perfect order. In heaven he hath appointed distinct and several orders and states of archangels and angels. In earth be hath assigned and appointed kings, princes, with other governors under them, all in good and necessary order: The water above is kept, and raineth down in due time and season. The sun, moon, stars, rainbow, thunder, lightning, clouds, and all birds of the air, do keep their order. The earth, trees, seeds, plants, herbs, corn, grass, and all manner of beasts, keep themselves in their order: all the parts of the whole year, as winter, summer, months, nights, and days, continue in their order: all kinds of fishes in the sea, rivers, and waters, with all fountains and springs, yea, the seas themselves, keep their comely course and order: and man himself also hath all his parts, both within and without, as soul, heart, mind, memory, understanding, reason, speech, with all and singular corporal members of his body, in a profitable, necessary, and pleasant order: every degree of people in their vocation, calling, and office, hath appointed to them their duty and order: some are in high degree, some in low, some kings and princes, some inferiors and subjects, priests and laymen, masters and servants, fathers and children, husbands and wives, rich and poor; nature, so in degree, distinct from other." and every one bath need of other. "The harmony of the world." So that in all things is to be lauded and praised the goodly order of God; "The bosom of God." "Yet all with uniformconsent admiring her as the mo without the which no house, no city, no commonwealth, can continue ther of their and endure, or last," peace & joy." Something more than accident led to these coincidences. The lower parts of the analysis are a little more obscured by Hooker, but there is, notwithstanding, enough of resemblance to show that they are so many parallelisms ! Might not the whole Homily "Concerning good Order, and Obedience to Rulers and Magistrates," have suggested to Hooker the argument of his First Book of the Ecclesiastical Polity? BENJ. HANBURY. Temple Place, Blackfriars Road. ་་་་་་ ON THE PERSONAL REIGN OF CHRIST. No. II. The general Difficulties of the Modern (Concluded from page 534.) IF the reign of Jesus be thus spiritual, or by the power of his truth, it follows by necessity of consequence, that the resurrection to be effected at his coming in the power of the Spirit, will be of the same nature, even a spiritual resurrection. The solitary text Rev. xx. 4-6. confidently employed to prove that the martyrs and other just persons will rise to reign with Christ a thousand years in a visible kingdom on the earth, may certainly be explained and accomplished without a literal resurrection. The conversion of the Gentiles from Paganism to Christianity, evidenced by a corresponding reformation of life, is called a resurrection from the dead by St. Paul, Rom. vi. 13.; Eph. v. 14. And if the striking analogy subsisting between the resurrection of a dead body, and the renewal of a soul in righteousness and true holiness, be duly considered, the metaphor will not appear violent. The state, therefore, of the Christian church, which for a thousand years before the general judgment, will surpass in purity and zeal all the preceding states through which the church has passed, is represented, with the utmost propriety, as a resurrection of martyrs and saints from the dead. It is, however, too little to say, that the text may be thus explained and verified; the terms employed by St. John seem to indicate, that it must be so understood and accomplished. For it is to be observed, that the text does not mention the resurrection of bodies, but of souls. The word rendered souls from xn, occurs six times in this book, in a connection which determines its signification to be the life or living principle in the body, and in contradiction to the body, while it is also represented as existing in a state of separation from the body, chap. vi. 9.; in what instance is the word uxn viii. 9.; xii. 11.; xviii. 13. And used to signify the body itself, or still more strangely a dead body, which only can be the subject of a proper resurrection, or living again? Is a proper and literal resurrection ever represented by the resurrection of the soul, or can philosophical accuracy? Is not it be so represented with described as the resurrection of a literal resurrection uniformly the dead, the raising and living again of the bodies of the saints, in the dust in the grave. even of those bodies that sleep But by St. John in the text, it would were the term bodies employed not follow, that a literal resurrection is intended by him. The last must still be explained by the tenor of the book, from which it is selected, and with which it must be supposed to harmonise. It will surely be conceded, that the Revelation to John was a succession of symbols passing before his wondering view, and these symbols, not the things symbolized, are what John describes in this book. The two witnesses, for instance, in Rev. xi. are metaphorical persons, for no two men ever lived 1260 years, and consequently both the death and the resurrection of their bodies must be understood figuratively. Every part indeed of this mysterious book, relating to futurity, is symbolical. The books, the seals, the trumpets; the thrones, the cities, the kingdoms; the stars, the thunders, the earthquakes, are all taken metaphorically-why not then the resurrection of the martyrs and confessors? Besides, a resurrection is a well known prophetic figure for a restoration, revival, or advancement of the cause or interest of a people, who have been borne down, depressed, and as it were killed and buried by opposition. Thus Ezek. xxxvii. the restoration of Israel from destructive captivity, is described as a resurrection of dry bones. When the Lord promises deliverance to the Jews, by Isaiah the prophet, he puts this language in his mouth, Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise." Ephraim in distress is encouraged to return to the Lord by Hosea with these words "After two days he will revive us, in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight." Nor let it be for gotten, that a literal resurrection of the righteous a thousand years before that of the wicked, seems to contradict the plain account of the matter in the Gospels and Epistles; for instance, Christ says, "the hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the the resurrection of damnation." Can the hour here signify two different periods at a thousand years distance from each other? But in that hour, all that are in the grave shall hear his voice and come forth; not the righteous dead only, for these are not all that are in the grave; not the wicked dead only, for these have not done good; but all that are in the grave shall come forth. John v. 28, 29. St. Paul represents the resurrection of the dead as performed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, when the trumpets shall sound, and the dead shall be raised, and they who are alive and remain shall be changed. 1 Cor. xv. 23. There is indeed to be an order in the resurrection; but to support the hypothesis of our first-resurrection-men, the words should rather have run thus:" Christ first-fruits, then the martyrs, &c. at his coming, and a thousand years after the residue of mankind! Then cometh the end," &c. The Lord repeatedly declares, that he will raise up believers at the last day; John v. 39, 40. 44, 45. and makes the last day, the day in which men shall be judged, John xii. 48; and describes the judgment both of the righteous and the wicked, as taking place at the same period, Matt. xxv. 31. ad ult. Now to affirm, that there will be a day a thousand years after the last day for the resurrection of the wicked, and their judgment, not only contradicts this, but is a manifest impropriety of speech. And does. not John himself place the proper and general resurrection and judgment after the thousand years reign of Christ? Rev. xx. 11, 12. It is also worthy of remark, that in all the descriptions of the resurrection and future judgment, which are given us at such length in the Gospels and Epistles; there is no mention made of a first and second resurrection at a thousand years distance from each other. Christa thousand years, in their spiritual, immortalized, and glorified bodies, will be surrounded with enemies in gross earthly forms, even the armies of Gog and Magog Once more; this scheme is not only opposed to the general sentiments of good men, and repug--that though the destruction of nant to the holy Scriptures, it is death at the resurrection of the also inconsistent with itself, and righteous, will be the accomplishtaxes with a like inconsistency ment of the apostolic prediction, the oracles of God. According the last enemy that shall be deto their own scheme, when Israel stroyed is death; yet Gog and returns to Zion, their souls shall Magog are enemies which shall be be as a well-watered garden, and destroyed a thousand years after the they shall not sorrow any more destruction of the last enemy, and at all. Jer. xxxi. 12. They shall be that the saints will appear in judggathered out of all countries, whi- ment to receive their final senther the Lord has driven them in his tence, after they have been glorified anger; he will bring them again to together with Christ for a thousand this place, and will cause them to years; all which suppositions apdwell safely; yea, he will put his pear equally unnatural, unscripfear in their hearts, and they shall tural, and absurd. In fine, while not depart from him, Jer. xxxii. they attempt to display their zeal 37-43. When I have brought for the glory of the Redeemer's them again from the people, and reign, they suppose that a temgathered them out of the enemies poral monarchy, a territorial kinglands, then shall they know that I dom will be more glorious than a am the Lord their God, who caused spiritual reign; at least, that the them to be led into captivity among spiritual subjugation of the world the heathen; but I have gathered to Christ, would not suffice for them to their own land, and have the fulfilment of all the prophecies left none of them any more. relating to the regal splendour of Ezek. xxxix. 27-29. I will King Messiah, without this explant them upon their land, and terior pomp and show; while yet they shall no more be pulled up this glory, so essential to the domiout of the land which I have nion of Jesus, is to pass away given them, saith the Lord. Amos with these heavens at the confiaix. 15. gration of the universe, and so a period will be put to that dominion, of which it is written-there shall be no end. And yet they tell us that unheard-of calamities shall befall them after their return, from which they are to be miraculously delivered, though these calamities are to be the consequence of their crimes in departing from the Lord; that after these miraculous deliverances they will treacherously depart from the Lord again, and involve themselves a second time in unparalleled distress, from which they will be emancipated by the coming of the Lord that then, and not till then, they will be converted to the faith of Christ, and share the blessings of his grace. They suppose, moreover, that the saints, after reigning with It is time to bring this paper to a close, for the length of which, I trust, the importance of the theme is a sufficient apology. I shall only add, to evince the importance of this general review, that the doctrine of the personal reign of Christ stands or falls with the other articles with which it is associated. Let no man suppose, therefore, that this capital point may be maintained without the minor parts of the scheme on which I have animadverted; they are but parts of one prophetic or ima ginary whole. The proofs of the visible reign of Christ are of the same kind as those which prove the other attendant events; and the objections which lie against these are equally forcible against that. This, it is presumed, will more fully appear, when we endeavour, in our next, to trace the curious process by which wellmeaning and gifted men have been led to the adoption of these fanciful and heterogeneous ideas. .אהב אמת FARTHER REPLY TO MONSIEUR ROCHAT. (To the Editors.) GENTLEMEN,- -When I sent the few remarks, (inserted in your Magazine for June last,) on the correspondence between Rev. Dr. Smith and a Swiss Minister, I had no object in view but that of endeavouring to bring to a conclusion a controversy between those who appeared to agree in every fundamental doctrine of Scripture; and I had no expectation of having occasion to renew the subject. But the letter from M. Rochat, inserted in your last Magazine, makes a few remarks necessary. He therein observes, "that the mischief of controversies lies in men not understanding each other," and it is plain the good man does not understand the drift of my reasoning. He calls on me for a clear, plain, and rigorously exact definition of saving faith; but this is not the point on which we differ. It was my aim to show that a person possessing true faith, or as M. Rochat calls it, full faith, by which I suppose he means what the Scripture terms the full assurance of faith, might yet be a stranger to an assurance of his personal interest in the blessings of salvation. M. Rochat thinks I have gone too far in stating that I considered him as having N. S. No. 35. I very confused ideas of faith. It is true that the Scriptures declare," Whosoever believeth on the Son of God shall not perish, but have everlasting life; and that there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must (or can) be saved." But then it is equally true that the same Scriptures declare, that "without holiness no man shall see the Lord;" and we are exhorted to give all diligence to make our calling and election sure, (which can only be understood, surely, as referring to the evidences of them;) and what are those evidences, but finding in ourselves, by close and impartial examination, an agreement with those marks and characteristics which are given in the word of God as descriptive of true believers? such as having the spirit of Christ,-possessing the wisdom which is from above, with all its pure and lovely influences,-together with the graces of humility, love, zeal, patience, acquiescence in regard to the will of God, &c. righteousness.-Now the sincere &c. summarily called the fruits of Christian, who has no doubt as to the ground of his hope towards God, nor faithfulness of God in regard to any doubt as to the fulfilling what he has promised, yet, when engaged in self-examination, (a duty strongly enforced in the Scriptures,) finds such remains of unsubdued corruption in his heart,-such deficiencies in his temper and conduct,-such imperfection in his best duties-such cleaving to the world-such want of spiritual-mindedness, and so little conformity to the example of Christ, as leads him to fear that his faith is not a living but a dead faith, and that he has only a 4 G |