AN INQUIRY

INTO THE CHURCH'S HAPPY CONDITION DURING THE THOUSAND YEARS OF HER GLORY AND PURITY.

DISCOURSE SECOND.

"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the Gospel."-Mark 1: 15.

WHEN men are agreed about the reality and general nature of any object, and are not of the same mind as to some material circumstances and qualities which belong to it, their descriptions of it may be very different, and even contradictory: the one class will be disposed to give such an account of it as does not sufficiently embrace and exhibit its excellencies, and the other may carry their descriptions of it above its real properties. The low representation of the former, may excite the other to exaggerate its glory; and the lofty account of the latter, may influence those of a different opinion, to underrate its value and importance. It has happened thus with the Church's blessed condition, which the Scriptures warrant us to expect, at the latter day. While some writers have given a description which is too grand, by ascribing to it things which the Scriptures do not reveal, the representations of some others have certainly been too general, and have fallen short of its

great and peculiar splendor. In conducting an inquiry into this subject, it were desirable, could it be attained, to avoid extremes, either on the one side or on the other.

Having endeavored to mention, in the foregoing discourse, some of those times which shall be fulfilled at Antichrist's fall, and at the church's entry into her Millennial rest, I am now,

II. To describe the Church's happy condition during the thousand years of her glory and purity.

1. The Holy Scriptures and the preaching of the Gospel, accompanied with Divine influence, shall then be enjoyed by all nations. These are blessings which are absolutely necessary, and infinitely precious. To what other cause than the enjoyment of them, can we ascribe the religious, moral, ecclesiastic and political improvement of the nations who are privileged with their light? Whence is it, that most absurd and abominable systems of religion; gross and abounding immoralities, and civil and ecclesiastic tyranny, prevail in Popish, Pagan and Mahometan nations, where those blessings are not enjoyed? Scripture prophecy foretells the spread of spiritual light among all nations, by bestowing on them the Divine word and a preached Gospel. This was intimated to Abraham, and frequently renewed: "In thee, and in thy seed, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." Isaiah and Micah predict, that "in the last days, all nations shall flow into the mountain of the Lord's house." Isaiah and Habakkuk say, "That the knowledge of the Lord, and the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, shall fill the earth, as the waters cover the sea." Our Savior declares,-"And this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all

the world, for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come:" Matt. 24: 14. In John's visions it is declared, that "the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ;" that "all nations shall come and worship before the Lord;" and that at the beginning of the Church's prosperity, the saints who shall praise the Lord for that deliverance, shall be "of all nations, and kindred, and people, and tongues." What less than these enjoyments can be imported, in that prophetic description of this happy time, by the symbols of Satan's binding, the saints' sitting on thrones, reigning with Christ, and the wicked not living, all for the long period of a thousand years. When the word of God, and the preaching of the Gospel, were put in operation, after Christ's ascension, they were the mean of enlightening many in every land to which they were sent, in the knowledge of the only way of salvation, through our Lord Jesus Christ. When the Gospel had thus begun to illuminate mankind, nothing did prevent it from enlightening the whole world, but that dreadful corruption of Christianity which ended in the establishment of the Antichristian apostacy, which has prevailed so universally, and has continued so long. The change produced on the nations by the labors of the Apostles, and of those who succeeded them, cannot be considered as a full accomplishment of those predictions. It was but a part of the nations that was then enlightened; it was only a small number of their population that submitted to Christ's sceptre; the Church was still exposed to persecution; the time of its continuance was of short duration, and it took place before the existence of the grand apostacy; all which is inconsistent with a full accomplishment of those predictions. We are, there

fore, warranted to expect this complete fulfilment at the time of the destruction of that wicked one, whose rise and reign prevented Gospel-light from spreading, and filled the world with darkness. The change which the nations shall undergo, according to those predictions, is of such a nature, that nothing but the Divine word, and the preaching of the Gospel, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, can accomplish it. What else can be the mean of causing them to be blessed in Christ, the seed of Abraham; to be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord; to flow into the mountain of the Lord's house; to become the kingdom of the Lord and of his Christ; to come and worship before the Lord; to celebrate his praise in a triumphant song, for his marvellous works in their deliverance; and to sit on thrones, and reign with Christ a thousand years? We may, therefore, most confidently expect, that after the fall of Antichrist, all nations shall be enlightened with the word of God and the preaching of the Gospel; "when the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be seven-fold, as the light of seven days."

2. The kingdom of Christ shall then be erected, and the pure worship of God shall be celebrated in all nations. Of their enjoyment of the Divine word and a preached Gospel, these shall be the happy ef fects. The kingdom of Christ shall be established in the nations; for at that time, they shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. This honor and blessedness of the nations are imported in those parts of the Church's song "Thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned-Now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ; for the accuser of

our brethren is cast down."-"The marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready." By the grand solemnities of a coronation, and by those of a royal marriage, is represented to us the erection of the Gospel kingdom among the nations. The instituted worship of God in Christ shall then be celebrated in all the earth. "All nations," says the blessed company standing on the sea of glass, with the harps of God in their hands.-"All nations shall come and worship before thee." With a view to this happy season, Malachi, the last of the prophets, utters, in the name of the Lord, this delightful prediction: "For from the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering; for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of hosts." The parties who are concerned in this prediction are the Gentiles and the heathen, nations who had not been called by his name.

The

employment in which they should engage is stated— offering incense to the Lord's name, and a pure offering. The spiritual worship of the Gospel-Church is signified by the incense and a pure offering, words taken from the services of the old dispensation, under which the prediction was given. The extent of these religious services among the nations is also affirmed: From the rising of the sun even to the going down of the same, and in every place. On all the nations that are enlightened with the light of the natural sun, on them shall the Sun of Righteousness arise, with healing in his wings. The reason of this glorious change in the condition and religious employment of the nations, is also contained in the prediction. For my name shall be great, by the revela