(Rev. 22:1.8, 1.9.)
But the question has been raised as to the facts revealed; nor have all, perhaps, judged rightly as to the use to be made of them. But their general debate has been forced by the non-reception of them by many who have a name in the church under the low state in which we all stand. This was, perhaps, to be looked for; and the testimony of the manner even of judgment calculated to awaken many out of sleep.
Next, I would ask, if the spread of Bibles and missionary exertions is to produce per se the millennium, what is the meaning of unclean spirits like frogs gathering to battle all the kings of the world to be destroyed, and that then Satan is to be bound, and the thousand years to commence? Again, they will admit, that these operations are effectual through the agency of the Spirit of God as a substitute for Christ. What distinction does the scripture mean by Christ's reigning upon the earth (His kingdom of this world), and the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit upon the throne of His glory? If we suffer with Him (as we do, while we are actuated by the Spirit of God in the midst of a carnal world) we shall also reign with Him. This, evidently, is a state of things essentially distinct from His reigning, as they conceive now; for it is a time of suffering. It cannot mean in heaven, or after the end of all, for then the Son will have delivered up the kingdom. And if they say it is by the prevalence of righteousness in the millennium, though that would be hard to show, how would that affect us according to their view who before then are dead?
Besides, are all the wicked to be converted? Is temptation to be removed? No outpouring of the Spirit does this. Are all to be regenerate? For, according to their views, the operation of the Spirit is still the only instrument. How is the Spirit now only an earnest till the redemption of the purchased possession, if He be then the only operating agent? But it will, perhaps, be said to be heaven. We have seen its characteristics are inconsistent with that. Is Christ, in a word, to have any other share in the triumph of the church than He has now, when the Spirit is His substitute? And let me here ask as to one point on which many. feel so strung difficulties—Is there anything inconsistent, if there be a period when the church shall be triumphant, and the saints partaking of the full joy appropriate to the prevalence of their principles by a complete change in the state of the world? For this must be admitted (or there could not be the change from suffering to triumph) that those who have been long suffering for the same principles, who have borne tribulation and sorrow, while that was the portion of those who loved Christ, should also share with their Lord in the hour when what they had so ardently suffered for should be accomplished? Such is my idea of the first resurrection.
I believe that Christ also (Who unquestionably has a distinct kingdom from the Father, though, of course, it is God's kingdom) will put forth His power for the removal of evil; that Satan will be hindered from deceiving the world; that it will cease to be a season of tribulation and sorrow and trial, and that instead of the thorn shall come up the myrtle, and that there shall be a complete enjoyment of blessings which are the church's inheritance; that this will be upon earth (the Jews being restored, the temporal promises being ever theirs, not the Gentiles'; but that these shall enjoy the common blessing with them, as companions in this universal joy). When Christ's kingdom shall have by His power prevailed over evil, those of the Gentile, dispensation who have been faithful in the time of trial shall (the dead being raised, and the living, changed) be partakers (reigning with Christ) of the common blessing. Death, whose power in their bodies they had to suffer in their day, being perfectly overcome as to them, they will be as the angels of God in heaven, being counted worthy to obtain that age. There will necessarily be no separation between those who are thus partakers of the blessings, and those who are God's on earth. During this period there will be therefore no trial: before they are admitted into the heavenly state, Satan is loosed again, and the trial proceeds by temptation. In a word, the millennium may be considered as a restoration of Paradise under the second Adam, the restoration of communion between earth and heaven so long interrupted (Christ having destroyed them that destroy the earth).
I would suggest, too, that the instrument by which the work is to be accomplished cannot mean the dispersion of scriptural truth. It is not the sword of the Spirit, but one proceeding out of the mouth of Christ, sitting on a triumphal horse, wherewith He should smite the nations. It is treading the vintage of God's wrath. It is a destruction which will give seven years' flying from the weapons east away. It is an invitation for all the fowls of the sit to feast upon the sacrifice which God Almighty was about to make a taking to Him His judgments power and reigning; a time when, God's judgments being in the earth, the inhabitants of the world would learn righteousness; and it was by these judgments that the heathen were to be converted. We take the broadest points, because the others may be said to involve interpretation, though to us they are equally plain and perhaps more deeply interesting.
Again, if we consider the stone which became a mountain an filled the whole earth, it was upon smiting the image, and making it become as the chaff of the summer threshing-floor, so that the wind carried them away, and no place was found for them. This is evidently by destructive and dissolving judgments, analogous to the character of its objects (to wit, the Gentile dispensation, and power); and it was by no ordinary providential instrumentality, for it was a stone cut out as without hands. Further, it was not by the progressive growth of anything, that other obstructing principles passed away; but some extrinsic power, not of or in the image yet analogous in the nature of its operation, and yet turning out to be the fullness of the Lord's power, suddenly appearing to destroy the image at the end of its time; and after the image was totally dissolved, it then became a mountain and filled the whole earth. “In the days of these kings,” saith the Spirit, “the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.”
Let not an anxiety for missionary objects hinder the acceptance of the truth. For no so strong motive for missionary exertion exists with the postmillennarians, as with those who believe God's judgments are presently coming; for that belief urges them to special labor for the gathering in of God's elect to the knowledge of the refuge, before the scourge sweeps the earth, to preserve them that have believed. If the reading of Griesbach be right, the distinction of the earthly kingdom is put beyond controversy; at any rate the testimony of a reign of Christ's power (distinct from the operation of the Spirit alone) is surely too prominent an object in the scripture to be overlooked.
One remark I would make; and it is one which struck my own mind long before the millennial views opened themselves to it. There is not an Epistle in the New Testament in which the coming of the Lord Jesus is not made the prominent object of the faith and hope of believers, for which they were to wait; and; observe, which characterizes distinctively those who should partake of His salvation [now the expectation of it is put out of view and depreciated really as much as possible], so much so that the Thessalonians seemed to have considered those who died before it came to have failed in obtaining it. It was to be a time of rest by the appearing of Jesus Christ removing the persecutors and ungodly; and now it is thrown aside, because it is connected with that which is confessedly the rest of the church. It is also that of which Peter speaks: he says there is sensible evidence directing the church so to look for it. “We have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we have declared unto you the power and coming of the Lord Jesus, but were eye-witnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, Until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts: knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” And this could be revealed as a day-star in their hearts.
I would remark here that the students of unfulfilled prophecy are too apt, I think, to overlook the present power of the Lord's resurrection, and thus give a handle to the objections of, I must say, the adversaries to the coming of the Lord Jesus. To the apostles and the saints who judge justly, the apprehension of His glory was the evidence of both; nor can they be separated without injury to the truth or misapprehension of the counsels of God.
This is what is doing too much now, and it is a great evil and greatly opposed to scripture. We ask then, is the church to look to the coming of Christ as the prominent object of faith, or is it not? And why? What do the scriptures teach us in that respect? Do they or do they not teach us that the happiness of the earth is to be brought about by the special intervention of God in judgment? Is His coming one calculated to quicken their faith—to make them zealous and constant for Him in their labor here—to separate them from their attachment to this present evil world—to lead them to be practically holy in this, where Christ is to visit them, instead of making death a sort of practical sanctifier, as some do?
(Continued from p. 206.)