Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/d_400.lzh/D_468.TXT

Text File | 1994-08-18 | 7KB | 132 lines

468                     OF THE MII,LENNIUM, OR PERSONAL REIGN OF CHRIST.                                                    Book VIf.

be the tabernacle of Christ with men on earth, where
he is said to be with his saints, and dwell with them,
Rev. xxi. 3... .5. There are some prophecies in
Daniel which respect the kingdom of Christ, as in
chap. ii. the image Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream
is explained by Daniel as an emblem of the four mo-
narchies, Babyloninn, Persian, Grecian, and Roman;
and iu v 44. it is said, Jn the days of these kings, shall
the God of heaven set up a kingdom, &c. that is, after
these kings have reigned, and their kingdoms are
ended, as Junius6interprets it; for this kingdom
could not be set up in the days of them all, since their
.kingdoms were successive. Nebuchadnezzar also saw
in his dream, a stone cut out without hands, which
smote the image, and became a great mountain, and
filled the whole earth; which must be understood of
Christ, both in his human nature, which is a taber-
nacle not made with hands; and which God pitched,
and not man; and in his kingdom, which was very
small in its first beginning, but by degrees increased,
and will still more increase, and become a great
mountain, a mighty kingdom, and fill the whole
earth, and so jostle out all other kingdoms: this will
be, in part, fulfilled in the spiritual reign of Christ,
when the kingdoms of this world shall become his;
but most completely in the millennium, when he shall
be King over all the earth. There is a prophecy of
the same kind in chap. vii. where Daniel hada vision
of four beasts coming np out of the sea; which design
the same four monarchies rising up successively in
the world: and after this, he had a vision of a judi-
cial process, issuing in the slaying of the tburth beast,
the destruction of the Roman monarchy;and the
burning of the body of the beast, the remains of that
monarchy, antichrist, and the antichristian states:
after which he has a vision of Christ, the Son of man,
coming in the clouds of heaven; and so it must respect
the second coming of Christ, and of his then having
a dominion, and glorious kingdom given him, which
is an everlasting one, that is, which shall not be left
to another people, as in chap. ii. nor be succeeded by
another kingdom; but shall continue until the king-
dora of heaven, or the ultimate glory, takes place;
and this kingdom will not be in heaven, but under the
whole heaven; as in v 27.              6. There is a passage
which has been frequently referred to, and belongs
to this kingdom state, in Zech. xiv. 9. And lhe Lord
shall be king over all the earth; in that day shall there
be one Lord, and his name one. This kingdom will be
ou earth; and will be when there is no other; and
when the homage and worship paid to Christ, this
King, will be universally the same. And though
there may be some passages in this chapter which
belong to the spiritual reign, the first branch of Christ's
kingdom; yet there are others, as well as this, which
can only .agree with his personal reign, upon his se-
cond coming; for it is expressly said, The Lord my
God shall come, and all the saints with thee; which will
be fulfilled, and not betbre, when Christ shall de-
scend from heaven, and bring all his saints with him,

~ So the Hebrew particle \^b\^ sometimes signifies; see Noldius.
7 i t is a rule with the Jews, that every blessing or prayer, in which

I Thess. iii. 13. and iv. 14, 16. And this reign of Christ
over all tim earth, will be when the saints are in a per-
fect state; and so not before Iris second coming, and
the resurrection of the just. Holiness will now be so
universal, that, proverbially speaking, it will be written
on the bells of the horses; and every member in the new
Jerusalem-church-state, into which nothing defiiing shall
enter, meant by every pot in Jerusalem and Judah,shall
be holbwss to the Lord, or be completely holy; and
there shall be no Canaanite, neither a profane sinner,
nor a carnal professor, in the house and church of
God; nor any sinful lust in any of its inhabitants.
3d13t, The proof of this elorious kingdom of Christ,
may be given fi'om various passages in the New Testa-
merit; and,--l. From Matt. vi. 10. Thy kingdom
come; thy will be done in earth, as it in in heaven. To
this, as a proof, it may be objected, at first sight, that
this is the kingdom of the Father; since it is Our Father
which art in heaven, the petitions arc directed to. To
which it may be replied, that the same kingdom rnay
he called, the kingdom of the Father, and the kingdom
of Christ, as it is certain this kingdom we arc treating
of is so called; as appears by comparing Matt. xxvi.
29. with Luke xxii. 30. and there is a good reason to
be given for it; because this kingdom is a kingdom
which the Father had appointed to Christ, and which
will be given him by him, Lnkc xxii.,o9. Dan. vii. 14.
and for the same reason the Father calls him Iris King,
because appointed and set by him as king over his holy
hill of Zion, Psalm ii. 6. this kingdom may bc calle'd
his. Now this is a kingdom yet to come, and is prayed
for as being future; and so cannot design neither the
kingdom of providence, nor the kingdom of grace,
nor the gospel-dispensation; and though it may in-
clude the spiritual reign, the first branch of Christ's
kingdom, yet will not be fulfilled in that; since it re-
spects a perfect state, when the will of God will bc
done on earth by men, as it is in heaven by the angels;
the saints, in the kingdom-state, will serve Christ their
king constantly and incessantly, and. so perfectly; and
.this will be a kingdom on earth, where the will of God
will be perfectly done, as it is in heaven, and so is a
distinct state from that. To all which may be added,
that the coming of this kingdom is to be prayed for {};
not only the first branch of' it, in the spiritual reign, as
in Isa. lxii. 6, 7. but the second coming of Christ, to
take possession of his kingdom personally, saving,
Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly / and tiffs may,, and
should be a prayer of faith; for since he has directed
his people to pray daily for the coming of this kingdom,
it may be assured that it certainly will come; for Christ
would not direct his saints to pray for that which never
will be.----,o. From Matt. xx. 21, 22, 23. Then came
to him the mother of Zebeclee' s children, desiring that her
two sons may sit the one on Christ's right-hand, and the
other on the left, in his kingdom. The same request is
made bv tim two sons themselves, Mark x. 35--40.
Now though these petitioners were tinctured with the
national notion of the Messiah setting up a temporal
kingdom on earth, at the time of his first coming; and

there is no mention of God and his kingdom, is no blessing or prayer.
Maimon. Hilchot, Beracot, c. 1. s. 5.