the Premiership,-the Prelate of Exeter becomes the Primate of all England, and the Archdeacon of Surrey exchanges his chaplaincy for a mitre !

ART. III.-A Compendious View of the Scriptural System of Prophecy, showing the Principal Errors of the Anti-Millenarian and Modern Millenarian Systems; with an Examination into the Prophetical Dates, and the Signs of the Present Times. By JAMES SCOTT, Preacher of the Gospel. Edinburgh: W. P. Kennedy. 1844.

WE have long wished to see a compendious view of the Scriptural system of prophecy, and opened this volume with considerable hopes that it would answer to its title. In some points we are fully satisfied, but in others we have been disappointed. We think that it might with advantage have been made more compendious, by omitting the many repetitions with which its pages abound. These, indeed, are in part to be laid to the charge of the plan which the author has adopted. By dividing his work into distinct discussions on each of the main points involved in the system of prophecy, it was perhaps impossible for him to avoid reiterating the same arguments under each several head. And he may perhaps be inclined to defend himself by telling us, that in this age it is impossible to gain for truth a lodgment in the heads of men, otherwise than by an energetic process of intellectual hammering. Well, in this we cannot but agree with him, yet it must be admitted, that what his work has gained with one it has lost with another class of readers. We should be inclined at once to plunge in medias res, and enter on a full discussion of that system of prophecy which he mainly advocates,— namely, that which takes as its cardinal point the pre-millennial advent of our Lord, but we find that on the present occasion, our limits will not permit it. We promise, however, speedily to return to the subject, and in the mean time we shall be satisfied with giving a sketch of the contents of the work before us.

The first chapter is entitled the Promised Seed,' and gives a general sketch of the scheme of redemption, showing how from the beginning it became the subject of prophecy. The second enters on the consideration of the times of the Gentiles ;'-when they commenced, and when they shall terminate. Mr Scott fixes their beginning at the overthrow of Jerusalem by the Romans. If we regard the times of the Gentiles as synonymous with the gospel dispensation, we have no objection to this statement. But they may be regarded in a wider point of view. The famous prophetic period of 1260 years, or three times and a half, seems to form the half of

a larger period of seven times, or 2520 years, which we are disposed to believe are the times of the Gentiles; and we are inclined to reckon them from the time when the glory of the Lord left the temple of Jerusalem, to the time when it shall return to it again. (Compare Ezekiel x. with xliii.) There is indeed some difficulty in making out the chronology, but into this point we cannot enter. But the main point to which our author directs his arguments, is to show that these times must end before the conversion of the Jews, and before the millennium.

"We have seen that, in former dispensations, men have been looking for the fulfillment of the promises of what is often called, 'the latter day glory,' or the times of millennial blessedness in their own day or dispensation, and have always hitherto been disappointed, and every dispensation has ended in apostacy. The Jews believed that they should inherit all nations, and that all the nations of the earth should be blessed in their Messiah, as the seed of Abraham; yet for unbelief in this very Messiah, they were themselves rejected, and their dispensation came to a close in apostacy. The churches of the Gentiles are now thinking to inherit all the earth, and that they shall be instrumental in converting all nations, and bringing in the latter day glory, when they believe that the Jews also will be converted or brought in with the fulness or conversion of all the nations, and the whole earth be filled with the knowledge of the Lord before this dispensation come to a close. The man who will openly question and controvert this issue of the gospel dispensation, is scorned and treated as a heretic or unbeliever, without any one condescending to attempt to refute his arguments. Yet not the less true it may prove, as I believe it will, that this dispensation is also to end in apostacy and judgment like the Jewish. As pharisaical Jewry rejected Jesus, so, I believe, will professing Christendom reject Christ, and be rejected, and judged as were the Jews, as I shall endeavour to show from the testimony of apostles and prophets, and of the Lord himself." P. 25.

"At the very first council of the Christian church held at Jerusalem, at the beginning of this dispensation of the Gentiles, we find a discussion on this subject. In that discussion, the Gentile dispensation appears to have been had in very small account, and to have been almost overlooked, in anticipation of that which should succeed it. The apostles themselves appear to have had no idea, or at least gave no hint, as to its long continuance, but hasten over it to the future dispensation in the restoration of the kingdom to Israel, and the subsequent glory. Peter declares in this first council, (Acts xvi. 13, 21), how he had been called of God to preach the gospel to the Gentiles; Paul and Barnabas also narrate what God had done among the Gentiles by them; and James sums up the whole argument, in so far as the design of this dispensation is concerned, saying, 'Simeon hath declared, how God at first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.' And he shows the accordance of this with the word of God, as recorded by Amos, ix. 11, 12, saying, 'After this, I will return.' After what? After this people is gathered out of the Gentiles-after the number of the elect of the

Gentiles is accomplished-after the design of preaching the gospel to the heathen of the Gentiles is accomplished; not in the conversion of all the Gentiles, but in the conversion and gathering out of the ecclesia or election from among all nations; which gathering out or election is still going on, and must go on, till the day of grace-the present dispensation of the gospel-or the times of the Gentiles, come to an end. Nothing is said regarding the conversion of any one, far less of all nations, during the times of the Gentiles; and it is obvious, that no nation, far less all nations, can be converted during this dispensation-because the declared design of it is, to gather out the election, or Christ's people, from the nations-not till after which work was done, would he return. 'After this I will return, and build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen down.' As the tabernacle of David is still in ruins, and Jerusalem trodden down of the Gentiles, and the temple desolate,' it is evident that the return here spoken of is still future; and, consequently, the times or dispensation of the Gentiles still continues, in which the fulness or complete number of the election from among the Gentiles shall come in, or be converted; and then the Gentile times being fulfilled, this dispensation must terminate."* Pp. 29-31.

In the third chapter, he first shows that the end of the world (or dispensation) is coincident with the close of the times of the Gentiles; and then that the coming of the Lord is at this end, or the last day. The subject of the resurrection comes next in order, and here he maintains that all the dead shall not rise at once, but that those who sleep in Jesus shall rise when he comes, that is, at the last day or end of the gospel dispensation, and before the millennium, and that the rest of the dead shall not rise till the close of the millennium. On this point also we think that his argument deserves attention. But the question arises, If this be the true view of the resurrection, how are we to understand the day of judgment? In discussing this point, Mr Scott shows that the judgment in the twenty-fifth of Matthew is a judgment of the quick,' not of the dead; that there is not one word in the account of it of a resurrection of the dead, and that it is the nations alive upon the earth at our Lord's coming who are gathered before his throne, while the general judgment is reserved for the close of the millennium. We should have liked that it had been also pointed out, that the whole period of Christ's kingdom is in one sense the day of judgment. Every attentive reader of the Psalms must know that Christ's judging is there, as well as in many other parts of Scripture, synonymous with his reigning, and that he is as often spoken of as a judge, as he is spoken of as a king. The time of the kingdom' is Christ's judgment day. At the beginning of it he judges the ungodly nations, during the course of it he carries on the process of judgment on the earth, and at the

We close the last quotation here, because the next half of the sentence wants something to complete the sense, which we cannot undertake to supply.

close of it he judges the wicked dead. Passing for the present the sixth chapter, to which we shall return, we come to the restoration of the kingdom to Israel. This event it is manifest must occur at the close of the times of the Gentiles. Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled, (Luke xxi. 24,) but then the Lord shall return, shall take vengeance on the guilty nations, and restore Jerusalem.

"The apostles themselves were quite ignorant of how long the dispensation or day of grace to the Gentiles should continue; and they appear to have thought it would be very short; yea, to have made no account of it at all, when they asked Jesus before his ascension, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? Even at the first council at Jerusalem, they seem to have laboured under the same mistake, and to have thought that God had already gathered out his elect people from among the Gentiles by the preaching of Peter, Paul, and Barnabas; and James, therefore, seems to have concluded, that the prophecy of Amos was about to be fulfilled, and that they should now look for their Messiah to return, to build again the tabernacle of David, and to restore again the kingdom of Israel. The Lord refused to tell them the time, and they were purposely kept in ignorance of it, that they might always watch, and wait, and look forward, in the zealous discharge of the work appointed them to do, of preaching the gospel to all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come, and the Lord appear in his glory to build and repair Zion. The sooner the gospel was preached to all nations, the sooner would the kingdom be restored to Israel." P. 189.

"From these declarations of the word of God, it is evidently a clear and inevitable conclusion,

"1. That the fulness of the Gentiles' is not the converted state of the nations, but the election taken out of them.

"2. That the fulfilment or completion of the times of the Gentiles' is the termination of the Gentile or present dispensation.

"3. That during this present dispensation the Jews cannot, as a nation, be converted, or their city, or house, or temple, cease to be desolate; and,

"4. That during this present dispensation the nations shall not be converted, but only a people (the election or church of Christ) taken out from among them.

"Therefore, I conclude,

"1. That this present Gentile dispensation cannot embrace the millenniuin, but must terminate before it.

"2. That the Jews cannot be converted as a nation till after this dispensation is ended, at the beginning of the millennium and eternal kingdom of Christ.

"3. That the end of the times of the Gentiles, or of this present dispensation, and the end of the world, are the same, and that never till after that end, can the Jews see Jesus, or be converted, or their house cease to be desolate, or the kingdom be restored again to Israel; and,

"4. That before this end come, a people (the ecclesia or election) shall have been taken out from among the Gentiles for God's name; the number of his elect shall have been accomplished; and, consequently, 'the residue of men, even all the Gentiles,' seem to be all shut up together with the Jews in unbelief, that God may have mercy upon them all, in the new covenant, and new dispensation, when the Deliverer shall come out of Zion to turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for it is only after God has taken out a people for his name from among the Gentiles, and has returned again to build the tabernacle of David, that the residue of men shall seek after the Lord, even all the Gentiles.' Acts xv. 17." Pp. 196, 197.

"Is it asked, Where is the personal presence, or visible appearance of Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, upon earth in all this? Where is he seen? Where is his throne? Where does he reign, except in the hearts of his people?

"Isaiah tells us that he shall reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously,' (verse xxiv. 23,) and not merely in their hearts. And upon whose throne shall he reign? Upon his own throne. Upon the throne which was once his father David's-upon that throne to which he was born heir, and his sole right and title to which none can challenge-upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, over the twelve tribes of Israel, his ancient people, for ever. 'Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell for ever in the midst of the children of Israel, and my holy name shall the house of Israel no more defile,' Ezek. xliii. 7. To fill this throne he was born, and that he should sit upon it for ever, the angel Gabriel announced it to Mary, his mother, as the purpose of God in sending Jesus; and 'that he should reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end,' Luke i. 31, 33. Now, although he was announced before his birth by Gabriel, as king of the Jews-although adored in the stable by the shepherds as such-although hailed with hosannas as the king of the Jews, on his entry into Jerusalem -although tried and condemned, and mocked and insulted, and spit upon and crucified, and exhibited to Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans, as king of the Jews, and has never yet sat upon the throne of David or been acknowledged as king in Israel, and can never be, till he shall restore again the kingdom to Israel; yet as all things which are written concerning him in the law and the prophets, and the psalms, must come to pass, and not one jot or tittle fail, it remains certain that he shall yet reign king over the house of Jacob for ever, upon the throne of his father David,' Luke i. 31, 33. We know, that when Shiloh came, the sceptre departed from Judah, and that since they rejected Jesus they have continued without a king, and without a prince, and without an image, and without a sacrifice, and without an ephod and teraphim,' (Hosea iii. 4, 5,) and that they shall so continue till the end of the world, or conclusion of this present dispensation; and then, when Christ shall deliver up the kingdom to the Father, he shall leave his Father's throne, and shall come to receive his own throne and kingdom, and shall restore Israel, and sit upon the throne of his Father David, and shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously." Pp. 227, 228. 2 K

VOL. XVII. NO. IV.