(iv) the heavens shall pass away," &c.

....

"Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, by which (div) * the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved." Here" the day of judgment," and even "the coming of that day, as a thief in the night," is spoken of as one, in point of time, with "the perdition of ungodly men," and both with the dissolution of the heavens and the earth. How, then, can it be maintained that this "perdition of ungodly men" will be a thousand years later than the coming of Christ? The usual reply to this is, that the passage speaks only of such "ungodly" as shall be alive when Christ comes. Even if we should admit this, I have again to ask, Do those who adopt it believe in any such "perdition of ungodly men" when Christ comes, as involves a strictly personal judgment of the "secrets of their hearts?" Do they believe that this “perdition" will be the execution of the sentence passed upon them after such judgment, and that it will consequently be not any sweeping acts of vengeance upon public bodies or masses of men, but their " everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power?" In a word, do they believe that it will be such a judgment as leaves not one of the condemned to escape? If so, what becomes of the notion of "remnants" of these very ungodly men" spared to "stock the new earth,” converted by this judgment," and made missionaries to the heathen world?

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Another theory has been devised for solving these inextricable difficulties, namely, that as the day of judgment is to last a thousand years, the perdition of ungodly men may be

* Compare with this Rev. xx. 11: "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away;' and 2 Thess. i. 9: "Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence (or face) of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." "This face (says BENGEL) will be intolerable to the wicked: They shall not see, but they shall feel it." So our passage speaks as if the heavens would kindle at the presence, or under the influence, of " that day.”

said to take place" in the day in which the heavens are dissolved." though it do not take place till the end of it. This is Mr Burgh's view, to whose statement I shall have something to say in the following chapter.

The last passage, though already given, I must here repeat in full:

Rev. xx. 11-15: “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, stand before the throne and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hades delivered up the dead which were in them and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."

On this passage I observed (pp. 198-204), that if ever language expressed the doctrine of a simultaneous and universal RESURRECTION, surely we have it here. I would now add, that if language be capable of expressing the doctrine of a simultaneous and universal JUDGMENT, it is undoubtedly expressed here. But I will not try to make plainer by comments, what is so very plain without them.*

And now what have we found on this head of THE JUDGMENT?

1. We have found that the premillennialists are constrained

"The other passages," says Mr Birks, (meaning all the foregoing passages adduced by me except the first one or two,) "are so clearly irrelevant, that it is needless to offer any remarks in detail on their obvious teaching" (p. 247). Mr Birks will perhaps find that he has here mistaken the feeling with which the passages in question will be read by impartial inquirers.

to admit, in one form or other, that Christ, when he comes the second time, will come to judge the world. But,

2. As their system does not admit of any general judgment -any judgment of the whole world at once-we have found them obliged to parcel out the judgment, not only into separate acts or processes, distant from each other by long periods of time, but into heterogeneous transactions, that cannot be brought under one category; and to call the whole period of the thousand years "the day of judgment." Thus, they make the judgments upon the antichristian nations which are to usher in the millennium to be part of "the judgment of the great day," and style these the "judgment of the quick," an expression which, in their sense of it, is fitted only to mislead. Farther, they make the millennial rule, administration, or government of Christ-which in Scripture is doubtless called by the name of "judgment," just as all rule is this also they make part of "the judgment of the great day." Of course, it cannot be pretended that this is of the nature of a judicial trial of men's previous state and character for eternity. So that, during great part of their thousand years' day of judgment, there is to be no judgment at all, in the only sense in which Christ is said to come to judgment. They may try to give it something of that character, by telling us, as they do, of the instant death with which all outbreakings of evil during the millennium will be visited. But he who can persuade himself that such judgments-allowing there were more ground to look for them than has yet been produced—will make the millennium to be "the great day of judgment," must be easily convinced. And then, by placing the judgment of the righteous before, and that of the wicked after the millennium, they make the last judgment, so majestically described in the 20th of Revelation, to be a judgment of one class only; and they make "the book of life" to be produced and opened for no other purpose but to condemn all that are then judged, as not having their names written in it: Thus

are they driven to do manifest violence to that whole scene. But,

3. We have found that even this thousand years' day of judgment is not long enough to serve their purpose; and that, to help them over the work which they put into this period, it would require to be made longer still. For, not to speak of the judgment of the righteous, which they present as prior to the thousand years, and therefore no part of the day's work, strictly speaking; the judgment of the wicked, instead of taking place within the millennial period, does not take place till after it has so entirely run out, that even "the little season” which succeeds it-and which we found reason to believe would be, relatively, not so very little-would be exhausted ere it takes place. And thus by no fair stretch of language, are they warranted to say that such a judgment will take place in any part of the millennial day. This singular scheme, then, of a thousand years' day of judgment—so very unlike a true view of the judgment-day, fails to meet the case which it was invented to suit, and must, independent of other objections, be given up even on this ground.

4. This whole scheme of the judgment makes no provision whatever-nor does it pretend to make any-for judging the vast multitudes of believing men by whom the world is to be peopled during the millennium. They are not among those judged before the millennium, for they are not then born; and they are not among those judged after it, for none but the wicked are expected to be judged then. And so they are not judged at all; that is to say, this scheme makes no provision for their being judged.

Thus the premillennial scheme of the judgment falls out at every turn, and presents such gaps as to expose to the impartial eye its fatal deficiencies. While it is too artificial and complicated to look like a true doctrine, its supporters have not been able, with all the pains they have taken to adjust it, to provide for the judgment of the whole human

race. Tried by its theory of the judgment, then, the premillennial scheme is found wanting; and, if wanting here, it must be given up. But,

5. In contrast with this, how unencumbered, how majestic, how self-approving, and as we have abundantly shownhow conformable to all Scripture, is the doctrine of a simultaneous and universal judgment of all mankind at the coming of Christ! The passages we have adduced prove beyond all reasonable doubt, that the whole human family will at once stand before the bar of Christ in their resurrection-state; and that the judgment then held and pronounced will be one continuous unbroken transaction. And, if this be the case, the premillennial scheme must be abandoned.