There is, however, to us even now a source of consolation in the fact here revealed, that these foul spirits will be permitted to be at large on earth but for a little time; a little while, when compared with the blissful millennium then past; and a little while when compared with the blissful ages of eternity coming for the redeemed.

VI. This prediction is as yet unfulfilled. If, however, there be any who affirm that the millennium is past, and that Satan has already been bound and imprisoned a thousand years, such an astonishing declaration or proposition needs powerful confirmation on their part, and it is their duty to prove it from the history of the Christian Church, and to shew that such history agrees, in all main points, with Rev. xx. 1-6, and with other prophecies pertaining to the subject; which never has been done, nor can be. "For reckon," says Bishop Newton, "the thousand years with Usher from the time of Christ, or reckon them with Grotius from the time of Constantine, yet neither of these periods, nor indeed any other, will answer the description and character of the millennium-the purity and peace, the holiness and happiness of that blessed state. Before Constantine, indeed, the Church was in greater purity, but was groaning under the persecutions of the heathen emperors. After Constantine, the Church was in greater (outward) prosperity, but was soon shaken and disturbed by heresies and schisms; by the incursions and devastations of the northern nations; by the conquering arms and prevailing imposture of the Saracens, and afterwards of the Turks; by the corruption, idolatry, and wickedness, the usurpation, tyranny, and cruelty of the Church of Rome. If Satan was then bound, when can he be said to be loosed? Or how could the saints and the beast, Christ and antichrist, reign at the same period? This prophecy, therefore, remains yet to be fulfilled."

Besides, we hold that it is expressly revealed, that the nations will not be converted until our Lord has come the second time to establish His kingdom on earth; and that the conversion of men up to that great day will be individual, not national, as our Saviour himself declared when He commissioned His apostles. Now, a millennium without the personal presence of Christ, and the conversion of the nations, is a sheer imagination, and wholly anti-scriptural. And how can Satan be bound and safely imprisoned, when he everywhere leads the greater part of mankind captive at his will? And has not this been true ever since the ascension of our Lord?

Again, a millennium without the first resurrection is wholly

against what is clearly predicted, (Rev. xx. 4-6.) The risen saints such is the inspired explanation-shall reign with Christ during the thousand years in which the fallen angels are imprisoned in hell. But who believes that all the holy dead have been raised? How can they be raised and reign with Christ, according to the Scriptures, until our great RedeemerKing has come? A millennium without the parousia, or personal presence of Christ; without the conversion of the nations; without the resurrection of God's elect and Christ's co-regents; without the restoration and regeneration of Israel; without the destruction of the civil and ecclesiastical tyrants in all the earth; without universal peace among the nationswhere, in the whole Scriptures, have we the darkest hint of any such millennium? Nowhere. But we forbear, since such a palpable error hardly deserves even a brief refutation.

When Satan and his hosts are in the bottomless pit; when God has destroyed the despots in Church and state who destroyed the earth, (Rev. xi. 18,) then, or in the millennial age, the Good Spirit, the Spirit of God and of Christ, will, by the everlasting gospel," renew and sanctify the nations. "And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb" (Rev. xxii. 1.) This river is the symbol of the purifying and refreshing influences of the Holy Ghost, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son. Not a spring, not a brook, but a river— descriptive of most abundant influences; and a river of water of life, the source of spiritual life to the nations. Or, as it is expressed by Isaiah, when treating of Christ's reign, "The earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.”

ART. III.-OVERCOMERS AND OVERCOME.

IN a notice of part of an exposition of the Apocalypse by "Matheetees," which appeared in this Journal, (1863,) some remarks were made upon a doctrine maintained in that work, to the effect that some believers will be excluded from the millennial kingdom, and may even be hurt of the second death by being cast into the lake of fire, although they will afterwards be admitted to eternal life. This doctrine, which is the chief dogma of a pretty extensive scheme, requires, as is natural, a considerable number of positions to support it. As we see

from a syllabus before us, those who maintain it hold, in addition, that eternal life and the kingdom of Christ differ in the following seven particulars:-1. In duration; the kingdom is temporary. 2. In our attitude towards them; eternal life is already possessed, and it is unbelief for the believer to seek it, while the kingdom is future, and is to be sought for, striven for, suffered for. 3. In the grounds of possessing each; eternal life depends upon our justification, faith alone is our title to it, and obedience is not necessary to it, neither is baptism; while the kingdom is never promised to faith only, but depends upon baptism, sanctification, obedience, and upon simplicity of faith in the doctrine of the millennium. 4. In circumstances which hinder not eternal life, but affect our obtaining the kingdom; the surrender of riches is not necessary to eternal life, nor celibacy, nor much tribulation, nor to be slain for Christ's sake; but the surrender of riches is necessary to the kingdom, and much tribulation; marriage also affects the kingdom. 5. In God's position concerning them; eternal life is a gift to all believers, the result of God's mercy and of election, and none are counted worthy of it; while the kingdom is a temporary reward of which some are counted worthy, and entrance into it. is according to works. 6. In man's position; the believer should be assured of eternal life, but he may well be doubtful of the kingdom; the threats of God against believers relate to the kingdom. 7. There are degrees in the kingdom, but this is not said of eternal life.

These are the principal points in the scheme. If it be true, some of the most important doctrines of the old theology must be abandoned. We believe the scheme to be dangerous, and we hope to be able to shew it to be false. It tends to introduce the old counsels of perfection, and a kind of Protestant purgatory. Instead of the one object which God sets before us, and the one rule which He gives to direct us in attaining it, it sets before us two objects, either of which we may choose with ultimate safety, and two rules or standards of holiness and obedience, one of which is high and perfect, we think it aspires to be more perfect than even the law of God; while the other may be made as low and lax as any careless believer, nay, as any deluded sinner, who imagines he has faith, and that faith without works can save him, may choose to make it; for the syllabus states that obedience is not necessary to eternal life. On either of these rules a man is sure of eternal life, although he who chooses the second will enter it a thousand years later than those who choose the first,-a consideration to which many will be disposed to attach but little weight, as opposed to the

pleasure of present gratification and the pain of present selfdenial. The scheme tends, on the one hand, to promote celibacy and asceticism, and is, on the whole, very favourable to Popery and the Sacramentarians; and, on the other hand, nothing could be better calculated to encourage carelessness and sinfulness to produce results very similar to those which flow from a belief of the non-eternity of future punishment. We can hardly imagine anything better fitted to serve the interests of Satan and destroy the souls of men, than this scheme widely diffused and generally believed; for, while it makes pretensions to superior sanctity, and thus preserves an air of plausibility, it allows men to have as little sanctity as they may find agreeable, since it teaches that they may have eternal life without obedience; in other words, that they may live as they list, provided only they have faith, which is just to make Christ the minister of sin. It is hardly possible that a system with such tendencies can be true. And however its advocates may be disposed to deny, as no doubt they are very vehemently, that it has evil tendencies, we think this cannot be doubted by any one who fairly considers it. It may be dangerous to set up our judgment of the tendencies of doctrines, as in every case a test of their truth or falsehood; but within certain limits this is a very safe and sure test; and this scheme fairly falls within these limits, for it requires very little spiritual discernment clearly to perceive its tendencies, and to see that they are unmistakably evil. This ought to be regarded as at least a strong presumption against it. But we shall endeavour to shew, on textual grounds, that it is false; and if it be false, there can be no question as to whether it is dangerous. The evidence against it is, to our minds, perfectly overwhelming; and the more we have examined what Scripture teaches on the subject, the more have we been astonished that any could for a moment think of seriously maintaining it. Looking at the nature of the system, and at the efforts made for its propagation, we think that it ought to be specially noticed.

We fully admit the soundness of the rule to which the supporters of this system attach importance; namely, that no text of Scripture can silence another; and that alone is the true doctrine which gives its place to every text. We always endeavour to proceed upon that rule. But the question is not about one text of Scripture silencing another, but which of two contrary interpretations of Scripture is the true one. It is maintained, on the one hand, that Scripture teaches that some believers shall be excluded from the millennial kingdom; and, on the other, it is held that Scripture teaches that all believers,

living and dead, at the time of our Lord's second coming, shall be admitted into it, and that none of them shall be excluded. Now, Scripture cannot teach both these doctrines, because they are contradictory. They are different from the two truths involved in the doctrine of the Trinity, that there are three persons in the Godhead, and that these three are one God. We cannot comprehend how these two truths agree, for that is above reason: we can only believe them on sufficient testimony,—the testimony of God. But the doctrines with which we are now concerned are of a different stamp: they are level to our understanding; we can fully comprehend them, and we could not believe them both on any testimony whatever, because they are plainly contradictory, and incapable of being harmonised. If one class of texts should teach the one, and another class the other, the question would not be which class should silence the other, but whether Scripture had not silenced itself. The question is between two opposing interpretations, which of them is true, and which, as false, ought to sink into silence and oblivion; and to settle it, the statements of Scripture must just be examined, and its due place given to every text.

It is proper, first of all, to consider the meaning of "the kingdom." The syllabus teaches that it means only the thousand years' reign; that equivalent expressions for it are, the (first) Resurrection, the Age to Come, the Rest; and it assumes it to be the same with the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven. The age to come is, no doubt, equivalent to the millennial kingdom, but the first resurrection is not. It is only the first resurrection, an event which precedes the establishment of that kingdom. If it were equivalent, the syllabus would contradict itself; for, in proof, it refers to Luke xx. 36, where those who are then raised are called the children of the resurrection; that is, according to our friends, the children of the kingdom,—a description utterly inapplicable to such as are excluded from it; and as all believers at that time are raised, they are all children of the kingdom, and so are admitted into it. That the Rest is equivalent to the millennial kingdom we deny, and say that it cannot be proved. Neither are the expressions, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, equivalent to it, although we are willing enough to admit that the kingdom of heaven, or of God, and the Rest, are equivalent to one another. The thousand years' reign is only a part of the kingdom of God. It is only that kingdom existing in one particular phase of its devleopment, and one period of its duration; and though it may be legitimate enough, for certain purposes, to confine the attention to this particular aspect and period