late for his special pleading; for there is a precedent, as Peter shows in his Second Epistle, iii. 6, 7: "Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." Again; his double pleading will not be admitted before the grand assizes of Heaven's court. First, he pleads that the earth cannot be destroyed by fire until the children of men occupy it and make proof of the resources it contains. Then, secondly, he pleads that as they have begun to make improvements, they ought to have a fair trial, until it becomes like the garden of Eden. And then, others, not so daring as himself, might plead that it would be a pity to destroy so innocent and happy a world as the garden of God. And thus the world would stand forever, and scoffers would gain their point.

I must acknowledge, that these arguments are the same as Voltaire, Tom Paine, and Ethan Allen, brought against the Bible, on this very topic. And little did I imagine, forty years ago, that I should read the same arguments in a sermon from an orthodox minister! But so it is. And as McKnight says concerning these scoffers, mentioned in 2 Pet. iii. 4, 5,-"And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were

from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water,"-"they will be found in the church." Now it has been proved true. He has mentioned but two texts. Psalm cxv. 16, "The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's: but the earth hath he given to the children of men." This is in the past tense; and the earth was given to Noah and his sons, and was divided among them. Gen. ix. 19, and x. 32: "These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread." "These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood." The other texts which he has quoted are Gen. i. 28, and ii. 8, 9: "And God blessed them, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden: and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." This was before the fall

was revoked by the curse-afterwards destroyed by the flood, and can have no possible bearing on the end of the present world. And a man's cause must be weak, indeed, to press such evidence to delay Christ's coming, or scoff at the burning day.

On page 14, section IV., he says, "An immediate judgment and dissolution of the world is not likely, inasmuch as the moral plans of God, so far as developed in the Scriptures, do not appear to be sufficiently accomplished to warrant the expectation of such a result." Now we may expect he will bring his proof from Scripture; for to them he has at last appealed. First, he has brought Matt. xxiv. 14: "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations: and then shall the end come." And from this text, without any other proof, he argues, "that the world should be evangelized," and then says," how long the world shall continue in this state, enjoying the blessings of the gospel, ere the end shall come, the passage does not inform us.' Is it possible for a man to make a greater blunder than our author has, in his assertion on this text? First, he asserts that the text proves the evangelizing of the world, which is not true; and then declares the text does not inform us when the end shall come, when the text does tell us, distinctly, "then shall the end come." If men are thus permitted to wrest

the Scriptures from their plain and obvious meaning, I can tell the writer it would be of no manner of use to evangelize the world; for they would be like those converts which Christ accused the Pharisees of encompassing sea and land to make.

His second proof is Gen. iii. 15, which he says was made to the mother of mankind," and was the earliest promise of a Savior: "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." If our writer will take the pains to look into his Bible, he will find another blunder;-this promise to the serpent was a curse, instead of a promise, denounced against the serpent, and will be fulfilled when Christ shall come, and destroy death and him that has the power of death, that is, the devil, in the resurrection of his people. This is no proof that the end of the world is not yet.

Then he says, page 16, "Take the repetition of this promise, (curse on the serpent,) as made to Abraham," Gen. xxviii. 14: "In thee, and in thy seed, shall all the families of the earth be blessed." How this can be called a "repetition" of the curse, is more than I can tell. The first is denouncing the destruction of the power of the serpent; the other is a promise of salvation to all who would believe, whether Abraham's natural seed or Gentiles, if they had the faith of Abraham; which was fulfilled to the chil

dren of Israel, when they entered the land of Canaan, and to the Gentiles when Paul preached. See Gen. xxviii. 15; Josh. xxiii. 14; Gal. iii. 8, 9, 16-18. And, as this promise to Abraham has been fulfilled, how can our author say, on this promise, "The end is not yet." Does he suppose all the families of the earth are to be saved, and every individual in all families? Why not be a Universalist, and openly advocate the doctrine? Or does he mean that in one age of the world all men will be saved? Let him read John's explanation, Rev. v. 9, 10: "Out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;" not all of every kindred, &c., nor all of one age. It is not so stated; and I am ashamed of such preachers, who can, and do, pretend to prove anything they please from some texts, and that nothing can be proved from others, let them be ever so plain.

His next quotation is from Numbers xiv. 21: But as truly as I live, all the earth. shall be filled with the glory of the Lord." If he will read the connection, he will see, if he has eyes to see, that this text alludes to the children of Israel entering the land of Canaan, and is a type of the glorified state of the righteous in the New Jerusalem; according with his own rule, on page 16, "that both the threatenings and the promises of God extend across the gulf into the future and eternal state, and there receive their full accom