verse does plainly guide to this sense; 'He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.' And it is evident that St Paul had these words of Isaiah in his thoughts when he wrote the second chapter of the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians."

The New World Discovered in the Prospect-Glass of the Holy Scripture: being a Brief Essay to the Opening Scripture-Prophecies concerning the Latter Days. Also proving the personal Reign of Christ with his Saints on Earth a thousand years. By ROBERT PRUDOM. London: R. Tookey.

1704.

The preface to this work is by the famous Benjamin Keach. In this he avows himself a millenarian, adhering, in the main, to the author's sentiments. Perhaps it may be as well to give a specimen of the preface at present, and at some other time to return to the author himself. He is unknown, but Keach is well known, and is read by many who never suspected that he was a millenarian. This preface takes the form of an Epistle to the Reader.

"From my youth, even when first I was brought into the knowledge of Jesus Christ, I was stirred up to search into the mysteries of prophetical Scripture, in relation to the rise, reign, and ruin of Antichrist, and did arrive to some knowledge of those things, and was fully persuaded concerning the millennium, or thousand years' reign of Christ with his saints upon earth, and ever since have sought after further light into those mysteries, and have wondered at some worthy ministers who never made these things any part of their study, as if the prophetical part of God's Word, respecting these things, were not to be searched into, and so signified very little to us, though we live in the latter end of the last days; or else they perhaps despair ever to attain unto any certain knowledge as to the end of the wonders, partly because many learned and godly men, who prefixed times, have proved all mistaken in their computation. Indeed I always disliked the attempts of any in prefixing so confidently on this or that year to be the end of the forty-two months of the beast's reign, &c., and that for many reasons; yet, that should not take any off from searching into the prophecies which relate to the latter days, nor particularly into the book of the Revelation, seeing God hath been pleased to pronounce him blessed that readeth the words of that prophecy, Rev. i. 3: Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are therein written, for the time is at hand.' This may sufficiently warrant and encourage all godly persons to pry into, and search after the knowledge of those things contained in this Book.

"Under the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven last plagues comprehended, together with the mystical numbers, viz., twelve hundred and sixty days, viz., years, and the forty-two months; but where to fix the epocha, or the beginning of those numbers is difficult, and has been the cause of the mistake of most learned men, and others that have wrote on the subject.

"Our author is therefore cautious in that case, and though I cannot agree with him in some things he hath said in this treatise, yet he is greatly to be commended (in my judgment) for the pains he hath taken; and I know not but God hath given him more light into the prophecies of the last days than to many others.

"I must confess I have been sometimes doubtful about what some men have

said of the thousand years' reign of Christ and his saints, in respect of mortal and immortal saints dwelling on earth together during that time, yet meeting very lately with a small tract (wrote by a learned and pious author, and published in 1660, called a 'Sober Inquiry; or, Christ's Reign with his Saints a Thousand Years'), I am better satisfied in that matter. Moreover, I never saw greater arguments to prove the millennium than those he hath laid down, nor the common objections so fully answered.

"In his Epistle he shews how far all Christians are agreed.

"1. Saith he, We are all agreed that Jesus Christ will come personally, corporally, and visibly from heaven to earth at the day of judgment; so he ascended, therefore, so he shall descend, as we have it, Acts i. 11; Job xix. 25 : 'He shall stand at the latter day on the earth.'

"2. We are all, I think, agreed that when Christ thus comes, he will bring with him the souls of his saints according to that in 1 Thes. iv. 13, 14; Zach. xiv. 5: The Lord my God shall come, and his saints with thee.'

"3. We all agree that their bodies shall then be immediately raised out of their graves, and the soul and body be joined or united together, and that the soul now continues or remains in heaven without the body, yet on earth it shall not be so.

"4. We all agree that when the body is thus raised, it shall be raised to glory (1 Cor. xv. 42), in incorruption, in power, and a spiritual body (Phil. xxxiv. 21) : ́ When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory,' &c. (Col. iii. 4).

"5. We all, I think, agree further, viz.,—that this resurrection of the saints shall be some time before the resurrection of the wicked; that the saints shall have the pre-eminence, and be first in order, and time (I say nothing now how long), but all agree they shall rise first, and that the wicked shall not rise till some time, less or more, afterward (1 Cor. xv. 23, 24; 1 Thess. iv. 16): The dead in Christ shall first rise,' compared with Rev. ii. 5, 6.

"6. We all agree, also, that the Lord Jesus Christ will be some time in judging the world, and that he will not huddle all over in a moment, but he will stay some time on the earth, and that though he had no need of time, yet he took a space of time in creating the world, so he will take some space of time on earth to do what is then to be done, besides the question in hand, viz., to judge all things.

"To which I might add, that our Lord Christ shall judge the world, as he is the Son of Man, and not simply considered as God. God will 'judge the world by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance to all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead,' Acts xvii. 31, compared with John v. 22. The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son.' The Father judgeth not but by the Son, and the Son judgeth as he is God-man, therefore will proceed perhaps much after that manner, as it is in other courts of judicature among men, which must take up a long space of time, even more than a thousand years, for not till the thousand years be ended the wicked shall be raised, and so not till then shall their judgment day begin.

"7. Saith our author, and all of us, I think, are agreed, that while Christ stays on the earth (let it be longer or lesser time) the saints also must stay with him, and not go to heaven from the earth, until Christ goes and carries them up with him.

"8. Moreover, all will grant that it must needs be a glorious time while it lasteth, when Christ shall have removed his court from heaven to earth, and be in his own and in his Father's glory, and be attended with all the angels environed with all his saints, who shall also all of them be in their glory. O how can such a time be but a glorious time while it shall last!

"9. And lastly, the only difference is about the time; how long the day of judgment, or kingdom of Christ, or reign of the saints, or millennium (call it

what you will) shall last. I conceive (and so do many others whose books I am not worthy to carry after them), that it will last a thousand years, and for the proof of this these following pages are offered, &c. Thus our author."

The Second Advent, or Coming of the Messiah in Glory, shewn to be a Scripture Doctrine, and Taught by Divine Revelation, from the Beginning of the World. By An AMERICAN LAYMAN.

It is now forty years since the "American Layman" published this thick octavo. At the time when Mrs Fry and others were making the English trumpet give forth "a certain sound" upon prophetic subjects, this transatlantic brother was endeavouring to do the same. He seems to have caught the sound from this side of the ocean, and to be making it re-echo over America. The book contains many excellent statements, with much curious and interesting information drawn together from various authors. The following is his collection of Jewish testimonies:

"The ancient Jews, while yet the Church of God, although they firmly believed in a resurrection of the body, yet they knew nothing of such an order in it as the first and second resurrection, but only in general of a great judgment; yet they constantly looked for such a resurrection as would enable all those concerned in it to reign upon earth.

"This appears from the language of the apocryphical Book of Wisdom, where it is expressly said, speaking of the souls of the righteous who are dead, 'that in the time of their visitation they shall shine-they shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the people, and their Lord shall reign for ever.'

"So in the Jewish liturgy in the morning prayer, Speedily revive the fathers with all the dead, and be unto Israel as a dew to refresh them, and to restore them to life, to sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and the God of Israel.' "Again, in the standing prayer for the daily service, Thou, O Lord, art for ever powerful. Thou restorest life to the dead, and art mighty to save. Causing the dew to descend. Sustaining by thy benevolence the living, and by thine abundant mercies animating the dead. Supporting those who fall. Healing the sick. Setting at liberty those who are in bonds, and performing his faithful word unto those who sleep in the dust. Who is like unto thee, most merciful Father, who remembereth his creatures in mercy unto life, and art faithful to quicken the dead? Blessed art thou, O Lord, the restorer! And thou, O Lord our God, even thou shalt speedily reign over all thy works on Mount Zion, the residence of thy glory, and in Jerusalem, the city of thy sanctuary. Vouchsafe me this day the reward of the righteousness of my ancestors. Grant me the same lot and portion with them in glory. And may glad tidings be proclaimed unto my people, saying, I will redeem them from the power of the grave, because that Abraham obeyed my voice. will therefore wait upon thee, O Lord our God, speedily, to behold the glory of thy power, to remove all impurities from the earth, and that idols may be entirely destroyed. To well order the world in the kingdom of the Almighty, and that all the human race may invoke thy name. To reclaim unto thee all the wicked ones of the earth. That unto thee only every knee shall bend, and by thy name shall every tongue swear.'

We

"This same opinion may be found in the Chaldee paraphrase and Talmud, as of ancient tradition, and seems to be the opinion of the Jews at this day, who, as they look not for the kingdom of their Messiah until dies judicii

magni, or the great day of judgment, so they expect that their forefathers will then rise again and inherit the land of Canaan and their city Jerusalem, according to the promise made by God to Abraham, and that under Messiah their king.

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Carpentarius says, 'that the seventh millenary is called by the whole school of the Cabalists the great day of judgment, because they then suppose that God will judge the souls of all men.'

"If we examine their Gemara, or gloss of their Talmud, in Cod. Sanhed. Cap. Kol Israel, commenting on the words of Isaiah, the lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of man shall be brought down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.' Rabbi Ketina says, 'the world doth continue six thousand years, and in one it shall be destroyed, of which it is said, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.'

“Tradition agreeth with Rabbi Ketina, even as every seventh year of sevens of years is a year of release, so of the seven thousand years of the world, the seventh thousand year shall be the thousand years of release, as it is said, 'and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.'

"Likewise in the 92d Psalm (the title) it is said to be a psalm for the Sabbath-day-that is, the day that is nothing else but rest. Again, in the 90th Psalm, it is said, 'for a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday.' The Jews understand these psalms as referring to the great day of judgment, and that the Sabbath mentioned in the title of the 92d means the great Sabbath of a thousand years.

"The Jews have also another tradition, called the tradition of the house of Elias, found in Gemara abodah Zarah, ch. 1st. He was a Jewish doctor, and lived under the second temple, about the first times of the Grecian monarchy, long before the Christian era. He says, the just whom God shall raise up (it must be at the first resurrection) shall not be turned again to dust. Now if you ask how it shall be with the just in those thousand years, wherein the holy blessed God shall renew his world, whereof it is said (Isaiah ii. 11), ' and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day,' you must know that the holy blessed God will give them the wings, as it were, of eagles, to fly upon the face of the waters; whence it is said (Psalm xlvi. 2), therefore we shall not fear when the earth shall be changed.-Again the same Elias saith, "the world doth continue six thousand years, two thousand before the law two thousand under the law-and two thousand years the days of the Messiah."

A Scripture-line of Time, drawn in brief from the Lapsed Creation to the Restitution of All Things. Discoursed at large upon the 2300 Ev. Morn. (Dan. viii. 14.) And their Collateral Lines, from Cyrus to the Kingdom of Christ, in the New Jerusalem. By T. BEVERLEY. 1684.

Mr Beverley's name is not unknown to those versed in the authorship of the puritanic age. He was an able writer, a godly man, and a

zealous millenarian.

The preface of this book is "to those who desire to hear and understand the words of Scripture prophecy." It thus commences :

"The Scripture line of time which I affirm, is that which arises from the excellent state of all things at creation; when followed an immediate deordination, flowing from the apostacy and fall of man, through the serpent's temptation; but by the interposal of the promised seed of woman, that state was borne up from utter ruin and sinking, and a prospect given of a restitu

tion of all things by a new creation, when the serpent's head should be bruised. Now, of this restitution all the holy prophets have been speaking since the world's beginning, and they have led along the course of things to it, in the exaltation of Him whose name is the Word of God (the alpha and omega of the written word) till he appears encircled with many crowns (Rev. xix.) At which that old serpent, the Devil and Satan, is laid hold upon, chained, and sealed up within his proper abyss, or bottomless pit, and the new creation is established in the kingdom of this many-crowned King; which kingdom can never be broken, nor leaves a possibility of any succession to itself; but it is delivered up into the hand of the Father from which it is received, before which delivery, or resignation, shall be the perfect and final contusion of the serpent's head—himself, and all his offspring not written in the book of life, being cast with death and hell into the lake of fire, which is the second death (Rev. xx.) This blessed state, therefore, is not a single Sabbath, but a Sabbatism of a thousand years that remains to the people of God. conjoined inseparably with the Sabbatism of eternity, even as the seventh-day Sabbath of the creation was connected with, united in, and immediately succeeded by the Christian first-day Sabbath, or our Lord's day at his resurrection.

This line of time, I then avow, is drawn from that former Sabbath of the first creation to the Sabbatism of the new creation, as from point to point, without ostentation or formal profession of such a line; yet so that it is all along, and especially the commissures and joints of the parcel and particular lines, are ennobled with some illustrious symbols of the downfall of Satan's kingdom, and of the glory of the kingdom of the Seed, or of the teknogony of the woman, as may be abundantly made good in all instances."

As the millenarians of that age are generally set down as "Fifthmonarchy rebels," it is worth while quoting Mr Beverley's protestation against this injustice :

"I have only to add that, notwithstanding, speaking or writing the Word of God, I must obey the heavenly visions throughout; yet, as that teaches me, I yield all the regards, deferences of honour, and esteem due to the character, learning, virtue, general profession of Christianity, that I can render to every person, and much more to princes, and all in authority, however of a communion, I could for this prophecy's sake most earnestly pray, and even offer my life in the service they might not be of.

"But nothing can be more effectual against rebellion, sedition, or any irregularity towards government and supreme power, than the right understanding of this prophecy. For while holy prophecy styles them kings who yet give their kingdoms to the beast, the plain doctrinal and preceptive part of Scripture obliges, as to fear God, so to honour those whom it so styles kings, and then prayers, supplications, intercessions, giving of thanks should should be made for them, and for all in authority.

Nor is it possible any pretence of setting up or advancing Christ's kingdom can justify any rebellions, mutinous or seditious commotions; seeing hitherto it is most evident they have proceeded upon mistakes of time-and whenever that kingdom shall appear, the manner of appearance is mistaken also, for it is not as from earth, but as from heaven, heavenly, spiritual, pure, peaceable, yet efficacious and almighty, regular, orderly, conducted by lawful sovereigns, even those who, till the words of God are fulfilled, have so given their power, so that as well may the doctrine of the day of judgment, which no created power can produce or oppose, be made a pretence for rebellion, as the doctrine and prophecy of Christ's kingdom, or be complained as dangerous to government or destructive to human society."

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His concluding sentence shews a man looking for, and hastening unto, the coming of the day of God: "