Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/d_400.lzh/D_473.TXT

Text File | 1994-08-18 | 7KB | 133 lines

CHAP. VIII.            'OF THE MILLENNIUM, OR PERSONAL REIGN OF CHRIST.

of grace takes place at the conversion of men, when,
as King, he sets up his throne in their hearts, and
reigns there; and such a reign has been from the be-
ginning of the world, as soon as the first man was
-called by grace; and has continued ever since, more
or less, in every dispensation, and will continue until
the last man is converted. Nor does this reign we are
treating of, take place in the separate state of the soul
in heaven, before the resurrection: that state is ex-
pressed, by a being with Christ, Luke xxiii. 42. 2 Cor.
v. 8. Phil. i. 23. but never, as I remember, by rdgn-
ing with him. This reign will not be until the resur-
rection, till soul and body are re-united; for there
can be no proper reigning while the body is under the
power Of death and the grave, at least not fully and
completely: the saints will first live, that is, live again
iu their bodies, have a part in the first resurrection,
and then reign with Christ, soul and body, a thousand
years, Rev. xx. 4, 6. And so,- .1. This will be a
reign with Christ personally and visibly; he will ap-
pear in person, and be visible by them; and they shall
appear with him, in a most glorious manner, in soul
and body; and will be like him, being glorified, and
reigning together with him; and shall see him as he is,
personally anti visibly, in the glory of Iris person, as
God-man, reigning before his ancients gloriously;
see Col. ifi. 4. I John iii. 2.         2. This reigning with
Christ, implies some kind of share with him in the
glories of his kingdom; hence thrones are said to be
set for them to sit upon; and .judgment given them,
which denotes regal power to be exercised by them;
yea, they are said to sit on the same throne with Christ,
on his throne, and to eat and drink at his table, in his
kingdom: all which expresses a great share of honour
and dignity, and of large enjoyments; see Rev. xx. 4.
 and iii. 21. Luke xxiii. 30..          3. This supposes do-
minion over all their enemies; as Christ will now have
all enemies put under Iris feet, being subdued by him;
so all enemies will be put under the feet of the saints,
and they will have dominion over them. Sin will
now be no more troublesome to them. Their power
over sin, in the present state, is expressed rather ne-
gatively, by sin not having dominion over them; than
affirmatively, by their having dominion over sin; nay,
they are sometimes so far from it, that they are brought
into captivity by it: but now the strnggle for domi-
nion will be over, the warfare will be accomplished,
and an entire victory obtained over sin, which will be
no more. Satan, and his principalities and powers,
though spoiled and bruised by Christ, and triumphed
over by him, yet there is a wrestling and combat be-
tween the saints aud them in the present life; and
though the devil cannot devour and destroy them, yet
he greatly disturbs and distresses them; but now he
will be bruised under their feet also; when he, and
his angels, shall be shut up in the bottomless pit, where
they will remain during the thousand years Christ and
his saints shall reign together in the world, in which
the saints have now so much tribulation; and the
wicked men of it, from whom they meet with so much
persecution, in one shape or another, shall be trodden
down by them, and be ashes under the soles of their
feet, their bodies being burnt up in the general conHa-

gration; and their souls in no capacity to hurt or mo-
lest them, being shut up with Satan in the bottomless
pit. The last enemy, death, will now be destroyed,
being swallowed up in victory, by the resurrection of
the dead; so that the risen saints, reigning with Christ
say., 0 death, where is thy sting? O grave, where
victory? and, indeed of this, and every other
enemy, they may say, Thanks be to God, which giveth
us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ/1 Cor.
xV. 26, 54, 55, 57.
Ill. The description of the persons that shall thus
reign with Christ, as given Rev. xx. 6.
First, They are such who have part in the first re-
.surrection; which, what that is, must be enquired
l[lto.
1st, This cannot be understood of a spiritual resur-
rection, or of a resurrection from the death of sin to
a life of grace, which men are made partakers of at
regeneration; such a resurrection cannot be intended
here; for,         1. As this was a vision of something
future, that John saw, be it afterwards when it may,
it could never be the first resurrection of this sort;
since there had been thousands of instances of this,
from the beginnincr of the world to the times of John;
and therefore could be nothing uncommon, rare, and
wonderful, to be shown him, if this was the case. - -
2. This can never be the first resurrection, with respect
to the persons themselves raised; for they are such
who had been raised in this sense before; since they
are the souls of such who had suffered for Christ and
his gospel, and had bore a testimony against antichrist
in every shape; and had refused obedience to him by
word or deed: and can it be thought that such per-
sons had not been quickened by the grace of God;
or were not raised from the death of sin, before they
suffered for the sake of Christ, or professed his name ?
-. .-3. Persons once raised in this sense, never die
again; nor stand in need of being raised a second
time; he that lives, and believes in Christ, never dies
a spiritual death; grace in him is immortal and incor-
ruptible: and could this possibly be their case, it
would not be the first, but a second resurrection.. -
4. There is no such resurrection after death. Those
persons are represented in the vision, as having been
slain for their faithful testimony; or as having departed
this life, either under Rome pagan or papal; and as
they stood in no need of such a resurrection, so if they
had, they could not have had it; if a man dies in his
sins, he remains in them; if he. dies impenitent, and
an unbeliever, so he continues; neither faith nor re-
nor any grace, are given after death.-----
5. Persons who have been quickened in this sense, or
have been spiritually raised from the death of sin,
and have lived, never lived corporally a thousand
years; not any of the saints in the patriarchal-state,
partakers of a spiritual resurrection, even those that
lived the longest, not Adam, nor Methuselah, lived to
such an age; nor any afterwards to the times of John;
nor any since; nor is there any reason to expect that
any will in the present state.    6. There will be
none to be raised in this sense at the coming of Christ
in the last day; the Jews will have been converted.
and the fulness of the Gentiles brought in; all that
.~0