which they "signify and seal;" in a word, the intercession of Christ and the work of the Spirit, for saving purposes, will then terminate. I have not sought to establish one of these positions as a mere inference from another. Each of them has been established independently of all the rest. Each of them is thus a check upon the rest, and a test of their soundness. And thus the whole argument on this branch of our subject is cumulative; making it evident, on a number of different but connected grounds, that a millennium after the second advent was never designed, is not provided for, and will not take place. *

* I have carefully considered what Mr Birks has advanced in reply to this and the preceding chapter, in his "Outlines of Unfulfilled Prophecy," ch. iv. (pp. 156-169), but have not found any thing fresh in it. Charges of "utter irrelevancy" against the Scripture proofs which I adduce, and against my arguments as "unsubstantial shadows," will require something more to sustain them than Mr Birks has adduced.

CHAPTER VI.

THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST -ALREADY IN BEING ITS MILLENNIAL ESSENTIALLY THE SAME WITH ITS PRESENT CHARACTER.

Two things are in question here—the PERIOD and the NATURE of Christ's kingdom and reign. But as the one determines the other, it will be most convenient to handle them together. It is a very glorious and comprehensive branch of our subject. The points embraced under it, however, are of the most multifarious description, the texts with which we are met heaped up with often little or no classification, and the speculations drawn out of them almost endless. Besides, on no part of the subject are our friends more at variance amongst themselves. When you have disposed of the texts and demolished the views of one writer, you find another untouched, who claims to be heard and tried on his own merits. More than once have I thrown down their books with a sigh, having lost myself in the thicket of texts and contradictory opinions in which I had got entangled, and nearly despairing of being able to bring order out of this mass of confusion. If, however, we can seize on such prominent characteristics of Christ's kingdom and reign as our friends agree on amongst themselves, and bring these to the test of Scripture, the intelligent inquirer will be satisfied, and all that is essential will be gained.

That Christ on his ascension was invested with a royalty of some sort, and is now exercising the functions of a king, they are not able to deny. But they deny that he is on the

throne of his proper kingdom, and affirm that he will not be a king in his own right till the millennium, when he comes again. This brings them into great difficulty. They can give no intelligible account of Christ's present kingdom, or show in what relation it stands to this millennial one. Some say that Christ wields no sceptre as yet but that of Providence!

.....

"Sit thou," says Dr M'Neile, " on my right hand, until "—when? "when thou wilt leave my right hand and sit on thine own throne . . . . when he shall have delivered up the kingdom which he at present enjoys, where he wields the authority, the universal kingdom of God—the incisible kingdom of Providence. When the Lord Jesus shall (in the exercise of his present Almighty authority on the Father's throne) have subdued all things unto himself, then shall he be prepared to leave the Father's throne, and set up his own kingdom upon the earth as the second Adam."*

men

"There are two thrones," says the Duke of Manchester, tioned in connection with Messiah, one, on which he is now sitting, the other, on which he is hereafter to sit. The one the throne of God, the other the throne of David; the one for a limited, the other for an unlimited period. For want of discriminating between the two, much confusion has been created, and some detriment to all the expressions in Scripture which denote eternity. It may not be amiss to lay down some positions respecting the kingdom of Messiah, for which I refer to Appendix D." Turning to Appendix D, we find the first part of it devoted to proving just what has been expressed in the foregoing quotations, that the present "session or reign of Christ at the right hand of God," is his participation in the Divine government—that “his ruling now for God implies his present providential universal presence”—that “ the supreme kingdom of God is the one which he gives up on leaving his right hand, and that it is HIS OWN KINGDOM in which he shall reign, when he appears, for ever and ever."+

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Others content themselves with strong and painful asser

* Sermons on the Second Advent, pp. 112-114, 5th edition.

+ Horæ Hebraicæ, pp 89, 114-116. The capitals are the author's own. I have taken the liberty of combining in one sentence the contents of two or three.

tions that Christ is not now on his own throne, but on his Father's, without attempting to explain what sort of royalty that means.

• ...

6

"We maintain," says a Scottish reviewer, "that CHRIST HAS NOT YET RECEIVED ANY KINGDOM WHICH HE CAN DELIVER UP. A man can only lawfully deliver up that which is his own; but by this theory (meaning Mr Scott's), Christ is made to deliver up that which is NOT HIS OWN, but the Father's. He occupies, no doubt, the Father's throne, being seated there beside him, and that throne he may leave; but, ..... we are not aware that ever in the New Testament the kingdom' is used as denoting the present seat of the Father's power in heaven.” Again: "Now, Christ is only seated upon the Father's throne. He is only, as it were, exalted in another's right, and invested with another's power; but in the day of coming glory, he is to assume HIS OWN SCEPTRE, TO SIT UPON HIS OWN THRONE, and exercise dominion in a way which he has not hitherto done. He is to take to himself his great power, as if it had been lying beside him unused, and only in reserve for the day of its full display, when he receives the crown of all the earth."*

In a former edition I complained of this vagueness, and called upon them to tell us explicitly what they mean by Christ's present kingdom, as distinguished from what they call his own, his proper kingdom, to be set up during the millennium. To this call Mr Wood has responded, in a statement quite explicit in itself, but, when compared with his other views, leaving as much to be explained as it clears up.

“That kingdom of Christ," says Mr Wood, "which is now in existence, is THE KINGDOM OF GRACE, which commenced at the time of his ascension, and WILL CONTINUE UNTIL HIS SECOND COMING. During it, Christ is seated on his Father's throne, and not upon his own, which last is also called the throne of David. The subjects of the kingdom are the elect, a hidden number known to God alone, among whom the Redeemer dispenses saving blessings. His rule is carried on in the midst of enemies, Satan being all the while, de facto, the prince of this world. Christ's proper

#66 Presbyterian Review" of Mr Scott's "Outlines of Prophecy," Jan. 1846, pp. 469, and 468, 9.

kingdom commences at his second coming, when he shall sit on his own throne, the throne of his glory, the throne of his father David.”*

That Christ's present kingdom is the kingdom of grace, is a refreshing statement—all that could be desired. And, when it is added that this kingdom is to continue until the second advent, and then to merge in the kingdom of glory, this is so entirely what we say, and precisely as we express it, that we seem to be at one. But the language of my friend “ keeps the word of promise to the ear and breaks it to the hope." First, he strenuously affirms that the kingdom of grace is not Christ's own, his proper kingdom. I think this distressing. Surely, if there is one thing more clearly and emphatically expressed in all Scripture than another, it is that this is just Christ's peculiar sphere. Before he came, grace was dispensed, as we shall presently see, purely on the credit of his work in the flesh; but after that was over, it was formally lodged in his hands, and his august installation in the royal right to dispense it, with all the prerogatives thereto appertaining, took place on his triumphant ascension to the right hand of the Majesty on high. Mr Wood admits that, in point of fact, Christ is now dispensing grace, and doing it as a king; but when he says that this is done, not in the exercise of his proper regal authority, or from the throne of his own proper kingdom, but from the Father's throne, he makes a statement which to me is utterly unintelligible. All that it conveys to me is, that Christ's present rule, which Scripture everywhere represents as his glory, is not so, but is merely a preparation, as he frequently terms it, for the kingdom properly his—the millennial kingdom. This is one of the worst features of the premillennial scheme. It insensibly has the effect of absorbing all things into the millennium. Every thing is but preparative to that. "The kingly office of Christ," says Mr Wood," is in exercise even now ON THE CREDIT OF HIS FUTURE ASSUMPTION OF THE ROYALTY THAT BELONGS TO HIM."

* Last Things, Propositions vi., vii., pp. 112, 122.-This statement appears to express substantially the views of Mr Birks (pp. 184-197.) The