sharp that they parted asunder? Is such a state "eye to eye,” even under the fulness of the Holy Ghost? Did not the apostolic Christians have divisions--one of Paul, another of Cephas, another of Christ? Was not Christ divided among them? Was this one shepherd, any more than in the days of Judah, or Joseph, or Ephraim, or Israel? Was Peter sanctified? Was Paul? Did it make them see eye to eye? Look at other characteristics.

"From whence come wars among you? Come they not from hence, even your lusts, that war against the soul?" Can we be free from these lusts universally, while man is ushering into life every moment with a heart unsanctified, depraved? Man is at war with God by nature; he is "at enmity with him." And how can it be said, in such a state, that Christ's kingdom is universal? Is not the kingdom of darkness inseparably connected with all unrenewed hearts? Then, verily, a new estate must pass upon man before God's will can be done by him universally, as it is done in heaven; a radical change must pass upon him first; such a one as stamps his being with immortality. Can we be in such a state as not to backslide in time? Would not such a state imply an end of probation? Not a stake can be removed, not a cord broken, in that day. Blessed and holy is he that hath a part in the first resurrection;

on such the second death hath no power. Hence his state is a changeless one. He that is holy shall be holy still; and he that is unholy is unholy still. There is to be no war, I repeat again. But warfare is essential to a probationary state. And to belittle the passages excluding war, to mean outside of the church, is not to allow it its full force. The church is to war no more, and the world is to know it no more forever. Again; there is to be no death, no sickness, no crying, no sorrow. This, of necessity, also excludes pain. But pain is essential to man, as he now is. Can we be free from sorrow where the child or parent dies? Whatever may be the state of the soul in holiness, will it not weep over the grave of infancy or gray hairs? But if death be here, then the kingdom is not Christ's; "for death is to be swallowed up in victory." No, verily; if death is yet to spread its mantle over us, and shroud us in its icy folds, what have we more than we have had since Enoch walked with God three hundred years?

Portland, Nov., 1841.
3

G. F. COX.

[No. III.]

THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND FIRST RESURRECTION.

In the preceding articles, it has been shown that the millennium looked for by the early fathers of the church, and by all the orthodox Christians in the days of Justin Martyr, and all the clergy so late as the Council of Nice, was such a millennium as embraced in it the personal appearing and reign of Christ, the new heavens and new earth, and a permanent and universal reign of the saints with Christ upon the earth. It has also been shown from the Bible that those passages usually relied on to prove a millennium of any character, point evidently to a period and a state in which,

1. All other kingdoms, and of necessity their works, will be destroyed, so that no other kingdom or adverse power can be left upon the earth.

2. It has been shown that this kingdom of Christ will be perpetual, everlasting, "forever, even forever and ever."

3. That this kingdom excludes "warfare" to the church and individuals, and "war" from the world.

4. That death is destroyed in that kingdom, or is swallowed up in victory.

5. That there will be ONE FOLD and ONE SHEPHERD, in a sense that has never yet ex

isted, and in a sense that cannot exist with the present organized state of man.

6. God's will is to be done in that kingdom as it is in heaven-in EARTH as in heaven. I now add to this view two characteristics more, viz., that the millennium state includes a resurrection from the dead, and a coming of Christ. And if this resurrection and coming of Christ can be proved to be connected with the millennium-and also that it is a literal resurrection and a literal coming of Christ—it settles the question. On this point I remark, St. John saith expressly, "they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years:" and adds, that "this is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath a part in the first resurrection. On such the second death hath no power." Paul saith, "The dead in Christ shall rise first." These expressions imply inevitably a reigning with Christ, never yet enjoyed by a saint after death. Some change evidently passes upon them, here called "rising from the dead"—"living with Christ," &c. Nor has any man yet enjoyed such a reigning with Christ on earth. By referring to the 6th chapter of Revelation, we get a clue to the truth in the case. It is there said, prior to the reign just spoken of, that John saw these "souls under the altar," and they cried with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on

the earth? And it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also, and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.” But in the instance of the millennium, "all that were beheaded," and had not worshipped the beast, “LIVED and reigned with Christ," as they did not while dead and crying with a loud voice. But they lived, and in this reign they all meet, "fellow-servants and martyrs;" which demonstrably it appears they did not do by simply dying and going to Christ, nor till they lived again—that is, were raised from the grave. And this resurrection is directly made, by John, the millennium or thousand years. It is further said, "The rest of the dead lived not till the thousand years were finished." These saints, therefore, must have been of the dead; and there were yet others of the dead that did not live. It follows, I think, that this must have been a literal_resurrection of the dead. And inasmuch as no such event can take place till the end of the world, the millennium must be deferred to the same period. But that the apostle John cannot mean a moral resurrection is certain-1. Because the second death hath no power over those raised. This can be said of no one in a probationary state. 2. They who rise are "of the dead," and therefore rise from the dead. But a saint cannot rise from a moral death;