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produce. I he inhabitants will consist, probably, of a twofold race; prior the 
one to the other, by a long interval of time, termed by the apocalyptic 
Apostle, a thousand years; the former constituting what the Evangelist calls 
die fit st i esunection, the latter consisting of those reviviscent souls, whom 
he stiles, the rest of the dead , who lived not again, he tells us, till after the 
thousand years were expired. Those of the first resurrection will be such 
only, as had distinguished themselves, while here on earth, by their exemplary 
piety, patience, and perseverant purity of faith and manners, and the souls of 
those who were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, 
&c. Ihose of the second resurrection will be the rest of the dead, whom we 
are to consider, as standing opposed to the blessed and holy ones, who are to 
have a part in the first resurrection. “ This new earth,” says Addison, in 
his Spectator, “ may, for aught we know, be placed contiguous to the 
residence of God.” 
Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: they shall 
be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. 
At that lime the Moon shall be confounded, and the Sun ashamed, when the 
Lord of.Hosts shall reign in Mount Sion and in Jerusalem, and before 
his ancients gloriously .— Isaiah, xxiv. 21. 
The first, in short, are those who shall, the v second such as shall not , enter 
into that kingdom of Heaven, which in some places is called the Holy City ; 
in others, the new Jerusalem ; in others, the city of God ; that kingdom of 
Heaven , which was the constant subject of our Saviour and his apostles 5 
ministry here , and with a more immediate view to which, as introductory to 
tli q final state of the blessed, they directed all their prophecies, parables, and 
other more open instructions and exhortations—that kingdom of Heaven, 
foretold by John the Baptist; referred to when he came preaching in the 
wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent 'ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at 
hand, Matt. ii. 2. For, as says the Evangelist, this is he that was spoken 
of by the prophet Esaias, saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, 
Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight ; the chapter to 
which the Evangelist refers being predictive throughout of Christ’s king ■ 
* O f old, says the Psalmist, hast thou laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are 
the work of thy hands; they shall perish, but thou endurest; yea, all of them shall wax old, like a 
garment, as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed; but thou art the same. 
Behold, says Isaiah, I make a new heaven , and a new earth, and the former shall not he 
remembered nor come into mind. 
But we look for new heavens, and a new earth , says St. Peter. 
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