plan of benevolence, and encourage every project of Christian zeal. Borne on the favouring gales of liberty, political, civil and religious, the everlasting gospel shall wing its way to every land ;* and, as it becomes more widely propagated, the Spirit will be more copiously effused. As Christians are multiplied, devotional exercises will be multiplied; and the Spirit, more universally implored, will more universally be granted. Piety will spread, and its fruits increasingly abound. Religion, morality, the arts, sciences, and commerce, will all be in the most favourable circumstances, and flourish accordingly, while "Holiness to the Lord" shall be the universal motto. Every virtue will prevail, and, beneath the fostering influence of holiness, prudence, and industry, the earth will yield her increase, the substantial comforts of life abound, "God will bless us, and all the

* Religion cannot flourish where religious liberty is not enjoyed. . . . . . . The want of religious liberty in nearly all the countries of the world, is the grand hinderance of the propagation of the gospel at this day."-Letter to the Rev. Lewis Way, by Dr. Bogue, cited in Dr. Bogue's Memoirs, by Dr. Bennett.

ends of the earth shall fear Him."

"And

it shall come to pass in that day, the heavens shall hear the earth, and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and the Lord will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of the air, and with the creeping things of the ground; and He will break the bow, and the sword, and the battle out of the earth, and will make the people to lie down safely."

The proper direction of human talents and resources will provide, generally speaking, against the ills of life; the general cultivation of the earth will leave few resorts for beasts of prey, and the prevalence of universal love refuse nourishment to the principle of war. (Hosea ii. 18, 22.) Yet, while human nature is less than perfect, its condition, in regard both to holiness and happiness, must be less than perfect also. When the aggregate of crime is lessened, the sum of wretchedness, which owes its chief amount to sin, must be proportionately diminished. But death will still invade domestic peace. Vain imaginations and sinful actions will still discover

went up personally, visibly, corporeally; but now with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall be raised first. Then the living, being changed, and the dead in Christ raised, all shall be "caught up together with him in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we be ever with the Lord; wherefore, comfort one another with these words," nor perplex your own minds, or the minds of others, by vain disputations about where our glorified bodies shall reside, and what shall become of the earth we leave. There is a locality already somewhere suited to the condition of glorified bodies; for Christ has risen and is become the first-fruits of them that believe. (Luke xxiv. 51.) But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. "Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in holy conversation and godliness, looking for and

1

hasting unto (in your anticipations and desires) the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot, and blameless"-this is your grand and most important business. But if, when comforting yourselves with the divine promise, you seek its full import, and inquire what the Lord means by "new heavens and a new earth," the necessity there is of understanding the import of his promise in order to enjoy it, sufficiently justifies your inquiries; only pursue them "in the light, as children of the light." The following comparison of texts will prove that the Apostle employed the terms, " new heavens and a new earth," only metaphorically and antithetically, as descriptive of that blessed condition in which the renovated "creature" shall be no more "subject to vanity," but crowned with the full fruition of the hope

went up personally, visibly, corporeally; but now with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall be raised first. Then the living, being changed, and the dead in Christ raised, all shall be "caught up together with him in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we be ever with the Lord; wherefore, comfort one another with these words," nor perplex your own minds, or the minds of others, by vain disputations about where our glorified bodies shall reside, and what' shall become of the earth we leave. There is a locality already somewhere suited to the condition of glorified bodies; for Christ has risen and is become the first-fruits of them that believe. (Luke xxiv. 51.) But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. "Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in holy conversation and godliness, looking for and