Page images
PDF
EPUB

9

kingdom of Satan, it would be an eternal disgrace to the cross of Christ, and an everlasting discredit to the plan of the gospel. Christ is the head of the church; and make the church inglorious, and you make the head of the church inglorious also; so that Christ can never be glorious in what he has done, and is still doing, unless the church become glorious, which is the grand object of all his sufferings. If, therefore, Christ would become glorious through the gospel, he must make his church glorious.

We are next to consider wherein the glory of the church consists. The church is glorious internally, and externally. The internal glory of the church consists in the grand and solid foundation on which she is built. Christ crucified is her foundation, and her eternal honor. 2. In the greatness of that salvation which is conferred on guilty sinners. 3. In the justifying and sanctifying effects of divine grace on the hearts of all the subjects of true faith in Christ. 4. In the rich and free overtures of salvation to a lost world, who hear the gospel. 5. She is glorious in having the word of God as the standard of her faith, government, and practice, and in having the administration of the ordinances, and institutions of the gospel of Christ. 6. She is glorious in the grace and power of the Spirit of Christ accompanying the word and ordinances of the gospel, to the conversion of sinners, and to the nourishment and edification of the children of God. 7. She is glorious in the constant care, and kind protection of heaven, in conducting and supporting her under trials, dangers, and persecutions, and preserving her from becoming a prey to Satan, and the wicked world. 8. She is glorious in possessing and enjoying all the promises of the word of God, both as to the establishment of christians in the hope and comfort of the gospel, and also as to the future glory of the kingdom of Christ. And in the last place, the comfort, peace, and joy, of believers, through life, their hope and consolation in the hour of death, the glorious hope of a blessed resurrection at the last day, and the divine prospect of immortality and eternal happiness in heaven forever, is, and has always been the boast, and the glory of the Redeemer's kingdom.

These are glorious things indeed, and these things may well be said to constitute the internal, or essential

glory of the church of Christ, and will forever render the kingdom of the Redeemer glorious in the sight of God, and in the eyes of all who love, and pray for the welfare of Zion.

But, secondly, the church is not only internally glorious, but she also has an external glory, which she claims of her Lord and Redeemer, according to the promises and predictions of his word; of which she has, as yet, enjoyed but a very small part; but Christ must give her the whole, in due time, according to his word, in order to support and maintain his own glory in the eyes of the church, and in the eyes of the world. This glory consists in magnitude, extent, numbers, and duration. Every candid man who is at all acquainted with the Bible must know that all these things are promised to the church; and every man with the least honesty must acknowledge that the church has never enjoyed these things in any degree that is up to the evident meaning of the prophecies of God. Compared with the world, compared with earthly kingdoms and empires, aud especially compared with the kingdom of Satan, the church has never been either extensive or numerous, nor has she ever been respectable in the world. The church has had four seasons of special favor, and what we call her glorious times; to wit, the time of the apostles, the time of Constantine the great, the time of the reformation from popery, and the present time. We admit indeed that these times are long to be remembered; yet with all, they are, and have been, for the most part, miserable times, in many respects. The apostles had to wade through bloody persecution every step, and to purchase every inch of ground they gained at the expense of their lives. The reformers had to do the same. In the days of Constantine the church enjoyed peace it is true; but she was almost carried away with the dismal flood of error and delusion, which the Serpent cast out of his mouth, to overwhelm her, and instead of being an honor to Christ she became a nursery of popish principles, which grew so fast that in the course of a little more than two centuries afterwards the Pope of Rome began to sway his ghostly sceptre over the christian world, and drove the woman into the wilderness, where she has re nained to this day. As to the present time, the church has enjoyed the longest, and the greatest season of peace that

she ever did in the world. In our happy country she is left to enjoy liberty of conscience, and is protected by the laws of the land. Yet with all, she is in mourning every day; she dwells where Satan's ceat is, and the Devil has his empire around her, and among her members there are few, comparatively, very few, who are the true disciples of Christ; and thousands esteem the privileges of the gospel less than they do the mules of burden, or the dogs of the chase. O, my God! is this the glory of Zion? No: When the time to favor her is come kings and queens shall bow before her, and lick the very dust of her feet.

It is true we are not to despise the day of small things; the church's glory is yet before her; all the promises of God are in her favor; and we must wait with patience till deliverance come out of Zion. It is not for us to pry into the councils of heaven, or to pretend to scan the dispensations of Providence; we pretend not to say why God, in his infinite wisdom, has permitted Satan to reign over the whole world for nearly six thousand years, and has suffered his church to languish in disgrace, and affliction; but so it has been; our eyes have seen it, and our ears have heard it. But confiding in the wisdom, justice, goodness, and faithfulness of heaven, we know that he acts for his glory, and for the greatest benefit, and the highest honor of his church. He got a great name by bringing the children of Israel out of a deplorable state of bondage, and Israel was greatly honored by it, and the songs of the church to this day celebrate the wonders which God performed by the hand of Moses, And there is no doubt but the song of the Lamb will be a glorious response to the song of Moses, when Christ shall deliver his church from the cruel tyranny of Satan and the Pope of Rome. (See Rev. xv. 1-4.)

From the view that we have taken of the church, and from the view which the promises of God give us of her future glory, we conclude that although the church has waded through nearly six thousand years of affliction, and has marked her footsteps through the wilderness with blood, until she has almost forgotten the promised time of her deliverance; yet the time of her nuptials will soon Her glorious Bridegroom will soon mount his white horse, and he will come in faithfulness, truth and righteousness to the destruction of the kingdom of Satan,

come.

[ocr errors]

and he will clothe his long neglected and afflicted bride with glory and honor. (Rev. xix.) This happy time is called the MILLENNIUM; and to this important period of the church we now call the reader's attention.

In discussing this important subject, we will inquire; I. What the Millennium will be;

II. When it will commence;

III. How long it will last; and
IV. How it will end.

INQUIRY I.

WHAT WILL THE MILLENNIUM BE?

SECTION I.

We now proceed to inquire what the Millennium will be.

This is a very important inquiry indeed, and truly interesting to the church, and to all the world. In the three first centuries of the christian church, the doctrine of the Millennium was embraced with avidity, and relied upon with great confidence. During the prosperity of the church, in the time of Constantine the great, and some of his successors, there was so much empty trash, and such a medley of whimsical fancies attached to this doctrine, that it fell into discredit, and became an object of ridicule; and, finally, the Pope of Rome, when he came to the chair of St. Peter, discarded the notion of the Millennium altogether, as opposed to his diabolical kingdom. At the time of the reformation this doctrine revived again, and has been believed in the protestant churches ever since. It is to be lamented that too many men of fruitful invention and fanciful imagination have, in all ages of the church, brought the glorious doctrine of the Millennium into disrepute, by their wild enthusiastic notions, and empty theories, and exposed to ridicule and reproach, that honorable state of the church, which, according to the genuine sense of the word of God, will be the superlative excellence of Zion, and the most exalted glory of the kingdom of Christ, in this

world. But, as Mr. Lowman well observes, "If we take care to apply the prophecies in an easy and natural sense, we will rectify the mistakes, and prevent the dangerous errors, that some may have fallen into, by indulging too far an unreasonable fancy and ungrounded imagination; and the true Millennium will be very far from an unreasonable doctrine, or a dangerous enthusiasm."

The Millennium will undoubtedly be the supreme glory of the kingdom of Christ; it will be all important to the church, and to the human race; and in all probability it is now so near at hand, that the whole world of mankind ought to turn their attention to it as a matter of universal concern. There is no man on earth but is, and ought to be, interested in this subject. Pagans, Mahometans, Jews, and Christians, are all deeply interested, and even Deists and Atheists themselves, with all their infidelity, will find before very long, that Jesus Christ, their despised Galilean, will come in the glory of his gospel, when every knee shall bow to him, and every tongue confess, to the glory of God the Father. We live now in the time of the reign of Satan; and, excepting the poor, afflicted, and despised church of Christ, the whole race of Adam since the fall has been held under the dominion and control of the old Serpent; and will continue so until Satan is bound in the bottomless pit. Christ has permitted the Devil to reign for nearly six thousand years, and has permitted him to bruise his heel, until his church has stained the world with her bloody footsteps, wading through Satan's dominions, constantly pursued and harrassed with every species of distress and persecution. While the strong man armed keepeth his palace his goods are in peace; but a stronger than he, we hope, will soon come upon him, and overcome him, and take his armor from him, and divide the spoil.

Upon the whole, we have reason and good grounds from the word of God to conclude, that there is a time approaching which will be an honor to Christ, to the gospel, and to the church, when Satan's kingdom shall be destroyed and the kingdom of Christ shall be glorious over all the world, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God. On this grand subject, which relates to futurity, we must entirely depend on the prophets for all our information; and we ought to be careful to give the prophecies a modest, fair, and candid meaning,

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »