or Gentiles, were but the first fruits. And many other evidences of this point might be mentioned, which for brevity's sake I omit.

And thus it is meet, that the last kingdom which shall take place on earth, should be the kingdom of God's own Son and heir, whose right it is to rule and reign; and that whatever revolutions and confusions there may be in the world, for a long time, the cause of truth, the righteous cause, should finally prevail, and God's holy people should at last inherit the earth, and reign on earth; and that the world should continue in tumults and great revolutions, following one another, from age to age, the world being as it were in travail, until truth and holiness are brought forth; that all things should be shaken, until that comes which is true and right, and agreeable to the mind of God, which cannot be shaken; and that the wisdom of the Ruler of the world should be manifested in the bringing all things ultimately to so good an issue. The world is made for the Son of God; his kingdom is the end of all changes, that come to pass. in the state of the world of mankind; all are only to prepare the way for this; it is fit therefore that the last kingdom on earth should be his. It is wisely and mercifully ordered of God that it should be so, on this account as well as many others, viz., that the church of God under all preceding changes, should have this consideration to encourage her, and maintain her hope, and animate her faith and prayers, from generation to generation, that God has promised, her cause should finally be maintained and prevail in this world.

Let it now be considered,

2. The future promised advancement of the kingdom of Christ is an event unspeakably happy and glorious. The Scriptures speak of that time, as a time wherein God and His Son Jesus Christ will be most eminently glorified on earth; a time, wherein God, who until then had dwelt between the cherubims, and concealed himself in the holy of holies, in the secret of his tabernacle, behind the vail, in the thick darkness, should openly shine forth, and all flesh should see his glory, and God's people in general have as great a privilege as the high priest alone had once a year, or as Moses had in the mount; a time, wherein the temple of God in heaven should be opened, and there should be seen the ark of His testament (Rev. xi. 19); a time, wherein both God will be greatly glorified, and his saints made unspeakably happy in the view of his glory; a time wherein God's people should not only once see the light of God's glory, as Moses, or see it once a year with the high priest, but should dwell and walk continually in it, and it should be their constant daily light, instead of the light of the sun (Isa. ii. 5, Psal. lxxxix. 15, Isa. lx. 19), which light should be so much more glorious than the light of the sun or moon, that the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts should reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem before his ancients gloriously, Isa. xxiv. 23.

It is represented as a time of vast increase of knowledge and understanding, especially in divine things; a time wherein God would "destroy the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail spread over all nations," Isa. xxv. 7; wherein "the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun seven-fold," Isa. xxx. 26. " And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the heart of the rash shall understand knowledge," Isa. xxxii. 3, 4. “And they shall no more teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, because they shall know him from the least to the greatest," Jer. xxxi. 34. And a time of general holiness: Isa. lx. 21, "Thy people shail be all righteous." And a time of a great prevailing of eminent holiness, when little children should, in spiritual attainments, be as though they were "a hundred years old," Isa. lxv. 20. And wherein "he

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that is feeble among God's people should be as David," Zech. xii. 8. A time wherein holiness should be as it were inscribed on every thing, on all men's common business and employments, and the common utensils of life, all shall be dedicated to God, and improved to holy purposes: Isa. xxiii. 18, " And her merchandise and hire shall be holiness to the Lord." Zech. xiv. 20, 21, that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, Holiness unto the Lord; and the pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the altar; yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of Hosts." A time wherein religion and true Christianity shall in every respect be uppermost in the world; wherein God will cause his church to arise and shake herself from the dust, and put on her beautiful garments, and sit down on a throne; and the poor shall be raised from the dust, and the beggar from the dunghill, and shall be set among princes, and made to inherit the throne of God's glory. A time wherein vital piety shall take possession of thrones and palaces, and those that are in most exalted stations shall be eminent in holiness: Isa. xlix. 23, "And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers." Chap. lx. 16, "Thou shalt suck the breasts of kings." Isa. xlv. 12, "The daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift, the rich among the people shall entreat thy favor." A time of wonderful union, and the most universal peace, love, and sweet harmony; wherein the nations shall beat their swords into ploughshares, &c., and God will cause wars to cease to the ends of the earth, and break the bow, and cut the spear in sunder, and burn the chariot in the fire; and the mountains shall bring forth peace to God's people, and the little hills by righteousness; wherein the wolf should dwell with the lamb, &c., and wherein God's people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and quiet resting places, Isa. xxxii. 17, 18, and xxxiiii. 20, 21. A time wherein all heresies and false doctrines shall be exploded, and the church of God shall not be rent with a variety of jarring opinions. Zech. xiv. 9, "The Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day there shall be one Lord, and his name one." And all superstitious ways of worship shall be abolished, and all agree in worshipping God in his own appointed way, and agreeable to the purity of his institutions: Jer. xxxii. 39, "I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for the good of them and their children after them ;" a time wherein the whole earth shall be united as one holy city, one heavenly family, men of all nations shall as it were dwell together, and sweetly correspond one with another, as brethren and children of the same father; as the prophecies often speak of all God's people at that time as the children of God, and brethren one to another, all appointing over them one head, gathered to one house of God, to worship the King, the Lord of hosts; a time wherein this whole great society shall appear in glorious beauty, in genuine amiable Christianity, and excellent order, as a city compact together, the perfection of beauty, an eternal excellency shining with a reflection of the glory of Jehovah risen upon it, which shall be attractive and ravishing to all kings and nations, and it shall appear as a bride adorned for her husband; a time of great temporal prosperity; of great health: Isa. xxxiii. 24, "The inhabitants shall not say, I am sick;" of long life: Isa. lxv. 22, "As the days of a tree, are the days of my people;" a time wherein the earth shall be abundantly fruitful, Psal. lxvii. 6, Isa. xxx. 23, 24, Amos ix. 16, and many other places. A time wherein the world shall be delivered from that multitude of sore calamities that before had prevailed (Ezek. xlvii. 20), and there shall be a universal blessing of God upon mankind, in soul and body, in all their concerns, and all manner of tokens of God's presence and favor, and God shall rejoice over them as a bridegroom re

joiceth over his bride, and the mountains shall as it were drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, Joel iii. 18. A time of great and universal joy through the earth, when from the utmost ends of the earth shall be heard songs, even glory to the righteous, and God's people shall with joy draw water out of the wells of salvation, and God shall prepare in his holy mountain, 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, which feast is represented, Rev. xix., as the marriage supper of the Lamb. Yea, the Scriptures represent it not only as a time of universal joy on earth, but extraordinary joy in heaven, among the angels and saints, the holy apostles and prophets there, Rev. xviii. 20, and xix. 1–9. Yea, the Scriptures represent it as a time of extraordinary rejoicing with Christ himself, the glorious head, in whom all things in heaven and earth shall then be gathered together in one: Zech. iii. 17, "The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save; he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love; he will joy over thee with singing." And the very fields, trees and mountains, shall then as it were rejoice, and break forth into singing: Isa. lv. 12, "Ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands." Isa. xliv. 23, "Sing, O heavens, for the Lord hath done it; shout, ye lower parts of the earth; break forth into singing, ye mountains; O forests and every tree therein; for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel."

Such being the state of things in this future promised glorious day of the church's prosperity, surely it is worth praying for. Nor is there any one thing whatsoever, if we viewed things aright, which a regard to the glory of God, a concern for the kingdom and honor of our Redeemer, a love to his people, pity to perishing sinners, love to our fellow creatures in general, compassion to mankind under its various and sore calamities and miseries, a desire of their temporal and spiritual prosperity, love to our country, our neighbors and friends, yea, and to our own souls, would dispose us to be so much in prayer for, as for the dawning of this happy day, and the accomplishment of that glorious event. It may be worthy to be considered,

3. How much Christ prayed and labored and suffered in order to the glory and happiness of that day.

The sum of the blessings Christ sought, by what he did and suffered in the work of redemption, was the Holy Spirit. So is the affair of our redemption constituted; the Father provides and gives the Redeemer, and the price of redemption is offered to him, and he grants the benefit purchased; the Son is the Redeemer that gives the price, and also is the price offered; and the Holy Spirit is the grand blessing obtained by the price offered, and bestowed on the redeemed. The Holy Spirit, in his indwelling, his influences and fruits, is the sum of all grace, holiness, comfort and joy; or in one word, of all the spiritual good Christ purchased for men in this world, and is also the sum of all perfec tion, glory and eternal joy, that he purchased for them in another world. The Holy Spirit is that great benefit, that is the subject matter of the promises, both of the eternal covenant of redemption, and also of the covenant of grace; the grand subject of the promises of the Old Testament, in the prophecies of the blessings of the Messiah's kingdom; and the chief subject of the promises of the New Testament; and particularly of the covenant of grace delivered by Jesus Christ to his disciples, as his last will and testament, in the 14th, 15th, and 16th chapters of John; the grand legacy that he bequeathed to them in that his last and dying discourse with them. Therefore the Holy Spirit is so often call

ed the Spirit of promise, and emphatically the promise, the promise of the Father, &c., Luke xxiv. 49, Acts i. 4, and ii. 33, 39, Gal. iii. 14, Eph. i. 13, and iii. 6. This being the great blessing Christ purchased by his labors and sufferings on earth, it was the blessing he received of the Father, when he ascended into heaven, and entered into the holy of holies with his own blood, to communicate to those that he had redeemed. John xvi. 7, " It is expedient for you, that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come; but if I depart, I will send him unto you." Acts ii. 33, "Being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear." This is the sum of those gifts, which Christ received for men, even for the rebellious, at his ascension. This is the sum of the benefits Christ obtains for men by his intercession: John xiv. 16, 17, "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of Truth." Herein consists Christ's communicative fulness, even in his being full of the Spirit, and so full of grace and truth, that we might of this fulness receive, and grace for grace. He is anointed with the Holy Ghost; and this is the ointment that goes down from the head to the members. God gives the Spirit not by measure unto him, that every one that is his might receive according to the measure of the gift of Christ. This therefore was the great blessing he prayed for in that wonderful prayer, that he uttered for his disciples and all his future church, the evening before he died, John xvii: the blessing he prayed for to the Father, in behalf of his disciples, was the same he had insisted on his preceding discourse with them and this doubtless was the blessing that he prayed for, when, as our High Priest, he offered up strong crying and tears, with his blood, Heb. v. 6, 7. The same that he shed his blood for, he also shed tears for, and poured out prayers for.

But the time that we have been speaking of, is the chief time of the bestowment of this blessing; the main season of the success of all that Christ did and suffered in the work of our redemption. Before this the Spirit of God is given but very sparingly, and but few are saved; but then it will be far otherwise; wickedness shall be rare then, as virtue and piety had been before: and undoubtedly, by far the greatest number of them that ever receive the benefits of Christ's redemption, from the beginning of the world to the end of it, will receive it in that time. The number of the inhabitants of the earth will doubtless then be vastly multiplied; and the number of redeemed ones much more.

If we should suppose that glorious day to last no more than (literally) a thousand years, and that at the beginning of that thousand years the world of mankind should be but just as numerous as it is now, and that the number should be doubled, during that time of great health and peace and the universal blessing of heaven, once only in a hundred years, the number at the end of a thousand years would be more than a thousand times greater than it is now; and if it should be doubled once in fifty years (which probably the number of the inhabitants of New England has ordinarily been, in about half that time), then, at the end of the thousand years, there would be more than a million inhabitants on the face of the earth where there is one now. And there is reason to think that through the greater part of this period at least, the number of saints will, in their increase, bear a proportion to the increase of the number of inhabitants. And it must be considered, that if the number of mankind at the beginning of this period be no more than equal to the present number, yet we may doubtless conclude, that the number of true saints will be immensely greater; when instead of the few true and thorough Christians now in some few countries, every

nation on the face of the whole earth shall be converted to Christianity, and every country shall be full of true Christians; so that the successive multiplication of true saints through the thousand years, will begin with that vast advantage, beyond the multiplication of mankind; where the latter is begun from units, the other doubtless will begin with hundreds, if not thousands. How much greater then will be the number of true converts, that will be brought to a participation of the benefits of Christ's redemption, during that period, than in all other times put together! I think, the foregoing things considered, we shall be very moderate in our conjectures, if we say, it is probable that there will be a hundred thousand times more, that will be actually redeemed to God by Christ's blood, during that period of the church's prosperity that we have been speaking of, than ever had been before, from the beginning of the world to that time.

That time is represented in Scripture, as the proper appointed season of Christ's salvation; eminently the elect season, the accepted time and day of salvation (Isai. xlix. 8, and so on to ver. 23, and chap. lxi. 2, taken with the context, in that and the preceding and following chapters). The year of Christ's redeemed, Isa. lxiii. 4. This period is spoken of as the proper time of the dominion of the Redeemer, and reign of his redeeming love, in the 2d and 7th chapters of Daniel, and many other places; the proper time of his harvest, or ingathering of his fruits from this fallen world; the appointed day of his triumph over Satan, the great destroyer; and the appointed day of his marriage with his elect spouse, Rev. xix. 7. The time given to the Sun of righteousness to rule, as the day is the time God has appointed for the natural sun to bear rule. Therefore the bringing on of this time is called Christ's coming in his kingdom; wherein he will rend the heavens and come down, and the Sun of righteousness shall arise, Mal. iv. 2, and Isa. lx. 1.

The comparatively little saving good there is in the world, as the fruit of Christ's redemption, before that time, is, as it were, granted by way of anticipation; as we anticipate something of the sun's light by reflection before the daytime, the proper time of the sun's rule; and as the first fruits are gathered before the harvest. Then more especially will be the fulfilment of those great promises, made by God the Father to the Son, for his pouring out his soul unto death, Isa. liii. 16, 11, 12; then "shall he see his seed, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand: then shall he see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied, and shall justify many by his knowledge; then will God divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;" then shall Christ in an eminent manner obtain his chosen spouse, that "he loved and died for, that he might sanctify and cleanse her, with the washing of water, by the word, and present her to himself a glorious church." He will obtain "the joy that was set before him, for which he endured the cross, and despised the shame," chiefly in the events and consequences of that day: that day, as was observed before, is often represented as eminently the time of the rejoicing of the bridegroom. The foreknowledge and consideration of it was what supported him, and that which his soul exulted in, at a time when his soul had been troubled at the view of his approaching sufferings; as may be seen in John xii. 23, 24, 27, 31, 32.

Now therefore, if it be so, that this is what Jesus Christ, our great Redeemer and the head of the church, did so much desire, and set his heart upon, from all eternity, and which he did and suffered so much for, offering up strong crying and tears, and his precious blood to obtain it; surely his disciples and members should also earnestly seek it, and be much and earnest in prayer for it.

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