between the contracting parties. "The Strength of Israel has not lied unto Him;" nor has He proved to Him that appointed him "altogether as a liar, and as waters that fail." So the Covenant stands fast for ever, and "HIS THRONE AS THE DAYS OF HEAVEN!"—(Psal. lxxxix. 28–37.)*

* The farther prosecution of this important branch of our argument I reserve to the second part of this volume; that the stream of evidence, under the successive heads, may flow uninterrupted.

THE ENTIRE

CHAPTER VIII.

CHURCH MADE ALIVE"-EITHER BY RESURRECTION OR TRANSFORMATION-AT CHRIST'S COMING.

THERE is no part of the pre-millennial scheme, as now advocated, where it comes so entirely to a stand, as on the subject of the RESURRECTION. When Christ appears, we are told-at the beginning of the millennium-he will raise all the saints that shall have died before that time, and change all that shall then be alive. But what is to become of the myriads of saints that are to people the earth during the millennium?

The answer to this question will startle the reader, if he happens not to be well read in the changes which this unsteady scheme has from time to time undergone, and is unacquainted with its latest modifications. The fact is, This whole subject is a blank in the system. It has positively got no Scripture on the subject. It applies all that Scripture says about the resurrection of saints at all, to those living before the millennium. Of course, then, they find it silent about either the raising or the changing of any other saints-without a word about the vast numbers whom they have to dispose of after the millennium. What do they do with them, then? For the most part, the subject is avoided. Those, however, who venture to grapple with it, are hurried into such revolting speculations as, I believe, will open many an eye to the true nature of the whole scheme.

I shall not take my statement of these speculations from those who are reckoned extreme men, nor from books which may be supposed to be out of date. The following is from the pen of Mr. BICKERSTETH. The startling nature of it, and its important bearings, will justify our giving it pretty nearly in full.

"If (says he) the resurrection of the righteous and the wicked, and the general judgment of all men, took place at one time, and in the same day, none would, none could be left, as the heads and parents of a redeemed people on earth [after the general judgment.] But the Holy Scriptures reveal to us a progress in judgment, and that the resurrection of the righteous and the wicked are clearly distinct in time. There is the first resurrection of the saints at the commencement of the millennium, and after the thousand years the rest of the dead [the wicked] live, and are judged.

At the close of the millennium, 'there is a last open apostasy of the wicked,' who during the thousand years had ‘yielded only a feigned obedience.' This 'finally separates all the believers, and removes them from the earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. The apostates are first slain by fire, and afterwards raised with the rest of the wicked dead for judgment. But NO CHANGE IS THEN

MENTIONED AS PASSING ON THE JEWISH NATION, OR ON THE LIVING RIGHTEOUS, who continue faithful to God, AS IN THE TRANSLATION OF THE SAINTS BEFORE THE MILLENNIUM.* The object of the rebellion, to overthrow the camp of the saints and the beloved city, fails of its design. God protects them. The living righteous, then, after the millennium, MAY YET CONTINUE A SEED TO SERVE GOD, and

IN SUCCESSIVE GENERATIONS BE TRAINED UP FOR HEAVENLY GLORY.""

In this statement, the least surprising thing which the reader will mark is, that there is to be no simultaneous change of those myriads of believers who have lived

* I thought the author had, in the previous sentence, "Inally removed all the believers from the earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." How he keeps them on earth still, unchanged and untranslated, I am at a loss to understand.

THE FLESHLY STATE-MR. BICKERSTETH.

169

during the millennium, "as in the translation of the saints before the millennium." That, be it observed, is given up. What, then, becomes of them? One by one, throughout" successive generations," they get glorified -we are not told how, or on what principle-but the race of them never dies out: they live on, and propagate their kind-to all eternity; they "continue a seed to serve God!"

But possibly this is but a hasty conjecture; for, says the author," they may continue." In the next sentence but one, however, the conjectural is changed into the positive; and page after page is spent in attempts to prove the monstrous position of an eternal perpetuity of the generations and families of men in flesh and blood upon the earth.

"Its truth (says he) is distinctly revealed in many testimonies of Scripture, both in the Old and New Testament. The covenant with Noah was 'an everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh for perpetual generations.' The covenant of Abraham is called by the Psalmist the word which he commanded to a thousand generations.' So Moses describes the Lord as 'keeping covenant and mercy for a thousand generations.' This period of a thousand generations, thus repeatedly mentioned, wOULD REACH FAR BEYOND THE CLOSE OF THE MILLENNIUM. The promise made in Isaiah, concerning the kingdom of Christ, and his reigning on the throne of David, are in the strongest expressions of NEVER-ENDING CONTINUANCE. The same promise of perpetuity is often given to the people of Israel: The people shall be all righteous, they shall inherit the land for ever.'-(Isa. lx. 21.) Corresponding with this is that very full and clear promise, 'They shall dwell in the land, they and their children and their children's children for ever, and my servant David shall be their prince for ever. The plain and obvious meaning of such passages would lead us to the conclusion of a continuance, both of Israel and Gentile nations in a state of righteousness on our earth." After attempting to show "the consistency of this with the last fire described in St. Peter, and the new heavens and the new earth afterwards to come

P

forth," he says, "Thus remarkable are the proofs in the Old Testa

ment of the PERPETUAL continuance of the Jewish nation on our earth."*

Mr. Bickersteth's New Testament proofs are still more singular.

"The apostle (says he) closes his prayer for the Ephesians by leading us to the same wonderful fact, of a perpetual continuance of the Church upon earth: 'Unto God be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus, world without end;' or, as it might be rendered, 'throughout all the generations of the ages of ages.' The apostle James, speaking of believers, says, 'Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures.' Thus the Christian Church is described as only the first-fruits of a glorious harvest yet to be reaped on our earth."

That is, after "the end of all things" as we innocently say-for it seems there is to be no end of any thing.

"So (he goes on), in the description in the Hebrews of the future glory, and of the heavenly society partaking of it, there is not only the general assembly and church of the first-born which are written in heaven, but 'the spirits of just men made perfect,' which seems to refer to those gathered, after the number of the Church of the firstborn is completed."

But enough of these singular specimens of exegesis.†

Soon after the publication of the volume from which these paragraphs are transcribed, Mr. BIRKS' able work on "The Four Prophetic Empires and the Kingdom of the Messiah" appeared. There the same views are stated, the same passages, with a little enlargement, adduced, the same

* The reader will observe how studiously the estimable author avoids saying, "eternal continuance." Is it that an everlasting propagation of human families upon earth is a sentiment scarcely palatable enough to be nakedly stated?

+ "Second Coming," &c. (Lent Lectures for 1843.) Mr. Bickersteth's Lecture is entitled, "The Kingdom of Christ the Lord, in its successive stages and heavenly glories."