smoking ruin.

That to such a catastrophe it should be exposed, and, while its destinies were recounted by an angel, that, in the last expiring throes of desolated nature, it should perish, not merely without pity, but without remark, will not, I should hope, be even imagined.

The difficulties of the subject are thus narrowed to the consideration of the first resurrection,' which is represented among the primary effects, with which the proclamation, that the reign of ' righteousness and peace' had commenced upon earth, would be attended.

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A speedy mode of disposing of this difficulty has been, however discovered, in the supposition, that this resurrection is purely allegorical, and means nothing more than that the Church should, at a certain time, rise from a persecuted state to a state of prosperity. But this opinion, which is generally advanced by those who consider the time of the Millennium as already past, will require but a brief consideration. Its doom has been, indeed, long sealed by the author of the Theory." He has clearly shewn, that it is not to be reconciled with the description of the Apostle, in confining the subjects of the first resurrection, to 'them that

'326

were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the 'word of God;327 and that it is as irreconcilably opposed to the testimony of history, which bears 326 Burnet ut supr. p. 217, 218.

327 Rev. xx. 4.

no evidence of the existence of such a state of the Church. His refutation of so groundless a hypothesis is only exceptionable, in the latitude of its concessions to the objectors to the doctrine of the Millennium. If the period of peace' which it enjoyed be computed for the whole time of its triumph in Constantine's reign, so far was it from extending to a thousand years,' that it did not exceed seventeen. The persecution of Licinius occurred in the year 320,328 and Constantine died an Arian in 337.329 And unhappily, even in that short period, in the year 326, there was a sanguinary persecution of the Persian Christians, under Sapores, in which 18,000 are said to have been martyred.3.30 But if the duration of the kingdom of Christ be estimated by the triumph of

righteousness,' it scarcely lasted ten years from the Session of the Council of Nice. In 327 Arius regained his favor at court, in 328 he was recalled, and in 335 the persecution of the Arians raged against Athanasius, who was driven into banishment in 336; the year before Constantine died.331

328 Dodwell Chron. Pers. ad ann. 320.

329 Patr. Bened. Vit. S. Athan. ut infr. n. 331.

330 Cedren. Compend. ad ann. conf. Socrat. Hist. Eccl. Lib. VII. cap. xx. p. 367.

331 Vit. S. Athan. à Patr. Benedict. Adorn. ad ann. 328. § 1. ann. 335. § 3. 16. 24. 27. ann. 336. § 1. ann. 337. § 1. conf. ad ann. 325. § 13. ann. 355. § 9.

From the death of this monarch, Jerome, who lived to deplore the descent of the northern barbarians, declares, that to his own times nothing prevailed ' but the rapine of the churches, and discord through 'the habitable world.'332 In order to prove the possibility of identifying the millennial reign in this period, or in the preceding seventeen years, it will be now only necessary to cite the words of scripture, in which the opening of the eternal sabbath is announced. And there were great voices in 'heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world are 'become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

333

There is, however, another view, in which the 'first resurrection' is regarded, which, as professing a closer adherence to the Evangelist's text, merits specific attention. By some expositors, who strike into a middle course, it is consequently supposed, that the martyrs only will rise from the dead, ' and will be immediately translated into heaven, ' and there pass their Millennium in celestial glory; 'while the Church is still here below in her Millennium.'534 Although in this view of the diffi

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332 Hieron. Suppl. Chron. Euseb. p. 182. • Constantinus 'extremo vitæ suæ tempore, ab Eusebio Nicomediensi episcopo baptizatus, in Arianum dogma declinat; à quo usque in præsens tempus ecclesiarum rapine et totius orbis est secuta discordia.'

333 Rev. xi. 15. conf. supr. p. 119, 120. 128.

334 Burnet ut supr. p. 267.

culty, a nearer approach is made to the truth, it is not less exposed to the objection which has been urged against the theorist's system, arising from the distinction in the Evangelist's text, between the state of the soul' and of the body.' In insisting upon a resurrection from the dead,' it superinduces a consideration upon his text, which it does not acknowledge; as making exclusive mention of a resurrection,' and with reference merely to the soul."335 And were the exposition unassailable by such an objection, it would be exposed to a further difficulty; that it is not to be reconciled with the scripture account of the second advent of our Lord, and the resurrection from the dead,' which are represented as single and general.

Had we, indeed, ground to suppose, that the yawning graves would resign their shrouded tenants, and that the saints, rising from the dust in their glorified bodies, would in our presence ascend above the clouds; the spectacle might be conceived to form no inappropriate introduction to the reign of righteousness and peace, upon earth. A miracle, so unbounded in its magnitude and extent, must be productive of that awful impression upon the observers, which ages could not obliterate. A perseverance in sin, in opposition to such evidence of the divine interposition, and a final retri335 Vid. supr. p. 128.

bution, would be rendered impossible; and by a philosophical necessity, a total reformation must be produced in the opinions and conduct of mankind. But by such an extraordinary intervention, a total derangement would be occasioned, not merely in the ordinary, but an incongruity introduced into the extraordinary providence of God. Such an extraordinary interposition, as exceeding the resurrection of our Lord in the extent of its effects, would transcend in magnitude the miracle, which preceded the sound of the Gospel, as dispersed to the ends of the world. The race that should survive so great and visible a display of the power and providence of God would be not merely placed in different circumstances from their predecessors, but in a state, wherein, as impelled by necessary causes, not actuated by moral inducements, they would cease to be accountable as probationers.

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The supposition, however, of such extraordinary intervention is really without any authority from scripture. The consideration of the difficulty arising from a first resurrection' is accordingly reduced to a single case, which relates exclusively to the exaltation of the soul, in its separation from the body, to a higher state of beatitude and glory. And this supposition, although it embrace but a part of the effects to be expected from the Millennium, not only accords best with the literal force