13; Amos, 9:13. Yea, then they shall receive all manner of tokens of God's presence, acceptance, and favor. Jer. 33: 9. "And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honor before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them: and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it." Even the days of Solomon were but an image of those days, as to the tem poral prosperity which shall then prevail.

(8.) It will also be a time of great rejoicing. Isa. 35 10. "And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." Chap. 55 12. "For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you." Chap. 66: 11. "That ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory." Chap. 12: 3. "With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation." That will be the church's glorious wedding-day with Christ upon earth. Rev. 19: 7. "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready." Verse 9. "Blessed are they which are called to the marriage-supper of the Lamb."

(9.) The Scriptures every where represent this prosperity to be of long continuance. The former intervals of rest and prosperity, as we before observed, are represented to be short; but the representations of this state are quite different. Rev. 20:

4. "And I saw the souls of them that were behead ed for the witness of Jesus,-and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." Isa. 60: 15. "Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through thee, I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations." This may suffice as to the prosperous state of the church through the greater part of the period from the destruction of Satan's visible kingdom in the world, to Christ's appearing in the clouds of heaven to judgment.

II. I now come to speak of the great apostasy there shall be towards the close of this period, and how the church shall, for a short time, be threatened by her enemies. And this I shall do under three particulars.

1. A little before the end of the world, a great part of the world shall fall away from Christ and his church. It is said, Rev. 20: 3, that Satan should be cast into the bottomless pit, and shut up, and have a seal set upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years be fulfilled; and that afterwards he must be loosed out of his prison for a little season. Accordingly we are told, ver. 7, 8, that when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and go forth to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog. This intimates that the apostasy would be very general. The nations of the four quarters of the earth shall be deceived; and the number of those who shall now turn enemies to Christ shall be vastly great, as the army of Gog and Magog is represented by Ezekiel. It is said, Rev. 20: 8, that the number of them is

as the sand of the sea," and that "they went up on the breadth of the earth," as if they were an army large enough to reach from one side of the earth to the other.

Thus, after a happy and glorious season, such a long day of light and holiness, of love, and peace, and joy, it shall again be a dark time. Satan shall begin to set up his dominion again in the world; and this world shall again become a scene of darkness and wickedness. The bottomless pit shall be opened, and devils shall come up again out of it, and a dreadful smoke shall ascend to darken the world. And the church of Christ, instead of extending to the utmost bounds of the world, as it did before, shall be reduced to narrow limits. The world of mankind being continued so long in a state of great prosperity, shall now begin to abuse their prosperity, to serve their lust and corruption. Luke, 17: 26, &c.

2. Those apostates shall make great opposition to the church of God. The church shall be threatened with a sudden and entire overthrow by them. It is said Satan shall gather them together to battle, as the sand on the sea-shore: and they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city. So that this beloved city shall seem just ready to be swallowed up by them: for her enemies shall not only threaten her, but shall actually have gathered together against her; and not only so, but shall have besieged her, shall have compassed her about on every side. However, there is nothing in the prophecy which seems to show that the church had actually fallen into their hands, as it had fallen into

the hands of Antichrist, to whom it was given to make war with the saints, and to overcome them. God will never suffer this to take place after the fall of Antichrist; for then the day of her mourning shall be ended, though she shall be most alarmingly threatened with utter and sudden destruction.

3. Now the state of things will seem most remarkably to call for Christ's immediate appearance to judgment. For then the world shall be filled with the most aggravated wickedness. Much the greater part of the world shall have become visibly wicked and open enemies to Christ, and their wickedness shall be dreadfully aggravated by their apostasy. Before the fall of Antichrist, most of the world is full of visibly wicked men. But the greater part of these are poor Heathens, who never enjoyed the light of the Gospel; and others have been bred up in Mohammedan or Popish darkness; but these will have apostatized from the christian church, the visible kingdom of Christ, in which they enjoyed the great light and privileges of glorious times, which shall be incomparably greater than the light and privileges the church of God now enjoy. This apostasy will be more like the apostasy of the devils than any before: for the devils apostatized and turned enemies of Christ, though they enjoyed the light of heaven; and these will apostatize and turn enemies to him, though they have enjoyed the light and privileges of the glorious times of the church. That such should turn open and avowed enemies to Christ, and seek the ruin of his church, will cry aloud for such immediate vengeance as was executed on the devils when they fell.

The wickedness of the world will remarkably call for Christ's immediate appearing in flaming fire to take vengeance on them, because of the way in which they shall manifest their wickedness. This will be by scoffing and blaspheming Christ and his holy religion; and particularly, they will scoff at the notion of Christ's coming to judgment, of which the church shall be in expectation, and shall warn them. For now doubtless will be the greatest fulfillment of 2 Pet. 3:3, 4. 66 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." They shall be in no expectation of the coming of Christ to judgment, and shall laugh at the idea. They shall trample all such things under foot, and shall give up themselves to their lusts, or to eat and drink, and wallow in sensual delights, as though they were to be here for ever. They shall despise the warnings the church shall give them of the coming of Christ to judgment, as the people of the old world despised what Noah told them of the approaching flood, and as the people of Sodom did when Lot said to them, "The Lord will destroy this city." Their wickedness on this account will cry aloud to heaven for Christ's appearing in flaming fire to take vengeance of his enemies; and also because they shall exercise their wickedness in a daring design and violent attempt against the holy city of God, wherein for so long a time so much of the religion of Christ had been seen.

And the great number of the wicked is another thing which shall especially call for Christ's coming;