human history, may be to us a matter both of duty and of joy, which, in earlier times, would neither have been illustrative of the one, nor productive of the other.

The time must of necessity at length come, in which the prophecies as yet unfulfilled, will approach to their accomplishment. Why may not that time now draw near? And why may not the aching heart be now lawfully cheered by the anticipation of "a glory soon to be revealed?"

It has been amongst the arguments derived from analogy in favour of a future state, that, otherwise, the disorders and inequalities of human condition, the calamities of virtue, and the successes of vice, would seem to cast a shade upon the moral government of God. But while this idea has pressed closely upon the thoughtful, it has been their habit to look out for the adjustment of these disorders, not in the scene in which they have existed, but in a scene which has never exhibited a single trace of the same disaster. But is this habit of thought consistent either with our natural expectations or with the real statements of revelation?

Is it consistent with our natural expectations? The circumstances which will approach the nearest to our own, are those of a race of men, connected with a wide dominion of which they form but a part, who should have thrown off the allegiance which they owed to their sovereign, and who are now occupied with speculations and pursuits entirely their own, independent of the will, and subversive of the laws of the monarch to whom they were subject. Let it be supposed that the monarch is just, forbearing, kind, and powerful. He looks with indignation and sorrow upon that province of his empire, wasted by discord, impoverished by vice, ravaged by cruelty, oppressed by force, and wretched through crime. He contemplates the struggle with a keen and cautious eye-and resolves to undertake the vindication of his insulted authority.

Two modes of action might present themselves to his mind. He might send a special commission into the land-he might accompany this commission with an overwhelming force, before which all the resources of the rebellious must at once be annihilated. He might arrest the daring and the guilty, and by a judicial process arrange the scale of punishment, and assign to each the just expiation of his crime-he might collect the loyal, and acquaint himself with all their claims upon his regard he might then transfer them, with all their possessions, to the peaceful regions of his empire-he might chase to some inhospitable climate the guilty thousands who had taken arms against his authority; and having cleared the land of its inhabitants, he might lay waste its dwellings; destroy

by fire and violence the fertility of its fields; give up its beauty to neglect and oblivion; blot out its name from the titles of his crown, and consign it, in its ruined condition, to be a lasting memorial of the folly of rebellion.

Or he might send a commission, not to annihilate, but to repair-not to crush by violence, but to restore by wisdomnot to erase a title from his brows, but to recover allegiance to his laws. He might evidence the severity of justice, and the clemency of compassion-he might educate, enlighten, protect, and reward-he might bring into exercise the latent sympathies of the misguided and the ignorant-he might bring to bear upon the hitherto degraded and unhappy, the nobler motives to human action, and he might succeed in the high and generous effort, of converting a moral wilderness into a scene of culture, fertility, and concord. Rejecting the theory of the stern

"Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant,"

he might prefer the nobler trophy, of enmity removed-of rebellion crushed-of anarchy displaced-and of a land obedient to the sceptre which it had once refused.

I ask whether our natural feelings would not confirm the preference which the monarch had made.

But let it further be asked, is this vindication of the moral government of God, by the destruction of the world, the real statement of REVELATION? Has God indeed declared that this material earth shall be a memorial of wrath, but not of mercy? Is it the recorded purpose of his immutable will that the scene and place of redemption shall be separated from the people to be redeemed? That the earth with all its variety of garniture and beauty, once fitted to be the birth-place of their happiness, and given to them as the patrimony and sovereignty of their race, shall be torn away from their possession, and given up to the avenging flame? Is it indeed the verdict of Revelation, that this earth, on which the Redeemer walked and communed with men, in the hour of his humiliation, shall never be the scene of his fellowship with them in the day of his power and his glory? Did he "as a wayfaring man tarry with them only for a night," and ascend but to return in the vengeance of insulted majesty, to annihilate the scene on which he endured this dishonour?

Is it, I would ask, without a distinct and adequate reason that the Lord Jesus Christ is called "the second Adam?" Surely the expression comprises a fuller meaning than that generally assigned to it. It implies indeed a similarity of relation between Adam and his descendants, and the Lord and his redeemed: a similarity of federal connexion between them

selves, and the persons dependent upon their actions. "As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive." The transmission of life is by the one, the transmission of death by the other. This is a great truth, momentous in all its consequences; but is it the whole truth? Is not Christ the antitype of Adam in another and very important sense? To Adam this material world was given as an inheritance; an empire over which he was to exercise a kingly power. The Mosaic record is expressed in these terms:-"So God created man in his own image; in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them; and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

This original grant to Adam is referred to in after times by David, in the eighth Psalm; and the dominion of which he there speaks is by the apostle Paul ascribed in its full extent to Christ (Heb. ii.) as the second Adam. The creation of Adam after the IMAGE of God implies, therefore, not only the purity and excellence of his moral nature, but the sovereignty to which he was heir. The image of God has been too exclusively limited to the idea of moral rectitude: but it comprises dominion as well as rectitude; hence in the renovated world, the saints are described as "kings" equally with "priests unto God." Both these blessings, rectitude and dominion, Adam forfeited by his transgression. He was in consequence exiled as a criminal from Paradise, and begat his children in his own likeness-depraved and powerless. He could neither transmit the original qualities of his mind, nor his right to sovereignty. The sceptre was broken, when impurity stained his heart. His children inherit pollution on the one hand, and captivity on the other. They are slaves as well as criminals. Satan, the terrific prince of darkness, subtle in his counsel, as well as mighty in his strength, immediately usurped the crown as it fell from Adam's head, and seized the dominion over the earth, which Adam had forfeited. From that time he has maintained a despotic sway over mankind, and by our Lord himself is admitted to be the King, though an usurper, over the present world: for when our Lord entered into personal conflict with Satan, it was in that character that he regarded him. Satan pointed out to him "the kingdoms of the world," and expressed his willingness to yield to him a delegated sovereignty, if he would allow him the claim of superiority. "All these will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.' Our Lord abhorred the blasphemy, but did not deny the usur

pation. This usurpation is allowed by the inspired apostle, when he declared to the Corinthians that idolaters "sacrifice to devils, and not to God." Sacrifice is the loftiest homage which one being can pay to another; it is the highest token of submission, the last acknowledgment of supreme power.

But this period of usurpation is limited. In reference to the short duration of this unrighteous dominion, the Saviour declared, "Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the prince of this world be cast out;" "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." Adam was formed after the IMAGE of God. And who is this image? We are told by the apostle (Heb. i.) "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son; whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express IMAGE of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his powerwhen he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high." Adam was but the type of Christ. His creation of the dust of the earth, after the divine image of purity and dominion, appears to have had special reference to this pattern. He represented Christ the true and only image. of God. The dominion, therefore, granted to Adam, is in fact the dominion granted to Emmanuel, the Christ, the anointed "Ruler in Israel," "whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." "And this man shall be the peace, though the 'mystic' Assyrian be come into our land." Micah v. 1-5.

The past ages of mankind have exhibited the misrule and misery of usurped power. The dominion has been in satanic hands; and the successive schemes of human authority, their policy, art, and strength, have been the developements of his wisdom, in order to maintain, if possible, his full possession of the earth. But through all these dark periods of time, the plans of a mightier One are prepared in silence for their completion. The world belongs to Christ: the course of human things cannot therefore be at rest; the decree is gone forth," "And thou profane, wicked prince, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end, thus saith the Lord God; REMOVE the DIADEM, and take off the CROWN; exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will OVERTURN, OVERTURN, OVERTURN; and it shall be no more, until HE COME whose RIGHT it is, and I will GIVE it HIM." (Ezek. xxi. 25-27.) Then, it would appear, will the earth be at rest, and the original grant of dominion to Adam be realized. Then will God "create a new heaven and a new earth." Then will his redeemed church, rescued to

share his glory in actual sovereignty, and perfect felicity, "REIGN with him upon the earth."

The contrary supposition appears to me at least to displace the consistency of the scheme of Revelation. If, according to the prevalent opinion, this material world be doomed to destruction, and not to renovation; if Christ shall come only as a mighty judge, to hold a last assize, to separate the righteous from the wicked, and then to annihilate the globe on which the career of guilt has been achieved, will the measure of revealed promise to the world be actually filled up?

It may confirm the view here given of the future, to inquire into the nature of that felicity which our Lord himself has taught us in our prayers to expect. It would be natural to suppose, that in the selection of blessings, which he condescended to make the subject of our prayers to God, the consummation of his own work of mercy would find a marked place. The supposition is consistent with the fact. He has concentrated a prayer for the completion of his own work, in the two remarkable expressions, "Thy kingdom come," "thy will be done. on EARTH as in heaven." Can we refuse to admit that our Lord here bounds our view to this scene of earth? In heaven, that is, in the other regions of the universe of God, his will is already done: but here we are surrounded with a scene of rebellion, anarchy, and sorrow. Does he then teach us to pray for a translation from this unquiet land to another and distant orb? He puts no such request within our lips; he directs us to pray for the establishment of his kingdom, and this kingdom appears to belong exclusively to this material earth. "Thy will be done in earth, as in heaven." Is not the inference twofold: first, that the earth is the theatre of his kingdom; and secondly, that conformity to his will is the absolute enjoyment of heaven? and that no loftier supplication can be associated with our thoughts, than that the hallowed sceptre should be replaced in human hands, even in the hands of the mighty Antitype, "the second Adam, the Lord from heaven."

I ask then the Christian reader, if it be not desirable to call away our minds from human opinions; from the influence even of great names; from popular belief, however ancient; from theories, however venerable; from the prescriptive applause of centuries; from the vague and indistinct ritual of education; and to take our firm, courageous, and patient stand upon the plain, grammatical, and unwarped text of scripture?

That wondrous volume, the charter of human hope, the anchor of human faith, affords instructions on this subject, to my mind more definite, and expectations more precise. Surely the Lord Jesus Christ is linked to our world by ties less fragile