which, having cited his words 1 Theff. iv. 16, 17. he goes on, Does not this important paffage evidently prove, that the first Christians made them• felves fure, that they should see the end of the world? ' and St. Luke actually foretells it, as what should happen in his life-time.'

But though Paul fay to the Chriftians at Theffalonica, to whose eminent faith, and charity, and patience, he beareth exprefs teftimony, that it was a righteous thing with God, to render unto them who endured perfecutions and tribulations, for truth and duty's fake, rest or refreshment with himself, and Sylvanus, and Timotheus, his companions in the kingdom of God, when the Lord Jesus Christ should be revealed, 2 Theff. i. 6. (for to this paffage I fuppofe our author alludes,) he never fays that this final appearance of Jefus Chrift is for his or their deliverance and confolation, exclufively of that of others of the fame excellent temper and conduct; or that himself and they alone would be partakers of ease and joy by it: far less, that they would be fole witneffes and spectators of it.

As to Mr. Voltaire's affertion again, that the paffage 1 Theff. iv. 16, 17. evidently proves, that the first Christians made themselves fure that they 'fhould fee the end of the world;' there is no foundation for it, except that the apoftle, while he speaks of their portion who are alive, and continue until that event, uses the first person plural, This we fay ⚫ unto you, by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord, * fhall not prevent,' anticipate in any advantage, 'them who are asleep, for the Lord himself fhall

• defcend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God. • And the dead in Chrift fhall rife firft. Then, or

thereafter, we who are alive, and remain, fhall be 'caught up together with them in the clouds, to < meet the Lord in the air, and fo fhall we be ever ⚫ with the Lord.' But how weak a foundation this, for the fupport of his charge! by the fame kind of argument, one may prove the oppofite propofition, viz. that Paul believed that he and his fellow-labourers, together with the Christians at Corinth, fhould all die before that time, and be then raised out of their graves by the power and agency of the Lord Jefus; for fays he to them, 2 Cor. iv. 14. We know that he who • raised up the Lord Jefus, fhall raise up us also by Jefus, and fhall present us together with you.' And 1 Cor. vi. 14. God hath both raised up the Lord, ⚫ and will also raise up us by his own power.'-Yet, he could not believe two contradictory propofitions at once. Farther, to infer from his words here, that he expected to be found alive at the day of judgment, is not only to put a sense on them, inconfiftent with the declarations he makes, that he looked to die, and to be absent from the body, and to be facrificed upon the fervice of mens faith, in his epiftles to the Philippians, i. 23. to the Corinthians, 2 ep. v. 6. and to Timothy, 2 ep. iv. 6. (for these, I am aware it may be remarked, were written after a confiderable interval, in which he was cured of the mistake,) but is to give them a meaning, contrary to his own explication of his fentiments upon this subject, in his fecond letter to those Christians of Theffalonica, though addreffed to them only

fome few months later than this first epistle, from which Voltaire labours to fix the erroneous principle and tenet upon him; yea, a meaning which he himfelf there disclaims as the genuine and true import of any expreffions he had ever ufed, either in difcourfe or writing. For it is remarkable, he there guards them, not only against entertaining the imagination, that the day of Chrift was juft at hand, but against entertaining it, upon the pretence of any word which he was reported to have dropped, or any language which he had employed in any letter; which is certainly difavowing, in the clearest manner, his intention to fuggeft fuch a thought, either by speech or epiftle before. Says he, 2 Theff. ii. 1. 2. We befeech "you,brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jefus Chrift, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye 'be not foon fhaken in mind or troubled, neither by ⚫ spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as

that the day of Chrift is at hand. Let no man de'ceive you by any means.' And then he proceeds to acquaint them with the rife of a great apoftacy in the Christian church, and with the appearance of a very corrupt and tyrannical power therein, before that day should come, the prevalence and deftruction whereof is evidently spoken of as a work of time.

But how then, it may be faid, can his manner of expreffion here be reconciled with his knowledge, that he should be dead before the day of judgment? I answer very easily by obferving, that he uses the first person plural, because he confidered Chriftians, through all ages, as one body or fociety, and knew fome of them would be alive at Chrift's defcent from heaven, though aware he himself would not be a

mong that number, to whom what is here faid would agree, and in whom it would be verified.Nor is this any figure of fpeech but what is common in Scripture. The Pfalmift having faid, Pf. lxvi. 6. God turned the fea into dry land. They went through the flood on foot,' adds, there did we ' rejoice in him;' though certainly neither he himfelf, nor any of his cotemporaries, had expreffed joy on that miraculous paffage; only their ancestors, from whom they were fprung by a long feries of intermediate generations. And in the fame manner, the author of the eighty-firft pfalm, having mentioned an ordinance or appointment of God, when he went out through the land of Egypt, fubjoins, ' where I heard a language I understood not,' when yet he was not in exiftence at the date of the fact referred to, nor indeed came into being for many ages after. Once more, the prophet Hofea ufes the fame latitude of speech, when he fays, Jacob found • God in Bethel, there he spake with us,' chap. xi. 4. attributing thus a privilege and honour to himfelf, and those of that age, which was only enjoyed by their very remote progenitors. Now, as the facred writers of the Old Teftament, regarding the Jews, through all periods of their state, as one nation and community, afcribe to themselves, and those co-eval with them, paffions, perceptions, and advantages, which, in ftrictness, only belonged to those of their nation, in times long previous and antecedent; in the fame way, Paul regarding Chriftians, from the formation of the Chriftian church till the conclufion of this probationary scene, as one body, attributes to himself, and thofe of his day, things,

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which in ftrictnefs, would only be the lot of those that should follow long after. Nor is there any violence in fo interpreting the phraseology of the one, more than of the other.

Whereas he says, moreover, St. Luke certainly ⚫ foretells it as what should happen in his life-time,' viz. the end of the world, and the fecond coming of Chrift, I do not well understand his meaning, unlefs it be admitted, that there is fome inaccuracy of expreffion here, For St. Luke, fo far as I recollect, hath not recorded any prediction by himself, either about this, or any other futurity; he hath only committed to writing fome prophecies spoken by the Lord Jefus himself, and by fome others of his followers. I fuppofe then our author intended to affirm, that Luke hath conveyed down to us fome prophecy or prediction, in which Jefus, or a disciple of Jefus, foretold that the end of the world fhould come to pass, ere he himself died and was laid in his grave. Nevertheless, I cannot think he hath any more fpecious argument for this, or indeed any other handle at all for it, than fome of our Saviour's expreffions which he hath recorded, in answer to the question which was put to him," When shall the temple be thrown down, and what fign will there be when this fhall come to pafs,' Luke, xxi. (fee Matt.xxiv. Mark. xiii.) But, these have been vindicated again and again from fuch mifconftruction, and fhewed to relate to the deftruction of Jerufalem with its fanctuary, and the overthrow of the Jewish polity civil and religious, and the wide publication of the gospel by the apostles and other fervants of Chrift. Indeed, this would have been manifeft, beyond all poffibility of