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acceptation. But it appears to us, that even those who have advocated the figurative sense rather than the literal, have indulged in conceptions not in harmony with the realities of that day. It has been readily admitted, that the notices of the archangel's trumpet, the session of the Judge, the opening of the books, and the hearing of the witnesses, were earthly similitudes meant to assist popular conception, rather than real attributes of that day. Still, there has been a course of remark observed evidently resting on the supposition, that the process of Judgment must necessarily run through a long and indefinite period; that all mankind are to be brought into separate judgment; and that each person in succession is to pass trial on a sustained examination of his deeds, his words, and his thoughts.

The millenarian, as might be expected, has availed himself of these current opinions to uphold his argument, for the extension of the Judgment over the thousand years of the Apocalypse. "We are not to imagine," says one of them, "that this day is to be a natural day; surely it cannot be thought that all the affairs of kingdoms, states, churches, and particular individuals from the beginning of the world to the end of it, will be huddled over in so

short a space of time. No, this day of the Lord will be one thousand years.

It must be owned, that the Judgment has too often been treated so as to render this bold conclusion plausible. Yet we are not backward to affirm, that such conclusion arises not from Scripture, nor from any fair argument based on Scripture; but that it rather springs from that infirmity of mind common to us, which makes it nearly impossible, that we should wholly free ourselves from the relations of an earthly life, while ruminating on the things which are heavenly. For instance, it is palpably under the influence of such infirmity, that any one should suppose the almighty Judge embarrassed by disposing of the multifarious cases of a general Judgment in a short space of time. In cherishing this sentiment, it is forgotten, that there is no time with God; and, as far as we are concerned, it is inconsistent to suppose, that the slow process of an earthly tribunal will mark the advancement of the divine Judgment. We are not strictly to conceive of that Judgment as bringing each person in succession to trial; as reviewing in succession the whole course of thought and action; as placing the character

• Gill's Body of Divinity, Vol. III.

and destiny of each in present doubt; and as receiving, sifting, and balancing evidence, that a just sentence may ultimately be pronounced. That day is rather designed to recognize the Judgment than to elicit it. All that is really requisite to its integrity and dignity is, that each man should have the vivid consciousness of his own character; that the principles and ends of the divine government should be revealed and justified before all; and that all, in the presence of all, should receive their final destination. The whole of this will certainly be present to the Omniscient Mind at once; and who shall say that the same Mind may not make it alike present to our conscience, in all its thrilling and terrible light and power?

We have no pretension, indeed, to pronounce on the time which shall elapse in Judgment; and on the other hand, we resist as unphilosophical and unscriptural the opinion that it must necessarily be long. The Almighty might choose, that it shall be protracted; but it cannot be necessary to him that it should be so. If we were permitted to hold an opinion, it would be for the shortest and not the longest period. Why should it not be instantaneous? It is never in itself regarded as a distinct and lengthened period of being; but as a point at which one course of life is

perfected and another course commences. And periods which involve such transition, are usually instantaneous rather than progressive. The passage from death to life is instantaneous; the transition from earth to heaven is instantaneous; and why may not that period be "as the twinkling of an eye" in which all hearts shall be exposed, all the ways of Deity revealed and justified to the conscience, and a final separation established between the righteous and the wicked?

Let it not be thought that these explanations are designed to militate against the language and descriptions of the sacred volume. It may be occasionally necessary to make distinctions like the present; but a philosophical language would beome neither the pulpit nor the Bible. They are meant for all; and they should speak a popular language. We cannot know the invisible but through the visible; and hence the Scriptures have used similitudes; and have so used them as to fill the imagination without impoverishing the subject. We may truly rejoice in this circumstance, as proof of the divine wisdom and condescension. Still we must be careful not to confound the likeness with the reality; nor to encumber a spiritual doctrine with worldly predilections.

But the grand circumstance connected with the day of Judgment, is the coming of Messiah. It is common to us all to believe in the second appearance of our Saviour to the world. Some presume that it will be for protracted residence, while others are persuaded that it will be for the single and immediate purpose of Judgment. But amongst the various citations which have been made to bear on this subject, those which most evidently apply, do not refer to his personal coming for the purpose of dwelling with men in the existing state of things; but with the intention of putting an end to the present order of being, and of originating on the ruins of the one, another economy. He is to come; but not till the last day. He is to come; but it is to be at the end of the world. He is to come; but it is not to be "till the times of the restitution" or accomplishment " of all things." He shall come; and immediately "all that are in their graves shall come forth." When he shall come, "Death, which is the last enemy," and which is identified with the present economy, "shall be destroyed." Finally, to incorporate the exquisite language of our text, when he shall come, "the earth and heaven shall flee away-the dead, small and great, shall stand before God"-the books shall be opened and the Judgment shall begin.

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