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The people of the world, also, are looking for, and earnestly desiring, the great day; of the glory of which they will express themselves, according to their different tenets and pursuits in life; as, of a free trade-a flourishing husbandry -improvement in science and arts-the spread of republicanism, or the suppression of it. The religious, who in spirit are of the world, forgetful that the professed design of Christ was only to collect out of the world a people for his name, are contemplating the conversion of all to their particular persuasion; or, perhaps, such a general diffusion of charity among all persuasions, that they will all harmoniously agree to differ: and the deists are no less fondly looking for the Age

of Reason.

Alas! what a disappointment will the world meet, at the coming of this day of God! Are we not assured that faith shall scarcely be found; and that few, very few, shall be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man? Therefore, say to this ungodly, untoward generation, "Wo unto you that desire the day of the Lord : to what end is it for you? The day of the Lord is darkness, and not light. As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light-even very dark, and no brightness in it?"

"So shall the world go on,

To good malignant, to bad men benign,
Under her own weight groaning: till the day
Appear, of respiration to the just,

And vengeance to the wicked; at return
Of him-thy Savior and thy Lord;

Last in the clouds from heaven, to be revealed In glory of the Father, to dissolve

Satan, with his perverted world; then raise From the conflagrant mass, purged and refined, New heavens, new earth, ages of endless date, Founded in righteousness, and peace and love, To bring forth fruits, joy and eternal bliss."

MILTON.

LECTURE V.

THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST.

And in the days of these kings shall the God of hea ven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.-DANIEL ii. 44.

It belongs to our Savior Jesus Christ, as the Lord the Redeemer as the Son of David, and heir of the throne of Israel-to reign over the whole earth; by merit, by heirship, and by ancient promise, it is his right alone; and the day is coming, when he shall take to himself his great power, and shall put all things in subjection under his feet.

This appears in the promises made to Abraham, which were often repeated, that all the land he had journeyed over, from the Euphrates to Egypt, and all his eye could ken eastward, and westward, and northward, and southward, should be given to him, and to his seed, forever; which seed should possess the gate of his enemies.

The promises to Jacob plainly point out this kingdom; which promises Balaam seemed to

have particularly in mind in his remarkable prophecies of the kingdom of Christ, often repeating the very words of Jacob, and the words. of the Lord to him-Israel's "God is with him, and the shout of a King is among them. His seed shall be in many waters, and his King shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted. He shall eat up the nations his enemies, and pierce them through with his arrows. He couched, he lay down as a lion, and as a great lion who shall stir him up? There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall destroy all the children of Sheth. Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth of the city."

We have the same in the promises to Judah"Thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise; thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemiesJudah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion: who shall rouse him up? The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be." "And the Lord said, Judah shall go up; behold, I have delivered the land into his hand."

These promises were repeated to David in the fullest and plainest manner-four times in oue paragraph-"I will set up thy seed after thee, and I will establish his kingdom-And I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever— And thy kingdom shall be established forever

before thee-Thy throne shall be established forever."

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The Psalms are full of prophecies of this kingdom we will quote one passage only"The enemy shall not exact upon him; nor the son of wickedness afflict him. I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers. Also, I will make him my first born, higher than the kings of the earth. His seed also will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven."

Of this kingdom all the prophets have written, especially Daniel; who was much engaged to understand the purposes of God concerning the kingdom of Israel. Daniel "saw in the night visions; and, behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom." This One like the Son of Man, who comes near, and receives a kingdom from the Ancient of Days, is doubtless Christ Jesus, called the Son of Man-the Son of David. Unto him is given the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven; and all dominions shall serve and obey him. And the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, Daniel interprets to be this same glorious kingdom, which shall be raised upon the ruins of all the kingdoms of this world, and which shall stand forever.

These prophecies in the Old Testament raised an expectation in the minds of God's people, of which we find many passages in the New.

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