that from the renewed and glorified earth, the seat of eternal blessedness, they will be for ever so perfectly excluded, that even the very "remembrance" of them will be "cut off" from it.

Again, therefore, the theory respecting the earth which it has been my object to establish, is found to be satisfactory, and meets the requirements of another case to which it has been applied. The prevailing mode of viewing it fails to do this; the subject is left by it in the most unsatisfactory state, but it becomes replete with meaning when viewed in the light of the doctrine now propounded.

Enough, I conceive, has been already said in illustration of the doctrine of this earth's perpetuity and future destination; but the subject may be followed out in other directions and into other passages of Scripture, and that too with precisely the same result. The following may be given as a few cases in point. I forbear to enlarge upon them, feeling that a brief notice will be sufficient after the lengthened examination which was given to those we have just left, in which the very same principles were involved as in those we are about to consider.

(1.) In the Lord's prayer, as it is usually termed,

there occur the following words: "Thy kingdom come; thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." (Matt. vi. 10.) With regard to the "kingdom," the coming, or establishment of which is prayed for, we now say nothing; it belongs rather to the topics we have left, than to the one about to come under consideration; but with regard to the second member of the verse, which relates to the performance of the Divine will on earth, it should be asked, Will this petition ever be answered? It has already been put up by the Church of Christ for eighteen hundred years,-is it possible to suppose that it will never be heard? If it be replied “The answer will be realised during the Millennium,” we willingly accept the statement. But what are we to understand by the Millennium? If a state of widespread spiritual prosperity on the earth as it now is, when, for instance, "the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea," and if, moreover, we are to understand that this will take place previous to the second advent of the Redeemer, all we can say is, that we can find in Scripture nothing to support such a notion, but much that is utterly opposed to it. Instead of such a state as this prevailing upon earth when the Son of man

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shall appear and his "kingdom" shall come, one of a totally different character will be found in that dayeven one of wide-spread carnal security: "As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it also be in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed." (Luke xvii. 26-30.) But if we are to understand a post-advent Millennium, such as is described in Rev. xx., the case is very different. If this, however, be allowed, then the whole question may be regarded as decided, for in this case it will be also admitted that, if the prayer be answered during the Millennium, it will also be through the eternal period, during which the earth, as we have already seen, will continue. Has the reader ever maturely considered what a terribly painful conclusion we should be brought to, if the bare possibility be but assumed that, after all,

the petition may never be answered? Prayer will then have failed, and that too, though it has proceeded from millions of earnest and believing hearts, anxiously desiring that what they prayed for may come to pass; for, like Elijah, they have been "very jealous for the Lord God of hosts," and for the glory of his name, and being grieved to see multitudes turned aside to the service of Baal, they have continued to pray that Jehovah's "will should be done in earth, even as it is in heaven." It has never yet been so done: this is admitted. But assume that here, on this earth, will be "the inheritance of the saints in light," and here the "kingdom" of God, and we instantly see that throughout eternity this prayer will be answered, and the desires of God's people will be fulfilled.

(2.) In Luke xxii. 28-30, we find our Lord speaking as follows to His Apostles :-" Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." In St. Matthew xix. 28, we read thus:"And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in

the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." If any one would see how little is made of this promise by many of our divines, and how grievously it is explained away and rendered nugatory by others 1, he has only to consult most of our leading commentators upon it. But Scott adds to his notes on Luke xxii. 28-30 the following remark: "Some special honour and distinction in the world above seems to be more directly intended." We have only, however, to consult the great truth respecting the earth's perpetuity which has hitherto guided us, and we readily see that this passage, like all the others we have considered, becomes replete with important truth, and that it will hereafter receive a great and literal fulfilment.2

(3.) There is a large class of passages which have been already quoted to illustrate former points, which may be referred to again here, with this single remark, that while it seems impossible to explain them satisfac

1 For instance, by Barnes, whose notes on Matt. xix. 28 afford a painful proof of what a perverse ingenuity may do in this way. It is clear that by such a mode of interpretation, almost any prophecy may be made to mean almost anything, or- - "nothing," as Hooker remarks. 2 We find this, or kindred subjects, in other places, e. g. Isai. i. 26; 1 Cor. vi. 2; Rev. iii. 21.