great concern for them, though there was no other appearance of his interpofing in their affairs. Yet we cannot fuppofe that he, or that Enoch, Moses, or Elijah, are in a perfectly inactive state. If, therefore, these men are now alive, and in a ftate of action and enjoyment upon earth, the greatest numbers may, for any thing that we know, exist in the same manner, at the fame time that the affairs of mortal men fhall proceed in all refpects as they do now.

There is no fmall difficulty in reconciling the different accounts of the fecond coming of Chrift, which is expressly faid (Acts i. 11) to be in the very fame manner in which he afcended. But whenever he thus comes, it will be to enter upon his proper kingdom. Then will commence his reign upon earth, commonly called the Millenium; and this, we cannot doubt, will be coincident with the flourishing state of the Jews after their return to their own country, and their peaceable and final fettlement in it. And yet in this state of things there is to be a fucceffion of princes of the family of David, and they will have children (Ez. xlvi. 16)

as

as in former times. Confequently, in this reign of Christ these princes must be confidered as acting under him, as his vice-gerents; and the affairs of the world will probably be directed by him, not in a visible, but in fome unknown manner. Whether he will always continue visible to men, we cannot tell. In the future ftate, he said, that we shall be "as the angels of God in heaven," perhaps in the property of being fometimes visible and fometimes invisible, as they are, as well as with refpect to the abolition of all distinction of sex.

Admitting these speculations to be nothing more than random conjectures, I do not see any harm in our indulging them. The apprehenfion of Jefus, as well as of Enoch, Mofes, and Elijah, being often prefent with us, though they give no fenfible tokens of their prefence, cannot do us any harm. It will certainly be no motive to any bad action; and all fpeculations of this kind tend to draw off our attention from the world, and the tranfitory but feducing things of it, to which we are naturally too much attached.

Though

1

Though all the dead are to rise, it appears in fome measure from the apostle Paul, but more clearly from the book of Revelation, that there will be an interval between that of the righteous and that of the wicked. "The dead in Chrift," Paul fays, in the paffage quoted above," fhall rife firft;" but this refpects only the other difciples of Chrift, who fhall then be living, and on whom an advantageous change of conftitution will immediately take place. As he fays nothing of the refurrection of the wicked at that time, it may be at a future period. And this is clearly expreffed in the Revelation, and said "not to take place but after a period of a thousand years." Rev. xx. 4, “ And I saw thrones, and them that fat on them, and judgment was given unto them. And I faw the fouls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and who had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Chrift a thousand years. But the reft of the dead lived not again till the thou

fand

fand years were finished. This is the first refurrection. Bleffed and holy is he that hath part in the first refurrection. On fuch the second death hath no power, and they fhall be priests of God and of Christ, and fhall reign with him a thousand years.” In this paffage mention is made only of the martyrs or confeffors. But according to Paul, all the dead in Chrift will rife, and all his virtuous difciples who fhall be then alive will be changed at his fecond coming.

That the earth will be destroyed by fire, though fuppofed by the apostle Peter, is not, I think, certain; fince neither any of the prophets, nor our Saviour, nor the apostle Paul, nor John in the Revelation, make any mention of it, though they mention circumftances which must be coincident with it. And as Peter does not say that he had any particular revelation on the subject, he might have taken the idea from fome tradition, of no fufficient authority, such as appears to have found its way into the heathen world, as we find in the writings of Ovid, and others. The knowledge that we now have of the conftitution of the earth

makes

makes the fuppofition of its ever being confumed by fire exceedingly improbable, as a inconfiderable proportion of its parts is

very combustible.

The only thing of great importance that is abfolutely certain, with refpect to a future ftate, is, that it will be a state of retribution, in which every perfon will receive according to his works, whether they be good or whether they be evil; when, as our Saviour fays, John v. 29, "they who have done good shall have a refurrection to eternal life, and they who have done evil, shall rise to condemnation;" and as Paul fays, Gal. vi. 8,

66

they who have fown to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; and they who have fown to the fpirit, fhall reap life everlafting." Believing this, let us, my bretren, as the fame apostle exhorts, 1 Cor. xv. 58, "continue fteadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that our labour will not be in vain. in the Lord."

VOL. III.

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DISCOURSE