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that disciple should not die. Yet Christ said not, he shall not die, but if I will, that he tarry till I come." And I scarcely know of a place in the gospels where his coming is mentioned, but what his second coming is referred to. When he referred to the sacrament-" Do this till I come"-he could have referred to no other.

But not to mention more at the present time, take another view of the subject. His second coming-he shall come a second time. Now if Christ came first to be incarnated— if he came again at the Pentecost-and yet again at the destruction of Jerusalem-and yet once more at the victory of Constantine then his second coming is not without a sin-offering, but with one. And when he comes without a sin-offering to judge the world, it will be his third coming, fourth coming, or fifth coming, as our fancy may lead us. But this cannot be. The Holy Ghost testifies his last is his second coming. So ought we to do. But in this way we identify the language we have quoted as pointing out in connection both his second coming and the millennium as one and the same event" at his appearing and his kingdom."

Although I think I have demonstrated beyond a doubt, that we can have no millennium but in connection with the second coming of Christ, a literal resurrection, and a new heavens and new earth,—yet I will

refer to one more fact in the case. That such a state of the church as has been hoped for, and prophesied of, cannot come in this world as now organized, is certain, because Christ has said, "Let the tares grow TILL the harvest; and the harvest is the end of the world. The tares are the children of the wicked one; and he that sowed them is the devil." But Christ says, Let these grow with the good seed, "together" with them-till the end of the world. But if the children of the wicked one are to grow with the righteous, what kind of a millennium can we have, more than we now have, till the heavens be no more? John says, in the millennium the "rest of the dead lived not”—the wicked lived not-" till the thousand years were finished.” But Christ says, "Let them both grow together till the end of the world." Now, then, it is certain, if the millennium excludes the wicked, as John testifies; if blessed and holy is he that hath a part in the first resurrection; and if the wicked are to grow till the end of the world with the righteous-we cannot have a millennium in this world, till it is burned up, and that great event comes when Christ will gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity. Can demonstration be clearer?

The whole Papal power, too, with its harlot abominations, is to remain till the same event occurs, whom the Lord shall

destroy with the brightness of his coming. The words of the prophet are, "I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them, UNTIL the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, was given to the people of the saints of the Most High whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him." Amen-even so, come Lord Jesus.

Portland, Dec., 1841.

G. F. COX.

[No. IV.]

RETURN OF THE JEWS.

As what is usually termed the "return of the Jews to the land of Palestine," or ancient Canaan, as a nation, is yet confidently expected by many-and as the promise of their return, under some circumstances, might be urged as an objection to the views of the millennium adopted by me, I will bestow the present article to the consideration of that subject. The ground I

assume is, That no return of the Jews, as a nation, to the land of Palestine is promised in the Scriptures, other than what has already taken place.

1. The first argument offered in proof of the ground assumed, is the opinion of Taylor, Rennell, and Calmet, that "the main body of the Jews were never deported from their own country; they that were carried away being only a small portion of them; and that when the Jews returned from Babylon, after the fall of the Chaldean or Assyrian empire, those of the ten tribes who were pleased to, returned with the tribes of Judah and Benjamin; so that the ten tribes, as a distinct people, do not now exist." Among the reasons offered for this opinion is the fact, that nearly a hundred years after the captivity of the ten tribes by Shalmaneser, Josiah, king of Judah, not only purged Judah and Jerusalem from idolatry, but went in person to the cities of Manassehwest of Jordan-Ephraim, Simeon, and even to Naphtali, "throughout all Israel," and did the same great work; which he could not have done, had not these tribes been there, at least a part of them. And it may be seen, also, that when Zerubbabel returned, there are mentioned as going with him other tribes than those of Benjamin and Judah. Also, under the Maccabees, and in the time of our Saviour, Palestine was peo

pled by the Israelites of all the tribes indifferently.

2. It should be recollected that all the prophets who have been supposed to predict the return of the Jews, lived and uttered their propecies prior to the return of the Jews from Babylon; so that all the predictions referred to may have been fulfilled already, as far as they can be in an earthly sense. The return from Babylon took place B. C. 457; but Isaiah prophesied B. C. 760 to 706; Jeremiah from B. C. 629 to 588; Ezekiel, B. C. 595 to 574; Daniel, B. C. 606 to 534; Hosea, 785; Joel, 785; Amos, 787; Obadiah, 587; Jonah, 862; Micah, 720; Nahum, 720; Habakkuk, 626; Zephaniah, 630; Haggai, 520; Zechariah, 520; Malachi, 400; so that whatever Ezekiel may have said of the return of the Jews, or what any other prophet may have said—all may have been fulfilled when the Jews went from Babylon and other places to their own country; for, it will be recollected, when Cyrus issued his decree, his kingdom was immense, and embraced Assyria. He testifies that "God had given him all the kingdoms of the earth." And the dominions of Artaxerxes Longimanus, who issued the decree of liberty for the Jews, B. C. 457, were not less than the dominions of Cyrus. This is stated to show that the Jews, universally, had liberty to return, if they

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