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but as this has, heretofore, been done so often and so ably, we shall confine our attention, principally, to the different scripture accounts of the resurrection of the dead, and endeavor to ascertain whether it is, indeed, to take place at the end of time and be general, or whether it is continually transpiring as gradual as the successive deaths of our race in Adam.

And here I would distinctly remark, that the dead are represented as being raised at the coming of Christ. This is admitted and believed by all. But where, I ask, is there în the Book of God one passage to prove any coming of Christ after the destruction of the Jewish polity when he commenced his gospel reign, called the judgment of the world? This was his second coming; but where is there a scrap of scripture to prove his third coming at the end of time? For one, I have searched in vain for such testimony. That Christ came in his kingdom, during the life time of the persons he addressed, and then commenced the judgment of the world, is certain. This is not, however, admitted to be that coming of Christ when the dead will be raised immortal. Where then is revealed that third coming of our Lord, at the end of time, to raise the dead? I think it will be an unsuccessful task for any man to search it out and bring it forward.

I would not be understood to say, that no destruction will attend this earth. On the contrary philosophy seems to warrant the idea. But the scriptures no not, in my apprehension, reveal such a catastrophe, nor a third coming of Christ, nor a general resurrection at that period. The reader may, perhaps, here inquire whether the scriptures do not clearly describe the resurrection of all

mankind to be at one instant of time? I answer, no more than they describe the judgment of all mankind to be at the same instant. But, says the reader, the resurrection is to be at the coming of Christ, which must be at some designated period. Very well; the judgment was to be at the coming of Christ to the destruction of the Jewish state, and does not this designate some particular period? If so, how are we judged in the present day? If the judgment day, which then commenced, has not yet ended, why may not the resurrection day be still progressing? If you contend, that the dead were all to rise at once, then by the same mode of scripture interpretation, I can prove that all the living were to be judged at once. Acts xvii. 31. "Because he hath appointed A DAY in the which, he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." 2 Cor. v. 10. "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things in body, according to that he hath done, whether good or bad."

Though this event is represented as transpiring in one day, and as though all men were literally arraigned at the same instant, still all Universalists admit, that it commenced at the destruction of Jerusalem, has passed upon succeeding generations, and will continue from the present down to subsequent ages, so long as human beings shall have a habitation on earth. This is called the last day. Jesus says "the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." So I contend, that though the resurrection is also called the last day, and represented as raisin all mankind at one instant of time, still

simply means, that the doctrine of Christ (viz. the judgment and resurrection) should, at his coming in his kingdom, be fully revealed to the living by their seeing his prophesies fulfiled in the abrogation of the ceremonial law, and this doctrine of life and immortality be permanently established and commence its sway over the living, as the last and best system of God to man, and this resurrection day continue down to all subsequent generations of slumbering dead, raising every man in incorruption and glory. The judgment and resurrection of the world are therefore both progressing, for these two constitute the gospel reign of Christ. He is "the resurrection and life of the world," as well as "judge of quick and dead." Both are to be accomplished in the last day, and that day is now progressing. A general resurrection, at the last vibrating pendulum of time, cannot I humbly conceive, be substantiated by the oracles of truth, any more than a general judgment. I am rather inclined to think that the judgment of the world by Jesus Christ expresses the whole, including the resurrection and all; even as the high priest, clothed with the breast-plate of judgment on the day of atonement, closed his services by raising the nation into the holy of holies, "which was a pattern of things in the heavens."

If the Scriptures afford us any evidence of the third coming of Christ to raise the dead, for one, I must acknowledge my utter ignorance of the fact. In John (chap. vi.) Jesus several times uses the expression, "and I will raise him up at the last day." If others contend that this has reference to "the last day of the last generation of the human race on the earth," yet I must candidly acknowledge, that cannot see a shadow of evidence

to prove this position. The last day in this instance, refers to the gospel dispensation, which commenced at the destruction of the temple, and involves the whole reign of Christ. It is synonimous with the "day of Christ" and the "day of the Lord" mentioned in several places by the apostles. Nor do I conceive it means, that Christ would raise them up by his own immediate power, but that God would raise the dead according to that doctrine, which he sent his Son to reveal to men, and this doctrine would be fully established in the world, and be believed and felt by Jew and Gentile Christians at the coming of Christ in his kingdom, at the end of that dispensation. Then and not till then were the predictions of Christ fulfiled, and then were those Christians, who had not seen Jesus after his resurrection, "made perfect in faith."

The dead are to be raised at the last trump; by which I understand the seventh, for no other last is revealed. This trump is mentioned by our Saviour (Matt. xxiv. 31.) and is the gospel trump which was to commence its sound at the destruction of Jerusalem. In Rev. chap. viii, seven trumpets were given to seven angels, who are represented as sounding them in succession, and increasing woes following, till the sixth trumpet sounded. But when the seventh angel sounded and the last dreadful wo passed away, a very different order of things followed. Rev. x. 7. "But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished as he hath declared to his servants the prophets." Rev. xi. 15. "And the seventh angel sounded, 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 forever and ever." Now compare these woes and this subsequent order of things with the tribulations Christ described in Matt. xxiv. chap. and the subsequent life the righteous entered into, and you will readily perceive that both refer to the destruction of Jerusalem and the commencement of Christ's auspicious reign. [The Revelations were certainly written before that event.] When the seventh angel sounded, Christ came in his kingdom and began his reign; and that he began his reign when the trumpet sounded, and the woes recorded in Matt. xxiv. and XXV. chapters took place, will not be denied. This settles the point that the seventh or last trump was not to sound at the close of Christ's reign, but at its commencement. And under this last sounding trump the dead were to be raised immortal, and those who were alive when it commenced its sound, were to be suddenly changed in their circumstances and feelings as described in the context. It was the day of their redemption from all their trials and persecutions, and doubts and fears.

That this was the period when the Christians entered the resurrection day as well as the judgment day under Christ is certain. They entered into the full enjoyment of that most sublime of all doctrines in the faith of which they not only saw the dead raised immortal and free from pain, but felt themselves new beings. They were exalted from the dust to high and "heavenly places in Christ," were "caught up to meet the Lord in the air," were seated "on thrones and made priests and kings to God and reigned with Christ." There "they shone like the bright

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