Christian Church,-as far, as it were, from hell to heaven. The Church being now as heaven on earth, the false hearted spawn of future Gog and Magog shall be remote on earth, near their future hell. To this, Rev. xx, 8, contributes some proof, in that it saith, that Gog and Magog shall be fetched up against the Church by the devil, from the four quarters of the earth. But if these hypocrites were permitted to be nearer the Church, they might perhaps be converted. We answer, NO: for it is (if we may use that word) the fate of this millennary period, (I mean, God's righteous peremptory sentence,) that as all that time there shall be no degenerating of believers, so no more regenerating of any unbelievers. There is a judiciary sentence peremptorily passed to this purpose, Rev. xxii, 11.-" He "that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he which is filthy, "let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still:" that is, they shall continue to be so. In order to which it follows, without are dogs, &c. and I come quickly, and my reward is with me." The appearance of Christ at the preface to this thousand years will be (as it is represented in the preface to the Revelation, chap. i,) among the churches, that then are or have been churches: therefore it behoves churches and all professors to beware, that they be not found as the foolish virgins, that never had the oil of regenerating grace in the vessels of their hearts. For the oil of sound principles in their heads, by which they made the blaze of profession, being spent, they have lost their principles; and so, being unready at Christ's coming, they come (as Jerome saith) when the doors are shut! : 2. Next with good dependence we assert, it is a sorrowless condition; for sorrow came into the world by sin, and when sin leaves the world, sorrow must go with it. Thus the Apostle connects them" O death where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory ?"k as much as to say, "Where is sin ?" for the sting of death is sin, tending to it and the grave; but the sting is gone when sin is no more. Adam's state was a sorrowless condition, and the state of the faithful at this time shall be the same; as we have often recited the parallel, Gen. i, 26, with Psalm viii, Heb. ii, Psalm xcv, Heb. iv; out of which ninetieth Psalm the Apostle proves, that a rest yet remains on earth for the people of God. The word in the Hebrew is n which comes from the same root whence Noah's name is prophetically given him, to foretel the comfort that should come to the Church by him,-even the rest in the ark in the time of the flood, Gen. v, 29. Much is couched in those words, Heb. iv. 9. "Therefore, there is yet left (or there remaineth) a Sabbatism (or a Sabbatical rest) for the people of God." Mark every word. 'THEREFORE,' because God rested on the seventh day in the beginning, and after that gave them a seventh weekly and yearly rest, with a rest also in Canaan, and after all he spake of another rest to come;-therefore, there remaineth a rest. 'REMAINETH' or is yet left, imports something not extant before in specie, but only in types; but is next to come in order, in its native kind and verdure. A REST' i. e. a Sabbatism: the word is never used but on this occasion, and imports a limited time, (not an everlasting unlimited duration) even as Adam lived near a thousand years, and would have rested that time and longer in paradise, without sin or sorrow, if he had not listened to the diabolical temptation. "To THE PEOPLE OF GOD:" which being written to the Hebrews, must include them, (so often called by God in the Old Testament My people,) and so must necessarily signify, that this rest is for the Jews jointly with the Gentiles, when the Jews shall be the people of God by faith, as now the believing Gentiles are.1 Another circumstance which will tend to make it a sorrowless state is, that wars shall cease in it. Isaiah says, nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."'m In another place he says of Christ,—" He shall be called the Prince of peace ;" and that of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end."n Which place must plainly speak of external peace, as well as of internal, and for a long continuance; and it belongs to the time of which we speak, (as before demonstrated,) which Christ hath not to this day fulfilled, but hath brought a sword, rather than external peace. Therefore the fulfilling of the sense of Isaiah xi, 1, &c. is yet to come. In another place we have these high promises. The Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land, and the strangers shall be joined unto them, &c. And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place, &c. And the Lord shall give them rest from sorrow, fear, and hard bondage." And finally we have it most fully and plainly, " That in that day the Lord will wipe away all tears from all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it." The following Scriptures may be referred to for further testimony on this head: Isaiah xi, 1; liv, 13, 14; lx, 14; lxv, 19; lxvi, 12; Jeremiah xxiii, 3, 4; xxx, 10; xlvi, 27, 28; Ezekiel xxviii, 24; Micah iv, 1-3; Zeph. iii, 13—15; 2 Thess. i, 7-10: Rev. vii, 16, 17; xxi, 4. Let this section encourage us to patience. Twice it is said of the present state of sufferings,—“ Here is the patience of the saints ;" and once it is said, keep the word of patience :r but after a while comes the kingdom of peace. Therefore Christ seals up all the Bible, and all the Revelation almost, with this: "He that is righteous, let him be righteous still; he that is holy let him be holy still; and behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me." Then-" Surely I come quickly, Amen, Amen.” 3. It has already been seen, from the first place in the last section, that it is a deathless condition: if more be wanted, we may refer to Hosea xiii, 13, 14.—“ I will ransom them from the power of the grave; and I will redeem them from death. O "death I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction. "Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes." Which words are evidently spoken to Ephraim, the ten tribes, (v. 12,) and therefore cannot relate to the return of the two tribes from Babylon. The Apostle also in 1 Cor. xv, 54, 55 evidently challenges this place, as well as Isaiah xxv, 8. To these may be added Rev. XXI, 4 and xxii, 2, 3. It is evident, that the latter, chapter relates to the same state as the former : witness not only verses 14, 15; but also verses 1, 2, of the fountain of water and tree of life, which signify a state on earth. In relation then to our point, by reason of their partaking of the tree of life it is said (v. 3.) " There shall be no more curse :" i. e. no death; for • Isaiah xiv, 1-—3. p Isaiah xxv, 8. q Rev. xiii, 10, and xiv, 12. death was the original curse to Adam, if he did eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil: had he not done so, he might have eaten of the tree of life, and lived for ever. 66 66 My object however in this section is to deal faithfully; there being one place, relating to the time I speak of, that has something of an intimation of mortality to be in these times; viz. Isa. lxv, 20. There shall be no more an infant of days, nor an “old man that hath not filled his days; for the child shall die "a hundred years old, but the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed." Now as far as I can see into languages and the context, these words (for the child shall die a hundred years old) may be more fitly translated," that the child should die a hundred years old." For the word in the Hebrew is often used (yea and very often so rendered by our translators) to signify that, as we have here rendered it; and as for turning shall into should, every grammarian knows, that so rendered will necessarily infer that the verb speaks subjunctively. Read then the words thus altered without the least violence to the native acceptance of the Hebrew, and the meaning will be quite contrary to any intimation of the mortality of the saints. "There shall be no more thence (or from that time, viz. of the beginning of the thousand years of the new creation, verse 17,) an infant of days, or an old man that hath not filled his days, that the child (or young man) should die at a hundred years "old." So that here is no mention of the mortality of the saints, but rather of their immortality. For further clearing of the text, this may be made out two ways. 66 First, he that is a hundred years old in those days, is but a youth, (or young man, as our old translation renders it :) For as a youth hath but the tenth part of that age which many men live in these days, so a hundred years are but the tenth of this millennary term of life to the inheritors thereof. Again, as in the first age of the world, one of a hundred years old was but a young man to one at his full age in those days; (for Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begat a son; but Adam after that lived eight hundred years, so all his days were nine hundred and thirty-near a thousand ;s) even so in this millennary age of the new creation, one of a hundred years old, is but a young s Gen, v, 4. man, to the thousand years that he shall reign with Christ on earth. So that the sense of the Prophet may fairly be taken to be this that in the time of this new creation, as the young man must not have his days cut off, so the old man must fulfil his days. And how are both these accomplished in this new creation, but by their both living on earth a thousand years, old and young? When I speak of old and young, you must understand those saints that are found alive at Christ's coming, which anon after are changed; for all the deceased saints are raised to an equal perfection and absolute maturity of age and nature; even, as the other are changed into the same exactness, though at Christ's first appearance different in age." Thus we may well understand the Prophet to allude to the age of the first Adam: that if, in a sinful state, his age at a hundred years was but as it were youth; (his whole age amounting to near a thousand years;) how much more shall the saints, by means of the second Adam, live a thousand in a sinless condition? * Secondly, it may be congruously made out, that the Prophet in this text intends rather the immortality of the saints, than their mortality, thus : There shall be no more THENCE an ininfant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days; that the child, youth, or young man should die a hundred years old, or the sinner a hundred years old should be cursed. Thus we make the whole verse depend on the word that, as before rendered, turning our English but' in the latter clause into or; the Hebrew being the conjunction. The sense will then be,-that at that time of the new creation there shall be neither he that shall naturally die in his infancy; nor he that shall naturally die in his riper age; nor he that shall be a sinner, whereby his days should be violently cut off. Moreover the context bears out my interpretation for at verse 19 it is written" I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people, and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying." Now if weeping and sorrow must be gone, so that it shall be no more, then, I think, there shall be no more death. : *Whatever may be the translation of Isaiah lxv, 20; it is clear that it cannot relate to the mortality of the changed or resurrection saints; for it is expressly said of them, in a passage which the author seems to have overlooked," Neither can they die any more." (Luke xx. 36,) In the Appendix, indeed, it will be seen, that he is aware of the distinction between the saints of the resurrection, and those who remain in the flesh, |