Thus much for the opinion of the Jews. The Heathen also were partakers in this traditionary revelation, for it was almost impossible, if they had not received it by means of their ancestors, that men, who were thirsting after knowledge, and travelling to distant countries to obtain it, as many of their philosophers and great men were, could remain long ignorant of such important doctrines, treasured up by the best and most celebrated men of those eastern countries. Hence we shall find, in most of the works of antiquity, broad hints of the luminous truths of divine revelation.

Origen, in his tract against Celsus, lib. 4th. says, "The Stoics say, that after a certain period of time, the universe shall be burned, and after that, shall be a renovation, in which all things shall continue unchangeable." -And afterwards, "they (the Heathen) have not the name of the resurrection, but they have the thing."

Plato describes this state, of which we are speaking, in the clearest terms. "In the end, says he, lest the world should be plunged in an eternal abyss of confusion, God, the author of the primitive order, will appear again, and re-assume the reins of empire. Then he will change, amend, embellish, and restore the whole frame of nature, and put an end to decay of age, diseases, and death."*

Virgil says, "the happy reign of Saturn is going to be renewed-A child of a very superior order is very soon to descend from Heaven upon earth. At his birth the iron age will cease, and the golden age will be reestablished. Crimes will be banished, and the world delivered from all its fears. The earth will become fruitful as at first, and produce every thing, every where."

Plato polit. p. 559, and Phod. p. 1225.

Seneca the tragedian, says something like this," Haste and come, last and great day, when the Heavens shall fall into confusion, and their ruins crush the impious set of men, in order to bring forth a better race; such as they were heretofore, when Saturn reigned over the beginning of the world."

If we look to the eastern continent, whose tradition, if any, must be from very remote antiquity, we shall find that the Chinese ancient books speak of the renovation of the earth by the Saint, or the second person in the trinity, in such language as this, "The kingdom of the middle, is a kingdom where the holy Son of Heaven is to reign. He allows no wicked men to enter there, but he banishes them into the dark abodes of beasts and monsters.-The subjects of that kingdom are called Tienmin, or Heavenly people. Liengmin, upright people. Tseemin, people of the Son, because they are governed by the holy Son of Heaven, who perfects them from within, and from without, and nourishes them by his supreme virtue, and celestial doctrine, so that they cry out with joy, the Son of Heaven is truly the Father of his people, and Lord of the universe."*

Plutarch, in mentioning the principles of the Persian Magi, says, “There will, in fine, come a time, appointed by fate, when Arimanius, (the evil principle, or Satan) will be banished from the earth, which will change its form, become plain and even. Then men shall be happy; their abodes become transparent; and they shall all have one and the same life, language, and government."+

From these few testimonies, selected from many others, it is very clear that mankind from the time of

* 2d. Phil. Prim. p. 278. + Plut. de Isid. & Osorid. p. 370.

Noah, both Jew and Gentile, Philosopher and Poet, had, from the tradition of an original revelation, a belief in some new period, or era, and that the present degenerate state of things would come to an end. At a time, when iniquity, in an emphatical manner, would universally prevail; the fear of God be despised ;-his worship wholly contemned ;-religion altogether neglected; and the dissolution of order and good government take place, by which great fear should fall on all men, making them weary of all their idle plans of government and happiness, and leading them to look and long for some more perfect state of things-That after great disorder, confusion, and destruction of mankind, a new period should commence, in which the earth should be renewed, and a glorious era begin, when the world, under a divine and universal government, should be renewed and established for ever.

Consonant to all this, and as the substance of which, this has been but the shadow, is the whole system of divine revelation, as contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as has already been shown.-Christ himself has confirmed it by many express and positive promises and declarations; and his apostles and their successors, under the immediate influences of the divine Spirit, have enforced and explained it-If any one truth, more than another, is insisted upon in the word of God, it is the second personal advent of the risen Saviour, in his glorified human nature, to this our guilty world, accompanied by his saints and angels, to the glory of God the Father.

Polycrates, who flourished in the second century, and was an aged bishop of Asia, in his epistle written to Victor, bishop of Rome, concerning Easter, says, "For in

Asia the great lights are dead (meaning the apostles and first successors after them) who shall be raised again in the day of the Lord's advent, when he shall come with glory from Heaven, and raise up all his saints."***

"We find then, upon the whole," ," says Edward King, "a positive declaration that the second coming of our Lord, and its consequent effects, shall not be as some have imagined, merely a gradual progressive improvement of human nature, and a regular slow melioration of the state of things on earth produced by that means; but we may learn, that it shall be almost instantaneous, and that, even in the midst of the prevalence of a very great corruption of human nature. And we are still further informed therein, that the great signs of the near approach of our Lord's coming shall be, first, the starting up of false Messiahs and false Christs; or of persons, each one pretending to be the great appointed ruler, concerning whom these prophecies have been delivered. And the appearance of false prophets, or of persons teaching most fallacious doctrines, and pretending to be forerunners of the second approach of the Messiah; and to have authority to interpret, in their own metaphorical manner, what is in Holy Scripture declared, most literally and precisely, concerning his second advent. And that, in the next place, another sign shall be, great trouble and confusion upon earth, in consequence of disobedience to, and contempt of lawful authority, and of the powers of government-And lastly, that notwithstanding all this, in the end, men can never be deceived with regard to what they are to give credit to, relating to this great advent; because in fact, they shall suddenly behold with their

*Euseb. Eccl. Hist. P. 86.

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eyes, the appearance, in the Heavens above, of the glori ous approach from on high, of our Lord himself with all his heavenly hosts, which, as they draw near to the earth, will, in consequence of its rotation round its axis, be visible to every region on the whole globe. And finally, we have positive assurance that all this shall really come to pass, whilst the earth continues still in its present state; and whilst the generation of man is dwelling just as it does at present, upon its surface.”

This doctrine is greatly confirmed by St. John, when he positively asserts, that at the end of 1000 years from this period, Satan shall be loosed from his prison, again to deceive the nations. Surely, then, this must take place during the present state of things on earth.*

* Some years after writing the foregoing, I accidentally met with the following, from Mr. Warner, on the common prayers of the Church of England. Under the article (Holy Catholic Church in the apostle's creed at evening prayer) he has introduced the following extract from Mr. Carrington, on this subject. "Considering the general state of the Christian Church, from the first hour of its foundation, almost to the present, there doth not appear to have been an interval, when the two affections of Holy and Catholic, have been fairly compatible; and all attempts to reconcile those jarring qualities of sanctity and universality, have only occasioned a constrained and unwarrantable interpretation of the terms. It is too evident that the Church in general (much less the holy Church) hath, as yet, been far from being universal.-From hence expositors have been obliged to recur to partial and figurative constructions; to distant and even sometimes to forced interpretations; in order to support their unnatural solutions with arguments the most specious, many of which tend, at best, to prove how the Church may, with some show of probability, rather than how it necessarily must be termed at once both holy and catholic. But as in Scripture we ought not to recede from the letter, without apparent necessity, so why may not the same rule obtain here? Why should we quit the full and genuine sense of a word, for one partial and emblematical, when it may with safety