every part of scripture. Even St. John himself, in Rev. xx. 4, is thought by many and great authorities, to have had the restoration of the fews, and Ezekiel's prophecy of it, (ch. xxxvii.) in his view, and that if it had not been so, he would have been chargeable with the entire omission of an event of the first and last importance in all the other prophets; as little doubt has by such commentators been held, that the meaning of Daniel is also the same, His constant and tender solicitude for the welfare and prosperity of his own nation, is conspicuous throughout his prophecies; and their SECOND EXODUS, or final restoration, is almost the last impression which the angel interpreter leaves upon his mind.-Dan. xii. 1. (312)

(312) The general resurrection is the only thing which follows after it, the remainder of the chapter is all retrospective. 'The most natural and easy sense of the prophecies is certainly preferable cæteris paribus, to that which lies deep, and which few only can discover, and still fewer can receive when discovered for them! That which is supported by the general acclamation of the inspired writers, is preferable to that which requires learned and laborious proof to give it the requisite semblance of probability.

The casting away of the Jews, an event of the greatest magnitu le in prophecy, and closely linked with the predictions of their future and glorious reconciliation, is in all respects one of the most remarkable things in scripture, as fully appears from the frequency and manner in which it is introduced; and the gran leur and majesty of the imagery employed to express the happy event of their reviviscence, justly compared to renovation of life to a world lying in death. See Beza's Note, p. 40t.

Burton p. 10 and 211, says that Lowman and Sir Isaac Newton both esteem Daniel's and St. John's as only one prophecy, the former part sealed, the latter open; and that St. John's apocalypse is in explanation of what was mysterious in the preceding prophets His frequent quotations and references to them confirm this opinion.

8. The Lord's prayer not susceptible of a mystical sense.-The kingdom of heaven the object of general prayer and belief-the kingdom of raised saints not so.-Human duty not perfectly performed in any earthly state.-9. General idea of the resurrectionary kingdom-inconsistent with the revealed plan of divine oeconomy. - Present and future condition of man cannot be combined in one system. The first resurrection, Rev. xx, 4, an hieroglyphic of the church. Similar hieroglyphics thrice repeated before, to express a similar meaning.-The gospel itself announced by prophecies not literally fulfilled-came without attracting general notice.-The millennium will be actually established and the saints reigningbefore it be generally understood.

VIII. THE wisdom of our blessed Lord has been much and often admired for the consummate excellence of that universal prayer which he has taught us, as a model for our

devotions. In a small compass, it contains every thing the most essential to our temporal and spiritual welfare, but nothing extraneous, or which is not of universal and perpetual importance to the children of mortality. Whether it can add much to this character of it to consider one of its petitions as being appropriate to the resurrectionary kingdom of the saints, I have considerable doubt. But the petition "thy kingdom come," is considered as one of the proofs of that doctrine. I can hardly conceive it possible that such an idea will occur to the minds of the great majority of christians in the daily use of their Lord's prayer. Grant, Lord! that the first resurrection may soon take place, and the kingdom of thy saints, coming from the ris ings of the sun, in immortal bodies, like a stream of fire, may be exhibited to our sight."

A revolution of that nature might be a curious phenomenon for philosophers to analyze, But I still and the ignorant to gaze upon. think neither of them will be gratified with it until the day of judgment. Then only, things natural and visible, will give place to things

eyes.

supernatural, and hitherto at least forbidden to be displayed to mortal It does not appear quite certain that the resurrectionary kingdom of saints was meant by our Lord himself, in the construction of his easy and natural prayer, designed for the constant and familiar use of all christians, but never explained in a mystical sense to any. (313)

In the course of his teaching by parables, when he did not mean to speak some things at that time too plainly, (Matt. xiii. 34; Luke xii. 41) he was often figurative, but seldom when he instructed his disciples in private, in the absence of the multitude; unless he ex

(313) "The kingdom of heaven," "the kingdom of God, and of Christ," are phrases familiar with our Lord, and explained by him in parables of the simplest construction and most obvious meaning, to signify the gospel state or christian dispensation, admitting both good and bad which are not to be separated till the day of judgment,-Matt. xiii, 26, 47.

"In my father's house said he, are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you.” Surely then, if it were so, that this universal prayer had a dark and ambiguous meaning, he would also have told us; lest we should ask what he had no mind to grant, and weary heaven with unmeaning and useless