Magazine.

the same privilege, which you enjoy, | he that hath no money; come ye, and thus God be glorified-the buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine redeemer honoured-and sinuers and milk without money and without saved-for we have this treasure price. Wherefore do ye spend committed to us, not to enrich our-money for that which is not bread? selves merely, but others also. and your labour for that which 2. Remember that this treasure | satisfieth not. Hearken diligently is more valuable than the depository. unto me, and eat ye that which is In the days of the apostles, many good, and let your soul delight itbegan to manifest a disposition, to self in fatness; Incline your ear, set more importance upon the dif- and come unto me: hear, and your ferent talents of the preachers, than soul shall live; and I will make an upon the truths preached. But the everlasting covenant with you, even apostle Paul warmly exposes the the sure mercies of David." Isa. lv. evil of this temper; and reminds them of the comparative insignifi-To the Editor of the New Evangelical cance of the most admired talents in reference to this treasure, (Vide | SIR, 1 Cor. iii.) And is there not too much of this disposition displayed in the present day? Each has his particular favourite, and if a person of mean abilities be found in the pulpit, instead of the other, he is despised and neglected, though, perhaps he brings forward in simple unadorned language, more of the excellencies of this treasure, than their favourite usually does the glory of the treasure is despised because the vessel is not polished to their approbation. Ah, these things ought not so to be; for it is the gospel and not the depository, that is able to make wise unto salvation. Let unbelievers

IF your Correspondent HoNESTUS (New Evan. Mag. No, IX. p. 268) be in earnest in stating his case, (which I rather doubt) he is evidently seeking a salvo for his conscience, while he meditates an act of deliberate injustice.-Surely there can be but one feeling excited in the mind of every serious christian, in considering such a subject, viz. that of abhorrence. Although the laws of the country might bear him through in withholding what is | due to another, that circumstance would have no effect on the mind of one who wished to preserve a good conscience towards God. But the statute of limitations to which he refers, (though evidently without satisfaction) however useful it may The gospel alone can give you be in various cases, to prevent the happiness. The gospel alone can litigious revival of doubtful and obdirect you to a remedy provided for solete claims, was certainly never the pardon of sin, and the sanctifi- intended to sanction dishonesty. cation of the heart; by it alone can For my own part, could I be inducyou be put in possession of riches, ed to obtain £200, in the way that yea durable riches, which will pro- your correspondent seems to wish vide you with all necessary comto do, I should expect to possess it forts in life, support you in the "with the incumbrance of God's painful hour of death, and give you curse," (as DR. HORNE expresses an abundant entrance into the king- it,) and at last to hear it denounced dom of God above. O singers! hear | as my doom, “thy money perish then the language of the Saviour; with thee!" believe in his word, and accept his invitation, and you shall be happy for ever, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and

3. See the folly of rejecting this

treasure.

Your insertion of the above in your useful Miscellany, will oblige, Yours PROBUS

Hoxton, Oct. 14, 1815.

Theological Review.

Expository Discourses on the Apocalypse. By ANDREW FULLER.

[Concluded from p. 313.]

THE Millennium, or thousand years reign of the saints (Rev. xx. 1-6.) is a subject that has given rise to a greater variety of wild speculations, than almost any other in the whole compass of the christian system. To attempt an enumeration of every theory which the spirit of fanaticism may have dictated, would be no easy task, nor indeed of much utility were it accomplished. Writers of warm imagination and weak judgment have, in essaying to elucidate this difficult question, given loose to the reins of fancy; and the consequence has been that, like Milton's fallen angels who "reason'd high of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate," they have

"Found no end in wandering mazes lost."

Far be it from us, however, to insinuate that it is not possible for a sober-minded Christian to arrive at any clear apprehension of the meaning of what the Spirit of prophecy has thought fit to communicate to us respecting the Millennium. We are quite differently minded. The writers who have published on this subject, may be divided into two general classes, one of which maintains that the reign of Christ during this period will be personal, and the other that it will be spiritual; for, though each of these may differ among themselves on points of minor importance, this seems to be what marks the line of distinction. Each of these theories has had a long list of able defenders, in every age of the church. To say nothing of the ancient fathers, even in modern times, the authorities in point of number and respectability would be found nearly balanced. The following extract will enable the reader to perceive the grounds on which Mr. Fuller rejects the notion of a personal, and contends for that of a spiritual reign of Christ during the thousand years.

"Various questions have arisen concerning this Millennial state, both as to it's nature and duration. With respect to the

latter the "thousand years" require, I think, in this instance to be taken literally; for if understood of so many years as there are days in this period, the duration of the world would greatly exceed what we are elsewhere given to expect. The apostles seem to have considered themselves as having passed the meridian of time, and as drawing on towards the close of it. Such appears to be the import of the foldays spoken to us by his Son.—But now lowing passages:-God hath in these last once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." The end of all things is at hand-The coming of the Lord draweth nigh-Behold the judge standeth before the door-He that testifieth those things saith, Surely I come quickly!" Heb. i. I. ix. 26. 1 Pet. iv. 7. James v. 8, 9. Rev. reckoned a day for a year, we are at prexxii. 20. But if the thousand years were sent but upon the threshold of time: the last judgment must in this case be at a distance of hundreds of thousands of years.

"A question of more importance is that which respects the nature of this Millennial reign of Christ, whether it be spiritual or personal. Those who favour the first, consider it as a time in which the gospel will be spread over the whole earth, and cordially embraced both by Jews and Gentiles; when those prophecies will be fulfilled which speak of the cessation of wars; of the stone cut out without hands becoming a great mountain, and filling the whole earth; of the little leaven leavening the whole lump; of the knowledge of the Lord covering the earth as the waters cover the sea; of the first dominion coming to Zion; and of the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom, under the whole heaven, being given to the people of the saints of the Most High.

"Those on the other hand, who plead for a personal reign of Christ upon earth, consider the Millennium as a state of immortality, a state subsequent to the general conflagration, wherein the righteous, being raised from their graves, shall live and reign with Christ a thousand years; after which the wicked dead being raised, the general judgment shall follow.

"Whatever respect I feel for some who have maintained the latter hypothesis, I find insurmountable objections to the hypothesis itself.

"First, The idea of a personal reign appears to me nearly to exclude that of a spiritual one, by leaving little or no place for it.-It is clear that the pouring out of the seven vials is principally for the pur

1

66

If

pose of destroying the Antichristian sys- Father; when he shall have put down all tem, and that when this is accomplished rule, and all authority, and power; for he the Millennium follows. No sooner are must reign till he hath put all enemies the beast and the false prophet taken under his feet. The last enemy that shall under the sixth vial, and the world, (like be destroyed is death." I Cor. xv. 23-28. the temple after being polluted by Anti-Now the resurrection of the saints will ochus,) purified from it's abominations by itself be the destruction of death. the seventh, than the dragon is bound for therefore the end then cometh, there is no a thousand years. If then this thousand place for a personal reign of a thousand years' reign be personal, the second coming years between them. Besides, If death of Christ must immediately succeed the be the last enemy, and this enemy be ruin of Antichrist. But if so, how, or destroyed in the resurrection, how can when are all those prophecies to be ful- there be a Gog and Magog army to be filed which describe the prosperity of the destroyed a thousand years after it? church in the latter days? How are wars to cease in the earth, and peace succeed to it, when as soon as the troublers of the earth are destroyed, the world will be at an end? On this principle Antichrist will reign till the heavens are no more. The end of the 1260 years will be the end of time, and the church will have no existence upon the present earth but" in the wilderness." Instead of the stone, after breaking in pieces the image, " becoming a great mountain, and filling the whole earth," no sooner is the image broken to pieces, than the earth itself shall be burnt up. And on the destruction of the little horn, (Dan. vii. 26, 27.) instead of "the kingdom, and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven being given to the people of the saints of the Most High," no sooner shall that horn be broken than the whole earth will be destroyed with it!

66

Secondly, The idea of a personal reign represents Christ's second coming at a thousand years' distance from the last judgment; whereas the scriptures speak of the one as immediately following the other, and as being the grand object of it. "The Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his mignty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; WHEN HE SHALL COME TO BE GLORIFIED IN HIS SAINTS, and to be admired in all them that believe IN THAT DAY." 2 Thes. i. 7-10. "Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment upon all, &c,” Jude 14. 66 I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and kingdom." 2 Tim. iv, 1.

“Thirdly, The idea of a personal reign represents believers as raised to a state of immortality a thousand years before the close of Christ's mediatorial kingdom; whereas the scripture represents the one as immediately succeeding the other. Speaking of the resurrection, the apostle says "Christ the first fruits, and afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming. THEN Cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God even the

Fourthly, Those who consider the Millennial reign as personal, confine the last resurrection and the final judgment, as described in the latter part of the chapter, to the wicked: but there is nothing in that account of the resurrection which requires it to be limited to them. The sea is said to give up the dead which were in it; and death and hell (or the grave) to give up the dead which were in them; which language equally applies to the righteous and the wicked; and as to the last judgment, which immediately follows, had it been contined to the wicked, it would not have been said, "Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire," since on this principle they could none of them be found written in it.

"If the last judgment, as described in Chap. xx. 11-15 do not include that of the righteous as well as the wicked, there is no proof from this account of their being judged at all. The scriptures, however, are very express, that "we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, and give an account of the deeds done in the body;" and that "God will bring every work into judgment, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”

66

Fifthly, The account of Satan's being loosed after a thousand years' restraint, and going forth to deceive the nations, and to gather together the armies of Gog and Magog, does not comport with a state of immortality, or with the condition of men after their resurrection. Wicked men may rise, indeed, with the same enmity, against God and religion as they possessed at death: but as to their being able to collect together, and to encompass the church of God in hope of destroying it, the idea is gross and inadmissible. The sea and the grave will give up their dead, not to become followers of Satan in a new enterprise, but to be judged every man according to his works. Ver. 13.

66

Finally, To represent the Millennium, which precedes the last judgment, as a state of immortality, is to confound it with the New Jerusalem which follows it. The latter is indeed a state of immortality: for "there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away" but this language itself

implies that till after the final judgment it shall not be so.

We could have wished to give our readers some additional extracts from the concluding part of this volume, which treats of that awful apostacy that shall succeed the millennium

"For these reasons, as well as from the figurative language of almost the whole of the prophecy, I cannot think that the Millennium is to be understood of a personal reign of Christ, in a state of immor-period-the end of the world-the tality; but of that glorious rest which the general resurrection and final judgchurch will enjoy after the destruction of ment-the new heaven and earthher Antichristian enemies." the new Jerusalem, &c. &c. but our limits do not admit of it, and we the more regret this, as there is no part of the work that has more interested us; but having extended this article 'o such a length, we must close with a few general remarks on the performance.

These arguments appear to us of such weight, that we should be glad to see some of the ablest advocates for the doctrine of Christ's personal reign try their hand in the way of confuting them; but till that is done, we must think them conclusive on the general question. There is indeed a third theory of the Millennium | which we have heard some persons of considerable ability contend for; and if we are not mistaken, Dr. Gili was an advocate for it. It somehow unites or concentrates the two opposite views above referred to, by contending for an universal spread of the gospel after the destruction of Antichrist, and that this will be succeeded by Christ's personal reign on earth during a thousand years; but Mr. F. has made no allusion to this theory, and we are prevented from going into the subject by two considerations. One is the want of room; and the other a consciousness that we do not understand it clearly enough to venture upon a statement of it.

When we carefully consider the nature of that portion of the sacred writings which the work now before us professes to illustrate-that it consists of a series of predictions concerning the state of the church militant, or kingdom of Christ in this world, from the period of its first establishment on the day of Pentecost, and extending to the final consummation of all things-that the greater part of it is not only written in the prophetic style, which is always wonderfully sublime and elegant, but which in the Apocalypse is carried to a pitch of sublimity far transcending any thing that is to be found in the Old Testament-and when to these considerations we add, the difficulty of "unravelling the web of prophecy," even of those prophecies which have been already

In describing the nature of the millennial reign, Mr. Fuller explains the first resurrection to be the mil-accomplished, and much more of lennium itself. "A first resurrection," says he, "doubtless implies a second, as much as a second death implies a first: but as the first and second deaths are different in their nature, so may the first and second resurrection." He refutes the gloss that is often put upon 1 Thess. iv. 16. "And the dead in Christ shall rise first," by shewing that it does not mean prior to the resurrection of the wicked-but of the change of the living saints; in which we fully agree with him. "During this glorious period," says he," the church will have its Pauls and Peters and Johns over again. Men will be raised up who will go forth in the spirit and power of those worthies, as much as John the Baptist did in the spirit and power of Elias. Thus the apostles and martyrs will, as it were, be raised from their graves, and live again upon the earth.”

such as yet remain to be fulfilledevery candid mind will be ready to allow that the utmost we can reasonably expect from any writer on this arduous topic is, that, standing upon the shoulders of his predecessors, he should carry our views a little farther forwards towards a perfect understanding of this part of the mys tery of God. The writer that does this, is a benefactor to the church of God, be he whom he may. And that this praise is due to Mr. Fuller's memory, will be denied by none whose praise is worth acceptance. In every part of his performance we discern indubitable traces of the gigantic structure of his mind. Persons of ordinary capacity are deterred from the study of the Apocalypse by the difficulty of tracing out the plan of the inspired writer; not perceiving that he sometimes prosecutes his history through a particular

Every reader would imagine that Mr. Fuller was here giving the exact title of one particular publication of Dr. Allix's; whereas Dr. Allix wrote two distinct works, each of them a thin quarto-one on the History of the Churches of Piedmont, that is, the Waldenses, published in 1690, the other on the History of the Albigenses, in 1692. This leads us to think that he had not seen these books, for there is no mention of "the country" of the Albigenses in the title to either of them! We can hardly suppose him to have been ignorant of Milton's Sonnet on the massacre of the Waldenses in 1655, till it was rescued from oblivion to constitute the place of motto to a late History of that people; but we regret that in quoting it, p. 166 of his Expository Discourses, Mr. Fuller should have committed two mistakes, which in our opinion would not have met the approbation of our greatest poet.

Hints from an Invalid Mother to her

period, and then returns back and comes over the same ground again with additional circumstances. These were difficulties that vanished at the touch of Fuller. His comprehensive mind grasped, in a wonderful degree, the vast plan in its multifarious bearings, and he prosecutes the detail of occurrences with less apparent perplexity than any writer we have yet met with. If Lowman's Commentary displays more learning, and a more general acquaintance with civil and ecclesiastical history, which we readily admit to be the case, Mr. Fuller's Expository Discourses possess a value of another kind, in regard to which Lowman's performance can pretend to no competition with it; and that is in reference to the "Practical Reflections", which are interspersed throughout the work. Here indeed it is that we discover the immense storehouse of his mental possessions, the rich furniture of his mind. And this must stamp a lasting value on his book. It is in this particular view that we are disposed to yield to Mr. Newman his claim of Fuller's originality, while we refuse it to his theological opinions. He rarely omits an opportunity of making a practical improvement of any interesting portion of history or scriptural doctrine which he has been discussing, and then he does it with consummate skill. His manner is his own; and though he never appears to labour MRS. WILLIAMS is aware that in after them, his remarks are always offering Hints for the improvement profound. Had Mr. F.'s acquaintance of females, she is treading a beaten with ecclesiastical history been equal track. She adverts to the producto his other qualifications, his Ex- tions of "a More, a Hamilton, and a position of the Apocalypse had been Gisborne". as already before the still more valuable than it is. But the public, from whom they have met deficiency of his reading on this sub-with deserved and well-earned apject is obvious from the " Appendix to the xiiith Discourse," in which he gives the history of the two witnesses-the ALBIGENSES and WALDENSES. Though he has carefully guarded against the slightest allusion to the source of his information on this topic, we can easily trace him! And even where he professes to give his authorities, he plainly enough evinces that he had no acquaintance with the books to which he refers. Thus, for instance, in page 167, he says, "The learned Dr. Allix largely establishes the same thing in his Remarks on the Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient Churches of Piedmont, and of the Country of the Albigenses."

Daughter, on subjects connected with moral and religious improvement, in the conduct of life in various relations. By ANNA WILLIAMS, Authoress of "Incitement to Early Piety." London. Hatchard, and Williams & Son. 8vo. pp. 130. 4s. bds.

plause"-to these she might have added, "The Guide to Domestic Happiness”—a publication worth all the rest put together. Her own little volume comprises seventeen Letters, written with considerable elegance and animation, and abounding with excellent advice-such as a discreet and virtuous mother, who was solicitous for the happiness of her daughter, would be anxious to inculcate upon her. The lessons of advice, in general, seem adapted to females who are destined to move in the higher ranks of life-and her ninth letter, which is on the subject of "Fashionable Amusements," is the most exceptionable in the volume.