other characters were in the other beatitudes; and that those very people who were meek at that time, and all who have been meek in every age since, shall, as heirs of the first Resurrection, be partakers of the reward. The full discussion of this point, however, belongs to another department of our argument; and, at present, I content myself with describing them, as constituting in their corporate capacity that Church, then in its infancy, which, in the vigour of age, should be given the dominion of the earth.

Fourth. "Do ye not know that the Saints shall judge the world?" 1 Cor. vi. 2. This is another intimation of the glory destined for the Church, in attempting to interpret which much absurdity has been put forth, through ignorance or rejection of millenarian views. Some understand it as signifying that when all mankind are judged, the saints shall afford matter and evidence for condemning the wicked. "But this sense," Macknight correctly observes, "has no relation to the apostle's argument;" that argument being, that it is sinful for Christians, even in cases of dispute respecting worldly matters, to go to law with one another before the civil magistrate; and that they ought to submit their differences to the determination of their brethren in the Church, whose qualifications for a work of such inferior moment are proved by the circumstance, that the saints are destined to the office of judging the whole world.*

This regulation is, at the present day, as binding on the Churches of Britain as it was formerly on the Church of Corinth. And may not a principal reason of the violation of it be, the misinterpretation of the clause which describes the qualifications of the saints? The obligation of the apostolic rule must not be dispensed with by saying, that the civil magistrates of that time are characterized as unjust; many of them were reputed for their equity in deciding betwixt man and man, and the injustice with which the apostle charges them in their unbelief towards God, as is evident from verse sixth. Are all the Magistrates, then, of this country, believers, or even outwardly saints? Some of them are; but others of them are not. It is no want of charity to say so. It would be betraying the cause of the Gospel to say otherwise. When a Christian, then, thus convinced of the unregenerated character of any civil judge, carries to him, in the first instance, his complaint against a fellow church member, he is clearly guilty of a flagrant transgression of Gospel law. "Dare you?" says the apostle. But there is more than this: though all the civil judges of the land were personally Christians, and acknowledged to be such by the complainant, yet since they are not officially such, and since the law which they are appointed to administer is not Christian law, still would he violate the commandment in taking his cause to a civil tribunal. In the first instance, it is his duty to try his offending brother with the judgment of the Church; and it is not till after he has refused to hear the Church, and been excommunicated so as no longer to stand to him in the relation of a brother, that he is at liberty to treat him as a heathen man and a publican, by impleading him before a tribunal which will force him to give satisfaction. What fantastical jurisprudence! So exclaim they who have not pondered the Scripture, that "the saints shall judge the world." The limits of a note will not permit me to enlarge on this interesting subject. Only, I must give a place to the annotation of Grotius on the passage. "What Paul here enjoins is one of the praiseworthy institutes of the syna

Others understand the passage as intimating, that when this mundane system comes to be entirely abolished, the saints shall be judged first, and when they are acquitted, shall take their place by the side of Christ, to act as assessors with Him in condemning the wicked. In the same manner they interpret the promise made to the apostles, recorded Matt. xix. 28. Again says Macknight, "to found a doctrine of this magnitude on two obscure passages of Scripture, which can easily admit of a different and better interpretation, seems not a little rash." What, then, does he propose as this better interpretation? Why, in opposition to the judgment of almost all the critics he translates the whole of the passage in the present tense, and thereupon maintains that the saints do already actually judge the world by the laws of the Gospel which they promulgate! Such is the manner in which many circumscribe the prerogatives of the Church. Bengelius makes a nearer approach to the truth when he says, "the apostle had in his eye the state of the world under Constantine, when the Christians got possession of civil power." But though this interpretation proceeds on a right principle, in so far as it represents the passage as being a prediction of the endowment of the Church with external power, yet few will agree with the author in referring its fulfilment to the corrupt government of Constantine. Whitby is right for once. His paraphrase runs thus: "Do ye not know from Daniel that the Saints of the Most High shall receive the Kingdom, and so shall judge the world?”* This is

gogue. It was a saying among the Jews, 'He who carries an Israelite before a judgment-seat of the Gentiles, profanes the name of God;' for he gives occasion to the aliens to remark with scorn, 'Behold how brotherly those men be, who worship the one God!" " Are there no infidel judges and lawyers at the present day, to sneer in like manner at the disciples of Christ, when they go to them for the adjustment of their quarrels?

*The word of the original, translated judge, has a very extensive signification, being used to express the exercise of all power, legislative and executive, as well as strictly judicial.

To complete the view of the passage, it is necessary to give some explanation of verse third, in which the apostle sets forth the qualifications of Christians in a light yet stronger than that of the clause which falls more particularly under our present review:-"Know ye not that we shall judge angels?" This is generally understood of evil angels; and with this view various explanations have been proposed by different commentators. But although there may be a partial reference in the passage to the binding of Satan, predicted in the Apocalypse, yet I regard it as referring principally to the exaltation of the glorified saints of mankind above all the intelligent creatures of God. He who has studied with an enlarged mind the mystery of Redemption will not treat this as an extravagant dogma. By uniting Himself to human nature, the Son of God has exalted it above every other created nature. Through the constitution of the person of Christ, it is the nature nearest to God. Already a Man is the Lord of Angels. And to the station to which our Kinsman has been elevated, it is but consistent that we his Brethren should be elevated also; yea, to the station to which our Head

the correct interpretation; and it ought to be received by our opponents with the less suspicion, since the power of truth and consistency has produced the acknowledgment from one of the most resolute impugners of the millenarian cause. Having said so much already on the external power of the Church during the Millennium to which Dr. Whitby refers the passage, it is unnecessary I should resume the discussion. And in answer to a question similar to that which was proposed respecting the capacity in which the meek are promised the inheritance of the earth, I reply in a similar manner, in the present instance. I believe that those very Christians in Corinth, whom Paul then addressed, shall personally share the glory of that kingdom in which the saints shall possess the government. The general intimation is sufficient to warrant this conclusion, but the pointedness of the subsequent clause puts the case beyond a doubt,-"if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?" Indeed, the whole of the force of the reasoning depends on the personal identity of the judges on both occasions. On this point, however, which belongs to the doctrine of the first Resurrection, I do not at present insist; but take the lower ground of maintaining, on the authority of this passage, that the Christian Church, of which those Corinthians were members in the state of its infancy, shall rise in its maturity to the administration of the external government of the whole world. Know ye not this? said the apostle to the primitive Church, evidently in the way of reproaching them for acting inconsistently with a knowledge of which they were fully possessed. But the Churches of the present day are not only criminal in their practice, they are culpable for their ignorance. They know nothing about this high destiny of the saints, as being decreed the future judges of the world; and, which is the most melancholy consideration of all, they refuse to be instructed; and will even profanely revile us as neglecting to preach the Gospel, when we proclaim the Kingdom of Heaven is near at hand. This

has been elevated, is there not a necessity for the elevation of us who are his Members? There is another, though inferior view of this subject, highly worthy of our consideration. It is stated in the following manner in Macknight's Essay on the Mediation of Christ:-"The virtue of beings circumstanced as men are, and exercised under such embarrassing difficulties and temptations, being superior to the virtue of other intelligent creatures who have not been so exercised and tried, it is far from being unreasonable to suppose with Taylor, (Key, No. 161,) that by their trials and acquirements the redeemed of the human species may be fitted for nobler employments and higher charges than other beings, who, perhaps, were naturally superior to them, but who are their inferiors in this second stage of their existence, not having been exercised and improved as they have been."-Commentary, Essay vii. Sect. 4.

makes it just the more imperative on us that we heap proof on them, that they be rendered the more inexcusable if they will not believe, so as to be made noble-hearted in the Christian profession.

Fifth. "He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers, even as I received of my Father." Rev. ii. 26, 27. Such was the encouragement to faithfulness with which our Lord bespoke the Church of Thyatira. As before, I express my belief that all the members of that primitive Church, who kept the faith, shall, as heirs of the First Resurrection, personally enjoy the fulfilment of this magnificent promise; when in the armies of Heaven they shall ride forth with the Lord to vengeance and victory, as described in the nineteenth chapter of this same book; and thereafter sit down to reign with Him, as represented in the twentieth. It is difficult, in the present case, to imagine lower ground on which we may take a stand. But let us endeavour to do so:-Suppose the promise to have been made to the faithful in Thyatira in their corporate capacity, as members of the Church catholic, which, in a future age, should rise to such authority, even thus is our proposition confirmed a fifth time, that it is the destiny of the Church to be put in possession of the external power and government of the world.*

Sixth. "And when he had taken the Book, the four Living Creatures, and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sung a new song, saying: Thou art worthy to take the Book,

There are only four ways, which I can imagine, in which an attempt may may be made to set the evidence of this passage aside: First, by speculating, as before, on the saints being judged first at the conclusion of this mundane system, and after their own acquittal constituted assessors with Christ in condemning the wicked. But the fancy is, if possible, more incongruous here than ever. Secondly, by supposing that the spirits of the saints are, in their disembodied state betwixt death and resurrection, given power over this world. It is surely unnecessary to expose the error of this idea.―Thirdly, by supposing that the promise was fulfilled in the assumption of civil power for the Church by Constantine. But neither was that power assumed legally, nor although it had been so, and administered purely, and by the Church as the Church, was its display commensurate with the terms of the prediction.Fourthly, by interpreting it of the manner in which Christianity should gain ground among the people, and influence governments with its genius. But, besides many other considerations of an adverse nature, this would be a work of mildness and persuasion, whereas the work described in the passage is one of violence. Were any one to say, that it is perhaps spiritual violence inflicted, through the instrumentality of sabbath-schools, missions, and the like, on antichristian principles, and not antichristian men, he must not expect us to expend our labour in the refutation of such a perversion.

and to open the seals thereof, for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made us [them] unto our God Kings and Priests, and WE [THEY] SHALL REIGN ON THE EARTH." Rev. v. 8, 9, 10. Various opinions have been held respecting the Living Creatures which appear in this vision. But all are agreed that the four and twenty Elders represent the Church redeemed from among men.* Well, when in this character they sing in such joyful expectation that they shall reign on the earth, Is that interpretation satisfactory, which explains their song as importing nothing more than that Christian principle should, at some future period, widely pervade the world? No; it is Christian men, and that too as Christian men, who are anointed as kings to reign. Britons could not be said to reign in Portugal, for instance, though the British Constitution were adopted in that country, as the rule of government; nor even although all those who occupied the magistracy were personally natives of our isle, unless, as British men, they were appointed to rule for Britain's advantage and glory. As formerly, I believe that all the faithful, from the beginning till the First Resurrection, shall be personally exalted to exercise these royal functions. But although the prophecy were understood as announcing merely the possession of imperial power at a future period, by that Institution which, at the time the apostle enjoyed his vision, was despised and persecuted, still it would be sufficient to warrant the terms of our proposition.

Seventh. "And I saw thrones, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls 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 Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the First Resurrection." Rev. xx. 4, 5. Let not our opponents be too hasty now, and, before they have been informed for what purpose I have brought forward this royal prediction, begin to say that the interpretation which resolves it into a literal resurrection is old and antiquated, and that they are determined to have nothing to do with these fan

*The words "them" and "they" inserted in brackets are according to the text preferred by Griesbach; but the change does not affect the sense of the passage, so long as the "us" keeps its place which is the objective of "redeemed." And even although it also were displaced, the character of the Elders, as well as of the Living Creatures, might indeed be affected, as being possibly different from redeemed human beings; but still their song would be concerning the royalty of the Church.