universal kingdom of the Redeemer: "The prophecies relative to the millennium can only be fully understood, when fully accomplished." They then afford the strongest proof of their divine authority, and produce, in the minds of men, that conviction of gospel truth, and of the genuineness of religion, which, in the grand scheme of Heaven, they were appointed to produce. For the present, we had better remain in darkness respecting these predictions, rather than hazard a single erroneous conjecture. Where we have no evidence, we may spend an eternity in conjecture, without certainly arriving at any just conclusion, or useful result. There are nevertheless some things which may be legitimately inferred from the general tenor of prophecy, upon which we may depend with confidence. We may also be aided in our explanation of those predictions which relate to the millennium, by observing in what way, those concerning the coming and offices of the Messiah have met with their accomplishment.

With these preliminary remarks, let us proceed to notice what the Scriptures authorize us to believe concerning this universal kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In extent, this kingdom shall comprehend the whole habitable earth. "From the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the gentiles." Mal. i. 11. "And the Lord shall be king over all the earth in that day there shall be one Lord, and his name one." Zec. xiv. 9. Every nation shall delight to do him homage, and dwell beneath his shadow. The Roman poet's flattering prediction of Cæsar's empire, shall be truly accomplished in the person of the Messiah :

"Imperium oceano, famam qui terminet astris."-ENEID I. 287.

"His sway shall ocean bound, his fame the skies."

According to Rev. xx. 2 and 4, the duration of Christ's reign on earth will be "a thousand years."* This is evidently a certain number taken for an uncertain-a mode of expression not unusual with the prophets. Some understand the phrase literally, as used to denote a thousand years, neither more nor less; others, understand by it a period of 365,000 years, reckoning each day for a year. But this kind of precision does not correspond with the ordinary course of sublunary events. We are on safer ground, when we consider these words of the evangelist to mean simply a great length of time, or a duration of many successive ages.

This state of the church will be distinguished by the universal diffusion of gospel knowledge. All people shall "know the joyful sound; they shall walk. O Lord, in the light of thy countenance." Ps. xxxix.

* Hence the term millennium, from the Latin mille, a thousand, and annus, a

year,

15. "In those days they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest." Heb. viii. 11. Science, as the handmaid of Religion, shall doubtless extend her wings over every class of society; the means of information will be multiplied; and in a state of things so favorable to the cultivation of intellect, we may reasonably conclude, that men of the most astonishing attainments in every branch of useful learning, will be found in all quarters of the globe.

Righteousness shall every where prevail, and the benign principles of the gospel shall govern all hearts. So saith the prophet-" Thy people shall be all righteous." Is. lx. 21. Yet this may be understood with some limitation. Religion shall triumph, and Christ shall reign; but that opposers should arise, may certainly be admitted, as this state, unlike heaven, does not exclude the possibility of sin. Nevertheless, the tables will be turned and the righteous as far exceed in number the wicked, as they are now exceeded by them. While they who still "do wickedly" shall suffer peculiar marks of the divine displeasure. "The sinner, being a hundred years old, shall be accursed." Is. lxv. 20.

War and violence shall wholly cease. "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Is. ii. 4. "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." Is. lx. 18. Uninterrupted peace shall overspread the earth, and the song of the angelic harbingers shall be renewed in its full sense- "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will towards men. 99 Luke ii. 14.

As the brute creation have suffered from the fall, so it appears that in this new state of things, their ferocity, and every noxious quality, will be eradicated; so that they will thenceforth delight in the society of man and of each other. "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 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 the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain." Is. xi. 6-9.

Premature or early deaths will seldom occur, and the lives of men will be protracted generally to a good old age. "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 a hundred years old. They shall 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 mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands." Is. lxv. 20—22.

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Hence the population of the globe must far exceed the present proportion. Instead of eight hundred millions of inhabitants on the surface of the earth, as now, there may be then, after the lapse of a few ages, many times that number.* To supply the wants of all these, the earth shall be blessed with fertility, and Divine Providence will watch over both seed-time and harvest. 66 They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble." Is. lxv. 23. They shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them." Is. lxv. 21. In addition to this, arid deserts and uninhabited wilds may, through changes effected by divine power, and the industry of man, be rendered proper for human residence and support, and thus "in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water." Is. xxxv. 6, 7.

The ministers of God shall be held in great honor and esteem; their presence shall be welcomed in every place, and their message heard with delight. "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!" They shall be men of great zeal and energy. The watchmen shall lift up the voice." They shall no longer disagree, but unite in worship and in sentiment. "With the voice together shall they sing for they shall see eye to eye." Is. lii. 7, 8.

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At this period, when "the fulness of the gentiles" shall have come in (Rom. xi. 25), the blindness of Israel shall be done away, and that people, long "scattered and peeled," shall be restored to their ancient privileges, in conformity with the gracious promise of God to their fathers. "It shall come to pass in that day," says the prophet, “ that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." Is. xi. 11, 12. That they shall again inhabit Palestine, and rebuild Jerusalem, is a point on which there exists some doubt; inasmuch as those prophecies, from a literal interpretation of which this event has been inferred, are perhaps designed merely to show the superior glory of their nation in the latter day; and in doing this, what could be more affecting, what more impressive to an Israelite, than representations taken from his own city and country! The particular region which the Jews shall then occupy, does not so much appear to be the object of these predictions, as that they shall be embodied as a nation, and gathered into the church of Christ, in full possession of all the blessings of the new covenant. Jer. xxxi. 31.

* Perhaps this increase of population is alluded to by Isaiah, ch. lx. 20-"A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation."

+ Christ proclaimed to the gentiles.

Mankind snall be liberated from all diabolical influence and tempta tion. According to the evangelist John, an angel shall lay hold on the dragon, the old serpent, who is the devil and Satan; shall bind him, expel him from the earth, imprison and set a seal upon him, "that he might deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled." Rev. xx. 2, 3. Doubtless, with their head, the entire host of Satanic agents shall be driven from their present field of malicious labor.

Other grand events, predicted by St. John, in immediate connection with the foregoing, are the resurrection of the martyrs, and their subsequent reign with Christ, events, concerning which a great variety of opinions has existed in the learned world-a certain proof of the obscurity of those prophecies which relate to them. Perhaps the following inferences may be drawn from the testimony of sacred writ, without danger to the truth of inspiration, or to the, dignity of the Redeemer's kingdom.

First. That the martyrs of Jesus, and other saints of God, whose character is distinctly specified in Rev. xx. 4, shall live (noav, lived, a past tense, used for a future). This resurrection is not liable to any objection, which will not stand with equal force against that of the saints who arose and appeared to many, at the resurrection of Christ.

Secondly. They shall reign (Barudav, reigned) with Christ a thousand years. It is not said on earth, as the passage is often falsely quoted. These words do not stand in the text, and it is by no means certain that they are implied. This regal state, for aught that appears to the contrary, may subsist in the invisible world. This conjunction with Christ in royal office and glory, is designed as a peculiar honor to such as have suffered death in the cause of religion, or have withstood the Beast. In this light it was regarded by the early Christians, and in hope of this glory, many coveted martyrdom.

Thirdly. At the close of this thousand years, the rest of the dead live again (avendav, revived). "This is the first resurrection." Rev. xx. 5. The general resurrection of the saints is here intended, as appears from the next verse,* and from 1 Thess. iv. 16—“The dead in Christ shall rise first." Though the martyrs precede the great multitude of God's people, by an interval of a thousand years, yet both are included in the first resurrection, which is so denominated, in reference to that of the ungodly, which is posterior.

Fourthly. Before the general resurrection of the saints, Satan must

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*I am inclined to believe, that, in order to a correct reading of this passage, ver. 5, and the first clause of ver. 6, should be included in a parenthesis; and the words ini toútov, rendered upon these, relating to the martyrs mentioned ver. 4, “ And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.-5, (But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.-6, Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection.) On these, ini Touτwr, the second death," &c.

be loosed a little season. During this space, his mischief shall be equal to his malice, now quickened by previous confinement. The whole earth shall suffer his dire tyranny; for "he shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth." The multitude of the enemies of Christ, shall be "as the sand of the sea ;" their devastation universal. 65 They went up on the breadth of the earth." The spirit of persecution shall be rekindled. "They compassed the carp of the saints." But signal judgments shall cut them off in the midst of their pride and cruelty.

"Fire came down from' God, out of heaven, and devoured them." Rev. xx. 8,9.

Here ends the book of time. Its history closes with the everlasting confusion of the prince of darkness, and the ruin of his kingdom forever and forever.

This final scene ushers in that day of days, when, in the fulness of omnipotence and majesty, Jesus, the Lord of all, shall judge the world, and bring to their consummation and issue all the concerns of his terrestrial kingdom. "Then shall the wise shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever." Then "every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess" that he who wept, in Gethsemane, who bowed his head on Calvary and died, who sacrificed his life for the sins of a guilty world, is the Lord of the universe, and the Conqueror of Death and Hell.

These are the "times of the restitution of all things," signified by the apostle Peter, Acts iii. 21; the times of the new heaven and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, which is the last event predicted in the sacred oracles.

Thus far the word of prophecy conducts us as to the remotest shores of time, and leaves us to gaze, with sublime wonder, upon the boundless ocean of an unknown eternity, whose ages, like wave succeeding wave, shall roll in perpetual course, each bearing on its bosom scenes of existence and action known only to Him who fills the universe with his presence, and lives throughout endless duration.

Concerning the latter glory of Christ's kingdom, many have inquired, "When shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of his coming?" To this question it is impossible to render a definite answer, because the time is not revealed. How near, or how remote, no human investigator can declare. Yet this period approaches with a certainty that is founded upon the evidence of divine truth, and indicated by many of those great occurrences which are now transpiring in various parts of the earth. Of these it may serve our purpose to mention but two.

First. The diffusion of Christian knowledge. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." Dan. xii. 4. The present age remarkably fulfils this prediction. What zeal is exhibited by almost every denomination of Christians to convey the light of revela tion into all inhabited regions, and to plant the cross in the most