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the obscurity of ages, and casts its native splendour over the pages of inspiration.

It is surprising that, notwithstanding all his learning and deep knowledge of the Scriptures, the poet Milton should, in his Paradise Lost, have perpetuated the heathen notions which we have just controverted. Thus, in book vii., after a figurative and highly wrought description of the creation of the world by the Son of God, partly borrowed from the sublime poetry of the books of Job and the Proverbs, he says:

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"Thus God the heav'n created, thus the earth,
Matter unform'd or void: darkness profound
Cover'd th' abyss; but on the wat'ry calm,
His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread,
And vital virtue infus'd, and vital warmth
Throughout the fluid mass, but downward purg'd
The black tartareous cold infernal dregs
Adverse to life: then founded, then conglob'd
Like things to like, the rest to several place
Disparted, and between, spun out the air,
And earth self-balanc'd, on her centre hung."

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"THE ingathering and glorification of the church" is the subject of Lecture iv; in which our author simply gives expression to the popular but unfounded idea, that all saints from the beginning to the end of time constitute the church. We are quite aware that Mr. W.'s views on this point are shared by many who differ from him widely on prophetic subjects; but his mistake is not the less serious on this account. On any other subjects than those of Scriptural inquiry and interpretation, men would smile at such a quiet assumption of the point to be proved, as that which characThis notion of the Spirit of God brooding on the face of terizes Lecture iv. The opening sentence declares, in the abyss has been so tenaciously held from the days of the most positive terms, the affirmative view of the antiquity, that we find it more or less cited and alluded question which ought to be discussed. "As Christ is to in the writings of almost all the commentators and the exclusive Author, so is the church mystical the annotators on the Bible. How different from this irre-exclusive recipient of salvation," p. 140. So affirms verent conception, is the sublime description contained in the book of Job, chap. xxxviii. 4—11:

"Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding.

Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? Or, who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or, who laid the corner-stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy? The Divine Architect is here represented as laying the foundation of the world, in the manner of a splendid edifice, and like a wise master-builder, employing the measuring line and laying out the plan. What a magnificent anthropopatheia; and how admirably is it heightened by the idea of the accompanying music of the morning stars, and the acclamations of the sons of God, the holy angels of heaven! The glorious description of the Son of God, the second person in the ever-blessed Trinity, contained in the 8th chapter of Proverbs, verses 22—31, is sufficient to put to flight at once and for ever, all the heathen notions against which we are contending, and to establish the great Scriptural truth that it was He who said "before Abraham was, I am"-that created the heavens and the earth by a word, and not by the incubation of the Spirit:—

"The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before

his works of old.

I was appointed from everlasting: from the beginning, or ever the earth was.

When there were no depths, I was brought forth;
When there were no fountains abounding with water.

Mr. W. But suppose any one should deny the truth of this proposition, on whom would fairly rest the burden of proof? Surely on Mr. W. himself; but in vain would any one read his discourse with the view of obtaining it. He assumes the truth of this opening declaration, and reasons from it throughout, as though it were not only uncontroverted, but incontrovertible.

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our author on prophetic subjects, as well as of many It may shock the prejudices of some who differ from our author on prophetic subjects, as well as of many who agree with him, when we affirm our conviction that this paragraph expressly contradicts God's Word. Such is our conviction, nevertheless: but instead of assuming its truth, we proceed at once to lay the grounds of it before our readers. Mr. W. says, that the foundation of the church was laid in the primæval promise. The Lord Jesus Christ said, four thousand years after the first promise was given, "Upon this build"-not "I have builded," or "I am building," but rock (the confession of him just made by Peter) I will "I will build my church," Matt. xvi. 18. That is, he speaks of it as a then future work. And though he

Contributed by the Author of "Plain Papers on Prophetic and other Subjects," and a review of the following works:

1 New Testament Mill-narianism; or, The Kingdom and Coming of Christ, as taught by himself and his apostles: set forth in eight sermous, preached before the University of Oxford in the year 1854, at the lecture

Before the mountains were settled; before the hills was I founded by the late Rev. John Bampton, by the Hon. and Rev. Samuel brought forth :

While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields,
Nor the highest part of the dust of the world.

When he prepared the heavens, I was there:

When he set a compass upon the face of the deep:
When he established the clouds above:

When he strengthened the fountains of the deep :

Waldegrave, M.A. rector of Barford St Martin, Wiits, and late fellow of All Souls' College. Loudon: Hamilton Adams, & Co., 1855; 8vo, pp. 686. 2 Notice of the above, in "The British and Foreign Evangelical Review," No. XIV., October, 1855.

3. Notice of the above, in "The London Quarterly Review," No. x., January, 1856.

4. Millennial Studies: or, What saith the Scriptures concerning the Kingdom and Advent of Christ? By the Rev. W. R. Lyon, B.A London Ward and Co.

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was, in his own blessed person, as the Son of the living ascended, that the Holy Ghost could be sent down; and God, the foundation of the church, it was not as a living it is by his presence and power that the gathering person upon earth that he was laid as the foundation. together in one takes place. "If I go not away, the For this, his death was indispensable. Except a corn Comforter will not come unto you,' John xvi. 7. of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone;"The Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit," John xii. 24. Jesus was not yet glorified," vii. 39. "Therefore, It was not until rejected of the Jewish builders, that he being by the right hand of God exalted, and having was exalted to be "the head of the corner"; and that received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, his death was indispensable to the church being builded he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear," on him as its foundation, the Epistle to the Ephesians Acts ii. 33. "By one Spirit are we all baptized into largely testifies. "For he is our peace, who hath made one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles," 1 Cor. both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of xii. 13. It is of Christ, ascended and glorified, that we partition, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, the read in Eph. i. 22, 23, that "the church is his body, law of commandments in ordinances; for to make in the fulness (or complement) of him that filleth all in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; and all." that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby," ch. ii. 14-16. It was thus and then the foundation was laid; and being laid, the apostle adds, "Now, therefore, ye (Gentile believers) are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets (New Testament prophets, surely*), Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone": verses 19, 20.

Do we wish, then, to deny or call in question the salvation, saintship, life, or glory, of the Old Testament believers? God forbid! They were quickened by the Spirit, beyond doubt. By virtue of the foreseen sacrifice of Christ, they were forgiven and saved. They will all have part in the first resurrection, and partake of heavenly glory. But no one of these things, no, nor all of them together, constitute the church. The church shares these things, life, justification, resurrection, and heavenly glory, with the saints of Old Testament times; but that which constitutes the church is something additional to all these, and of which the Old Testament bears not a single trace. It is the actual living unity with Christ and with each other of those, who, since Christ's resurrection, are formed into this unity, by the presence of the Holy Ghost come down from heaven. God had a nation in former times; and the Holy Ghost by Caiaphas teaches us, that it was for that nation Christ died. All the blessedness, therefore, of restored and forgiven Israel in days to come, is as simply owing to the atoning death of Christ, as is now the salvation of individual souls. But "not for that nation only," the Holy Ghost adds, "but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad." John xi. 52. There were, then, children of God prior to the death of Christ; but instead of forming one body, they were isolated individuals, "scattered abroad." For their gathering together in one, the death of Christ was absolutely needful. So was his resurrection; for it is only as "the beginning, the first-born from the dead," that he is the "head of the body, the church," Col. i. 18. Nor was it till he had

*A reference to ch. iii. 4, can scarcely leave a doubt of this. We read there of" the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit" They are "prophets" to whom, with the apostles, had been revealed by the Spirit, that which was hid from all previous

generations.

Now it is of the church thus formed and constituted that Scripture predicates completeness at the epoch of Christ's return. How easy to see, that if statements made in Scripture concerning this elect body of Christ be applied to all saints from the beginning to the end of time, false conclusions may easily be drawn from premises so unsound. All our author's reasonings as to baptism and the Lord's supper, the intercession of Christ and the preaching of the Word-all his attempts to shew that on millenarian grounds, these would have no place after the completion of the church and the coming of Christ-all his endeavours to reduce us to the dilemma of holding, either that no souls will be saved after Christ comes, or that they will be saved without the present means or channels of salvation-all rest on the baseless assumption that the church consists of all saved souls from the beginning to the end of time, and all, consequently, fall to the ground. Souls were saved for four thousand years before the church had any existence, save in the counsels and purposes of God; and souls will doubtless be saved throughout the millennium, after the completion of this wondrous "workmanship of his-this chef-d'œuvre of his wisdom, power, and grace. If there lacked not the means and appliances of salvation before the church began, why should we suppose any lack when the church is perfected and in glory with her Lord?

On the subject of the judgment, Mr. W.'s great endeavour is, first, to prove that millenarianism " deprives it of its chiefest terrors to the ungodly"; and, secondly, that these terrors consist in what he regards as the doctrine of Scripture, namely, that of a simultaneous judgment of all the righteous and all the wicked. But as all his arguments on these topics have been answered again and again in well-known works on prophetic subjects, we will not detain our readers by any detailed remarks thereon. On Mr. W.'s theory, that the millennium is already past, and that we are probably far advanced into the little season by which it was to be succeeded, the doctrine of a simultaneous judgment of all at Christ's coming, may well, indeed, strike terror into the hearts of the ungodly. On this theory, the coming and the judgment are both at the door. But how the postponement of Christ's coming, and of all judgment, to the end of a thousand years yet to commence, should be a doctrine of greater terror to the wicked than that of Christ's speedy appearing in the clouds of heaven, to

execute judgment on his living foes, having first received his people to himself, we are perfectly at a loss to

conceive.

Lecture vi. is on "the recompense of reward to be conferred upon the saints at the second coming of their Lord." With much that it contains we heartily agree. We hold as strenuously as Mr. W., that the main blessedness of the saints hereafter is in the visible and personal presence of Christ among them, or, to be more accurate, their presence thus with Christ. Heaven itself, we delight to know, is the locality of the saints' inheritance. If some pre-millennialists have thought otherwise, our author cannot be ignorant that it is in company with some of their most distinguished opponents,* that they look on the renovated earth as the eternal dwelling-place of the saints. Our own belief is, however, identical with Mr. W.'s, that the place which Jesus has gone to prepare for us, is in the heaven where his own glorified body now is, and of which he says, "that where I am, there ye may be also." Equally satisfied are we, that from the moment the saints are caught up to meet the Lord Jesus in the air, their state will "not admit of any, the very slightest admixture of evil." But is it not a purely gratuitous assumption of our author's, that this unalloyed perfection of the future state of the saints, precludes any contact or connexion (by Divine appointment, and as ministers of good), with a state of things less perfect than their own? What! is the state of the holy angels imperfect, because as ministering spirits they are now sent forth to minister to them which shall be heirs of salvation? And if angels can be made thus the channels of Divine beneficence, remaining undefiled and uninjured, their joy unclouded by the imperfection and need with which they come in contact, but only to succour and befriend, shall it be deemed impossible for those who are "blessed and holy," as having part in the first resurrection, to be ministers of blessing to the earth over which they are to reign with Christ a thousand years? And yet this is the sum and substance of Mr. W.'s argument in Lecture vi.

with Christ are resolved into their being, while yet on earth, "quickened together with Christ," and seated "with him in heavenly places"; and this spiritual reign and resurrection are represented as perfectly compatible with their suffering unto death at the very time they reign as risen with Christ! But hear Mr. W. himself: "If this view of the verse be correct, the thousand years will prove to be a period in which Christ's witnesses are witnesses even unto death-a period, in short, of martyrdom, not of triumph-a period in which Satan (being precluded indeed from the invention of fresh delusions), is able notwithstanding to wield those already in existence with such effect as to make the church of God to prophesy in sackcloth and ashes," p. 386.

This is, no doubt, a view of the millennium quite new to most of our readers. We will not pass upon them the reflection which would be implied, in seeking to rebut a principle by which Scripture language is made to mean exactly the opposite of what it says. Such a principle is not to be met by argument, but by the moral reprobation which attaches to the calling good threshold of our author's system. The thrones, and evil, and evil good. But we are as yet only on the sitters on them, to whom judgment was given, are the powers that be, employed as executioners of Satan's malice, in persecuting the saints to death! The saints reigning, be it remembered, and Satan bound all the thousand years are finished, are "the great body of truly which Satan is loosed from his prison and goes forth living souls brought to God," during the little season in to deceive the nations of the earth afresh! The ten centuries preceding the Reformation are suggested by Mr. W. as "the longer, the millennial period pourtrayed in the passage before us," while it is intimated that

while! "The rest of the dead" who rise not, till the

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the three centuries which have rolled away since that epoch," have borne the marks of "the little season which was to succeed the millennium.

Such is the "New Testament Millenarianism" of the Bampton Lectures; a system commended to us by the lecturer, as one which does "not dislocate the whole frame-work of Christian truth," which he alleges is done As to the resurrection and reign of the saints with Lord. To set aside such an expectation, is the great by expecting a pre-millennial advent of our blessed Christ for a thousand years, Mr. W. judges "that the object of his book. In this object, his reviewers of the thousand years may be even now in progress, if not London Quarterly, and the British and Foreign Evanentirely past," p. 377. He does not venture to pro-gelical, are heartily agreed. But as to the interpretation pound this view till he has occupied more than half of of Rev. xx., they are wide as the poles asunder. Mr. Lecture vii., with an exposition of the spiritualist W. declares it already fulfilled: the London Quarterly theory held by Whitby, Dr. Brown, Mr. Lyon, and maintains "that the scenes which this Scripture pourmany others. This theory he prefers to the pre-mil-trays are yet future," and addresses itself to the inquiry, lennial view; but after stating certain objections to it,Is it to be interpreted literally or figuratively"? Nor he proposes, as free from such objections, and as best is the enquiry prosecuted far, before the conclusion is entitled, in his judgment, to be adopted, his own view arrived at, and stated thus, "We have no hesitation in above stated. And though at first so modestly intro-saying, that the only consistent interpretation is the duced as a question, whether "the thousand years may be even now in progress, if not entirely past," it grows, in the course of its development, into a theory of interpretation, in which the binding of Satan is reduced to his being "for that period forbidden to invent and propagate any new (!!) religious imposture among nominal Christians"; the resurrection and reign of the saints

figurative one, which recognizes the revival of the early martyrs and confessors in their spirit and character." The British and Foreign Evangelical, while dealing most tenderly with Mr. W.'s millennial theory, is yet obliged to say,

"There are, in our opinion, two fatal objections to this view. First, the text on the face of it appears plainly to intimate that the life-whatever be meant by it-was posterior to the death, * Dr. Urwick, for instance, Mr. Fairburn, and Dr. David Brown himself. not contemporaneous with it. . . . Throughout the New

Testament, wherever it (the word avάoraσıç) is used in connection with death, there is not one instance in which it does not signify a state posterior to death-either the intermediate state or the bodily resurrection, which, for our own part, we think it plain that the language of this symbolical vision

expresses."

a

and all. So that the fairest and most satisfactory test which Dr. B. can imagine, by which to try the truth of his doctrine, exposes, in effect, its total groundlessness; and confirms, in the most decided way, the speciality of the church as a body, distinct, on the one hand, from the Old Testament saints, and on the other, Ministry, such as the New Testament connects inseparably with the church, flows from an ascended Lord as its source and giver, and the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven as its power. Nevertheless, as beyond doubt saints there were before, must own that saints there may be after.

from the millennial saints.

the second, third, and fourth propositions, which are Plainly, then, the testimony of Scripture is lost, in connected, and as follows:

Admirable unanimity of sentiment! Here are three writers, who agree in denouncing the expectation of pre-millennial advent of Christ, and in opposing the literal interpretation of John's millennial vision. But when asked to interpret it themselves, one says, It is already accomplished. No, says the second, its accomplishment is future, but it is to be figuratively under-all stood. No, says the third, it is bodily resurrection, which the language of this symbolical vision expresses. Here, for the present, we conclude our notice of these books. Dr. Brown's book is by far the ablest of which have appeared in opposition to pre-millennialism, and we rejoice that an examination of it is in progress by another pen. The Lord grant that we may not be permitted, amid any heats of controversy, to lose sight of the solemn, sanctifying truths in which all real Christians are agreed. Whereto we have already attained, may we walk by the same rule, and mind the same thing; remembering the promise, that if in anything we be otherwise minded, God shall reveal this

unto us also.

any

"Christ's Second Coming will exhaust the object of the Scriptures.

"The sealing ordinances of the New Testament will disappear at Christ's Second Coming.

"The intercession of Christ, and the work of the Spirit, for saving purposes, will cease at the Second Advent."

For though it be true that baptism and the Lord's Supper (i.e. in theological phrase, the New Testament sealing ordinances) naturally terminate with the Second Advent, it is a mere blunder to confine the stream of Divine grace within these rites, let them be ever so precious; and much worse to treat them as its sole and

THE PRE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT IN RELATION inseparable channel. Abel, Enoch, and Noah, Abraham,

TO THE AGENCIES OF SALVATION.

No. IV.

Isaac, and Jacob, knew them not; yet will Dr. B. acknowledge that they were saved no less than ourselves. Why should it not be so with the saints during the millennium?

Let us, however, examine what is urged, and in Dr. B.'s order. The following texts are cited as instances of the universal teaching of the Bible:-(1) As to Saints, Luke xix. 13; 2 Peter i. 19; James v. 7; 1 Peter i. 13; 2 Tim. iv. 8; Phil. iii. 20: (2) As to Sinners, 2 Thess. i. 7-10; 2 Peter iii. 10; Luke xii. 39, 40; xvii. 26, 27, 30. "Thus one half of the Scripture would be inapplicable to saints, and the other half to sinners living after Christ's coming;" Brown, p. 98.

THE church of God, we have seen, is not the sum of those saved throughout all ages, but rather the Scriptural designation of the one body gathered from among Jews and Gentiles since the day of Pentecost-an habitation of God through the Spirit. Hence it is a manifest oversight to suppose that the agencies and instrumentalities which the Lord employs in founding and perpetuating the church, are necessarily bound up with the salvation of the elect. "God hath set some in the church, first apostles (not patriarchs, or elders, who of old obtained a good report through faith); secondarily, prophets; thirdly, teachers"; &c. That is, a New Testament order of things is contemplated. So in Now it is obvious that these texts are drawn excluEphes. iv. "When he ascended up on high, he led cap-sively from the New Testament, and from those parts tivity captive, and gave gifts unto men..... ; and of it which describe or suppose the state of things going he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, on now, and previous to the millennium. What they evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the prove, therefore, is the experience proper to the present perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, dispensation, and nothing more. But this is useless, in for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come all fairness, to Dr. B., who fallaciously takes for granted in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the that these texts give us that which characterizes souls Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the in the age to come. The argument deduced from them stature of the fulness of Christ," &c. This machinery, is no more valid against another experience in a new most appropriate to the church-state, came in with the economy, than passages descriptive of the Lord as truly ascension of Christ to his place as Head, and with the man in life and death, could disprove his eternal Godconsequent descent of the Holy Ghost. It was un-head. The Psalms and prophecies of both Testaments known to Judaism, and to the fathers. Yet all must anticipate an era when (not to speak of Satan bound, allow God had been saving souls for four thousand and the Lord, with his risen ones, reigning over the years previously, when no such means or functions world) righteousness shall flourish and evil be smitten; existed. There is not, therefore, the shadow of a pre- when the earth shall groan no more, but be glad; when sumption for maintaining that God will discontinue to both houses of Israel shall walk before the Lord in save when the church disappears, scaffolding, building, unenvying, unjealous love, and all the ends of the earth

shall fear God. These features are in contrast with ages, is saved by grace, utterly irrespective of the exthose which now appear: they suppose a time for the ternal seal, ordinance or no-ordinance; it will be so far saints on earth of good triumphant and not suffering, of the same then, whatever be the outward forms of conenjoyment, and not hope; they involve the judgment fession. If, as we believe, they differ, that depends on of wickedness when it appears, not merely solemn the revealed will of God, and merely distinguishes the warnings of future vengeance. It is perfectly right to dispensations, not the salvation. All is a question of use such Scriptures as Dr. B. refers to for our own gui- the Divine mind made known in his Word, not of what dance now it is ignorance to neglect a mass of pro-"we may expect to find," which is a prolific source of phecy which predicts the earth full of the knowledge mistake and confusion. Beyond a doubt, Matt. xxviii. of the Lord as the waters cover the sea, when the 18-20, and 1 Cor. xi. 26, do not extend beyond the Lord's people shall not be a little flock, and the godly time of Christ's absence from this world; but can Dr. shall not suffer persecution. That will be a day of glory B. deny that grace saved before baptism and the Lord's doub less, but not to the drying up of the stream of active, supper? If not, it is ridiculous to argue thence that it saving mercy. "In that day shall ye say, Praise the may not save after they are taken out of the way. Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among the Nay more: Scripture demonstrates that salvation does people, make mention that his name is exalted." It is go on in "the world (oikovμɛvn, habitable earth) to clear that now, between the advents, the Lord is come" when neither is heard of. saving the world, and not judging it: we speak of the The same reasoning, in substance, appplies to Dr. B.'s aspect of his Coming and work, not, of course, of the fourth proposition. It is true that the Epistle to the results. The error is the exclusion of another economy Hebrews (vii.-ix.) treats exclusively of the priesthood when he will both judge and save. "And it shall come of Christ carried on within the holiest, after he had to pass in that day that the Lord shall punish the host entered in once by his own blood; it is true that this of the high ones on high, and the kings of the earth applies from beginning to end of God's work, in forming upon the earth." This is a most extensive and positive the church of the First-born. He ascended and took his judgment; but it is in no way inconsistent with saying place as Priest, before the Holy Ghost was sent down to "in that day, lo, this is our God; we have waited for bring in a single soul into the proper "church-state." him, and he will save us; this is the Lord: we have But how does all this hinder the only-wise God from waited for him; we will be glad and rejoice in his sal-putting forth his grace and power, when Christ shall take vation." The evidence is ample. If the reader will his place on his own throne, instead of being, as now, only search into what is said of " that day," he will soon seated on the throne of his Father? Rev. iii. 20. The satisfy himself that, while it differs essentially from the objection is the less reasonable, because Dr. B. cannot present dispensation as the season of Divine intervention dispute the fact that Christ was not thus a Priest in Old in the judgment of the world, it will be as evidently the Testament times; had not entered into heaven by his season of the world's all but universal blessedness. own blood; had not yet obtained eternal redemption for any. If then the Old Testament saints were saved in spite of this lack, why not the millennial saints? the credit of it, when it did not exist, sufficed for the one class, why not for the other? In fact, it is not that the millennial saints will be without his priesthood, but only that its form will be changed. "He shall be a priest upon his throne." So that the difference is really in favour of these saints, as compared with those of the Old Testament.

Hence, the disappearance of baptism and the Lord's supper need be no difficulty to any serious mind. Their importance is indisputable-the one, as the initiatory and individual, and the other as the corporate, confession of Christ and his accomplished redemption. But as they were certainly introduced late in the day of God's mercy to sinners, so if God has willed it thus, there is no ground a priori why they might not pass away, when that special hour which witnessed their imposition has come to a close. And this is exactly what Scripture shows, however opposed to the ordinary systems of theology. Not that there is the slightest reason for expecting a new revelation, as some have rashly conceived: still less is it true, as our antagonist asserts without an attempt at proof, that "a new dispensation necessarily implies a new revelation to usher it in," Brown, p. 106. The Bible shows a past economy, when God saved souls before the sealing ordinances of the New Testament had appeared; it shows us the present time, and the institution of those striking rites; it shows us a future epoch clearly revealed in the prophets, when they vanish away, and yet Jehovah's house shall be called a house of prayer for all people. In other words, the old revelation is express as to a new dispensation, or age, when the glory of God shall be manifest in Christ, and his government instead of being true to faith only, shall be justified in public, immediate action before the world. The sinner now, as in all past

If

The fallacy as to the work of the Spirit is equally palpable. John vii. 38, 39; xiv. 16, 17, 26; xv. 26; xvi. 7, 14; Acts ii. 33; Titus iii. 5, 6; Rev. iii. 1, and v. 6, are the texts cited. But granting that the Holy Ghost may not be given in the way in which most of these Scriptures speak, that was as true of the times before the first advent, as it can be after the second. If, in spite of this, the Holy Ghost did work for saving purposes in those early days (when he was not given in a full New Testament way, because that Jesus was was not yet glorified), why not in the last days, when Jesus is manifested in all his glories?

The argument, therefore, is weak to excess, and even absurd. The fact is, that the millennial saints will enjoy an outpouring of the Spirit suited to the magnificent purposes of God in those days of which Pentecost was but a sample. This will be plain to the unbiassed reader of Joel ii., with its context, of Is. xxxii., xliv., xlix.; Ezek. xxxvi., xxxvii.; and Zech. xii.

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