and the first resurrection; and in the evening or conclusion whereof shall be the GENERAL RESURRECTION of the dead, small and great; and they shall be judged, every man, according to their works*."

This is a just representation of the Millennium, according to the common opinion entertained of it, that CHRIST will reign personally on earth during the period of one thousand years! But Dr. Whitby, in a Dissertation on the subject; Dr. Priestley, in his Institutes of Religion, and the Author of the Illustrations of Prophecy, contend against the literal interpretation of the Millennium, both as to its nature and its duration. On such a topic, however, we cannot suggest our opinions with too great a degree of modesty.

Dr. Priestley (cntertaining an exalted idea of

+Mr. Winchester, in his Lectures on the Prophecies, freely indulges his imagination on this curious subject. He suggests, that the large rivers in America are all on the eastern side, that the Jews may waft themselves the more easily down to the Atlantic, and then across that vast ocean to the Holy Land; that Christ will appear at the equinoxes (either March ́or September) when the days and nights are equal all over the globe; and finally, that the body of Christ will be luminous, and being suspended in the air over the equator for twenty-four hours, will be seen with circumstances of peculiar glory, from pole to pole, by all the inhabitants of the world!

the advantages to which our nature may be destined) treats the limitation of the duration of the world to seven thousand years as a Rabbinnical fable; and intimates that the thousand years may be interpreted prophetically: then every day would signify a year, and the Millennium would last for three hundred and sixty-five thousand years! Again he supposes that there will be no resurrection of any individuals till the general resurrection; and that the Millennium implies only the revival of religion. This opinion is indeed to be found in his Institutes, published many years ago; but latterly he has inclined to the personal reign of Christ. See his Farewell Sermon, preached at Hackney, previous to his emigration to America. The same conjecture as to its duration is thrown out by the Author of the Illustrations of Prophecy; but he contends, that in the period commonly called the Millennium, a melioration of the human race will gradually take place, by natural means, throughout the world. For his reasons, we refer to the work itself, where will be found an animated sketch of that period, when an end shall be put to many of the crimes and calamities now prevalent on the globe!

The Rev. Mr. Bicheno, of Newbury, likewise, has in his publications thrown out some curious particulars respecting the Millennium

and though the reader may not agree with him in many things, yet he will applaud his ingenuity. We will just add, that the late Mr. Nathaniel Searlett, at the time of his decease, was preparing for the press a piece on the Millennium, entitled the Millennial Age; which was to contain all the passages of Scripture relative to the subject, accompanied with several admirably executed plates, by way of illustration. But his death prevented its publication.

This final article of the MILLENNIUM shall be closed with one observation. However the Millenarians may differ among themselves respecting the nature of this great event, it is agreed on all hands, that such a revolution will be effected in the latter days, by which vice and its attendant misery shall be banished from the earth; thus completely forgetting all those dissentions and animosities by which the religious world has been agitated, and terminating the grand drama of Providence with UNIVERSAL FELICITY*.

*The professors of Christianity have instituted Societies for the advancement of Religion. There are four which deserve to be mentioned: 1. The Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, which erects charity schools in England and Wales, and distributes Bibles, Common Prayer-Books, and religious tracts: 2. The Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospelin Foreign Parts, which takes care that the West India Islands, and the British colonies in North America, are provided with

THESE are the divisions of human opinions, which characterize the more popular departments of the religious world. I have endeavoured to delineate them with accuracy and brevity. Each system boasts of admirers, and professes to have its peculiar arguments and tendencies. To a thoughtful mind they exhibit a melancholy picture of the human understanding, misguided through passion, and warped with prejudice. In drawing out the motley catalogue, several cursory reflections arose in my mind. A few only, such as may operate as a persuasive to religious Moderation, and tend also to the improvement of other Christian graces, shall be submitted to the reader's attention.

episcopal clergymen and schoolmasters; 3. A Society in Scotland for propagating Christian Knowledge, designed to banish ignonorance and profaneness from the Highlands and Western Islands; and, 4. 4 Society established in Ireland, called the Incorporated Society in Dublin for promoting English Protestant Working Schools.

Mr. Daniel Neal, about 60 years ago, estimated the number of Dissenters in England at one hundred and fifty thousand families; but since that period it is believed that they have declined. At present the proportion of Nonconformists to the Members of the Church of England is supposed to be as one to five; and it is singular that the same proportion holds between the Episcopalians and Roman Catholics in Ireland. Mr. Bogue, of Gosport, and Mr. Kingsbury, of Southampton, have announced their intention of giving a History of the Protestant Dissenters from the revolution to the present time.

REFLECTIONS*.

I pray to God to give all his ministers and people more and more of the spirit of wisdom, and of love, and of a sound mind, and to remove far from us those mutual jealousies and animosities, which hinder our acting with that unanimity which is necessary to the successfully carrying on of our common warfare against the enemies of CHRISTIANITY.

Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion.

1. SINCE the best and wisest of mankind thus differ on the speculative tenets of religion, let us modestly estimate the extent of the human faculties.

*As the author has in the SEQUEL to this Sketch, brought to→ gether One Hundred testimonies of divines of the church of England, the kirk of Scotland, and from amongst the Dissenters, in behalf of candour and charity; so with these Reflections he has interwoven the sentiments of some of the most distinguished of the laity on the subject. The declarations of De Thou, Lord Lyttleton, Lord Chatham, together with those of Locke, Mansfield, and Washington, are entitled to particular attention. See a Humble Attempt to promote Union and Peace among Christians, by inculcating the Principles of Christian Liberty, by R. WRIGHT, of Wisbeach. It is a work of merit, and happily calculated to promote the purpose for which it has been written and published,