and that all things must necessarily be what God intended they should be.

Others again hold, that God, by his omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence, superintends the most minute concerns of this world, and that from his fore-knowledge, the doctrine of necessity follows, as effect follows its cause. But these latter cannot properly be believers in the doctrine of necessity; for if the fore-knowledge, by which God knows who are the faithful, precedes the decree by which man is obliged to act, then the doctrine of necessity falls to the ground.

DESTRUCTIONISTS.

These professors believe that the wicked, are not to be preserved eternally in the torments of hell, but that finally, after a period which is to be in proportion to the magnitude of their crimes; the lightening of the divine vengeance is utterly to destroy them.

They say that this doctrine is taught in the scriptures, and that the word death means that which is everlasting, agreeably to those words, Rev. ii. 11. He that overcometh shall not be hurt by the second death. They hold it to be an absurdity to suppose

that death can be inflicted for a certain term; and they apprehend that punishment and death cannot be intended to reform the wicked, since it is not less absurd to conclude, that man should be punished with death in order to reform his conduct, than it would be to imagine that by death is signified eternal life, though in a state of torment, as it would be inconsistent with the obvious meaning of the words. They conclude therefore, that it must mean annihilation, a total cessation of conscious existence; a complete destruction of being. The kingdom of Christ is to last for ever, because it is said, that of his kingdom there shall be no end, and therefore that the mediatorial kingdom is never to be delivered up to the Father.

These have been the opinions of a very few; I have mentioned them because some have magnified them into a sect, though they have not been sufficiently numerous to be ranked as such.

MILLINARIANS

Believe that Christ will literally reign on earth a thousand years, with all those who are said to have their part in the first resurrection. After which, the second resurrection is to take place, the last judg

ment, and the beginning of eternal glory. Soon after the council of Nice, about the year 340, these professors increased rapidly. The doctrines they promulgated were the same as are now received by this sect. They believe that Jerusalem shall be rebuilt gloriously, and that the saints or believers shall see Christ descend from Heaven; that the first resurrection spoken of will take place, after the coming of Anti-Christ, when great destruction is to begin in all nations that all who are found alive on the earth at the time of the first resurrection shall continue to live; the good to be associated with those who are raised from the dead, who are to be as princes, that the wicked are to be reduced to a state of obedience, and are to be in the capacity of servants. That Christ will, in the new Jerusalem, live and reign a thousand years, with the patriarchs, prophets, and saints, who are to enjoy a state of perfect happiness: That at the end of one thousand years, the second resurrection is to take place, when those who had their part in the first, after the last judgment, are to ascend with Christ to heaven.

This opinion was first introduced by Carpocrates in the reign of Domitian, sixty years after Christ. It is founded on that passage in the Revelation, ch. xx. 4, 5, 6. And I saw the thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them; and I

saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ A THOUSAND YEARS. But the rest of the dead lived not again, until the THOUSAND YEARS were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such, the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him A THOUSAND YEARS.

HUTCHINSONIANS.

John Hutchinson was born in Yorkshire, about the beginning of the last century. He was a good Hebraist, and believed that the Hebrew scripture contains a complete system of all sciences, and of all knowledges moral, judicial, physical, and theological.

Hutchinson was received as an ingenious biblical philosopher, which philosophy he attempted to prove, in a work he wrote, intitled Moses' Principia. He is much followed by Parkhurst, who says, speaking Ꮓ

of the word Heaven, " This is a descriptive name of the Heavens, or of that immense celestial fluid subsisting in the three conditions of fire, light, and spirit, which fills every part of the universe. He maintained that this name, Heaven, was first given by God, to the celestial fluid, or air, when it began to act in dispersing and arranging the earth and water; that it has been the great agent in disposing all material things in their places, and orders, and thereby producing all those great and wonderful effects which are attributed to it in the scriptures, and which of late years hath been the fashion to ascribe to attraction and gravity." The works of Hutchinson have considerable merit, and have a tendency to illustrate the scriptures by a rational philosophy, accounting for the wonderful effects of what has hitherto been called, attraction and gravitation. But as his admirers never formed themselves into a body, and the system being more of a philosophical, than of a theological nature, they cannot be ranked as a sect of religious professors.

MATERIALISTS.

Those who profess to be Materialists, believe that the soul of man cannot be in a state of consci