Part II: Exegetical or Textual

Havine dwelt upon the theological or doctrinal parts of the discussion at some length, I now turn to the exegetical or textual.

Mr Brown has not given us the direct passages of Scripture on which he founds his post-millennialism. He has merely adduced those on which he grounds his opposition to pre-millennialism. He seems to have trusted to his confutation of the latter as all that was needful for the establishment of the former. He has set himself in good earnest to uproot our system, making no doubt that his own must, as a matter of course, spring up in its room.

These negative proof-texts must be fully discussed; nor shall ] shun any of them, though some may be more briefly dealt with than others.

In discussing them, I study to keep two things in view, first, To establish the true and natural meaning

of the passage; secondly, To show that this meaning is no new one devised to prop up millennarianism, but the old and common one, held by the majority of sound expositors, — men who had no system in view, and who were no millennarians. Whether I have succeeded in the first of these points I shall not say. But I feel assured that I have proved the second. Simply the want of time, and the fear of undue expansion have withheld me from making that proof much more

ample.