If so, Does it militate against the integrity of the mediatorial economy? Does it supersede, or suspend, or even interrupt important arrangements of that economy, relative to our Lord's priestly office, declared on Divine authority to be equally indispensable, unalterable, and perpetual. then you may safely reject it without uneasiness, hesitation, or regret; nay, you would, in such case, be bound to reject it, however specious and plausible it may be. If so, it cannot be true; it must be false. In this way proceed as to every branch of the millennary hypothesis; bring it to the test of leading Scriptural principles, and you will, I am persuaded, soon discover its utter fallacy. Indeed, it is our duty to beware of attaching to the authority of any uninspired man, or uninspired book, a deference which is due to the word of God alone. An unscriptural dependance on human authority, lies at the root of the numerous divisions which, from age to age, have generally prevailed among Christians; and it is plain, therefore, that these divisions will not be healed, until they unite cordially together in rendering homage to the word of God, as the only, as well as the supreme, authority in all matters relating to religion. The man who, in the discussion of a religious question, attempts to divert the attention of his fellow Christians from this supreme and unerring standard, either to the writings or declarations of uninspired men, is not only an enemy to the truth of the Gospel, but to the unity and prosperity of the Church of Christ. You are my witness (said our Inquirer) that in our late Conferences, I have invariably appealed to that supreme authority, and to that authority alone; and I feel the most perfect confidence that the more you try the Millennarian system by the great principles of the word of God, and especially as it affects the unalterable arrangements of the Mediatorial Economy, the more fully satisfied you will become that it is destitute of all Scriptural claim on your belief.' THE ALLEGED PRE-MILLENNIAL ADVENT OF OUR LORD, AT VARIANCE WITH HIS NINTH AND LAST CONFERENCE. "And ye see me no more." OUR Inquirer and his Millennarian Friend, at the close of the preceding Conference, separated. The latter, however, had not proceeded far, when he turned back, and, addressing our Inquirer, said he had often thought, that could the testimony of our Lord himself, to the fact of his not again personally visiting the earth, as a resident, be produced, it would at once put an end to all his doubts and speculations on that subject. Our INQUIRER, after a short pause, observed, that as his Millennarian Friend had expressed a wish for proof from our Lord's own lips, that it was not his design again to visit the earth, as a resident, after he had ascended to his Father, he would most cheerfully comply with his desire. He begged, however, that it might be fully understood, that he himself did not consider an appeal to the evidence now required, necessary to the establishment of his position; viz. that our Lord will not again personally visit the earth, till the judgment of "the last day," or end of time. Had our Lord himself not said a single word which might be regarded as proof on the subject, the evidence he had adduced in its support would still, he was persuaded, have been impregnable. Our Inquirer then referred to the following declaration of our Lord, in the fourteenth chapter of St. John's Gospel. "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also." Now (continued our Inquirer), it is perfectly clear, that if our Lord were personally to come again and dwell on the earth, "the world" would see him again, contrary to his own plain declaration. Our Inquirer, therefore, asked, if our Lord was conscious that he should again personally visit the world before the Millennium, how he could possibly have affirmed, that the world would see him no more? in other words, that he should not again personally dwell on the earth? But, further, as to his disciples. He told them, that although the world would see him no more, they WOULD see him-but how? personally? Certainly not, but spiritually. Now, it is perfectly evident, that the language of our Lord is alike applicable to his disciples in all ages; and it is equally evident, that he designed it to be so applicable; for the spiritual privilege of which he spake, was not peculiar to the disciples whom he then addressed, but one common to the universal church. Our Lord did not hold out to his disciples at large, an expectation that they should again see him as an inhabitant of the earth, at some distant period of time. And again, when he said, "the world" would not see him again, he obviously referred to a personal presence on the earth, for the world has, in an evangelical sense, no conception of his spiritual presence (which, as to his disciples, was the sense our Lord, doubtless, intended to express). But he did not, as was natural on the Millennary hypothesis, say to his disciples - Although the world shall not see me again, personally, ye shall. No; but, on the contrary, he intimates to them, that, notwithstanding the world would not see him person |