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THE EXPECTED CHRISTIAN MILLENNIUM.

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FIRST DIVISION.

The word Millennium-its meaning and sanctity.

The thousand promised years we soon shall see,
When earth in righteousness shall whelmed be-
And men with heaven shall then familiar grow,
When sighs and cries shall ever cease to flow.

THE word Millennium is descriptive of a lapse of centuries, consisting of ten, and is derived from its antecedent Millenary, or a thousand years. The word is not found in the Scriptures, but seems, by a unanimous consent of the Churches from early ages, to have been, by way of anticipation, applied to that thousand years in which it is believed the Christ of God shall really and positively be believed in by all nations of the earth. And that he shall reign triumphant, having subdued all opposition to His government, and destroyed all the works of the devil, a jubilee shall succeed, a holy sabbath, a rest of the globe, which has these thousands of years been torn in the tumultuous sea of the corruptions and depravity of men. Its sanctity shall consist in the total absence of all evil, both moral and natural. The evils which now afflict, shall not then be known at all. There shall not then be any wars,

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strife

among

nations shall cease a thousand

years.

All evil passions, coveteousness celty, luxury, ambition, pride, vanity, wrath, self-wiil, haughtiness, treachery, conceitedness, hatred, malice, envy-these shall not then exist.

There shall be none poor, nor rich; none sick, nor in affliction of any kind. There shall be no crying nor sighing, nor death, nor any that lack knowledge, such as heaven approves. The knowledge of this world, which is now mixed, in many instances, with much imperfection, yet is come at by intense application and slow degrees, which, however useful at the present time, are but so many proofs, that man is fallen, and benumbed by the paralyzing power of sin But then he shall awake, shall be recovered from this opiate delirium, and shall possess knowledge by intuition, as Adam unquestionably did before his fall. A necessity for the administration of human government will be totally superseded by the effects of righteousness, which shall then cover the earth" as the waters cover the face of the great deep." Such, then, the sanctity of that day; the great jubilee of heaven on earth; the expectation of the Church, which is founded in the Scriptures of truth. In that inimitable prayer which God our Saviour taught his disciples, this expectation is plainly recognized, inasmuch as he said, when ye pray, say "Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy WILL be done on ARTH as it is done in Heaven." Who will dispute out his will is done in heaven by every individual; so we should pray, expect and believe it will be done on earth. If then it is possible, in the economy of grace.

that God's will shall be done on earth as it is done in heaven, what may we not expect that is not glorious, happifying and divine? If there is no sin in heaven, neither shall there then be sin on earth-is there no death there, neither on earth-is there no poverty nor imbecility of intellect in heaven, then on earth there shall be none, for these things are the effects of sin.

Victory shall be obtained on the very ground where the adversary, for so many ages, has triumphed over the once perfect man. He shall be restored, therefore, to his primitive happiness, in respect to the presence or the approach of any evil.

Anciently, before the time of the Messiah, the doctrine of a resurrection of the human body was but obscurely understood or believed: a few only seem to have had a tolerable idea of such a thing; but the Saviour demonstrated the fact.

So in reference to a Millennium, as yet many see this thing as it were through a glass darkly; but the power of Christ can, and will demonstrate, that he is able to accomplish it, as well as a resurrection of the human body. And there is not a doubt to be indulged, but he will commence the Millennium by a resurrection of all the dead in Christ, for it is written, they "shall rise first," and also, "blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection." But I forbear, at this stage of the subject, to enter farther into a view of the glories of that day, but shall, in the proper place, attempt to do so, which will more fully establish the expected sanctity and effects of that emancipating jubilee.

SECOND DIVISION,

Will show, that such a period was expected by the Prophets, the Jewish Rabbins and Doctors, as the grand ultimo of the Messiah's reign on earth, and in all ages has been the expectation of the Christian Churches, as well as of Christendom at the pres ent time, according to the Scripture promises.

As from the bubbling fount on Eden's plains,
Four rivers pour'd their floods to the four winds-
So once the Prophet saw, beneath the temple's door,
A broader river flow, and sweeter waters potur.

THIS glorious and eventful day has been expected, both of Jews and Christians, in every age since the days of Abraham, to whom was made a promise, that in his seed all the families of the earth should be blessed.

There cannot well arise a doubt, but the prophet Ezekiel had a view of the increase of the MESSIAH'S kingdom, and of the Millennium, in his notable vision of the temple, which he saw an angel measure, who has marked with great precision the progress of the knowledge of God in the earth, by the description he has given of it, under the similitude of water, or a great and flowing river, to which the grace of salvation is often compared in the Scriptures of truth. See Rev. xxii. 1, 2. where the same idea is corroborated, "And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God

and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and which yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." This last idea of the verse (the healing of the nations) establishes the fact, that this river relates to the earth, and not to eternity, as some suppose.

I will give the quotation verbatim, from Ezekiel 47th Chap. from the 1st to the 8th verse inclusive, upon which I build the sentiment, that this view which he had in the vision, of the waters coming out from under the eastern gate of the temple, has a definite allusion to the kingdom of the Messiah, and the progress of a knowledge of his salvation, in both the Jewish and Christian Churches.

Verse 1st." Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward : for the fore-front of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under, from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar.

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Verse 2d. Then brought he me out of the way of the gate northward, and led me about the way without unto the outer gate by the way that looketh eastward; and, behold, there ran out waters on the right side.

Verse 3d." And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ancles.

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