"other people, but it shall break in pieces, and consume all "these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever." And all this comes to pass in that "the stove (Christ Jesus) cut out of the "mountain without hands brake in pieces the iron, the brass, "the clay, the silver, and the gold."b The rest of the beasts had their dominion "taken away.” "The Son of Man comes "with the clouds, and the Ancient of days gave him dominion, " and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, and nations, and "languages should serve him." So that Christ, at his next appearance, exhibits the fifth monarchy.

Though the Lord spake but little to Eve of his dominion over the seed of the serpent, and consequently his succour of the seed of the woman, yet did he anon and after act in types this visible monarchy? He appears to Moses in a burning bush, to give a visible sign of his presence to deliver Israel out of Egypt. He appears to Israel in a pillar of a cloud, and of fire, sensibly to signify he was their convoy. They are a royalty, (as Peter calls them) but God only their monarch. Moses, and after him Samuel, were their interpreters between them and their Monarch; and therefore, when they rebelled against Moses, it is reckoned as a rebellion against God; and when they refused Samuel, it is charged upon them that they refused God to be their governor. The ark is placed amidst the camp, as the pledge of God to be their General.c Accordingly they carried the ark in battle with them, as it is written: "The people sent for the ark of the covenant of the Lord of Hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubim.d" And so the Philistines conceived: for when the Israelites shouted, at the coming of the ark into the camp of Israel, they were afraid, and said, "God is come into the camp." This ark led them through Jordan, (as it is conceived by the most learned) and through the Red Sea. So when Israel was to re-build the Temple, and to settle in their own land after the captivity, Christ appears typified as a commander of an army, on horse back, with troops behind him ; and as the Son of man sitting in judgement, as a king.g

Some will perhaps say these were types of his incarnation. b Dan. vii, 13, 14. c Num. ii. d 1 Sam. iv, 4. g Zech. vi,; Dan. vii.

e v. 7.

f Zech. i.

Grant that they were so, in some general semblance; yet did they more distinctly set forth his visible monarchy to come : therefore his very incarnation is made a type or platform of his coming as a Monarch.h And as he appears, in Rev. i, as a glorious King, by way of prologue to his visible re-appearance to reign as a Monarch, (Rev. xx;) much more may we expect him to come, and visibly appear at the setting up of his monarchy, from the consideration of all that he hath said and done in relation to it in the New Testament. He tells Pilate he was

a King: but he would

born to be a King, and therefore must be not set it up yet, before his ascension: he must first go into a far country, and after that receive his kingdom;”k he must first" ascend up on high, and lead captivity captive," spiritually, as a preface to his visible appearance to make the Church spiritually and corporally glorious. This the Apostle directly intimates in the fourth chapter of Ephesians: " Until we come to a "perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ;" which by and by he calls the new man which after God is created in righteousness and holiness," alluding to the state of innocent Adam. And therefore, as the first Adam did visibly appear as a glorious monarch over the visible world; so shall the second Adam, equally be the visible monarch of the world; according to the Prophet's and Apostle's doctrine in Psalm viii, and Hebrews ii; which are divine commentaries, as we have seen, on Adam's monarchy, Gen. i, 26-28.

h Acts i, 11.

66

i Acts i. k Luke xix.

CHAPTER V.

THE GLORIOUS STATE ITSELF

OF THE CHURCH ON EARTH.

We have necessarily anticipated much that belongs to this head, inasmuch as that many of the Scriptures which set it forth are interwoven with our former arguments. Nevertheless, we have reserved a more particular discussion of this glorious state itself for this place; and shall distinguish it for clearer discrimination into five heads: viz. 1. The Chaos, 2. The Creation, 3. The Dimensions, 4. The Qualifications, 5. The Privileges.

I. By the Chaos we mean the preparation to this estate, or the manner of its beginning: that as, in the old creation, the Chaos was the evening of the world, with which it began; so this new creation (as it is called,)a begins with an evening. And as, after that, by way of antitypical memorial thereof, the church of the Jews began their sabbath in the evening; so this glorious Sabbatism of which we speak, shall begin and have its antescene, or prelude, in a kind of evening. Now as the evening hath some obscure light, from a reflection of the sun's beams darted backward upon the clouds, with a twilight following it, but in the latter part it is dark; so in the first part of this evening, there shall be some manifestation of the "Sun of righteousness" for the call of the Jews,b and the stirring them up to contend for their liberty against the Turk, and all other enemies; after which there shall be a darkness of great troubles,c-which troubles may indeed last forty-five years before the Jews with the Gentiles come to their glorious enjoyments at the resurrection of the elect. But when that evening and night is passed "the righteous shall have the dominion in the morning ;' which learned Junius interprets of the saints' happy estate in the morning of the resurrection.

over,

Isa. lxv, 17; 2 Pet. iii, 13; Rev. xxi, 1. c Dan. xii, 1.

b Zech. xii, 10; Rev. i, 7. Ps. xlix, 14.

."d

Now as, when the evening shuts in, there is a darkening of all the glory of the precedent day, and all glorious things and persons are wrapt up in obscurity; so in this instance there shall be a setting, or dark eclipsing, of all the worldly glory of former times, things, and persons;-viz. of the four former monarchies, root and branch, with all their appurtenances, that stand as hindrances of Christ's glorious kingdom on earth.e Wonder not therefore at the pulling down of human glory and the many scuffles about it, even at this day. The sum of worldly pomp is declining towards sunset,—the shadows grow long, it begins to be dusk upon all secular splendor: the night approaches, when great storms will arise.

But as, in the dark night, there is a continued tendency towards the succeeding day, and the glory thereof; (for the sun is still hastening to rise again;) so, whilst the troubles are extant and incumbent upon the Church, there is a continued tendency towards the glory thereof; these very troubles refining the Church and preparing it for that state.f Yea, the day shall suddenly dawn; for at the end of these troubles, and for the ending of them, the Sun of righteousness shall appear: so that when they are at the highest, then Christ will shine forth most gloriously for the destruction of the enemies of the Church :h upon which destruction on the enemies by the presence of Christ, the glorious time of the thousand years begins; and it begins with the resurrection of all the elect, as it most methodically follows in Daniel xii, as a close of all the troubles mentioned in the whole prophecy; and as it also methodically follows that in the Revelation xx, as the blessed catastrophe of all the confusions in that whole prophecy.

II. Next follows the New Creation, mentioned both in the Old and New Testaments. For John sees a new heaven, and a new earth but how so, unless created new? for the alteration is such, that the old heaven and earth seem as it were to pass away. So also Peter, and the rest that believed with him, expected, "that, all the former being dissolved, there should be new heavens, and a new earth, according to God's promise."j

e Dan. vii; Rev, xi, xviii, and xix. compared with 2 Pet. i, 19. xix, 11, &c.

i Rev, xxi, 1.

f Mal. iii, 2, 3,

g Mal. iv, 2 h Dan. vii, 13, 14, &c. 2 Thess. ii, 8; Rev. J 2 Pet. iii, 11-13.

"

The promise is in Isaiah lxv, 17:-" Behold, I create new "heavens and a new earth; so that the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind." In all these places the expression earth' demonstrates that it is a state on earth: the word heaven' is no contradiction to it, being oft used to signify the air, clouds, &c. which are appurtenances of the earth, and which Paul calls, by implication, the first heaven.'k

With the creation of this new world, are created its appurtenances. (1.) First, New Jerusalem; immediately after the creation of a new heaven and a new earth, which St. John sees coming down from God out of heaven; (therefore, again, a state on earth :) and Isaiah, at verse 18, having mentioned the creation of the new heaven and earth, immediately adds-" Lo, I create Jerusalem." (2.) Secondly, the inhabitants of this new world are then also created. For if no more than the conversion of the Jews were meant, still it would be no less than a creation. A miracle is a kind of creation; and the school-men say, that though conversion be not a miracle properly, yet it is more than a miracle. I would add, that miracles are wrought on non-resistances, which have a disposition of submission to the will of the Creator; whereas man's unregenerate will is obstinately opposite and resisting. But no man will doubt that a resurrection is a creation: now the Scripture compares the conversion of the Jews to a resurrection ;m as we have seen before. Besides this, the inhabitants are further multiplied and perfected by a physical resurrection of all the deceased saints, and a physical mutation of the living saints. So that, as the Apostle saith, they shall have spiritual bodies (needing neither meat nor drink, &c.) and made like to Christ's glorious body.P (3.) Thirdly, the qualifications of places and persons are created. As, first, righteousness: for Peter, when speaking of this new earth, says, wherein dwelleth righteousness;¶ for grace indeed is nothing else than divinely created qualities. And St. John saith, that into this holy Jerusalem there shall in no wise enter any thing that defileth; but all shall be exceeding good, as in the first creation. Secondly, there shall be created

k 2 Cor. xii, 2.

1 Rev. xxi, 2.

m Ezek. xxxvii, 5, &c. Dan. xii, 2; n Rev. xx, 4. o 1 Cor. xv, 51, 52. p Ibid. v. 44; Phil. q 2 Pet. iii, 13. r Gen. i, 31.

Rom. xi, 15. iii, 21.