entered on existence, from a corruptible to an incorruptible inheritance, and appear in his presence here, clothed in his likeness. At the dissolution of the animal body, their immortality and life are still the same, still going on uninterrupted. No centurial sleep of the soul-no imperfect state of disembodied consciousness-no semi-celestialized condition awaits the heirs and possessors of the 'resurrection and the life.' The true Levites of the universe, they are gathered round the celestial tabernacle, the enthronement of the Shekinah, whose light is ever on them, and to whose glory their own is assimilated. By having been translated, they have become eternally transfigured, like Moses and Elias on the Holy Mount; and conscious of that their glory, no supervening heaviness of sleep shall ever interrupt the exclamation, prompted by a rapture which Peter never knew, "Lord, it is good for us to be here."

In conclusion, we beg the reader's attention to a summary of our discussion, and an exhibition of the position which we have taken up. We revert to the different divisions of our Diagram.

The first division of the Diagram exhibits the ministry of John. We have shown that it was a ministry which is the subject of prophecy, and that the prophecy was faithfully fulfilled.

The next division shows the ministry of Christ: the same remarks which apply to John's ministry, apply to this: it was prophesied beforehand, and as truly fulfilled.

The third division of the Diagram presents to our notice the forty days between the resurrection and the ascension; an intermediate state, which was prophesied of, and in which the Apostles were entrusted with their commission, coupled with the promise on which so much depends, "Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world."

The fourth and last division shews the ministry of the Apostles, the last and concluding ministry, which extended to the end of all things,' or the completion, the finish, the consummation of all the purposes of God in Christ Jesus the Lord, when the vail of Moses, (compare Isaiah xxv. 7, and 2 Cor. iii. 14, 15,) spread over the nations, was taken away, and the curtain which had been over God's counsels was entirely removed; and, passing the fourth boundary line of the Diagram, the final and eternal state is established—all rule, authority, and power, whether Mosaic or Apostolic, is put down, the mediatorial kingdom is surrendered, the first dominion is ended, and God, to his ransomed family of worshippers, whether in or out of the body of clay, is all in all.

We have attempted an exposition of the things pertaining to these four divisions. We confess that we are at a loss to conceive how any one can object to our positions thus laid down. The positions, we venture to affirm, have been proved to be scriptural; and we must be excused if we regard with pity those (if there be such,) who may turn away, and tell us we know nothing of your Diagrams, we care nothing for them, and we will not look at the Scriptures through them.

We are persuaded that we might as well reason with the wind, as with an objector of this class. Some favourite crotchet stands in the way of such objector listening to any opinion which may be suspected of militating against that crotchet.

We repeat, that we think our statement of the separate and distinct administrations will be generally agreed to. Under the last state, we mention, that we have shown the following events did come to pass :The Restoration of the Jews; the first Resurrection, or Millennium; the end of the world; the resurrection of the dead; the day of judgment, and the last day; for now there is no more time. But we will, for argument's sake, place the proof of these past events on one side; and we will propose the following:-Should any one consider that there are other intermediate state, or states before the last-before the all in all state,―let this be shewn by adding to the Diagram other boundary lines, and let that intermediate state be filled up. It must, however, be it remembered, be filled up, not from human imagination, but from Scripture. It must be so filled up that no one shall gainsay or resist its truth. It must have nothing of a peradventure about it. There must be no talk of non-essentials' connected with it. Among other things, let it not be forgotten, that it will be absolutely necessary to prove, that if there be, according to religious systems, this intermediate state, the prophets foretold a ministry that should appear to conduct the people through it; that the ministers of such state should all speak the same things; that they should be perfectly joined together in the same mind and judgment; that they should see eye to eye in delivering their testimonies. But where has such a ministry existed since the times of the Apostles? It will, moreover, be necessary to demonstrate that these ministers were authorized and appointed of God, by an ability to show their faith by their works;' to heal the sick'; to prove their title to the name of a minister of Christ,' by the proof of the possession of miraculous powers, signs to them that believe not.' But where does such a ministry exist now? It is a fair question, and claims an answer, aye, and must have an answer, sooner or later, let systems cavil as they will, let religious bigotry scorn as it may, the day must come. If any man will show us such a ministry, we will come to it, we will sit at its feet, with the glad docility of a learner who hungers and thirst for instruction more than for his necessary food. But the possession of miraculous powers must be proved, not of an isolated member, but of all the members of the ministry. Romanism, in her fundamental doctrine of Apostolic succession, knows the value of this proof. Romanism, every now and then, attempts to palm off her pretended miraculous tricks upon the world. What then, supposing the pretence were reality? It would prove the signs following' of such and such a one. It would only demonstrate the Apostolic succession of this or that individual fraction of the body; but in order to substantiate Apostolic succession, these signs following' must accompany all-all or none;' there is no medium. The whole bench of

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Bishops, with the whole cathedral establishment, together with the Rectors and Vicars of the Church of England, might one and all be gifted with miraculous powers, but if the curates, or any portion of them, were destitute of these powers,-could not so evince that the

Lord was working with them, then the Apostolic succession of the Church of England would fall to the ground, and it would only be a childish romance which would presume to speak of holding the office of an Apostle, or sitting in an Apostle's seat.

Where is the ministry ?-a perfect ministry- an authorized ministry—a miraculously endowed ministry? God never sent any ministry other than this. If there be such a ministry, it is as clearly defined in the Scriptures as any which we have discussed. If there be no such ministry, God's purposes are finished. If God's purposes are not finished, his promise has failed, which said, Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world.' We believe what we have written; if we are in error, we are willing, nay, we implore to be corrected, and we will attend to the correction. If a ministry such as an unfinished work of God must require, be forthcoming, we are bound to obey it. If there is a doctrine called Apostolic succession, we are in an awful predicament, for in such case it is strictly laid in charge upon us, "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves; for they watch for your souls as they that must give account” (Heb. xiii. 17); and "Woe is unto them if they preach not the GOSPEL," as well as unto us if we do not obey them.

Objectors will persist; for there are those who may be brayed in a mortar, with a pestle, and yet will their foolishness not depart from them. Let an objector then come forward; let him show us his plan of God's dispensations. If he will overthrow our Diagram, it must be by another. It will be of no avail to lop off a branch or two of our scheme; strike at the root; begin with the second advent, and overthrow that one doctrine, and all that we have built upon it must be involved in one common ruin. If the Word of Inspiration can be shown to contain the announcement of any other second advent, coming, or appearing, than that which transpired in the life-time of the generation then living;* and if this can be proved to be truly a second, instead of a third coming, we shall be ready at once to embrace it.

In the mean time, agreeing with one with whom we have had much difference in these pages, we must confess our mind to be so constructed as to be incapable of receiving an alleged doctrine of revelation, without adequate evidence that the interpretation upon which it is founded is sound. Inadequate evidence is all such which presumes to speak of a coming yet future; of two second comings; of a distinction between second coming, and second appearing; of three comings, for where, in the name of all that is scriptural, have we any, the least, divine encouragement to build up ourselves in any one of these notions? and if we are destitute of divine authority, we must be constrained to count them, one and all, extravagant and delusive, subversive of the truth of God, and destructive of the very being and existence of Christianity; enslaving the souls and bodies of men, and virtually rendering of none effect that word of which it is written, "It liveth and abideth for ever."

If, on the other hand, our Diagram plan is in its great principles correct, i. e. if the second advent of Christ has taken place, and if this doctrine should once seize upon the minds of the people, what then?

* See Note O.

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The priesthood of all denominations, must relinquish a name which does not belong to them-religious establishments must be broken up and remodelled; religious imposture of every description will be effectually opposed. It is, and it will be seen to be necessary to reform the Reformed Religion, with all its countless varieties of doctrine, and with the thousand-and-one differing, yet agreeing parties, which take shelter under its wing. Then the name of a Reformation will be no more, as it now is, a mournful failure, but a substantial reality, worthy of the God of the Bible, and a welcome boon to thousands of priest-ridden devotees, who are spending their money for that which is not bread, and their labour for that which satisfieth not;" who are the mere tools of a system which, call it by what name we please, has ever shown that it has the will, if there be but a way, to effect a complete prostration and overthrow of civil as well as religious liberty. The people of England, or the religious portion of them, have been much agitated of late on religious questions. First, there was what was called the Puseyite heresy, (although the Oxford Tractarians are the only consistent members of the Establishment,) and now the Maynooth Grant has swallowed up all other differences, as Aaron's rod swallowed up the rest. In the former agitation, there was much discussion respecting the wearing of surplices, the lighting of candles, crossings, chantings, and such like childish nonsense. In the latter, there is an awfullyexpressed horror of image worship, and the confessional. The Mother of Harlots,' 'Antichrist,' 'the Apostate Church of Rome,' 'a souldestroying heresy,' are common words in Exeter Hall. In both agitations there is a straining out gnats, and swallowing camels.' neither is there anything approaching to a precedent truly Apostolic, viz., laying the axe to the root of the evil, by agitating and protesting against the giant principle of all religious establishments-the more than hydra-headed creation-the doctrine of Apostolic succession. This doctrine is the stay and staff of all the sects of our day; and to hope for anything like an exhibition of the true peaceful spirit of Christianity, while such a doctrine stands, that is, while there is such an anomaly as a religious establishment in the land, is to dream. Public opinion has been ever onward,' since the introduction of that inestimable boon to man, the art of printing, to which, and not to Luther, we owe the Reformation, such as it is. Public opinion is now so far enlightened that it will not bear, at least in England, the grosser developments of the doctrine of Apostolic succession, as exhibited in Tractarian and Tridentine Popery. And this being so, we think we can perceive the little cloud like a man's hand; we entertain a fond hope that a day is coming, when the same opinion will be as decidedly opposed to the principle itself, as it is now to its glaring developments. While this principle, this doctrine of Apostolic succession, is held at all, in any measure, there will be, and it is not the least of blessings that there should be, various differing parties, for it is the interest of one party to keep down the naturally aspiring pretensions of all others. But if all should be merged together; if a hundred Apostolic successions should, like the sticks of the prophet, become one, we leave it to those who are acquainted with sectarian Christianity to imagine what would shortly be the state of things, for it baffles description :-all, and more than

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all the tyrannical dominion of Popery, in her palmiest days, would be revived; the press would be silenced, as it is now perverted, for ignorance is essential to priestcraft; darker ages than those called dark, would cover the earth. Such in point of fact is the real tendency and carrying out of the principle upon which rest not only the pretensions of the Church of Rome, but those of every other church whatever, no matter by what name it be known, whether Baptist, or Brownist, or Churchman, or Wesleyan, or Presbyterian. They are all embarked in the same vessel-aye, and it pleases them sometimes, when in support of their common foundation, like Herod and Pilate, they become friends, to call that vessel the Church of Christ. And in their conduct of this vessel, one says, We will steer this way; another says, We will steer that; and a third party cries out, You are all wrong, and this is the course. This, however, was not the way things were wont to be conducted of old time. There was once a vessel sent out, and she was manned by twelve chosen mariners, and she was equipped with all things needful for her voyage, and she was destined, under the seamanship of the twelve, who were appointed by the owner of the good ship, to arrive safely at the haven where she would be. There was no mutiny on board among the said chosen twelve; the judgment of one was the judgment of all. There are a few despised individuals now, who venture to think that the owner of that good ship, being heaven's High Majesty, would not be less wise, less prudent, less provident than the creatures of his hand. There is here and there one, who is (it is said) mad enough, deluded enough, nay, infidel enough, to entertain the belief that this same owner would not forsake that which was as the apple of his eye,' when it had proceeded but a little way on the destined voyage. But this he has undoubtedly done, if we are to believe that those whom he first commissioned failed to execute their commission; and fail they as certainly did, if we are to look for their successors in a mutinous crew, who are determined that a man shall choose a hundred ways to heaven, save and except the King's highway of holiness, the way of the Holy Apostles, and of the noble army of Jerusalem martyrs; -who, like the Pharisees of old, will neither enter into the kingdom themselves, nor suffer those to enter in who would.

There are one or two topics connected with a Past Second Advent, upon which we desire to offer a few separate observations.

The Second Advent being past,—the mediatorial kingdom of Christ is vacated and surrendered.

Perhaps, to speak more correctly, the proposition should be thus stated the first, or mediatorial dominion of the kingdom is ended. After the full discussion of the first dominion of the kingdom, which has been given when treating of the resurrection, and knowing that it will be granted that if the resurrection be past, the mediatorial character of Christ must likewise have been fulfilled, therefore we deem it superfluous to do more than merely examine one or two prominent scriptures which are intimately connected with the mediatorship. The first scripture shall be Heb. ix. 26-28, "But now once, in the end of the world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment; so