of duration, strength, order, wealth and happiness, are employed to indicate the supreme excellencies of a celestial state.

It now remains for us to inquire, whether Scripture affords us any additional light on this question. The millenarian rests his expectation of a material earth and heaven almost exclusively on the passage disposed of; but we are certainly not driven to that or any single quotation in favour of the opposite sentiment. The testimony of the written word is abundant on this interesting inquiry. The state which the righteous are to regard is called a "better and a heavenly country;" and we are commanded to look "not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen," even at a dwelling "not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." The apostle desires to depart and to be with Christ; he does not seek his heaven on earth, but in separation from it. Heaven is where Christ now is; and to be with Christ, is to be in heaven. The Saviour assures his disciples, that he goes from earth, to prepare a place for them; but if the millenarian doctrine is correct, he should have said, he would come again for that purpose. Moreover, he says, that he will come again to receive us to himself, that where he is, we may be also; but to be accommodated to modern

views, the language should have been entirely reversed. He should have promised to come again to remain with us, that where we are, he might be also. Heaven is not a place to be made after the millennium, but a place already in being; where God is; where the saints and angels are; a place "prepared from the foundation of the world." In perfect concord with these assurances, the Redeemer, when describing the Judgment, speaks not of earth as the future hell or heaven; but says of both classes arraigned at his bar, "these shall go away;" the one to an already prepared place of torment, the other to an already prepared place of blessedness.

These passages are not to be weakened by supposing, that we are to conceive of heaven rather as a state, than as a place. We say we must do both; and that for a twofold reason. First, Finite existence is necessarily limited and therefore local; and secondly, To put locality out of the question, in the case before us, is to annihilate the heaven of the millenarian; for with him, so far as he differs from others, it is altogether an affair of place and materiality.

But this argument, like some already considered, is not decided by detached citations, however cogent and numerous. What is of

yet greater moment, the hypothesis, which we are trying, is at variance with the uniform tone and tenour of Holy Scripture. This is, on either side, admitted to be a fair test of theological speculation; and it is a test often efficacious in leading to truth, when particular quotation and elaborate discussion have failed. Now, in the application of this test, we confidently ask, if a person of sincere mind, and unbiassed by a favourite theory, were to read the entire Revelation with the earnest desire of ascertaining the nature of its testimony to a future state, would he accept or reject the millenarian scheme? Would he regard the future state as spiritual or material? Would he believe, that the earth, however modified, was to become the eternal abode of the saint; or would he look from earth to heaven? Would he consider, that it was a state to be formed ages hence; or a state already prepared and happily occupied? We challenge the boldest opponent to say, that by such a trial his theory would not fall.

Nor can we allow him in his defeat to plead, that the common opinion is a vulgar error, to be dissipated by the genial influence of research and criticism. Criticism has its legitimate and important field of labour; but it is not here. The class of evidence to which we

are now appealing is open to all who have honest hearts and sincere desires. The truth is plainly revealed; it lies by the wayside of the common path of salvation, and he who runs may read; while he who vainly quits the beaten highway may seek it long and find it-never!

It may seem cause of wonder, with so much evidence in favour of the predominant opinion, that there should be any inclined to sustain its opposite. Much, however, is to be referred to the readiness with which we sympathize with material modes of being and happiness. For the present, we hold a material existence; we are surrounded by material objects; we are regaled by material pleasures; we are influenced by material sensations; and the very limited knowledge which we have of spiritual things is still conveyed to us through material images. Our whole nature inclines to what is tangible and carnal; so that if we approach a subject like that under consideration without the strictest jealousy over our material predilections, though amongst the wisest and the best, we are in extreme hazard of a wrong conclusion.

If example, in proof of this, were required, it might be easily supplied. A highly and

justly celebrated preacher of our own day, who is far enough from sympathy with the crude and extravagant fancies of the modern millenarian, has evidently been not entirely free from material affinities, in discoursing on the future state. After a somewhat hasty argument in favour of an earthly paradise, we are assured, that all things shall be as they were before the fall; that "man shall walk on the solid earth;" that his " eye shall be delighted with the beauties of nature, his ear regaled by the sounds of earthly music;" that he shall have "comfort in the charities of life, holding converse man with man as they do now ;" and that he shall be " replenished with sensible delights and sensible glories." Nor is this all. The preacher is not satisfied with asserting the doctrine as true; but having done so, he exults in it himself, and calls on his hearers to participate in the exultation. He speaks of the more spiritual state as "dimness and mystery," as "cold and shadowy;" and he hails his own view as "holding out a warmer and more alluring picture."

Now, it were perfectly free for any man to profess his faith either on the negative or affirmative side of this question; but when he calls on us to rejoice in the prospect of an earthly Eden over a more spiritual condition,