be obviated. Let us fuppofe mankind in general, exalted in their conceptions of the Deity, and of the nature of real happiness -established in their faith, and refined in their morals, by a long course of continual miracles, by Divine and fuperhuman aid, example and inftruction, and by the imprifonment of " our adverfary, the Devil, who now walketh about the earth as a

roaring lion feeking whom he may devour"—the common temptations of the world might not have power to touch the sublimity of their virtue, and Divine justice, "whofe ways are equal" towards all his creatures, and who ever balances our temptations to evil with our powers of refisting it, may fee, that Satan alone can rouse the latent feed of corruption, and fubject them to the allotted trials of this mortal state. It is exprefsly declared, that Satan" fhould deceive the nations no more, till the thoufand years fhould be expired, and after that he must be loofed a little feafon;" furnished probably with a greater degree of power than ever, in order to proportion the temptations to fin, to the extraordinary advantages enjoyed by thofe who live in fuch an improved and happy ftate of the world, But only for a little feafon"-a fhort

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time will be fufficient to determine the future lot of these people, whether we fuppose Satan to find many ready to enlist under his banner, or none but those of apparently established virtue. For under thefe peculiar circumstances it is natural to conclude, that the tranfition from faith and virtue to blafphemous rebellion and vice, would be rapid in thofe who fall, and the adherence to the Religion of Christ firm and decided in thofe who ftand, in this hour of temptation."

I pafs by the objections to the doctrine of a Millennium, which are derived from metaphyfical difcuffions, becaufe I confider Scripture as the only folid ground for our ideas upon the subject of a future ftate. We know nothing of the nature of beings purely fpiritual; but we know that man was originally created a compound beingthat our Lord arofe from the dead, and afcended into heaven with a body, and is to appear again as the Son of Man: we must therefore, I think, believe that the union of the foul with a glorified body is the perfection of human nature; and it follows, that our happiness will be fuited to that nature. But, polluted as we are by fin,

and tainted with corruption, we cannot know much of the nature of fuch beings, or of fuch happiness. Thofe, however, appear to be little acquainted with mankind, who do not perceive, that the prospect of a kind of happinefs, of which they can form fome idea, will influence their conduct more powerfully than the promise of a happiness of which they can form none. The fenfual Paradife of Mahomet, and the Purgatory of Antichriftian Rome, have in fact operated more forcibly upon the hopes and fears of man, than the diftant view of the Eternal Beatific Vision, after the fleep of the foul till the day of judgment. But this was not the doctrine of the purest ages of the Church. The crown was held out as the immediate reward of martyrdom in the cause of Chrift; the early Chriftians looked for immediate admiffion into the

The doctrine held by the firft Chriftians appears to be transmitted to us in the Apoftles' Creed, as well as by Ecclefiaftical Hiftory. "I believe in the Communion of Saints, the Refurrection of the Body, and the Life everlafting," may furely be understood as pointing to the immediate admiffion to the fociety of bleffed fpirits-the refurrection of the body at the coming of our Lord and the entrance into an everlafting life in heaven.

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prefence of their Lord; they expected immediately to join the fociety of bleffed fpirits, and wait with them for the manifeftation of their Redeemer's glorious kingdom to the world, when they trusted hẹ would raise their vile bodies from the grave, and make them like to his glorious body," that they might be " kings and priefts unto God for ever," and that fo they might become partakers of the unutterable and eternal joys of heaven, when this earth should be diffolved, and "time fhould be no more." It fhould ever be remembered, that " the Gospel was preached to the Poor," that is, to the bulk of mankind; and its promifes are certainly adapted to their comprehenfion, while they exceed the utmoft ftretch of faculties the moft accustomed to the fubtleties of abstract reafoning. The fleep of the foul, however reprefented, will appear to break the line of existence, and thus it will leffen the hold of futurity upon common minds at leaft. The effects of this chilling opinion are, I think, evident in the Chriftian world. It not only increases the gloom of the grave, and renders death more formi dable, but it detaches our thoughts and feelings from a world, in which, in spite

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of all reasoning, we feem to have such a diftant intereft. And I am fully perfuaded, that the only effectual antidote against the contagious poifon of Materialism, and the brutalizing doctrine of the Eternal Sleep of Death, is that, which, awakening all the energies of man, by the profpect of immediate reward, and by placing that reward in part within the reach of his imagination, preferved the faith of the primitive Chrif tians amidst the terrors and enticements which befet them in the times of Pagan tyranny-and this antidote, as I humbly conceive, will be found in the Scriptural doctrine of a Millennium, which includes the belief of immediate admiffion into a state of happiness previous to the refurrection of the body, and of an inconceivable increafe of blifs and glory, when the day of final judgment fhall arrive.

The Reader will now judge how far the conjectures offered in these pages feem to be founded in Scripture and Probability. But TIME alone can determine whether they be really juft. Again I beg leave to state my deep conviction of their uncertain nature. But if they show that Prophecy may be interpreted fo as to reconcile most of the

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