By Jonathan Edwards
The Prosperous State of the Church
(Continued from Page 263)
(4) Those will be times of great peace and love. There shall then be universal peace and a good understanding among the nations of the world, instead of confusion, wars, and bloodshed. Isa. ii. 4. “And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” It is represented as if all instruments of war should be destroyed, having become useless: Psalm xlvii. 9. “He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth: he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder, he burneth the chariot in the fire.” (See also Zech. ix. 10). Then shall all nations dwell quietly and safely, without fear of any enemy. Isa. xxxii. 18. “And My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting-places.” (Also Zech. viii. 10, 11).
Then shall malice, and envy, and wrath, and revenge, be suppressed everywhere; and peace and love shall prevail between one man and another; which is most elegantly set forth in Isa. xi. 6-10. Then shall there be peace and love between rulers and ruled. Rulers shall love their people, and with all their might seek their best good; and the people shall love their rulers, shall joyfully submit to them, and give them that honour which is their due. So shall there be happy love between ministers and their people: Mal. iv. 6. “And He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers.” Then shall flourish in an eminent manner those Christian virtues of meekness, forgiveness, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, and brotherly-kindness, those excellent fruits of the Spirit. Men, in their temper and disposition, shall then be like the Lamb of God, the lovely Jesus. The body shall be conformed to the head.
Then shall all the world be united in one amiable society. All nations, in all parts of the world, on every side of the globe, shall then be knit together in sweet harmony. All parts of God’s Church shall assist and promote the spiritual good of one another. A communication shall then be upheld between all parts of the world to that end; and the art of navigation, which is now applied so much to favour men’s covetousness and pride, and is used so much by wicked debauched men, shall then be consecrated to God, and applied to holy uses. (See Isa. lx. 5-9). And then men will be abundant in expressing their love one to another, not only in words, but in deeds of charity: Isa. xxxii. 5. “The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful;” but (verse 8), “the liberal deviseth liberal things, and by liberal things shall he stand.”
(5) It will be a time of excellent order in the Church of Christ. The true government and discipline of the Church will then be settled and put into practice. All the world shall then be as one Church, one orderly, regular, beautiful society. And as the body shall be one, so the members shall be in beautiful proportion to each other. Then shall that be verified in Psalm cxxii. 3. “Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together.”
(6) The Church of God shall then be beautiful and glorious on these accounts; yea, it will appear in the perfection of beauty: Isa. lx. 1. “Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.” Isa. lxi. 10. “He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.” On these accounts, the Church will then be the greatest image of heaven itself.
(7) That will be a time of the greatest temporal prosperity. Such a spiritual state as we have just described, has a natural tendency to health and long life; and that this will actually be the case, is evident by Zech. viii. 4. “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age.” It has also a natural tendency to procure ease, quietness, pleasantness and cheerfulness of mind, also wealth, and a great increase of children; as is intimated in Zech. viii. 5. “And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof.”
—But further, the temporal prosperity of the people of God will also be promoted by a remarkable blessing from heaven: Isa. lxv. 21. “They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.” And in Mic. iv. 4. “But they shall sit every man under his vine, and under his fig-tree, and none shall make them afraid.” Zech. vii. 12. “For the seed shall be prosperous, the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew, and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things.” (See also Jer. xxxi. 12, 13 and Amos ix. 13.) Yea then they shall receive all manner of tokens of God’s presence, acceptance and favour: Jer. xxxiii. 9. “And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honour 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 temporal prosperity which shall be obtained in them.
(8) It will also be a time of great rejoicing: Isa. xxxv. 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. lv. 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. lxvi. 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. xii. 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. xix. 7. “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife hath made herself ready.” Ver. 9. “Blessed are they which are called to the marriage-supper of the Lamb.”
The Scriptures everywhere represent this prosperity to be of long continuance. The former intervals of rest and prosperity, as we before observed, are represented to be but short; but the representations of this state are quite different: Rev. xx. 4. “And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus—and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” Isa. lx. 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.