure to point out these contra- 
 dictions and mistakes in the volume now before us, 
 because we fear that it may give rise to a suspicion 
 in the minds of many, that such mistakes cannot bg 
 all unintentional. The author must have written 
 the 341st page in his book after he wrote the 166th 
 page, and, of course, he knew, when he stated that 
 the word "nations is never applied to the dead," that 
 he had himself so applied it on the 166th page. 
 Charity, however, requires us to believe he had ac- 
 tually forgotten that he had used the word in this 
 sense. 
 
 If Millenarians will admit that the battle of John 
 in Revelation is to be fought by men in the flesh, 
 it will be the same, in effect, as to give up their 
 theory. They are aware of this, and therefore they 
 all, without a dissenting voice, agree in saying, that 
 that last contest is to be waged between immortals! 
 Here I might introduce a piece of poetry from Ho- 
 mer, to give some idea how great is the heat of con- 
 test, when Gods contend in arms, or a sublime ex- 
 15* 
 
174 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 tract from Milton, about the battle in heaven, when 
 the rebel spirits forged flaming bolts, and wounded 
 many of the angels who continued steadfast, and 
 might have prevailed against them, but for the inter- 
 position of the Son of God in his burning chariot I 
 But why should I intersperse a sober prose composi- 
 tion with scraps of poetry? It might serve for the 
 purpose of embellishment; but there is always likely 
 to be more of imagination in such a composition, 
 than of sound argument. I can never be made to 
 believe, that the army of fallen angels are to be 
 permitted to come out personally, from their dark 
 habitation, for the purpose of encountering, in hos- 
 tile array, the radiant hosts of light — God's angels, 
 and the blood-washed and gloriously-arrayed com- 
 pany of the redeemed, marching to deadly conflict* 
 under the banner of Jesus. No! I can never be 
 persuaded of this. It is repulsive to all the feelings 
 of my nature; and I wonder, and am almost lost in 
 amazement, that such a thought should ever have 
 been entertained for a single moment, in the head 
 or the heart of a Christian. It is an idea, however, 
 which has existed only in the imagination; and pro- 
 bably it was borrowed first from the sublime fictions 
 of Milton. Men are so familiar with war and blood- 
 shed in this world, and have read and heard so often 
 of controversies being settled in this way, that they 
 are disposed to imagine that the question whether 
 Christ is finally to reign is to be decided in the same 
 
©R THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 175 
 
 manner; as if he needed the aid of angels or men, 
 to assist him in vanquishing his foes; as if he will 
 not tread alone "the wine-press of the fierceness and 
 wrath of Almighty God.' ? O, when he shall come 
 to judgment, one word of his power will summon 
 them into his awful presence! Another word, "Do 
 part" will blast them in everlasting death! There 
 will be no need for swords of angels or of men to 
 be unsheathed, in order to make sure of the victory. 
 The sword that "proceedeth out of his mouth" — 
 the sentence of doom, will hurl them swift to hell. 
 This, however, will not take place till the day of 
 judgment, when the Son of God shall sit upon his 
 throne, and all nations shall be gathered before him. 
 This will be subsequent to the battle which is to 
 take place at the end of the thousand years. That 
 army of Gog and Magog, as Dr. Duffield has proved, 
 will be an army of men in the flesh, and not of the 
 risen dead. About the close of the Millenium, the 
 spirit of wickedness, which had been restrained from 
 all violence for a thousand years, shall again be let 
 loose, and those who had been passive and harmless 
 on the earth, now instigated by Satan, shall be ac- 
 tive in plotting mischief and destruction to the 
 Church of God; and when they shall be in the act 
 of conspiring together for the extermination of the 
 saints, and shall begin to arm themselves for this 
 purpose, suddenly the heavens shall be opened, and 
 the great Judge, the Avenger of his people, shall 
 
176 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 appear on his "white throne" who shall rain down 
 destruction on his foes. 
 
 But there are two or three insuperable objections 
 to the theory of a battle, between immortals, which 
 I must state, and dwell on more at length, before I 
 conclude this chapter. 
 
 I. If the army of Gog and Magog is to be com- 
 posed of the risen wicked — all that shall have lived 
 in the world, in all past ages, to the end of the Mil- 
 lenium, it is to be questioned whether there will be 
 space enough on the earth's surface for so large an 
 army to stand up at once, joined as they will be, by 
 the hosts of darkness; especially when we remember 
 that immortal bodies, spiritualized, and of conse- 
 quence greatly expanded, will occupy a greater space 
 than human bodies. Millenarians may answer this 
 objection by saying, that, as the saints are to be 
 caught up to meet the Lord in the air, at his com- 
 ing, the hosts of the wicked, following their leader, 
 shall pursue them thither, and that the last battle 
 shall be fought in the air. But if they should think 
 this a satisfactory solution of the difficulty now sup- 
 posed, we shall not be at the trouble of an attempt 
 to answer it. 
 
 II. If the earth is to be purified by fire, and the 
 "new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth 
 righteousness," are to be created at the beginning 
 of the Millenium; and if this last battle is to be 
 fought after the resurrection of the wicked, at the 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 177 
 
 close of the Millenium, their bodies will have to be 
 raised out of the new earth. The difficulty which this 
 implies is not ideal or imaginary. It is real, and de- 
 serves, at least, a plausible answer from those with 
 whom we have the present controversy. Why do 
 they insist on the creation of the new heavens and 
 new earth, or the purification of this present world 
 by fire, at the commencement of the millenial reign, 
 unless it be that they would have it the abode of 
 righteousness, pure, ethereal, and as free from the 
 contagion of sin, as the purest gold is free from 
 dross? How then can they have that new and puri- 
 fied earth, covered with the very ashes of sin, to be 
 quickened and resuscitated in the morning of the 
 resurrection, and transformed by the fiat of the Son 
 of God, into living, moving forms of wickedness, who 
 shall stand up, at last, a great army, on the "new 
 earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness T\ 
 
 III. In like manner, and for the same reason^ 
 according to the theory w T e are examining, the last 
 great battle is to be fought on the theatre of the new 
 earth. But this idea is utterly repugnant to the dic- 
 tates of reason, and it is contrary to the whole tenor 
 of the Scriptures. Peter says, (2 Pet. iii. 10 — 13,) 
 "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in 
 the night, in the which, the heavens shall pass away 
 with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with 
 fervent heat; the earth also, and the works that are 
 therein , shall be burned up. Seeing then that all 
 
178 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 these things shall be dissolved, what manner of per- 
 sons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and 
 godliness; looking for and hasting unto the coming 
 of the day of God, wherein the heavens, being on 
 fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt 
 with fervent heat? Nevertheless, we, according to 
 his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, 
 wherein dwelleth righteousness/ 5 But it cannot 
 be an abode of perfect righteousness •, when it is to 
 be filled with a greater multitude of the wicked 
 than ever lived, at one time, in the old world that 
 had been destroyed on account of sin, at the com- 
 mencement of the Millenium. It cannot be an 
 abode of righteousness, when it is to be the scene 
 of hellish passions, and a conflict, the like of which 
 was never seen. Millenarians are strenuous in 
 maintaining that the kingdom of glory and bliss 9 
 which Christ is to set up at his second personal ad- 
 vent, will be a kingdom of perfect righteousness, and 
 to prove it, they quote the following Scripture, 
 " Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit 
 the kingdom of God? Be not deceived ; neither 
 fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effemi- 
 nate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor 
 thieves, nor coveters, nor drunkards, nor revilers, 
 nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God," 
 1 Cor. vi> 9—40, But suppose that the new earth 
 is created, as they say, at the beginning of the Mil* 
 Jenium ? and is the residence of Christ and the risen 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 179 
 
 saints, during the thousand years; Satan, at the ex- 
 piration of that term, goes out upon the new earth, 
 into the four quarters of it; he deceives the nations, 
 whether men in the flesh, or after they are raised 
 from the dead; he collects together a great army, 
 the number of whom is as the sand of the sea; they 
 compass the camp of the saints; they meditate 
 nothing less than to " storm the Heavenly City;" and 
 all this takes place on the theatre of" the new earth, 
 wherein dwelleth righteousness!" We do sincerely 
 pity the man whose credulity does not stagger at 
 believing such a monstrous absurdity. 
 
 It becometh every reader, and every hearer of 
 the Word of God, to be on his guard against the 
 influence of false teachers, who distort and pervert 
 the oracles of Truth, to the damnation of souls. 
 How they have multiplied in these times, on which 
 we have been thrown! They meet us at almost 
 every corner of the streets in the city; and when 
 we enter a sanctuary, or house of worship, we 
 know not whether we are to have served up to our 
 taste a mess of truth or falsehood. Error, besides, 
 is so ingeniously mixed with truth, that sometimes 
 we can scarcely distinguish between them; and the 
 exercise of a sound and well regulated judgment is 
 constanlty required to keep us from becoming the 
 dupes of ambitious and designing heresiarchs. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Whether the Prophecies concerning the Millenium are to be understood 
 in a literal or a spiritual sense. 
 
 There are many predictions concerning the peace 
 and prosperity of the. Church in the last days. A 
 little attention to these will perhaps throw some 
 light on the nature of that blissful period. Millena- 
 rians say that these prophecies are sufficiently plain, 
 and are to be interpreted in their literal sense. One 
 writer* has stated several reasons in order, why the 
 literal is to be preferred to the allegorical or spirit- 
 ual system of interpretation, as follows: 
 
 "I. It is the most natural, consistent, and satis- 
 factory mode of interpretation, and therefore com- 
 mends itself to the common sense of mankind. 
 
 II. The literal or grammatical interpretation is 
 far more definite and certain, and far less liable to 
 the charge of vagueness and the vagaries of men's 
 imaginations, than the spiritual or allegorical. 
 
 III. The literal interpretation is sanctioned by the 
 example of the patriarchs, the prophets, and the 
 apostles, in their study and exposition of the proph- 
 ecies. 
 
 IV. The entire system of prophecy contained in 
 the Scriptures, as far as it has been confirmed and 
 
 *Dr Duffield* 
 
THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, &C. 181 
 
 expounded by the Providence of God, recognizes 
 and establishes the literal or grammatical as its ap- 
 propriate method of interpretation. " 
 
 Now let us apply this rule of interpretation to a 
 few of the prophecies which allude to, and describe 
 the future Millenium. The passage which I shall 
 first give, has been quoted once before, and will be 
 acknowledged to be an animated and glowing des- 
 cription of the latter-day glory. " And there shall 
 come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a 
 branch shall grow out of his roots; and the spirit of 
 the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom 
 and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, 
 the spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord; 
 and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, 
 neither reprove after the hearing of his ears; with 
 righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove 
 with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall 
 smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with 
 the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. 
 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, 
 and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. The wolf 
 also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall 
 lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young 
 lion, and the young fatling together; and a little 
 child shall lead them; and the cow and the bear 
 shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together, 
 and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the 
 sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and 
 
182 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 the weaned child shall put his hand on the cocka- 
 trice's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all 
 my holy mountain ; for the earth shall be full of the 
 knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." 
 Isa. xi. 1 — 9. 
 
 44 For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and 
 for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righ- 
 teousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the sal- 
 vation thereof as a lamp that burnetii. And the 
 Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings 
 thy glory; and thou shalt be called by a new name, 
 which the mouth of the Lord shall name. Thou 
 shalt also be a crow r n of glory, in the hand of the 
 Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. 
 Thou shalt no more be termed forsaken ; neither 
 shall thy land any more be termed desolate; but 
 thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah,and thy land Beulah; 
 for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be 
 married. For as a young man marrieth a virgin 
 so shall thy sons marry thee; and as the bridegroom 
 rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice 
 over thee. I have set watchmen upon thy walls, 
 O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace, 
 day nor night; ye that make mention of the Lord, 
 keep not silence; and give him no rest, till he es- 
 tablish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the 
 earth. The Lord hath sworn by his right hand, 
 and by the arm of his strength, surely I will no 
 more give thy corn to be meat for thine enemies; 
 

 OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 183 
 
 and the sons of the stranger shall not drink thy 
 zome, for the which thou hast labored. But they 
 that have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the 
 Lord; and they that have brought it together shall 
 drink it in the courts of my holiness. Go through, 
 go through the gates, prepare you the way of the 
 people; cast up, cast up the highway, gather out 
 the stones, lift up a standard for the people. Be- 
 hold the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the 
 world, say ye to the daughter of Zion, behold thy 
 salvation cometh; behold his rew 7 ard is with him, 
 and his work before him. And they shall call them 
 the Holy people, the redeemed of the Lord, and 
 thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not for- 
 saken. " Isa. Ixii. 
 
 " For behold I create new heavens and a new 
 earth, and the former shall not be remembered nor 
 come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for- 
 ever in that which I create; for behold I create 
 Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And 
 I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people; 
 and the voice of weeping shall no more be heard in 
 her, nor the voice of crying. There shall be no 
 more thence an infant of days, nor an old man 
 that hath not filled his days, for the child shall die an 
 hundred years old; but the sinner, being an hun- 
 dred years old, shall be accursed. And they shall 
 build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant 
 vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall 
 
184 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 not build and another inhabit: they shall not plant 
 and another eat, for as the days of a tree are the 
 days of my people, and they shall long enjoy the 
 work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, 
 nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of 
 the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with 
 them." Isa. Ixv. 17-23. 
 
 " In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of 
 David that is fallen, and close up the breaches there- 
 of; and 1 will raise up his ruins, and I will build it 
 as in the days of old, that they may possess the rem- 
 nant of Edom, and of the heathen, which are call- 
 ed by my name, saith the Lord, that doeth this. 
 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the 
 ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader 
 of grapes him that soweth seed] and the mountains 
 shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. 
 And I will bring again the captivity of my people 
 of Israel; and they shall build the waste places, and 
 inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards, and 
 drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, 
 and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them 
 upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled 
 up out of their land which I have given them, saith 
 the Lord thy God." Amosix. 11 — 15. 
 
 " But in the last days it shall come to pass that 
 the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be es- 
 tablished in the top of the mountains, and it shall be 
 exalted above the hills, and people shall flow unto 
 
OR THE jHILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED, 185 
 
 it. And many nations shall come and say, come, 
 let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to 
 the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach 
 us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for 
 the law shall go forth of Zion, and the Word of the 
 Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among 
 many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; 
 and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares ■, 
 and their spears into pruning hooks] nation shall not 
 lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn 
 war any more. But they shall sit every man under 
 his vine and under his Jig-tree, and none shall make 
 them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts 
 hath spoken it. " Micah iv. 1 — 4. 
 
 The above, with many other similar prophecies, 
 have undoubted reference to the prosperous and 
 happy state of things in this world, during the Mil- 
 lenium. Now, let them have as literal an interpre- 
 tation as Millenarian authors contend for, and it 
 must be seen, at once, that their theory is gone. A 
 number of things, following the rule of a literal in- 
 terpretation, might be noted down as evident from 
 these prophecies to the mind of every reader, but I 
 will specify only the following: 
 
 I. The physical state of the earth is to be the 
 same, during the Millenium, that it now is. It is to 
 bring forth its corn, wine, and other fruits the same 
 as ever. 
 
 II. The inferior animals are to subsist on the sur- 
 
 16* 
 
16^ THE KINGDOM OP GRACE, 
 
 face of the earth, the same as they have ever done ; 
 not only those which are useful- to man, but also 
 those which are ferocious in their nature, as the 
 " lion" the " bear" the " leopard" &c. Even veno- 
 mous reptiles will still have their place in the scale 
 of creation, though they will not be hurtful, as now. 
 III. The physical state of man will be what it 
 now is. He will live in " houses " and " cities" He 
 will continue, as now, to subsist on food, viz: the 
 "corn" "wine" and "fruits" which the earth shall 
 yield for his benefit. The marriage relation shall 
 still exist, and he shall beget children. Isa. lxv. 23. 
 He will cultivate the soil, plant vineyards as usual, 
 &c. 
 
 Now, a true and consistent Millenarian does not, 
 and cannot believe one of the three items above enu- 
 merated. The physical state of the earth is not 
 to be the same that it now is. They believe that it 
 is to be thoroughly renovated, and changed by fire. 
 It is to be rendered a celestial abode, fitted for the 
 residence of angels and glorified saints. 
 
 They believe that the various orders of irrational 
 creatures, as sheep, oxen, bears, serpents, &c, will 
 perish, and will have no place in the new creation. 
 How will they escape the ruin of the universal con- 
 flagration, or what use will there be for any of these 
 animals in the resurrection ? 
 
 They do not believe that the physical condition 
 of man will be the same on the earth, during the 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAIS THEORY REFUTED. 187 
 
 thousand years, that it now is. All the dead saints 
 are to be raised from their graves. All the living 
 saints will be changed; the wicked are not to be 
 raised till the thousand years are ended, and those 
 who are living will be destroyed; so that there will 
 be none on the earth, during that glorious period, 
 but men possessing a celestial and immortal nature. 
 This is the belief of every consistent Millenarian. 
 Therefore, there will be no marrying, nor begetting 
 of children, during the Millenium; for "in the re- 
 surrection, they neither marry, nor are given in mar- 
 riage; but are as the angels of God in heaven." 
 Matt. xxii. 30. 
 
 Now I don't know whether Millenarians will 
 abandon their own rule of interpretation, or renounce 
 their doctrine. But they will be compelled to do 
 the one or the other. There is no other alternative. 
 I do not ascribe it to them, as their opinion, that 
 after the resurrection, the saints, the children of the 
 kingdom, with bodies risen, changed, and glorified, 
 partaking no longer of the nature of flesh and blood, 
 (1 Cor. xv. 50,) with bodies incorruptible, spiritual* 
 and heavenly, will literally build houses and cities, 
 and dwell in them; will literally plough their fields, 
 and plant vineyards, and dress the vines with pru- 
 ning-hooks, and drink the wine of them; will liter- 
 ally have use for the sex, beget children, etc. It 
 would be a slander on any man of piety and good 
 sense to say that he believed this. They must, 
 
188 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 therefore, regard all such descriptions of the Mil- 
 lenium as metaphorical, or allegorical, notwithstand- 
 ing their great antipathy to this method of interpre- 
 tation. 
 
 Whenever, for example, it is said that "the lion 
 and the lamb shall lie down together," we must not 
 understand it, literally, to mean that there will be 
 lions and lambs on the earth, in that day; but it is 
 a metaphorical expression, teaching, generally, how 
 perfect will be the harmony which shall prevail dur- 
 ing the Millenium. Whenever it is said that " they 
 shall beat their swords into plough-shares, and their 
 spears into pruning-hooks," the meaning is not, that 
 the children of the spiritual and eternal kingdom of 
 glory will actually use, or have need of ploughs and 
 pruning-hooks; but it is only a metaphor, teaching, 
 in a general w<iy,p3rhaps. that there will be no war, 
 during that period of "universal light, love, and holi- 
 ness." Or, when it is said, " the sucking child shall 
 play on the hole of the asp;" and again, " they shall 
 not bring forth for trouble, for they are the seed of 
 the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with 
 them," it is not to be understood literally that there 
 will be sucking children in that future kingdom of 
 glory; or that they marry, and have an offspring; 
 but all such are metaphorical phrases, teaching, 
 perhaps, that among the children of the resurrection 
 there will be no pain nor trouble. 
 
 I would be far from misrepresenting, intentionally, 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 189 
 
 the views of Millenarians; and gladly would I learn 
 how they explain all these prophecies, concerning 
 the state of things in this world, daring the thousand 
 years of miilenial blessedness. For it is not possi- 
 ble to explain them literally, without abandoning 
 their system. They cannot and they will not apply 
 them to the risen, justified, glorified and immortal 
 company of the redeemed, whom Christ shall bring 
 with him, when he comes in triumph, the second 
 time. How, then, can the difficulty be overcome? 
 They must explain these prophecies in a figurative 
 sense, or they must apply them to saints in the flesh. 
 But this, as I shall now prove again, (it has already 
 been proved,) will be, in effect, to give up their 
 whole system of doctrine. 
 
 Let us, for a moment, suppose that all the prophe- 
 cies which have been referred to, and a great multi- 
 tude of others, are to be understood as descriptive 
 of the happy state of saints, who shall live in the 
 flesh, during the thousand years, and what becomes 
 of their theory? This is the very doctrine which 
 we contend for, in opposition to Millenarianism. 
 They teach that the dead in Christ shall rise, with 
 new and immortal bodies. And they explain the 
 passage in Revelation concerning the first resurrec- 
 tion to mean ALL the dead in Christ, so as to corres- 
 pond with another passage in 1 Thess. iv. 16. And 
 they also teach, according to the apostle Paul, that 
 all the saints who are living at the time of the second 
 
190 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 advent, will be changed, i. e. shall, without expe- 
 riencing death, pass from a mortal to an immortal 
 state. For, if all the dead in Christ will be raised 
 with incorruptible bodies, and all the living saints 
 will be changed, where do they find their saints in 
 the flesh during the Millenium? Will there be any 
 saints but the dead and the living ones, at the time 
 of the second coming? Sometimes it is darkly hint- 
 ed, in the writings of these authors, that there will 
 be saints, and sinners too, existing in the flesh, after 
 the second coming of Christ, and the resurrection 
 of the just unto eternal life; and after the confla- 
 gration of the great day, and the creation of the 
 new heavens and the new earth. But they know 
 not what they say or write. Our Saviour has plain- 
 ly informed us, that, at the end of the world, in the 
 time of the harvest, he will send his angsls forth, and 
 they shall gather out of his kingdom ALL THINGS 
 that offend, and them which do iniquity. If this be 
 true, there will be no sinners left in his kingdom, 
 either in the flesh, or in any other form or state. 
 
 But suppose, for a moment, contrary to the Scrip- 
 tures and common sense, that a part only of the 
 saints, who shall be found alive on the earth at the 
 last day, will be changed, and caught up in the 
 twinkling of an eye to maet the Lord in the air, at 
 his coming, and that another part will remain in the 
 flesh, and in a mortal state; then there will be two 
 folds or two divisions in the same kingdom of glory 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 191 
 
 and blessedness. A part will be mortal, and anoth- 
 er part will be immortal in that kingdom. And yet 
 it is said, "There shall be no more death, neither 
 sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more 
 pain; for the former things are passed away." Rev. 
 xxi. 4. But why should there be this difference 
 made among the redeemed people of Christ? Why 
 should one part be subject to pain and death, (see 
 Winthrop's Lectures, p. 147,) and another part pos- 
 sess an angelic and immortal nature? Why should 
 a part subsist on the animals and vegetables which 
 this earth produces, and another part of the same 
 redeemed people subsist on angels' food alone, in 
 that kingdom of light, and joy, and peace, which 
 he will set up at his second coming? Dr. Duffield 
 thinks that all the Gentile converts who shall be liv- 
 ing on the earth at the last day, will be changed; 
 but that all the Jewish converts shall continue in their 
 former state, without undergoing any change. But 
 is not a Jewish convert a saint — a believer in Christ — 
 one of the purchase of his blood — and saved on the 
 same terms as every Gentile convert is? Are not 
 believing Jews and believing Gentiles all one in 
 Christ? Is not the middle-wall of partition between 
 them broken down? Why should the fact of their 
 being Jews — the seed of Abraham — exclude them 
 from any of the peculiar privileges and blessings of 
 the kingdom of heaven? We should be inclined to 
 think that if this fact makes any difference at all, it 
 
192 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 should be in their favor, and not against them. But, 
 according to this author, Gentile Christians will be 
 the "angels" in the kingdom of glory which the 
 Redeemer is to establish in this world, while Jewish 
 Christians will be the "sheep." I cannot imagine 
 how one who seems to be so learned as this writer, 
 came to give utterance to a sentiment like this; un- 
 less it was because of an extreme desire to advance 
 something that might seem to be new and original. 
 And, doubtless, he will be considered by others as 
 well as myself, to have succeeded in this. 
 
 But again — suppose that a great multitude of sin- 
 ners shall be permitted to remain on the earth in the 
 flesh, after the separation between the wheat and 
 the tares, or the sheep and the goats, as some Mille- 
 narians believe. I make the supposition only for a 
 moment, to see whether it can be tolerated at all. 
 We have already seen that it is directly in the face 
 of the plainest scriptures. But let us make the sup- 
 position for a moment. For what purpose are they 
 spared at that awful crisis, when sudden, and an 
 overwhelming destruction shall fall upon the ene- 
 mies of Christ, and he shall tread the wine-press of 
 the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God? Is it 
 for the purpose of being triumphed over, and re- 
 duced to a state of "perpetual servitude;" or of 
 being converted and finally saved? We have al- 
 ready seen how Mr. Winthrop would answer this 
 question. But if it be for the purpose of converting 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 193 
 
 and saving them, will this be done by force or by 
 the preaching of the gospel? We live now under a 
 Gospel dispensation, and Millenarians say that this 
 is to pass away, when the kingdom of glory shall be 
 set up. But if the process of making converts to 
 Christ, and a Gospel dispensation are still to con- 
 tinue, and sinners are to live in the flesh, who shall 
 propagate the race by marriage, and from among 
 whom converts are to be made, from time to time, to 
 Christianity, during the whole period of the thousand 
 years, then, during that period, we shall have the 
 tares and the wheat growing together. But let us 
 ever remember, (I make this remark for the benefit 
 of Millenarians,) let us remember that they will grow 
 together only till the time of the HARVEST, and 
 that then they are to be separated, to grow together 
 no longer. If this separation shall take place at 
 the commencement of the Millenium, saints and sin- 
 ners will not flourish together in the same kingdom, 
 during that glorious reign. At the time of harvest, 
 the wheat and tares are ripe, and are gathered, the 
 wheat into garners, but the tares to be burned with 
 fire. If saints and sinners are to exist together dur- 
 ing the millenial reign, and the Gospel dispensation 
 is to continue, it is evident that the harvest time will 
 not come till after the expiration of that period. 
 But this is what they are wholly unwilling to admit. 
 We see, then, that, in whatever aspect we view 
 
 it ? the Millenarian scheme of doctrine is without the 
 17 
 
194 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 least support in reason or the Word of God. It is 
 indeed humiliating to say this, as we do. in the face 
 of so many able and learned men, who have defend- 
 ed it; that is, who have given to it the support of all 
 their learning and talents, Why, then, do they ad- 
 vocate this system of doctrine? Why do they write 
 and publish large volumes in defence of it? I respect, 
 and well might envy the talents of such men as Mel- 
 ville, Noel, and others, who have consecrated their 
 powerful energies to the propagation of this system 
 of error. But I cannot believe that they are sub- 
 serving the cause of truth and religion, by all their 
 efforts of this kind. The interests of truth cannot 
 be promoted by the advocacy of any system of false 
 doctrine whatever, even though an angel's talents 
 were employed in defence of it. This Millenarian 
 system, it is admitted, affords a fine theme for elo. 
 quence and declamation. It opens a large field for 
 the play of the imagination, and to operate on the 
 feelings and passions of human nature. But we 
 should ever be suspicious concerning all conversions 
 which are effected in this way. Men might possi- 
 bly be frightened into a profession of religion^ 
 through an apprehension of sudden wrath, or the 
 judgment, without ever having had a true discovery 
 of their lost condition as sinners, or of the excellen- 
 cy and glory of the plan of salvation, as revealed 
 in the Gospel. To have a view of this kind, requires 
 a Divine agency, even the agency of the Holy Spirit, 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 195 
 
 who alone can open the blind eye, and pour light 
 into the darkened understanding. 
 
 And when men once get into the Church, no mat- 
 ter how they get there, it is easy and natural for 
 them to settle down into a state of carnal security, 
 thinking that now all is safe, while they may be in 
 the very "gall of bitterness." And perhaps their 
 destiny is sealed; and false preaching has done the 
 mischief. O, how has the Church of Jesus, in al- 
 most every age, groaned under the burden of false 
 professors, brought in thus, who have paralyzed her 
 energies, and retarded her prosperity more than 
 ever did the fires of persecution! It is comparative- 
 ly an easy matter to make proselytes to the Church. 
 This, a mere man, without piety, and even by preach- 
 ing error, can do. It is a different matter to make 
 Christians — true converts to Jesus Christ. This can- 
 not be done by advocating any system of false doc- 
 trine. This cannot be done without the spirit and 
 might of Divine power. 
 
 I shall conclude this chapter by a recapitulation 
 of the errors and contradictions which have been 
 pointed out in the Millenarian system, in the course 
 of the preceding pages. 
 
 I. It denies that the spiritual kingdom of Christ, 
 and the kingdom of grace, which was visibly set up 
 in the world, by our Lord and his apostles, is the 
 kingdom in which he is to reign and triumph, during 
 the thousand years of millenial blessedness. A fun- 
 
19G THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 damental principle in the system, is, that the present 
 dispensation is to come to an end, and that when 
 the Son of God shall come again, he will come in 
 his kingdom, in power and great glory. 
 
 II. It therefore denies that his kingdom was set 
 up, as prophesied by Daniel, in the days of the four 
 ancient and universal monarchies, i. e. in the days 
 of the civil and military empire of Rome. 
 
 III. It denies, also, that the spiritual kingdom, set 
 up at that time, and the kingdom of glory and power, 
 which is to fill the whole earth in the last days, are 
 the same kingdom; i. e. it denies that the little stone, 
 (Daniel ii.) cut out of the mountain without hands, 
 and the stone which became a great mountain, and 
 filled the whole earth, are the same. And hence, 
 it is adverse to the doctrine of our Saviour, which 
 represents the kingdom of heaven, at one time, as- 
 like to " a grain of mustard-seed, which is indeed 
 the smallest of seeds; but, in time, it becometh a 
 great tree, so that the fowls of heaven lodge in the 
 branches thereof;" and at another time, as like a 
 little leaven " which a woman took and hid in three 
 measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." 
 Matt. xiii. 31-33. But the kingdom of heaven, ac- 
 cording to this system, is not to have a small begin- 
 ning, and to advance by steps or degrees, gradually 
 subverting the power of earthly kingdoms and 
 thrones, and finally gaining an universal ascenden- 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 197 
 
 cy; but it is to be established in all its glory and 
 grandeur at once. 
 
 IV. It teaches that the conflagration of the great 
 day, and the resurrection of the saints, will be pre- 
 millenial. But it has generally been supposed that 
 these events are not to take place till the end of the 
 world, after all the elect shall have been gathered 
 into the kingdom. 
 
 V. It denies that the heathen nations are to be 
 universally christianized, or converted from their 
 heathenish systems of idolatry, before that great day 
 of God shall come. 
 
 VI. It teaches that a thousand years, at least, will 
 intervene between the resurrection of the righteous 
 and that of the wicked. But the Scriptures, and 
 especially John v., teach, that they will rise at the 
 same signal, viz: the voice of the Son of God, and 
 in the same hour. 
 
 VII. It teaches that there will be a resurrection 
 of all the saints, or the dead in Christ, at the begin- 
 ning of the Millenium. But John speaks only of 
 the souls of them that were beheaded, for the witness of 
 Jesus, &c. 
 
 VIII. It affirms that w r hen the saints are raised 
 with spiritual and immortal bodies, those who are 
 then living will be changed, (1 Cor. xv. 52,) since, 
 as it is said, u flesh and blood cannot inherit the king- 
 dom of God." 1 Cor. xv. 50. And yet it equally 
 affirms (hat there will be many on the earth, in the 
 
 17* 
 
198 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 flesh, daring the Millenium; and thus the system 
 contradicts itself. 
 
 IX. It teaches that at the coming of the Son of 
 God, when the saints are caught up to meet him in 
 the air, the wicked will be destroyed by the breath 
 of his mouth, and consumed with an everlasting de- 
 struction. But according to the *ame system, there 
 will be many wicked on the earth, during the whole 
 period of the Millenium. Thus again it is self-con- 
 tradictory. 
 
 X. It teaches that the great separation, represent- 
 ed by the parable of the tares and the wheat, (Mat. 
 xiii. ch.) and by that of the sheep and goats, (Mat. 
 xxv. ch.) will take place at the commencement of 
 the thousand years, and yet there are to be sinners, 
 i. e. tares, in the kingdom, during that whole period; 
 although the Saviour says, expressly, that he will 
 send his angels to gather out of his kingdom all 
 things that offend, and them which do iniquity. 
 
 XI. It teaches that the kingdom of Millenial 
 glory is to be a kingdom of "universal light, love, 
 and holiness," and yet that there are to be sinners 
 in it for " the victory of God, " to be "triumphed 
 over by the just," and "to be reduced to perpetual 
 servitude. " Alas ! alas ! 
 
 XII. This same Millenarian system teaches that 
 in the kingdom of the resurrection, the ravages of 
 death will still be experienced, at least to some ex- 
 tent. But this is contrary to what Paul teaches, 1 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 199 
 
 Cor. xv. 54: "So when this corruptible shall have 
 put on incorruption," &c: and to what St. John 
 teaches, Rev. xxi. 4: "And God shall wipe away 
 all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more 
 death," &c. It also teaches that the righteous, 
 who sink into the grave during the Millenium, will 
 be raised again at the second resurrection, so that 
 it will not be exclusively a resurrection unto damna- 
 tion. 
 
 XIII. It teaches that in the same kingdom of glo- 
 ry and the resurrection, there will be marrying and 
 giving in marriage, begetting of children, &c. But 
 this is plainly contrary to what Jesus himself has 
 taught us, Mat. xxii. 30: "They neither marry nor 
 are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God 
 in Heaven." 
 
 XIV. It teaches that there is to be at the begin- 
 ning of the Millenium an awful conflict, an exter- 
 minating slaughter of the wicked; and another, ac- 
 cording to Rev. xx. 7 — 9, when the thousand years 
 are expired; and that the object of each of these 
 terrible contests is, of course, to effect an everlast- 
 ing separation between the righteous and the wick- 
 ed, and the final and complete overthrow of the 
 latter, which is therefore an object to be twice ac- 
 complished. 
 
 XV. All those who advocate the Millenarian sys- 
 tem, so far as known, teach that the nations whom 
 Satan is to deceive, at the expiration of the thou- 
 
200 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 sand years, will be the nations of the wicked dead, 
 raised from their graves; although they at the same 
 time teach that the word nations is never, in the 
 Scriptures, used with reference to the dead; and so 
 Satan shall deceive none that are in the four quar- 
 ters of the earth when the thousand years are ex- 
 pired, but those whom he h;id already deceived 
 more than a thousand years before, and whom, 
 therefore, he must bring out of the prison-house of 
 hell with him, for the purpose of deceiving them a 
 second time. 
 
 XVI. They teach that the second and last resur- 
 rection, viz: the resurrection of the wicked, is to be 
 on the NEW EARTH, when the old world and 
 all its works, with all sin, together with the bones 
 and ashes of the wicked, shall have been consumed 
 in the fires of the last and universal conflagration, 
 at least a thousand years before. 
 
 XVII. Also, that the battle mentioned, Rev. xx. 
 7 — 9, is to be fought on the theatre of the new earth. 
 This is a consequence, from which the system 
 which they advocate cannot be separated or dis- 
 joined. They plainly teach that the old world is 
 destroyed by fire, and that the new heavens and 
 new earth are created at the commencement of the 
 Millenium; but this battle takes place at the end of 
 the thousand years. Consequently it must be on the 
 new earth. Will it, therefore, be a dwelling-place 
 of righteousness? (See 2 Pet. iii. 13.) 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 201 
 
 XVIII. They teach not only that the last battle 
 will be fought on the new earth, but that IMMOR- 
 TALS will constitute the armies between whom 
 this contest is to be waged. The Devil and his 
 angels will lead on the innumerable hosts of the 
 wicked that shall have lived from the beginning of 
 time to the end of the world, all raised from the 
 grave, to " storm the Heavenly City" itself, and 
 madly attempt to vanquish the army of light, ad- 
 vancing under the banner of the King of kings^ 
 having cherubim and seraphim for his warriors, as 
 well as the army of the glorious and glorified apos- 
 tles and martyrs. Every one of us will, of course^ 
 have a part on the one side or the other, in that 
 great and final contest. What, then> if we achieve 
 no victories, and w T in no laurels now in the cause of 
 God and of truth, we may yet conquer and gain a 
 crown beyond the grave. 
 
 XIX. This system rejects a strict and literal in- 
 terpretation of all such prophecies as are descrip- 
 tive of the latter-day glory, and the reign of Christ 
 on earth. And yet Millenarians say, it is on a. 
 strictly literal or grammatical construction of the 
 language of the prophecies, rejecting the allegori- 
 cal or spiritual method of interpretation, that they 
 base their entire system. 
 
 XX. By adhering strictly to the rule of a literal 
 interpretation, they must admit that the physical 
 itate of the earth, after the new creation, and after 
 
202 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 the purification by fire, will be the same that it now 
 is, with animals still subsisting on its surface, as 
 horses, mules, oxen, sheep, the lion, bear, serpents, 
 &c. But they do not explain how they come to be 
 on the new earth; whether they are preserved alive 
 through the destructive fires of the last day; wheth- 
 er they are created new; or whether they, as well as 
 men, are raised to a new life from the dead. Neither 
 do they tell us what use there will be for these ani- 
 mals in the kingdom of glory, and of the resurrec- 
 tion. 
 
 XXI. By adhering to the same rule of interpre- 
 tation, they must also teach that the risen, changed^ 
 and glorified saints will literally "build houses," 
 and inhabit them; and literally "plant vineyards, 5 * 
 and eat the fruit of them: and literally marry waves, 
 and beget children, &c. 
 
 XXII. Otherwise, they must admit that the new 
 earth, during the Millenium, will be inhabited by 
 men and women in the flesh, and not by immortals, as 
 their system requires them to believe. But they do 
 not explain how the earth can be thus peopled, after 
 ALL the dead in Christ are raised with immortal 
 bodies, and ALL the living saints are changed; nor 
 do they explain how it can be consistent with the 
 words of Paul: "Now this I say, brethren, that 
 flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; 
 neither doth corruption inherit incorruption, " 1 
 Cor, xv, 50, 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 203 
 
 But I will stop here. It would be easy, if I were 
 disposed to enter into minute specification?, to ex- 
 tend this enumeration to the number 44, instead of 
 22. 
 
 It gives me no pleasure — it pains me, to be com- 
 pelled to detect and expose the many and egregious 
 errors of the system which I have felt it my duty to 
 examine. I could wish that the task had devolved 
 on some one more competent to perform it. But it 
 is a case in which no option is left to the servant of 
 Christ. When he sees the enemy coming in like a 
 flood, he must lift up a standard against him. When 
 he sees the approach of danger, he must sound the 
 alarm. When the sluices of heresy are opened, 
 and begin to inundate the church of God with their 
 corrupting streams, he must endeavor to stop them. 
 For why has he been placed as a watchman on 
 Zion's walls but to lift up his voice faithfully, when- 
 ever there may be occasion. And that professed 
 servant of Jesus Christ discharges not his duty, who, 
 either through fear or a false modesty, shrinks into 
 retirement, and shuns to raise his voice, feeble 
 though it may be, against the prevalence of false 
 doctrines. If all should pursue this course, who 
 would be found to contend for the faith once deliv- 
 ered to the saints? 
 
 The defenders of Millenarian doctrines are doing 
 an immense injury to the church of the blessed Re- 
 deemer. Doubtless, they are doing it ignorantly, 
 
204 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 like as Paul himself once persecuted the saints, be- 
 fore his eyes were opened; and our sincere prayer 
 is, that they may be forgiven. 
 
 They disparage in their sermons and publica- 
 tions, the present dispensation — the Gospel of Christ; 
 and they make it their daily prayer that it may 
 speedily come to an end. This is enough to excite 
 astonishment in the mind, even of an angel. It was 
 to lay the foundations of this dispensation that Jesus 
 stooped from the heights of glory, and submitted to 
 the shameful death of the cross on Calvary. The 
 angels desire, it is said, to look into the mysteries of 
 the gospel kingdom. And if there be one employ- 
 ment in which they experience more joy than any 
 other, doubtless, it is in being permitted to have any 
 part as messengers or ministering spirits, in executing 
 or carrying out any design of mercy connected 
 with the glorious kingdom of Grace. 
 
 Our prayer has ever been, " thy kingdom come, " 
 according to what our Saviour has taught us.' But 
 we have always understood our own meaning to 
 be, that the gospel dispensation might prevail over 
 all the earth, and that Jesus, by his Spirit, and his 
 word, might reign in the hearts of all men. This is 
 what we really desire; for we think that, if we 
 know our own heart, we love the gospel. O, it is 
 through the gospel dispensation the Saviour has 
 gathered and won the JEWELS that are to glitter 
 forever in his crown of rejoicing! But if the pray- 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 205 
 
 er is really a petition that the present dispensation, 
 or the spiritual kingdom of Christ, may quickly end, 
 and that some oihzr kingdom may be set up in the 
 place of it, how can we longer send up this petition? 
 We have prayed devoutly that the gospel might be 
 preached to every creature, and we have given a 
 little too, to aid in sending it to the perishing mil- 
 lions of the heathen; but we have little encourage- 
 ment to do either, if indeed we are commanded to 
 pray daily, that this gospel dispensation may quickly 
 come to a termination. 
 
 O, I am afraid that Millenarians are really fight- 
 ing against the progress of the gospel through the 
 world! I know they are, if they art consistent!} 
 with their own principles. No christian will be apt 
 to do much for the spread of the gospel, when he is 
 expecting daily and hourly, that this dispensation 
 will pass away, and believes that it is his duty to 
 pray for this event. This cannot be a false view 
 of the tendency of this scheme. They offer up the 
 same prayer, " Thy kingdom come," which we have 
 been taught by the Saviour. But very different is 
 the sense in which they put up this petition from 
 that in which we use it. They pray for the coming 
 and triumph of another kingdom entirely, from that 
 which we desire the success of, and on which our 
 affections are placed. But their prayer cannot be 
 answered except by a dissolution of the present 
 
 state of things, and the termination of the kingdom of 
 18 
 
206 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, &C. 
 
 Grace. And if they pray for this, how will they — 
 how can they labor for the extension of this blessed 
 kingdom of Grace through the world ? It is our ardent 
 hope and prayer, that the defenders of this false and 
 dangerous system may yet discover their error and re- 
 nounce it. The servants of Jesus have enough to 
 do to PREACH the gospel, without wasting their 
 time and talents in efforts to prove that the Saviour 
 is soon to come in person, to close the gospel dispensa- 
 tion. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 Conclusion— the true Theory of the Millenium, 
 
 I shall have performed a thankless task, in the 
 estimation of the reader, if I shall only have at- 
 tempted to overthrow the Millenarian theory, with- 
 out having offered another in the place of it. Ev- 
 ery one who carefully peruses the preceding pages, 
 will be able to extract from them the true and ortho- 
 dox theory on the subject of the Millenium; I say 
 the true and orthodox theory, because I have none, 
 and pretend to give no theory of my own. The 
 views which the pious, generally, in all enlightened 
 ages of the Church, have entertained, are those 
 which will be found inculcated in this volume. 
 These views of the Gospel, and the plan of salva- 
 tion by Grace, form a theory which is the ground 
 of as pious thought, and as bright anticipations, as 
 that theory can be to which it stands opposed. " To 
 a serious mind," as an eloquent divine* has truly re- 
 marked, " the truths of the Christian religion appear 
 with such an air of unaffected greatness, that, in 
 comparison of these, all other speculations and rea- 
 sonings seem like the amusements of childhood. 
 When the Deity, the incarnation, the atonement, 
 
 *The late Robert Hall, of England, 
 
208 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 the resurrection of the Son of God, the sanctifica- 
 tion of the Church, and the prospects of glory, have 
 engaged our contemplation, wc feel, in turning our 
 attention to other objects, a strange descent, and 
 perceive with the certainty of demonstration, that, 
 as the earth is too narrow for the full development 
 of these mysteries, they are destined, by their con- 
 sequences and effects, to impregnate an eternal du- 
 ration. We are not at all surprised at finding the 
 ancient prophets searched into these mysteries, with 
 great but unsuccessful diligence; that the angels 
 desire to look into them, or. that the apostles were 
 lost in the contemplation of those riches, which they 
 proclaimed and imparted. Are you desirous of fix- 
 ing the attention of your hearers strongly on their 
 everlasting concerns? No peculiar refinement of 
 thought, no subtlety of reasoning, much less the 
 pompous exaggerations of secular eloquence, are 
 wanted for that purpose; you have only to imbibe 
 deeply the mind of Christ, to let his doctrine enligh- 
 ten, his love inspire your heart, and your situation 
 in comparison of other speakers, will resemble that 
 of the angel of the Apocalypse, who was seen stand- 
 ing in the sun." 
 
 When this holy religion shall thoroughly pervade 
 all nations, our belief is, that the Millenium will 
 have commenced. We include in our ideas of this 
 Millenium, 
 
 1. That the descendants of Abraham will be re- 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 209 
 
 stored to their own country, out of all the nations 
 whither thev have been scattered abroad. Differ- 
 ent opinions may be entertained with respect to the 
 future destiny of that wonderful people, and of Je- 
 rusalem, the ancient capital of the holy land; but 
 for reasons which have been given, and which it is 
 not necessary to repeat, we are inclined to the be- 
 lief, that the prophecies concerning them are to have 
 a literal fulfillment. We anticipate that the day is 
 to come, when the mosques of Mohammed, which 
 have so long reared their minarets and spires on the 
 consecrated soil of Jerusalem, shall tumble into 
 ruins; and the tribes of Israel shall worship Jesus, 
 the Son of David, on the very spot where their fath- 
 ers crucified him. He will not reign personally and 
 visibly over them, on a material throne; but his gov- 
 ernment will be over them; his sceptre will rule 
 them; his Spirit will be in their hearts; his law will 
 be the rule of their lives. And they will obey him, 
 serve him, and be subject to his will, and render hom- 
 age to him as truly and literally, as if he were per- 
 sonally present with them. There will be no city 
 of gold and jasper, with gates of pearl, such as we 
 are told shall literally descend from God out of 
 heaven. That New Jerusalem, described by John 
 by symbols so expressive of beauty and brilliancy, 
 because he had no appropriate language to set forth 
 the glory thereof, is the Church in heaven — the 
 Church triumphant, and made perfect. For it is 
 18* 
 
210 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 called the "Bride" the " Lamb's wife" a title which 
 is applied exclusively to the Church. But they will 
 rebuild their ancient city, and bring with them the 
 riches of the Gentiles; and build houses, and plant 
 vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. The hills of 
 Palestine shall again be covered with the fruitful 
 vine, and numerous herds and flocks shall fill every 
 valley. The lion and the lamb shall dwell together; 
 and there shall be nothing to hurt nor destroy in all 
 God's holy mountain. 
 
 2. We believe that, at the same time, all the na- 
 tions of the earth are, equally with the Jews, to en- 
 joy the benefits of the Christian religion. Every 
 system of idolatry — every form of superstition, shall 
 be dissolved and melt away under the blaze of the 
 Sun of righteousness, and they shall cast their idols 
 to the moles and the bats. No Juggernaut, in that 
 day, shall roll his bloody car over a way paved with 
 human bones. No Hindoo mother shall sacrifice 
 her helpless babe to the monsters that infest the sa- 
 cred Ganges. No victim shall languish in the dun- 
 geon, or be stretched on the rack of a heartless in- 
 quisition. But the people of every nation, kindred, 
 tribe and tongue under the whole heaven, shall wor- 
 ship Immanuel; and to his Name alone, the incense 
 of praise shall ascend. 
 
 3. The earth shall be full of the knowledge of 
 the Lord, " as the waters cover the sea." As the 
 Christian religion advances, the arts and science 5 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 211 
 
 that bless mankind, follow in its train. This has 
 always been the case, and ever will be. We believe 
 that in the time of the Millenium, all the branches 
 of learning and science shall be brought to a far 
 higher degree of perfection than they have ever yet 
 been, in any country. Astronomy, geography, na- 
 tural and moral philosophy, history, metaphysics, the 
 healing art, &c, will be more thoroughly under- 
 stood, and will be consecrated to the service of re- 
 ligion. Above all, the Bible will be translated into 
 all languages, and given to all people; and all will 
 be taught to read it. Like the sun in the firmament, 
 it shall traverse the globe, scattering rays of light 
 and life in all directions. 
 
 4. Civil and religious freedom shall prevail uni- 
 versally on earth during the millenial reign. The 
 proclamation of the Gospel is the proclamation of 
 liberty to the captive, and the opening of the prison 
 doors to them that were bound. The thrones of ty- 
 rants and despots are to be destroyed. No system 
 of oppression shall be known or practised. " They 
 shall call their officers peace, and their exactors 
 righteousness." Every one shall sit down under his 
 own vine and fig-tree, and there shall be none to 
 molest, or make afraid. It is with feelings of inter- 
 est that we have watched the progress of liberty, in 
 proportion as Christianity has gained the ascendency 
 among any people. And the result is, a belief that 
 when it shall have acquired a universal and entire as- 
 
212 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 cendency, perfect liberty and equality of rights will be 
 enjoyed. The vassals of Rome shall be free. The 
 chains of their spiritual enthrallment shall be bro- 
 ken. Already are there indications that Rome is 
 gradually and steadily, but surely losing her power. 
 The cause of this decline is, the increase of knowl- 
 edge among the people. Dismiss your fears, then, 
 ye that are doubtful, The Papal hierarchy, that 
 master-piece of hellish workmanship, was built up, 
 and stands alone on ignorance. Let light be diffu- 
 sed; let the Word of God circulate freely through 
 the whole system, as the blood through the veins, 
 and its downfall is certain. 
 
 The children of Africa shall be free; and from all 
 climes whither they had be,en carried as bondmen, 
 the wanderers shall return to their father-land, richly 
 laden with the blessings of salvation, to communi- 
 cate to their degraded and miserable brethren; and 
 so all Africa shall become enlightened and redeemed. 
 
 5. Peace shall reign throughout the earth during 
 the thousand years. fc; Violence shall no more be 
 heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within 
 thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls salvation, 
 and thy gates praise." In that day, " nation shall 
 not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they 
 learn war any more. But they shall beat their 
 swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pru- 
 ning hooks." The religion of Christ breathes the 
 very spirit of peace, love, and harmony; although 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 213 
 
 infidels have sometimes slanderously imputed to it, 
 as the cause, a great part of the wars and carnage 
 that have, at times, desolated the fairest portions of 
 this earth. There is no land, scarcely, which has 
 not, at some time or other, been moistened with the 
 tears and blood of its inhabitants. And scarcely 
 has there been a period in the history of the past, 
 when the sound of war was not heard in some part 
 of the world. The chief employment, and the most 
 distinguished and honorable art, with some whole 
 nations, has been that of butchering, by wholesale, 
 their fellow men. 
 
 But the era is approaching when the torch of dis- 
 cord is to be extinguished, and when wars and ru- 
 mors of wars shall be heard no more. The wicked 
 one is to be bound; and all violence is to be sup- 
 pressed. The banner of PEACE shall be unfurled 
 for a thousand years; and during that blissful period 
 never shall the hand of man be raised in hostility 
 against his fellow man. The husbandman shall 
 pursue, in security, his peaceful labors; the travel- 
 ler shall go on his way, through forests and over 
 deserts, without fear of the robber or assassin; the 
 merchantman and saiior shall not fear a rover on 
 the high seas. One bond of brotherhood shall be 
 formed, which shall keep the human family together 
 in one, in harmony and love. This we firmly be- 
 lieve. 
 
 No wonder that the inspired prophets, looking 
 
214 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 down through a vista of more than two thousand 
 years, and beholding the distant and future genera- 
 tions of Adam, all happy and united under the 
 government of the Prince of Peace, were fired at 
 the prospect, and have drawn, in such lively colors, 
 the glories of the last days. It is almost impossi- 
 ble not to imagine that the harp of Isaiah was 
 tuned in Heaven, when he sweetly sung con- 
 cerning Zion, " Thou shalt call thy walls Sal- 
 vation, and thy gates Praise. The sun shall be 
 no more thy light by day; neither for bright- 
 ness shall the moon give light unto thee; but 
 the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and 
 thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go 
 down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself; for 
 the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the 
 days of thy mourning shall be ended. Thy people 
 also shall be all righteous; they shall inherit the 
 land forever, the branch of my planting, the work 
 of my hands, that I may be glorified. A little one 
 shall become a thousand; and a small one, a strong 
 nation; I the Lord will hasten it in his time. " 
 
 But what the Prophets were only permitted to 
 contemplate at a distance, and to have a faint view 
 of, in dim and shadowy visions, we are almost per- 
 mitted to see in clear and bright REx\LITY. For 
 the kingdoms of this world are indeed becoming the 
 kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. A mighty, 
 moral machinery is now in full and successful opera- 
 
OR THE MILLENARIAN THEORY REFUTED. 215 
 
 tion, which is soon to subjugate every dominion and 
 principality to the sway of Jesus. What christian 
 can compare the present with the past, or regard the 
 signs of the times, which are so ominous of good to 
 the church, and not have his heart expand with 
 emotions which he cannot express? And who does 
 not esteem it a privilege to live in this day, when he 
 stands on the very eve of the accomplishment of 
 the GLORIOUS THINGS spoken of Zion! And 
 much more, who does not count it the highest privi- 
 lege it is possible to enjoy, that he is permitted to 
 co-operate with the Great Head of the Church, in 
 bringing a ruined and apostate world back to its 
 paradisaical state! Reader, are you engaged in 
 this blessed work? Do you count it as your great- 
 est happiness to live in an age of the world 
 when you may do so much for the cause of truth 
 and humanity, and for the glory of the Redeem- 
 er? What is it for which you live, and which 
 you make the first end and aim of your being? Is 
 it your own interest, or is it the interest of his king- 
 dom, who bought us with his blood? Endeavor so to 
 live that the disclosures of the last day will bring 
 out an answer to this question, which you will be 
 willing to meet. 
 
 But here I lay down my pen. The task which I 
 have now performed, has been in some respects a 
 pleasant one; but on other accounts I could have 
 wished that it had devolved on another. If one 
 
216 THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, 
 
 word that has been written seem to be harsh or se- 
 vere, let it not therefore be thought that the author 
 has entertained a single feeling of unkindness to- 
 wards those, whose writings and doctrines he has re- 
 viewed. If any thing which this book contains is 
 contrary to Truth, may the great Head of the Church 
 prevent any evil consequence thereof, and to his 
 name be all the glory forever — Amen. 
 
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