natural world, is to pass it backward and forward, from earth to heaven, and from heaven to earth, keeping it continually on the dance in one sentence it is here, and in another sentence it is there. When they meet with things in the new Jerusalem too perfect for this world, such as the tree of life, which must exclude from it all want, sorrow, tears, pain, and death, it is only to carry it to heaven, and all is consistent. Again, when they meet with the nations walking in its light, and healed with the leaves of its tree of life, and with the kings of the earth bringing their glory and honor into it, they have only to bring it back into the earth again, and all is natural enough; but when they behold the tabernacle of God, yea, God himself there, and the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it; and there is no night there, but one eternal day; and it has no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it, for the glory of God lightens it, and the Lamb is the light thereof; then it must be carried back to heaven again : and when they find it compassed about by Gog and Magog, it must be brought back again to the earth, and all things are as they fancy they should be.

All this we view as play, and still look for a city which hath foundations, too solid to be thus moved and tossed.*

But, it is said, there is a necessity for understanding the new Jerusalem sometimes of the

*The new heavens and new earth is that heavenly country which the patriarchs looked for. When the great God promised them that he would be their God and bless them, they understood it of his bringing them into this deathless and sinless world."-DR. COTTON MATHER.

church on earth, and sometimes of the church in heaven, or to mean the church in different states; but this necessity arises from misconceptions of the Scriptures and of the millennial state. They who expect the rest promised for the church of God upon earth to be found anywhere but in the new earth, and they who expect any happy times for the church in a world that hath death and sin in it,-these do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the kingdom of GOD."* With these gross ideas, they stumble at the millenarian doctrine of the new Jerusalem, and start difficulties to their advancing consistently in our path, as insuperable as the Sadducees did to their getting along with their matrimonial connections in the resurrection.

They, however, who attend to the Scriptures as revealing new heavens and a new earth-the world to come, the world of the power and glory of Jesus Christ-can easily believe their united testimony, that in the new Jerusalem there shall be no want, no weakness, no error, no sin; but the fulness of joy and blessedness-heaven upon earth --yea, in many respects, heaven improved by coming upon earth-into a redeemed natural world

-as well as by the accession to it of thousands of glorious resurrection bodies, and of all the saints, changed into the same glory, that are alive and remain at that day upon the earth.

Millenarians believe that the seat of the new Jerusalem will be in the earth-the new earth to come-and that it will be a perfect state.

For these sentiments we offer the following

* Mather.

reasons; observing, at the same time, that our whole system is so connected, that whatever argument supports any part, supports the whole. The arguments which support the doctrine of the restitution of all things, and the arguments which support the first resurrection, or the coming of Christ at the recalling of the Jews, and the destruction of Antichrist at the sound of the seventh trumpet; the arguments that the kingdom of Christ will be perfect in the earth as in heaven, and that the new Jerusalem will be there in all its glory; these all support each other, and add strength to the whole for these doctrines are evidently so connected, that if any one be proved, the system is proved; and the proof that may be wanting to any one separately, may be found in them collectively.

The new Jerusalem will be in the earth.

St. John, describing the new Jerusalem, constantly refers to passages of the prophets, which all agree are prophecies of the millennium; which proves that they are one and the same thing, or at least are contemporary.

It comes down from God out of heaven; and therefore is not heaven above, but heaven upon earth.

What is said of the presence of God in the new Jerusalem, is in the style of Emmanuel, God with us: Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. This style in the Scriptures uniformly denotes the presence of God with his people in the earth. In heaven above, he is

not said to be with us with men; but there we

are ever said to be with him-with Christ. The propriety of this style may be discovered in the 115th Psalm, 16th verse: The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's; but the earth hath he

given to the children of men. When we go to another's habitation, we are with him; but when he comes to ours, he is with us. When we go

into the heavens, we are with Christ; but when he comes down to dwell on earth, he is Emmanuel. Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.

Again: The nations will walk in the light of this holy and beloved city; and the kings of the earth will bring their glory and honor into it. These passages, especially when compared with those in the Old Testament whence they are taken, (not to mention its being surrounded by the Gog and Magog army,) do strongly conclude for its being seated in the earth.

But we should not enlarge here, as it is generally agreed by millenaries, ancient and modern, that the new Jerusalem is the millennial church, therefore seated in the earth.

The new Jerusalem will be a perfect state.

The representation of the marriage of the new Jerusalem signifies, in the strongest language, that it is a perfect state-the church's perfection and consummation.

It is a sinless state; for there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie.

The prophet Hosea expressly confirms these truths, that the new Jerusalem shall be in the earth, and shall be a perfect state. Undoubtedly his great day of Jezreel, (i. e. of the seed of God,) is the millennium; for in that day, saith the

Lord, I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground; and I will break the bow and the sword, and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely. And this Jezreel is the new Jerusalem, which appears by the marriage: And I will betroth thee unto me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness; and thou shalt know the LORD. remarkable passage of Hosea is evidently referred to and confirmed by Christ, when speaking of the marriage at his second coming; and by John also, when speaking of the marriage at the coming of the new Jerusalem.

This

And this holy, espoused city by the prophet is seated in the earth: in the earth the blessed Jezreel shall flourish. I will sow her unto me in the earth. "And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the LORD; I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel."

And that Jezreel will be perfect, appears not only from her marriage, but also from her pure language. Her language will be pure shibboleth-thou shalt call me Ishi-and no Baali sibboleth shall be lisped. Ishi and Baali both express the marriage relation; but Ishi is the word that expresses the most perfect love-the sweetest and the most perfect union of that relation. And it is thought that John refers to the pure language of Jezreel, when he says, there shall in no