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ers." The sentiment, that civil government has nothing to do with religion; and religion has nothing to do with civil government, will then be found banished, with its infernal instigator, from the world. The sentiments of the Bible, upon this point, will then be every where admitted; that civil rulers must be just, ruling in the fear of the Lord; being ministers of God for good to his people. "The Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising." "Thou shal: suck the breast of kings-I will make thine officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness." It then follows of course, "Violence shall no more he heard in thy land; wasting nor destruction within thy borders: But thou shalt call thy walls salvation, and thy gates praise." The nations will no more be tortured with systems of perverse, crooked, hidden, designing, and mischievous policy, tending to violence, war and ruin. They will experience the blessedness contained in the divine assurance,-"When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: As in the preceding times, people will have learned the truth of the sentiment, to their cost, that "when the wicked bear rule, the people shall mourn:" And, "the wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted." The most pernicious effects of the evil contained in this sentiment, or of having impious and most perverse rulers, will have been dreadful, and fatal to the wicked world. And a new and blessed order of things, relative to this, will have commenced. The kings and rulers of the world will then bring their glory into the new Jerusalem. They will be citizens of Zion: And will exert all their influence for her prosperity; as is fully implied, in her officers being peace, and her exactors righteousness; and in kings being her nursing fathers, and queens her nursing mothers.

8. It will be a time of great knowledge. Health, prosperity, leisure, benevolence and grace, with the best external advantages, will render application to study intense, and delightful; and knowledge easy, acute, and extensive. The face of the covering over all peo ple, the veil over the nations, (we are assured,) shall be

taken off. And it follows of course, that "the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun; and the light of the sun seven fold, as the light of seven days:"-A striking symbolic prediction of the vast increase of light and knowledge at that day, relative to the things of God; and relative to every thing beneficial to man. The Church are assured, in a comparative view, that the sun shall no more be their light; nor the moon; “but the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and thy God thy glory." "The sun (it is said) shall be confounded, and the moon ashamed." "There shall no more thence, be an infant of days; nor an old man that hath not filled his days: But the child shall die an hundred years old." There shall no more be ignorant old peo. ple: But even a child shall have made great progress in knowledge.

And useful inventions and arts, for the benefit of man, we may believe, will far exceed all present conception.

9. That day will be a season of eminent holiness; of intense benevolence. The perilous times, because men are lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, unholy, covenant breakers, false, lustful, fierce, despisers of the good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasure, and haters of God, with perhaps a form godliness, but denying its power;-these perilous days will have passed away. These horrible scenes, preparatory to the great day; "transgressing, lying against the Lord,-conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood, so that truth is fallen in the streets, and equity cannot enter;"-these dismal scenes will have been swept from the earth. And a blessed contrast will appear. Men will "love the truth and peace." People will be "children that will not lie.” "Neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouths." "They will speak the truth every man to his neighbor." They will not walk in slander; neither deceive nor supplant. The reign of sin will have passed away; and the reign of holiness will have commenced. Love to God, and benevolence to man, will become triumphant through the world. Upon the bells of the

horses, and upon the pots of Jerusalem, we are assured, shall be written, "Holiness to the Lord" All their common utensils shall be employed for holy and benevolent purposes. Blessed period! And most desirable! 10. That will be a season of great religious and spiritual enjoyment. People will feel the rich sentiment of such passages as the following; "There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God." "For the kindgom of God is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." "With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation." "Ye shall "Ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace." "I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy." "And in this mountain (the Church) shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things; a feast of wines on the lees; of fat things full of marrow; of wines on the lees well refined." People will have holy joy in God, and in one another, and in all the order of the Kingdom of grace. The passages will then be eminently fulfilled, "Peace I leave with you." "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee." "And the peace of God, which passeth understanding, shall keep your heart and mind through Jesus Christ." "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." "I sat

down under his shadow with great delight; and his fruit was sweet to my taste." Then people will know the blessedness of the Christian life, the life of faith; will find it good to draw near unto God; and that a day in God's court is indeed better than a thousand in the scenes of the world.

11. The systems of cavilling, error, schism and heresy, which now infest and disfigure the Church, will then be no more. Inspiration assures, that "the watchmen shall see eye to eye." And God will "turn to the people a pure language, that they shall all call upon the name of the Lord, and serve him with one consent." "In that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one." No false prophet shall any more "wear a rough garment to deceive:" i. e. There shall be no more false prophets in sheep's clothing. As Satan is bound in the bottomless

And the one plain system of

pit, his ministers cease.
salvation is thus embraced by all.

12. That millennial Kingdom will be a time when the characters and conduct of men, in the times preceding that kingdom will be duly estimated; and the wicked will be held in their merited abhorrence. This is desirable. For it is painful, when the public sentiment is turned against the people of God; and impious characters are in the highest repute. However this will be the case, in the age preceding the Millennium, it will not continue to be the case in that blessed season. It is added, upon the prediction, that "from one sabbath to another, and from one new moon to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord;-And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men, who have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die; neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh. The sense is this:In sermons, and pious communications, the abominable characters and conduct of the enemies of God; and especially the infidelity, falsehood, perfidy, and violence, of the governments and nations, which will have opened the scenes of the battle of the great day, or have been just before the Millennium, will be clearly ascertained before the Church; and will be held by al! classes of men, in the utmost abhorrence. The perverseness of the wicked, which is now labored to be concealed under every subtile disguise, will then be greatly unfolded. And the enemies of the Gospel will have their names and conduct go down to posterity, like the people of Sodom and Gomorrha, covered with eternal infamy. Many of such characters now wish to immortalize their names. And they will do it; but in a way the reverse of what they now design. They will be held in merited and everlasting contempt. And this universal and correct estimation of characters and things, is an event greatly to be desired. The turning of things upside down, by the wicked, is to be "esteemed as the potter's clay;" a brittle cover of their wickedness. Their putting darkness for light, and light for darkness; making a cove nant with death, and an agreement with hell, and un

der falsehood hiding themselves, (as Inspiration expresses it,) will not stand; but will appear, in all its horrid impiety and madness, to the world of the Godly, in the millennial Kingdom.

In a word. That will be a season of great blessedness. "Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God." "Arise, shine; for thy light is come; and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. His glory shall be seen upon thee. Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising." "Thou shalt be an eternal excellency." "The marriage of the Lamb is come." "For thy Maker is thy husband." "I will lay thy stones with fair colors; and thy foundations with sapphires. I will make thy windows of agate, and thy gates of carbuncle, and all thy borders of pleasant stones. All thy children shall be taught of God; and great shall be the peace of thy children." "Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously."

This is the Kingdom, predicted for the animation of the Church; and toward which she is moving annually, and daily, upon the swift wings of time. This is the Kingdom, the tokens of whose approach are now very manifest.

SECTION IV.

Remarks and deductions, relative to this Kingdom.

1. The advancement of this Kingdom is an important object of prayer. This appears, both from the great excellency and desirableness of the event; and also from the consideration, that God commands his people to pray for it; and that he will prepare the way for this Kingdom, and introduce it, in answer to prayer. When the restoration of the Jews is predicted, (an event, which may be viewed the immediate harbinger of this Kingdom) God says, "Yet for this I will be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them." "Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will harken unto you. And And ye shall seek me, and find

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