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and then his enemies, which would not that he should reign over them, will be slain before him— the cloudy, fiery pillar of his presence, that will have so kind an aspect towards the redeemed, will have an awful face towards the host of the -ungodly: an angry God will look unto them, through the pillar of cloud and fire, and trouble them, and fight against them; and they shall sink into perdition, as lead in the mighty waters.

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The prophets testify, that Christ's coming to set up and possess his millennial kingdom, is his second coming even his coming in the clouds of heaven. See Daniel vii. 13, 14: "I saw in the night visions, and behold, One like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations --and languages should serve him.” That this is the millennial kingdom, is evident from its immediately following the destruction of Antichrist. And this truth, that the coming of Christ to take the kingdom will be his glorious appearing in the cloud, Jesus confirmed by his own mouth. See Luke xxi.:" And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud, with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. And he spake to them a parable. Behold the fig-tree, and all the trees; when they now shoot forth, ye see and know for yourselves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand." O sinner, though perhaps

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thou hast oft desired the day of the Lord; didst thou realize it, the thunder of the Lord God Almighty, that will rend the heavens at the great day, would not shake you more than this soundThe millennium cometh.

Repent, therefore, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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"THE times of restitution of all things have been spoken of by all the holy prophets since the world began." They have testified that the creation, which now groaneth under the bondage of corruption, shall be delivered into the glorious liberty of the children of God-that the curse which smote the ground for the sin of man, with all its dreadful effects, shall expire; and the earth shall yet become the land of the livingthe habitation and inheritance of the just.

In this lecture we propose briefly to illustrate the two following points:

I. That, after this world, there will be a restoration of all things-new heavens, and a new earth.

II. That the kingdom of Christ, or millennium, will be in the new earth, or world to come.

The short limits of a lecture will not allow us to point out where, and in what manner, all the prophets have spoken of the times of restitution, and how clearly and determinately they

spake of the natural world; neither can we enter so fully into the subject as to remark upon the many proofs of this doctrine that are interspersed in the New Testament. We shall here fix our attention chiefly upon one passage, Romans viii. 19-22: "For the earnest expecta. tion of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope; because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now."

The modern millenists, or anti-millenarians, accuse St. Paul of speaking, in this passage, in an unknown tongue, contrary to his own rule, to speak to the understanding that the church may be edified but they need not doubt what language he spoke; for it is most clearly old millenarian, To these people, the millenarians, the passage is not unintelligible; they can read and understand it without an interpreter; for it is their plain mother tongue. But, for the sake of others, we will bring forward one or two interpreters,

Mr. Henry notes, "That must needs be a great, transcendent glory, that all the creatures are so earnestly expecting and longing for.

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By the creature here we understand, not, as some do, the Gentile world, and their expectation of Christ and the gospel, which is an exposition very foreign and forced; but the whole frame of nature, especially that of this lower world; the whole creation, the compages of inanimate and

sensible creatures; which, because of their harmony and mutual dependence, and because they all constitute and make up one world, are spoken of in the singular number, as the creature. The sense of the apostle, in these four verses, we may take in these observations:

"(1.) That there is a present vanity, which the creature, by reason of the 'sin of man, is made subject to, verse 20. When man sinned, the ground was cursed for man's sake, and with it all the creatures (especially of this lower world, where our acquaintance lies) became subject to that curse; became mutable and mortal. Under the bondage of corruption, verse 21. There is an impurity, deformity, and infirmity, which the creature has contracted by the fall of man: the creation is sullied and stained; much of the beauty of the world gone. There is an enmity of one creature to another; they are al! subject to continual alteration and decay of the individuals, liable to the strokes of God's judg ments upon n man. When the world was drowned, and almost all the creatures in it, surely then it was subject to vanity indeed. The whole species of creatures is designed for, and is hastening to, a total dissolution by fire. And it is not the least part of their vanity and bondage, that they are used, or abused rather, by men as instruments of sin. The creatures are often abused, to the dishonor of their Creator, the hurt of his children, or the service of his enemies. When the creatures are made the food of our lusts, they are subject to vanity, they are captivated by the law of sin.

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"And this not willingly, not of their own

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