I consider the signification covered in obscurity, because those seventy-five days reach beyond the period of cleansing the sanctuary, which will be effected by the binding of Satan, by the destruction of all sinners, by the removal of all natural and moral evil, by the exaltation of the two witnesses, the Old and New Testament, up to the heaven of universal acceptance in all the earth; by the junction of Ezekiel's river of life with the ocean, the Millennium; by the resurrection of all the righteous dead, and by the restoration of every privilege which can possibly be consistent with that new order of things, and will doubtless be fully equal with the glories that would have crowned the race of Adam, if he had not sinned. However, it is not probable that the same mode of happiness in every respect, will then succeed, because the constituent qualification of their happiness, will differ from what it would have been in an unfallen state. For in the first order of things, men were to live by obedience to the law of God, without faith in a Redeemer: but in the Millennium, they will live by keeping the law of God through faith in Christ; for that state will be his reign-his government—his kingdom, and glorious triumph over all his foes. But as it respects happiness, arising from a local or natural situation while subsisting on the earth, it may be expected that the globe will again be adorned with all its ancient beauty, and paradisical luxuriance. EIGHTH DIVISION. An account of the first resurrection, and the subsequent happiness of all people; with which is connected arguments to prove, that all natural and moral evil shall cease a thousend years; and that it was the intention of the Creator to have clothed Adam and Eve, and their posterity, whether they should stand or fall. Then shall all sacred dust, whose souls had faith, THIS great and glorious event is intimately connected with the Millennium, inasmuch as it is the very beginning of that day; for it is written by St. John, that the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years are finished. This is the first resurrection. Rev. 20, 5. From this it is evident, that there shall absolutely be one thousand years between the first re surrection and the second. This is the reason why I conclude that the resurrection of the righteous must take place the very moment of the commencement of the Millennium, in order that a thousand years may have exactly time enough to transpire before the resurrection of the wicked shall take place. And to ascertain this as a fact, we have only to recollect the above quoted remarkable words of St. John upon the subject. But the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years are finished. * The Evangelist, in order that the churches should clearly understand him to say, that literally there should be a lapse of a thousand years between the two resurrections, and that it shall be the righteous who are thus to be favoured with the first, he has said, Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection, on such the second death hath no power. Rev. 20, 6; which strongly intimates a second resurrection, and that they who shall compose it, shall be hurt of the second death; and it is added, And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. Rev. 20, 14. And to prove that the wicked dead shall be cast into this lake of fire, which is the second death, we adduce these words: And whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the lake of fire. Rev. 20, 15. And to show that their stay in this lake is eternal, we have only to let the Revelator decide, who says, And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. Rev. 20, 18. * Sce Appendix (A.) But that the righteous dead shall arise before the wicked dead, is confirmed by St. Paul, who says, "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first." Thes. 4, 16. But the distance of time between the two resurrections is not mentioned by St. Paul; yet in Thes. 4, 17, he very plainly intimates, that there will be a lapse of time between the two resurrections, when he says, Then we which are alive and remain. Thus I understand him to mean: that when the righteous dead awake at the sound of the archangel's voice, that they will immediately ascend out of sight to heaven; but they who are alive and on the earth at that time, shall remain till after the Millennium, or the thousand years are accomplished, and then shall be caught up at the sound of the last trump, to be together with them who ascend before and shall meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we be ever with the Lord. But if we blend the resurrection of saint and sinner together, then we make, between St. Paul and St. John, an unaccountable disagreement on the subject; for while one plainly puts a thousand years between, the other seems to blend them together. It will no doubt be allowed, that these two apostles wrote by the same spirit of inspiration, and that they equally understood the process of the resurrection. And although St. Paul never read the book of Revelation, because it was not written till after the death of that apostle, who was slain with a sword at the command of Nero, the tyrant, in the year 65; but St. John lived to the 1 great age of ninety-eight years, and wrote the book of Revelation while an exile on the isle of Patmos, in the Archipelago,-(this island is situate between 35 and 40 deg. north lat. and 25 east long.)—under the horrid reign of Domitian, but was called from his exile by Nerva, successor of Domitian, and again fixed his seat at Ephesus. His book of Revelation, we are informed, he wrote near the close of Domitian's reign, which was long after the death of Nero and St. Paul, and published in the year ninety-six, at which time it was also dated. See Clark. Yet St. Paul must have had the same view of the resurrection with St. John. The following, I think, is a consistent view of the subject concerning the two resurrections: That although there shall be many saints alive on the earth, at the time when the period for the resurrection of the just shall arrive, yet that circumstance shall not prevent their rising. This appears to be the sense of the 15th verse of the 1st Thes. chap. 4. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep; i. e. those who are asleep in Jesus; for this is determined in the next verse: For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first-but no intimation that the sinner shall rise with them, nor immediately after. If this very idea were not a question among the saints at Thessalonica, whether the wicked and the righteous should rise together at the same time, it |