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and certainty. He pronounces this period (ver. 6, 7, 8.) to be the confummation of all things, when the promises of God, and the defires of his faithful fervants fhall all be fully accomplifhed; the righteous fhall inherit all things, but the profligate and immoral hall have their portion in the lake of fire and brimstone; which is a farther demonstration, that these things cannot take effect till after the general judgment.

Many, I know, both ancients and moderns, make the millennium fynchronize with the new heaven and the new earth; and fome latitude of interpretation may be well allowed in these mysterious points of futurity: but this order of things, and this interpretation of the words, appear to me moft natural, and moft agreeable to the context. Gog and Magog, the nations in the four corners of the earth, are deceived by Satan after the expiration of the millennium; but Gog and Magog are not inhabiters of the new heaven and the new earth. It is not our business to frame theories and invent hypothefes, but faithfully to follow the word of God as our fureft guide, without regarding much the authority of men. Not but various authorities might be cited to show that this is no novel opinion. As St. Barnabas (3)

octavi diei initium, hoc eft initium alterius mundi. Sancti BarVOL. III.

fays,

nab. Epift. Cap. 15. Vide etiam Notas Cotelerii, &c. A a (4) Cum

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When the Lord fhall make all things new, then shall be the beginning of the eighth day, which is the beginning of another world;' allowing fix thousand years to the duration of this world, the feventh thousand to the millennium, and the eighth thousand to the beginning of a bleffed eternity: and you teftimonies alleged may find many more to this purpose in the notes of Cotelerius and other critics upon this paffage of St. Barnabas. Lactantius (4) affirms, that when the thoufand years fhall be completed, the world fhall be renewed by God, and the heaven shall be folded up, and the earth fhall be changed;

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and God fhall transform men into the fimi'litude of angels; and they fhall be white as fnow, and fhall be always converfant in the fight of the Almighty, and shall facrifice < to their Lord, and ferve him for ever.' St. Austin alfo (5) declares, that the judgment

being finished, then this heaven and this • earth fhall cease to be, when the new heaven and the new earth fhall begin to be.

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(4) Cum vero completi fuerint mille anni, renovabitur mundus a Deo, et cœlum complicabitur, et terra mutabitur; et transformabit Deus homines in fimilitudinem angelorum; et

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erunt candidi, ficut nix: et verfabuntur femper in confpectu omnipotentis, et domino fuo facrificabunt, et fervient in æternum. Lactant. Lib. 7. Cap. 26. (5) Peracto quippe judicio

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For by a mutation of things this world will pafs away, not by an utter extinction. Whence

alfo the apoftle fays (1 Cor. VII. 31.) that the

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fashion of this world passeth away.' And indeed why should the new heaven and the new earth be destroyed, when there fhall be no more fin, when there fhall be no more curfe, when there fhall be no more death? The heaven and the earth of old (2 Pet. III. 5.) for the wickedness of man perished by water: The heaven and the earth which are now, are referved unto fire against the day of judgment, and perdition of ungodly men; but why should not the new heaven and the new earth be preferved, wherein dwelleth righteousness?

9 And there came unto me one of the feven angels, which had the feven vials full of the feven laft plagues, and talked with me, faying, Come hither, I will fhew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.

10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and fhewed me that great city, the holy Jerufalem, defcending out of heaven from God,

tunc effe definet hoc cælum et hæc terra, quando incipiet effe cælum novum et terra nova. Mutatione namque rerum, non omni modo interitu tranfibit hic

11 Having

mundus. Unde et Apoftolus ait; Præterit enim figura hujus mundi. S. Auguft. de Civitate Dei. Lib. 19. Cap. 14. p. 447. Tom. 7. Edit. Benedict. Antverp.

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(6) Præftet

11 Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a ftone moft precious, even like a jafper-ftone, clear as crystal;

12 And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Ifrael.

13 On the east, three gates; on the north, three gates; on the fouth, three gates; and on the weft, three gates.

14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

15 And he that talked with me, had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof.

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16 And the city lieth four-fquare, and the length is as large as the breadth and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs: the length, and the breadth, and the highth of it are equal.

17 And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.

18 And the building of the wall of it was of jafper; and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.

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19 And

19 And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious ftones. The firft foundation was jafper; the fecond, faphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald;

20 The fifth, fardonyx; the fixth, fardius; the feventh, chryfolyth; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chryfoprafus; the eleventh, a jacinct; the twelfth, an amethyst.

21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every feveral gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.

22 And I faw no temple therein: for the Lord God almighty, and the Lamb are the temple of it.

23 And the city had no need of the fun, neither of the moon to fhine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

24 And the nations of them which are faved, shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.

25 And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day for there fhall be no night

there.

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26 And

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