and crucifying our Lord; since it appears extremely improbable that the high priest, all the chief priests, elders, and scribes, who took part in the most atrocious public crime ever committed on the earth, truly repented and united themselves. with the infant church at Jerusalem. It cannot be supposed that so important and interesting a fact should have escaped the notice of the primitive historian of the Christian church, especially as he records that "a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith." He is silent, however, as to "the high priest, and the chief priests, and the elders;" nor does he even state, that of the "priests" who believed, there were any who had taken a leading part in the conspiracy. As far then as history is concerned, there is reason to conclude, that the former not only shed "the innocent blood," but rejected the doctrine of Christ, as afterwards preached by his Apostles. Now this (said our Inquirer) appears to be a perfectly fair and just inference; yet, added he, our Lord himself, when he stood in the presence of the Sanhedrim, after answering to the question of the high priest, "Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" “I am”—added the following words, "and ye shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven." Unless then it be supposed, contrary to the tenor of the history, and even to

the spirit of our Lord's own language, in his answer to the high priest, that the latter, with his fellow-conspirators, were "obedient to the faith," it is evident that they will constitute part of the rest of the dead" who will be raised after the expiration of the Millennium. But (continued our Inquirer) if not raised until then, how is it possible that they should be witnesses of the premillennial advent? for our Lord said to them, " Ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." It is, therefore, perfectly evident, that, according to the Millennary hypothesis, this solemn prediction of our Lord cannot possibly be then fulfilled. Can then Millennarianism be true? Can it be scriptural ?

Our Inquirer further said, it was perfectly natural to expect that at the full expiration of the Millennium (or whatever limited term that 1000 years, if not literally a 1000 years, may designate,) our Lord would return to heaven, accompanied by all his glorified saints, viz., all those who descended with him, and also all those who were "changed" at the time the bodies of the former class were raised. If our Lord, with his saints, is personally to reign on the earth during the Millennium, then, it seems to follow, of course, that he will no longer

reign on the earth with his saints after the expiration of that period. This is the plain commonsense inference. How then happens it (said our Inquirer) that an event of so transcendently glorious, as well as important a character, as the Creator of the world, the Saviour of mankind, the Lord of Providence, returning personally to heaven, after a thousand years absence from it, attended by all the saints who shall have lived on the earth from the beginning of time to the commencement of the Millennium, clothed in their glorified bodies, should not be, in the slightest manner, noticed in the whole range of Scripture prophecy. He could not, he said, but view all this as remarkable? His MILLENNARIAN FRIEND said, in reply, that even on the principles of the anti-millennarians, there would, after the final judgment of the world, be an equally magnificent spectacle, precisely of the same kind, and yet he was not aware that this event had formed a subject of Scripture prophecy. To which our INQUIRER briefly replied, that a prediction to that effect would have answered no useful purpose of prophecy, nor, after it had happened, have constituted any matter for historical reference or of human contemplation; since then, of course, all human studies, and, indeed, every temporal interest, will for ever be absorbed in the oblivion of

eternity. His MILLENNARIAN FRIEND here observed, that he thought it was, after all, in his power to remove our Inquirer's difficulty on the subject; at least he said, the statement which he was about to make, on high Millennarian authority, entirely removed his own, viz., that our Lord would remain on the earth after the close of the Millennium, even during the whole of the period of time which will elapse between that epoch and the final judgment. Merely contemplating the literal purport of this statement, our Inquirer, of course, felt no surprise; for, as he himself did not expect our Lord to come before the Millennium, he could not expect Him to return after it; but, viewing it as a part of the Millennary hypothesis, his astonishment equalled, if it did not exceed, what he had previously felt in reference to some other parts of that system. Numerous topics of inquiry instantly rushed into his mind, so that even the enumeration of them might appear tedious, to say nothing of the conversations to which they respectively gave rise. Such, for instance, as, whether our Lord, if, after the termination of the Millennium, he continued to dwell upon the earth, would not still continue to reign on the earth; and, if so, whether his glorified saints would themselves return to heaven, and leave their Saviour behind; and, if not, and he

still continued to reign, whether they would still continue to reign with him; and if so, what was the main and essential characteristic of the Millennium; and if that were the reign of our Lord with his glorified saints on the earth, why this post-millennial reign should not bear a similar, if not precisely the same general designation? He then reminded his Millennarian Friend, that, according to his own interpretation of the passage in question, it will be during this, (i. e. the postmillennial,) era that the earth will be covered with the thousands of millions of the wicked dead, filled with diabolical malignity and fury against the saints, and then asked him, whether he thought it probable, that such a state of things as this would ever be realized, and whether he thought it was at all likely that that interpretation of Scripture prophecy which inevitably led to such consequences, should be the true one? His MILLENNARIAN FRIEND said he could not deny that these consequences did really flow from his interpretation, nor could he entirely conceal the painful feelings he experienced while contemplating them, but he endeavoured to soften down, in some measure, the incredible and appalling character of the prospect, by observing that this state of things (admitting that it would actually take place) will continue only "for a little season." In reference