Lord shall be unto thee Lamb is the light there

an everlasting light, and of."

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 gates shall be "And the gates of it open continually, they shall not be shut at all shall not be shut day nor by day, for there shall night, that men may be no night there; and bring unto thee the for-the nations of them ces of the Gentiles, and which are saved shall that their kings may be walk in the light of it ; brought. Thou shalt and the kings of the also suck the milk of the earth do bring their Gentiles, and shalt suck glory and honor into it the breast of kings."

-and they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it."

"I will also make thy "And there shall in officers peace, and thine no wise enter into it anyexactors righteousness. thing that defileth, neiViolence shall no more ther whatsoever worketh be heard in thy land, abomination or maketh wasting nor destruction a lie; but they which within thy borders; but are written in the Lamb's thou shalt call thy walls book of life." salvation, and thy gates praise. Thy people also shall be all righteous."

"They shall inherit "He that overcometh the land forever, the shall inherit all things, branch of my planting, and I will be his God the work of my hands, and he shall be that I may be glorified."

my son."

Now, what is the difference between these promises in Isaiah and in the Revelation, that the former should be understood of things in the earth, but the latter of things in heaven? Can the immortality and glory of the world to come, and the best things to be expected in a world that has sin and death in it, and is therefore under the bondage of corruption, afford descriptions so similar as these of Isaiah and of John? As to myself, I am unable to determine, in these passages, which has given the highest description of heavenly glory, the prophet or the apostle; and whether they refer to things in heaven. or to things in earth, they most certainly refer to the same things.

It may also be observed, that the modern millenists expect, after the millennium, a day of as great trouble and distress to the church, if not greater, than ever it before saw; even that day of thick darkness and great tribulation to precede the second coming of Christ. Therefore, according to this expectation, it cannot be said of the church in the millennium, thy sun shall no more go down: violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders: and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. But these things are said of the millennial church by the prophets, and often repeated, without the least reserve. Turn where you will, you will find the difficulty equally great, to apply what the prophets

have said of the millennium to the modern scheme, as to apply it to the new Jerusalem of St. John: for where do we find greater or more perfect things promised the people of God in the Revelation, or anywhere else, than are those in Isaiah's prophecies of the millennium?

The millenarians are agreed in their leading sentiments of the millennium, that, before that day, Christ will come in the clouds of heaventhe wicked will be destroyed-the saints raised -the world burnt up; and all things will be made new, and restored to the people of God; that in the millennial church there will be no sin, pain, sorrow, nor death; they will all speak one language, and all know the Lord, from the least to the greatest. With respect to some of the objections made to those sentiments, such as Gog and Magog, &c., they have given different answers and this we observe is often the case with respect to other doctrines of divine revelation, of the truth of which we may be assured, and see therein eye to eye; whilst we remain in the dark, and judge very differently, as to some of their relations and dependencies. The greatest appearance of difference among them respects the day of judgment; some have spoken of that day as being before, others as being after the millennium but, perhaps, this apparent difference may be reconciled in the view which they have more generally given of it, as a day consisting of the whole term of the sounding of the seventh trumpet-a day including several scenes-opening with the battle of that great day of God Almighty at the final destruction of Antichrist, and the first resurrection; and, after the reign of the saints with Christ a thousand years-the

rising of Gog and Magog, &c.-finally closing with the sentence of Christ, passed upon the whole universe assembled before him: and, that the words so often used in the Scriptures, that day, that great day, the day of the Lord, the day of Christ, the day of judgment, &c., refer sometimes to one of those scenes separately, and sometimes to all taken together. When we say the millenarians are agreed, it may be necessary to note, that we do not reckon among them Dr. Gill and others, who have attempted to reconcile both schemes; which cannot be done; for the millennium doctrine new modelled (as Dr. Watson calls it) retains nothing of the old model but the name.

But we have not found the modern millenists so much agreed in their most leading sentiments of the millennium. Whether the wicked will be generally destroyed before the millennium, or be converted; whether the natural world will be regenerated, or remain the same as now; whether the saints in the millennium will be sinless, or will still have remaining corrupt nature-a body of death, and a spiritual warfare; whether they will be subject to disease and mortality; whether they will speak one language; and whether all the inhabitants of that glorious mountain will be saints;-these are points not so fully settled among themselves; and I know of but one point in which they have agreed, that is, that the millennium will be before the second coming of Christ.

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This subject, we doubt not, is capable of a much clearer illustration than is contained in these Lectures; but, after all, the subject of a future world cannot be fully understood by beings

of our limited capacities till it comes. Before the flood, many questions might have been asked Noah concerning the world after the flood, which he could not have answered; yea, many things concerning the world before the flood have been matter of great dispute among people of the greatest learning and knowledge. And if so, surely it must not be expected that we solve to the satisfaction of all every question concerning a world beyond the conflagration-a world that eye hath not seen-a world so different from this, that, to use the emphatical words of the prophet, this shall not be remembered nor come into mind.*

But some will then ask, If those things in their nature are so far removed from the present scenes, and in some respects must remain to us all matters of doubt and uncertainty, what shall we be profited by attending to them? To which I answer, they are things given by inspiration of God, and to attend rightly to all such things is profitable. Something may be known of them which will be of present and eternal advantage to our souls; for the Spirit saith expressly, Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy, [the Revelation,] and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. Others will object to our calling their attention to those things, as not being of the highest importance. To such I say, though some things may be of higher importance than others, yet no part of truth but is of importance: "And he respects not any part of truth as he ought, that hath not respect to every part of it:" and he

* Isa. lxv. 17.