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XI. l.-,.-^//o,,Z'' tne dead to be judged, a»d to give their reward unto thv se.vants th« prophets and to the saints, and them that fear thy nan,e tC ." and the great ; and to destroy then which destroy the earth. --k^^ X 8 _^ 4 TORONTO PIUNTKD BY I,. K. WIN DF.n, MACJILL STRKKT. 1 878. J^' «r' ^lig to ibii: rect con- testi also In the i conv A. D teentf times emine in this a Iittl( advoca of timi But viz., th the ace before wrought faithful , ning of this final and witl glorified ^n aJ? futi doctrine i PREFACE. ■''lie incaualioii of •, ,i,- fe.luire cx„la„,„i„„ "' " "'■7"'-* 'he sixth of a ,c.,u-, ,„ " !.». fi,,,,,,,, ,„^ ...0 °e^, ,^'=''-*"S- I had Loped loiind the review of Se,i,„„„ ' ^ ""^ ""'■ "ow given ,„, Jn publishing the one ,v ^^e advice of friends :;;Lf-;„^ '-- --what ,i.ded to co:mct.ons. The subject of the r "? /^ ^"'^'^^ ^^^ '">' own A. D. 70, ,s not a novelty I'l? '"' ^' ^ccomj>hshed in ;-n'h century, and so. 'othe L'^r' "^^^'"^ °^ ^'- be- times advocated it. m the hst 1 '" '''"^ ^"^ «"bse,,uent em.ne„,ewhoadn.itted th for fof S^? '"" ^^ '-" "s:-----'".>-2itrorati-" v«!te^srar;rfar"''"*^<'''^'™«"™p-se„ted •he acco™p,i,h„,e„ „f T ^^ "f "?"'" "*»' "^ Chri &; Wore the then living g,™™ "^ "'"-^en, and ,.ropieiat ion '"ought on, by the Son of p'h """""^ '^'"y- *' ^Ivation' tahfu, dead of forn,er ,1: °° ..aT'?, ""^"""""W on aU Z "■"g of the kingdom of G^d J? ""^ »»^ «»« at the besTn *'s final kingdom began TtstTu^! "f ' "^^ "^ *« "rid. S," »d "fth all the faithful deXf o! !" •^^' »' *'°- -nisLd Slonfieda, („ „„,,,„^^ ,^ which I addeT" I""" '"''^ "" -" '" ^'.'^""■re I'mes to the end is a „„ , """"'"ow*, the faithful doctnne is concerned. At t at it"r:'L'° '" " ^™"'-'«<' '"o, so far as I can discover. If any person can refer to any book which contains it, I will rejoice in the fact, and in the removal of my ignorance. To the present I can only say, I have found the substance of the doctrine in Scripture, and there not merely as an inference essential to the doctrine of the regal advent as of A. D. 70, but stated by itself, and as synchronous with the judgment, and the regal advent But why disturb the prevalent faith at this late day ? Why face the accepted Eschatology with a doctrine apparently subversive of it ? For several reasons, the first of which might be sufficient as an apology, viz., the authority and harmony of Scripture ; Secondly, to be better able to come to a true knowledge of the dispensation of the fulness of times," in its king as reigning and in its nature as "the ministration of the Spirit and of ife^ Lesser reasons maybe furnished, as the simplifying of the con- ditions of salvation and communion, now in Christendom various and all beyond those revealed in the New Testament. Also the action of the doctrine here advocated, as conducive to a belief m Christianity as spiritual and supernatural, and to faith as the eye of the mind to discern the supernatural. The reader will please remember, that the evidences from Scripture for the doctrines here advocated are far from being fully p esented in this discourse. They are spread over the series of Ihich this discourse is the sixth. This one is now given to the Christian people, because it presents in some degree an ep^ome of the evidence from Scripture in the others ; because dealing chiefly with the writmgs of St. Paul, the chief writer of the Apostles, and the one most embued with the spirit of Messianic Fophecy and the spirit of the Lord of the prophets, it has a larger field of enquiry on the leading subjects relating to the kingdom of God Z I may add because of the wish of friends for a critical examination of the apostacy mentioned in 2nd Thess. n. chapter and the account given in ist Thess. iv. chap. 13th to the end of ,the resurrection of the dead in Christ, and the translation of the living. This discourse is now presented to suggest to the Christian people a course similar to that followed by the people at Berea in apostolic times, it is saJH " ,u whether those things' we e so -' /'"''''' ^'^^ ^^^P^^^es daily '^ere ,s a loud call fo reH e from h " ""^ ^"^'' '' '^^ P^ese ' however ancient and influ „ ^a ^^^ ^P-'^-ns of the' Word' °" -t as the basis of all truth col '""' ,°" "^'^ Scripture J ^ -e ,s a pressing need in hese time"'"? ''' ''"^^^"^ °^ ^-d. -hen deep '"^ calling unto deep and t P.'' ""^^'^' ^"^ "Ph^aval, -■d uneasy concerning the lctl^ r'f''" '"'"^'^^''^^^^'^^'d calmly and Pe^sistently^he mind of he U ? '"^ ''"'''' ^" -^^^ ^now h,m who is over all GoTbLL r '^ ^P'^'^' ^^^^^^^y to of the final age over which he is nlw '""' '"' '""^ ''^' "'-^ture the God-head. "^ " ""«' ''e'Sn.ng in all the fulness of The righteousness fn ru ■ Of the Scribes and' PhaWstrThe '°^%"°' -uch exceed that mattered abroad. l.o here and^o tl"', "'^ ""' ^°^ '^ "°- d-vis,ons come from imperfec" cl„ '' " '"^"'^ °"^ ^^^^^ Our the kmgdom of God. TWare wh^f ""^ "' ^^"^"^ ^""^^rning «P'r.t of Scripture. The W r. "^ "^P"^^'^ ^^ the letter and -ggesttheneedof unitv. ?L S"' "" '" '^-' ^^^ -- righteous of former dispen-lH ""^^ ^O'^prehending all th; •" the past times of the 1"^°"^' '"^ "^^ ''^«^*^ "' '^ht un » - ^^^^^' unto Z:^,:Z^;^'y ? — -I^if^^Ce the v,s,on and company of the elonfiV-'^ us up then to CW.I^XI^T:,':^!?: ?'''°'- '» *e notice of , he *e h.ma„ element in uZ^L''T'' '''"- *'«'l^nce concemin' ac,ua,n,ance™h.herti„g3 ofteTi™^::™:: "'"'"'" I' m at Onp On tl i On th a i: On pa r On pa On pa Onth( Onthj On the On paf On pag Ia( "IS Cit typical with th crisis w of their fectly r( to subm THE REGAL ADVENT "Ui,. oix.,,,,, „,, I HRRATA. <^n P-^ge 31 cr>j/*«r, is blurred" On page 37, and fourth line from b„ r„mf f read, physician heal "hyS ' "' P^cian thyself » On page 39, third line from too "snn"l„.u .1, on:^:SJir::^:::--Lsi^^^-- On page 6„ last line, " Sovereign » lacks ' On «e ^64, on the thirteenth line ,r„™ the top. "Sovereign" "'*. "^^^^ unto salvation T?„f -nsis which .ntimated either theTvt ' '^'' ""'"'y '^^^ ft>r a I wi take 2 coini E his V self. toget! are or recorc most to a bi lament sii/rerir . " becai a basis into th appoint his casi typically with the crisis wh of their . fectly coi to submit THE RKGAL ADVENT 2,,,/ 77 , -^ "^ '"y no man The discourses of our J orrl .n i ■ Z recorded in John's (Jospe/ ,a , ° ^ ^^''''^'^ b'^'"^^^-' i^is j,assion "'ost heart of Jesus. n 't, e /m ' . "'''''''''' '^'-'^^ theTnne^' J« a brief interval of al senc d "^'^''' ^''^ ^""^es irecuemlv 7-' to be roilowedThs ::tl?"^^''^^^'^-''^4a d ^"'T-ermgs and sorrows. He .v 'M , ' ^""^ ''^ '"^^^'•^aJ of their . ''because I go to the Father "hV'^-'"'" '°^ '^ ^^^^ -a -n annoil;/''^'"^^ of the Fath r H. ''"''" "'S'' ^"^^t appointed to the sin hearer once !; /^ ^^' '° ^ie, for it was f '^ case unto salvation fi ' ."' ''^"^ ^^'^^ '^'^t a crisis .n -----^^atonin;t^----.h^^ 8 the Father eternal redemption for us, to be invested with all power in heaven and on earth, to remain in heaven " until the restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets from ancient times ; " and then come forth as the day star from on high, to shed forth the light and heat of life on the region and shadow of death of former ages, and irradiate with the light, of life, " the dispensation of the fulness of times " onward to the end of time. In view of all this, Jesus said to his disciples " ye now therefore have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you." In view of this Paul said " now we beseech you brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him." To the Ephesian Church he said, " having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself. That in the dispensation of the fulness of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in lieaven, and which are in earth, even in him." In the first discourse of tliis series, I proposed a fresh and care- ful survey of Scripture to see if the prevalent views of the second advent, the resurrection and the judgment, are there sustained, and to ascertain whether tiie difficulties which encumber the accepted Eschatology, and which are felt by many as seriously affecting the harmony of Scripture, are not inherent in Scripture, but have arisen from a false method of interpretation. Having previously, by an inductive method, drawn from Scripture an Eschatology which placed its subjects at the end of the Mosaic age, a;^d not as generally understood at the end of time; I was led,, in this series of discourses, to present the evidences for a -con- clusion, so different from wiiat has been, and is now, held in Christendom. I presented my conclusions in the first discourse, viz., that shortly after the first or priestly advent of Christ, for the accom- plishment of a work of atonement and propitiation, before the then living generation passed away, the salvation wrought out by the Son of God was consummated on all the faithful dead of the past times— on all the pious of the P.itriarchal and Mosaic ages, 9 J^f ^:f ';r;;;.'tru;^r^ '^r " '- --'^s or glonfied Son of God be.an hi^. ^'"'■'^' °^^-''- ^^-'"'ch the end of ,n.e. That the^., ngZ' ^ ' •'" ^°"""- ^° * o[ Moses vanished, and with afl th /'?. "' '^"^'^^ ^''^^" 'hat a-^ed up and glorified as It^ '^'^'^'"' °^ Previous times -ousI,,theaith.UofantSr-::j:rtti'^^'^^^-"- ^n the first and second d , t prophecies in the Old Testament ft "'' '"'^^"^^ '"^^"^ the ^^-""g they had on the leTeZ\ "l' ^'^'^^' ' ^'^owed the -:°" all in it referring to hf k, ll"". .°' "" ^^^"' '^-'--"ent ";'nute examination of J,^" ,• f ^"f ?^ ^^"^ ; and then made a ;^- Testament, and «; si' ^^1;, ''' --'^"'e of the he fourth, I dwelt chieflv on L Pf^opheces of Christ. r„ Matt. .,th, Mark .3th,':nZ utT;th Ir'T '' ^''^^ ^ fifth I presented an analysis of aLT'^^'P''''- ^" the ogether with notices of he p r.bt r' f' ''"' ^" '""^ ^^d, a^nts a„, u.at memorable re'Iof fef " "'■^'"■^ '^"^ ^he . Withm a little while ye shall 3 Ve"' '^ ''^^' "■gh Priest "ft hand of power, aL o ," '^the",^^'''^" •^'"'"^^ ^^ 'he what I have done, I have no n ? ^ ''°"^' «^ heaven." j„ passage of Scripture, nrso^LTr;^ '"?' '^^^^^^^^'^ host undue stress on particular wo d 'L e "r^"''^" ' ^^'''<' any -eaning, which, from the contrjT •"''^^^ ^^°- 'he • was manifested. As rea.rdr u "'^ '?"''' "^ the passage .guidedbyacanonof S^r 1"! ^^-^°'--. ^ ha e bein ooked, which demandfr " :f ;^^ ''' '-" strangely over figures in one 'of two ways, t ' " "* '^' '^^'"^ words or w at is to transpire in the'm 1 ' Jrt^ " "'^^"^'^ -'^'-^ " -;" -Hustrate the action of th t bv I ' '"P""'^^"^'^' ^'-^h"- ^ -here .s a prophecy of what ould t;V"^' '''''^''P" ^-' ^erse, palpable ; and also of wha Jou^ 1 ^'^'l ^"^ be visible and and supernatural nature, could 1,7^",: "'"' '"" ''' ^P'^'tual '"■nd. It is said of the ,^ne 'then '" ^' '^' ^P'"^"^' pass "and ot the other, •' klw^Tha^thT^r T '^'"^^ ^^ ^ hand. The one, referring to the h , ^^"^""^ "^ ^od is at ^en^ands the literal understan^di^; X::::Z:' ^^T''"'' ^ee, m the sense I 1(^ of a visual bodily Dercemion -ri, , .1 nature of its suhject the kl , ^ f-"'' """'^^ ^''''' ^'^"^ ^^e from a belief o he ' ^^1'?^" •"'''' '°"^^^ ^™'" '"^''h. or difference o be h"l . H I''^' '"'^^ '''' ^'^^' ^--" "^ inH - I » i " "'*' "'^ '^^''■^^ 'ii'ide of the verbs " sep" -nfeof thtodnrri .''*■'' H°''""-, ''» '"""-"''"S =he chief spirit™, pe4° i on To " L" < t'Tf " """'"« '"™"' ^'"' ■ loud with great power incl 1, ■■ ! , '"" "'"""'■' '" » so CO., and ,„ Le and^e.^;::^:. d,; "^.y-r " ■"" "= "- ^T:!'!r::L:: «f J;,-Vf-^'<>V'"'"« -rere„ce to a future spiritual or .uper^ra, F^rrt h""'' "' "" """■"'" """ ""= interpretation of th „m ' "f "\"""°' "' '" "'""'""■^ »nce of the rule before' ^en „ Id for" ■ f: T""" '" ''^'■ Biblical prophecy refer, t" evim!t ? ^'^"'"' '■'"''°" """ the propriety of so doing, yet he will not if h^ h , ' """' life, doubt of the necess fv ""'' '" " '"""•= present and th f«" I fa, L ".Tf"" 'T ■'"' '''""'■ "- the senses on the one V„H s "" ''""""S 'I": action of tlte actio ai h o" .hT ' Tt '"""'""'' "' "" o*" '" «.v.ho,is™, in its'tter^Ll irsfbe'grr byMr'*?'"' predicted, and that it is the wilrW hn,, ''y,"'" subjects tlgures of prophecy which hLtf::'::',!;:!'''".' ','" supernatural h'ternllv c;^ a ■ spiritual and the .he subjects 'of 'r.;«„,t:;:Se "nT:;-"!: """'"r "•"= ^'^-^ -o3 nr tiie .nd ot utnc, and pre-miliennar- »<•*' n '■'-'"s pJace them in the futnr. result I r '-^' ^"^ Permeates nil v ■'^^'nptiire which prophecies of Ch ^ ''^'^'""^ °^ ScripLe 1 ^''"'^'^"^ former were ,n ' '"""^^'"'^d that the at'ter ''^f'""^ '""^ anrJ , I- V -'"g^ioin of r;nd 3nH ;' T ^"^ ^" ^'^'-^ "ormal ' -^^'^"^ened a^e, so abh .,.:^ ^".j " J^^ .P--nt advanced '" ^'Tist.an heart, as to T 'T! ? ' m 12 call forth efforts at reformation, without regard to the long past, either as respects time honored doctrines, or ecclesiastical systems. In placing the subjects of a scriptural Eschatology at the end of the Mosaic age, and at the beginning of the kingdom of God, I am aware that I am advancing a method of Biblical exegesis which strikes at the root of the prevalent theologies, and demands their reconstruction. I am aware that the theology presented in this discourse is hostile to the received sense of Scripture in nearly universal Christendom, and will have to meet an united and fierce opposition or cold contempt. A cumulative mass of evidence however from Scripture supports it, gathered from Messianic prophecy uttered ins the dusky dispensation of Judaism, by those who sitting in the valley and shadow of death, shed gleams of light, by their foresight of the expected Life-giver, on all the spiritual minds around them. To this light in a dark place there is added the increased light which, on the threshold of New Testament revelation, beams forth in the inspired songs of Zacharias, Mary and Simeon, and in the messages of the Baptist, forecasting the greater light shed forth by the priestly servant of Jehovah, when he came to be the fulfiller of the law and the prophets, and by his suffering and atoning work, lay the basis of the future, yet near, kingdom of God. We have gone over his prophetical words, we have seen their accordance with previous prophecy, we have observed his prophetic words as the concentra- tion of all previous Messianic prophecy, centered in their fulfilment on the passing away of Judaism, at the desolation of Jersualem, and the destruction of the temple — the sign when before the then living generation lapsed, "all these things shall be fulfilled." We have in the words of the Lord of the prophets the testimony of Jesus, which is " the spirit of prophecy." We might here rest our case, for in the words of Him who said " ont is your teacher even Christ," there is the perfect demonstration. Here we might rest and calmly face an united Christendom and all her theologies, and say the words of Christ are more than all. With Him we can face the world of mankind ; with Him on our side we can dismiss all our fears of discomfiture, and all our painful feelings of regret at the undoing of the theological labours of many centuries, and say, " let God be true, and every man a liar." Let Christ and the 13 r^^:J:'::^:^x:::^ tr"^ '-' ^™''^ -- - - whose decisions over-r Se a Id nnul ,/1'' T '" ^•°"'--^«-«. the exposifons of note/t olc^" , d:^^^ T'f'l ^"' ^" acceptance with Him, in whom dwe leth nn i f ^' '" '" ""^ of the God-head, and as they foil o 1 '^^^"'•^^!^"^"^' f"'"^«« which is the law of his reign ' "'°""-' "'''' '^'"^ ^^^^ the disciples would be engaJd lem M , ' '"'''■^^^' "'"^^^ 1 • J , engaged Jieraldmg the tJooH npwc ^r fU kingdom and of a wonderful transformaLn^fen - I sLi ' you agam"-a transformation so great that sorrow . I, ii a "and your heart shall rejoice and vot inl , ' ''''^■' you." When was this to be ' "ve read n thT "T '^'"'^ '"" in that day ye shall ask me nod. n^ vX^:^'^ " ^f you, whatsoever ye .s'lall ask the FatlJr ■■. ^' T ^^ ""'° it vou " " Tn tL A u "'^' '" '"y name, he shall give "you. In that day," a phrase expressive of the dav of fnli pa Jon, .., 1 ni/airhtjx:?^, 'itiAr "^ vc you comiortless, I will come unto you. Yet a little while and the world seeth me no mnr. u . J^et a little the Father, and ye in me, and I in you." That "at L\!i . 4, uiat aay as the day of the Lord " •'11 14 IS mentioned. In 2nd. Tliess. i. 10, we read, "When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe, because our testimony among you was believed in (or concerning) that day. In 2nd Timothy, i. 12, we read, " For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he 'is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day " Paul prays for Onesiphorus. "The Lord grant unto him that he •may find mercy of the Lord in that day;" and for himself when about to suffer martyrdom for the name and cause of (^hrist he looks calmly forward to that day, the day of Christ's regal advent, for the crown of righteousness, and for the accomplishment of the words of his Lord, "ye now therefore have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your hdart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you." That the words of Christ leavened the thoughts and words of the Apostles admits of no doubt. He told them of an interval in which they would be as orphans, that condition alleviated by the presence and gifts of the Holy Spirit the comforter, that they interpreted the interval as enduring to the end of time, or that they understood the coming of Christ, as to be' at death, and the life then to be received as affecting only a part of their being, the other ])art remaining in death until a resurrection at the last day of time, cannot be sup- posed. The words of Christ, " Because I live, ye shall live also," followed by, " At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you," bear on their face the promise of an early and a full redemption. The notion of a sal- vation of a part at death, and of the remaining part after an interval of thousands of years, so long, and until now, the prevalent faith in Christendom, is not discoverable in Scripture. " At that day " they would live as Christ lives, is the only fair inference from 'lis words. "At that day" they would know of their perfect union with Christ— an union as perfect as that of Christ with the Father. " That day," as the day of the bright appearing of the Son, was to them, and to all the faithful of the past ages, the day of full redemption. It was " the end of ihe days " to Daniel. " The last day " of whicj day," ness, shall fully 1 am in .state 3 rejoict and in and Sc cation which unto th any on them ni of my ] Can epistle, believers coming ( unto hin neither b day of C He tells ( t- be rei sume wit] Wghtness iniquity al Rome, ye Empire so his true na initiate the Mosaic dis tion of the of the Son the kingdoi There wa 15 which Jesus said " r 'ii • day," at which Paul expec^rto''!" ^'"^ 'T'""^^ '^'' ^^ " that ness, all comprehended in the ldTnf% "'"" "'" ^''s'^^«°"«- ;hall live also." ■< i .,•„ co.e V to yo:^^!:r;h?r " -^ ''^^ ^^ fully redeemed and glorified as snn fV> , ''^ "^^y' ''^'^'^d and am in the Father, and ye in n Z '' ^ '^^" '^"^^ ^^^^ ' «tate ye have sorrow, but I „ • ''o v " '""• " '" >'°"^ "^P^^n rejoice, and your joy no man tZJ.T '''^'""' ""^ ^'''''' ^eart shall and indestructible' f.Te encirHed T '"•" ^"■'■'-' '"defeasible and Son. A full rede-^Hion of , 7 X' T''''''''''' ^' ^^'^^^ cat.on of the whole man A fulfil f "^''"^ ^^ '"^''' ''eatifi- which in the interval of orptn i' Z '^ " '' ""'' "' -^"^ ^"' -to them eternal lif., andl .'^l 'iT'^' '-- ^- " ^ ^-e any one pluck them out of mv h , T ^''"'^' "^'^^^^'- ^hall them me is greater than nil 7 '^'- ^^ ^^'^''^ ^vhich gave of my Father's h d x d 'T T '' ^"^ ^° '^'"^'^ ^'^^ « 1 ana my Father are one." Can we wonder that Paul in \ n epistle, the date of which is uncertain ';°'. ''^'" ''' ''''°'' '^'^ believers at Thessalonica, " Now we ' '° '''' '"'P^^^'^"* coming of our Lord Jesus ChnV 7^' ' '"'' ^'''^''^''' '^>- 'he -to him, 7'hat ye be n't rn T , >""• '''"^' neither by spirit, nor byword'" '" '" '"'"'' '' ''' ^-""^'^'d, day of Christ is come " ' ' ^' ^'"'^^'' '' ^^'^ »'^' '-^^ that the He tells Of an int^^inj:;::;,:;;^ ' Of t '''^': ''' ''^ --•" t-- be revealed m a brief ttr^". UK '"'''^ or lawless one sume with the spirit of hi. , '"' '''" ^'^'^ ^^all con- brightness of l^Jc:X'''rT' T' 1"- '^'''^y ''^'^ ^'^ iniquity already at work, but hindered bvTh'"""'^ "^'^^">' «^ Rome, yet shortly in the inte^^fn ^ P""'"' °^ ""Penal Empire soon to happen to have a^h ?*"'"°^'"- '" the Roman his true nature, and to ^reci^tate a '"'r '" "'^'^'^ ^" ^^P'^y initiate the crisis of the XL "^^r''\ ^°-^' -hid. would Mosaic dispensation, a^r'tt"'"! '"'' ''^^^■"^^" «^ ^"e tion of the temple, g ve t le ou 1 h "^J"^!^"''''^''" '-^"d the destruc- of the Son of M^n'Z\t Z^J";' -^■^'-'^-f the coming the kingdom of God, and '" r t LtT' .t' ^''^'^^^"^ ^f ^atnenng together with Christ " ™"° "" ° ™" °^ ■"= -™^ -"■". or Chris. „,„. ,.,d by 16 some at Thessalonica, no doubt very like to that of some at Corinth, who said " there is no resurrection of the dead," and to that of Hymenaeus and Philetus and others, of whom Paul says in his second epistle to Timothy, " who concerning the truth have erred, saying, that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some." The coming of the Son of Man, and the resurrection of the dead to such, were completed in conversion and regeneration. " Risen with Christ " to them was the whole of the faith concerning " that day, and our gathering together unto him." " Christ in you the hope of glory," " Christ is in you except ye be reprobates," fulfilled as they thought the coming, the '.w,^»„J« the bright appearance of the Son of Man in the glory of the Father. They confounded the means with the end. The earnest with the future harvest. The germ with the perfect plant. The promise with the fruition. Paul well said of such, " they overthrow the faith of some." He saw in this view the overthrow of the central doctrine of the Christian faith threatened, and like John, regarding those who denied that Christ had come in the flesh, he unsparingly denounced those who interpreted the words of Christ by conversion and regeneration, and so doing diverted attention from the outward and visible sign of his coming : the desolation of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple, and the final end of the Levitical dispensation— all comprehended in the visible sign of the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven, the establishment of the kingdom of God, *' and our gathering together with him." Paul well understood from the prophetic words of Christ, that his coming would be signified by overwhelming judgment on Jerusalem and the temple, and by the end of the Levitical rites ; and that to look for the regal advent before the special sign given by Christ, was tantamount to a rejection of his predictions. Hence he spake of the intervening apostacy, and the rise of a lawless power adverse to the Divine purpose, already in its incipiency, yet hindered, and for a season so to be, then to be manifest, and to perish at the regal advent. That the words of Paul had no reference to an apostacy and lawless power thousands of years afterwards is evident, in that he speaks of the " mystery of inicjuity " already at work, and of its destruction at the /fgal advent, which he cnlls " the brightness of 17 his coming "—and Thess ii 8 U ,u . why did the Apostle endeavou; todrr rfl? '•' '' ^'^ ^"^ °^^''"^' '"g It as of the past, by a reference t ^^''^"^P''"«'°» concern- Was that apostacy to Loulder Jor thn '" T'''' '''''^y ^' ^^^^ ? in the 6th and 7th verses 'AnH ''"'^' "^^^''^''^ ^ ^s we read he (or it) ™a/be ^eLd n T ^^rtr'^^ '^"^^^^'^h- niystery of lawlessnes doth al L ^^ °''" ^™^- ^"^ ^^e hindereth be taken out oTth 4:"":";/;!^' ""''' ^^ ^^^t appeals to those he addressed th,^ <r f"'"'^ ' '''''"'"■ ^^ul He alludes to the death of him ?. ^!>"°^ ^^'^^^ ^'"dereth.'. words " until he be takei out o h'^'l-t^^^ '" ''' ^'°^^"« shall the lawless one be revealed whl I' t ' '''^'' " ^"^ ^^^n sume with the breath of Usi^T / u''' ^^^"^ ^'^^" con- brightness of his coming" Those r J'" ^^stroy with the aware concerning what hindered u'" ^"' ^^^^^^^^d were the power hindering were not .t M . ■ """'"^ '^^^ ^^^^ been if hindering power nothing but dea h cnnir^ '"^''''"^ ^ ""^ ^^^^^e the way » evidently poiL to tt rf '■'"'°''- " Taken out of Nero. What is sa'id'b fore ref rs to , °' '" ^""^" ^^P^^- and to be so as long as he ^ T^" T '" ''"'^""^ P^^' t^me which are recorded by JoseohuJh f °' ^'^^^^^^ ^^ ^^at the fear of him and of his power " ' ''^"' ^^^° "^^<1. What this historian pr'senrLr r!,' " ''^" ^^^ ^--"ces! mystery there is in the Aoostl*^''. ? ^, deciphers whatever of fhe mystery of iniquity 'of tLT?'°"' ^'^ ^^^^^"^ «"-' or immediately after he las :< taken oJrofT' °' "'''^^ '^PP^"^^ death in A. D. 68 inteshn. ^^^ "'^^- After Nero's Empire. As ChristTrp^^S^ 'T'''' ''^ ^-- and rumors of wars, see thaT ve bJ ^ ''''' °' ^^^^' thmgs must come to ^ass, but he end "" ''°"'^''' '°^ ^" ^^ese -Id, " For many shall come n ' „, " °°' '"''" ""' '^^ ^^^-- shall deceive many." To Vhl J ^ ' '''^'"^' ^ ^"^ Christ, and epistle ii. chapter, f 8th vers '?< L S1"h?/°'" "^^^^ ^ ^^^ -t and as ye have heard that AntH t'^'^f"' " '' ''' ^''^ tin>e, ^ere many Antichrists, whe^ ^ \tw r\"^" "°^^ ^ The judgment on Jerusalem wis ? ^ " '' *^^ ^ast time." to be immediately precedeTby, T"' '° ''' ""-^'^ ^^ Christ, 1 1 18 ences, and earthquakes in divers places." He adds, " All these are the beginning of sorrows." I have before assumed A. D. 52 as the date of 2nd Thessa- lonians, as to that time general consent is given. To what I have said of Nero as the hindering power to the manifestation of the lawless one, exception may be taken on the ground that Nero only became Emperor in A. D. 55, and if the epistle was written m A. D. 52 there is a manifest anachronism in the c:, e here pre- sented. There is, if the epistle was written in A. D. 52, in the reign of Claudius Caesar. I do not know, and no one else does, that this date is correct. ; Apart from the internal evidence, and from what we learn of the journeyings of Paul in the Acts -of the Apostles, there is nothing to determine the date. If any one prefers the Emperor Claudius to Nero, that the commonly accepted date of the epistle may be sustained, let him do so. For myself, I think a later date, probably A. D. 58 or 60, more consonant with the internal evidence. I rest greatly on the words " until he be taken out of the way," as referrible to Nero, and as determining the later date of the epistle. There is a harshness in the words which has its justification in their appli- cation to Nero, the greatest monster of cruelty of all the Roman Emperors ; and the words authenticate the general desire for his death, which existed for several years before it happened. Nero was the first Emperor that enacted penal laws against the Christians. In his reign Peter and Paul sufi'ered martyrdom, and John was banished to Patmos. But his cruelty was not confined to any religious sect or Province. His savage heart left its impression on the whole Empire, and everywhere the hope rested on .he antici- pated time, when he should " be taken out of the way." During his reign, the lawless one, or power, had its rise, and limited action, but the general tranquility of the Empire hindered its growth, and compelled the delay of the intended out-break, until the troublous times which preceded and followed the death of Nero. It was tlen that the Jewish war began, which in three years and a half, ended with the capture of Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple, and the scattering of the holy people, foretold in Daniel xii, 7, and more plainly by Christ, in his prophecies recorded in Matthew xxiv., Mark xiii., and Luke xvii. and xxi. These events ;-son of '<our gathering 1" " j; '^' T «^ ^-"^^ ^^ the '■"^-."in which all things .v°tne, " "l ' """ '"^""-- o*" ^^■h'ch are in heaven an^in.a;h::;;;:1:":tn-^^ In many i)laces in f), . Apostle uses lang.ag: con. r^j J^IT^ ^"/^^ Thessnionians, the 'f-^ nearness, and any interpr'tatbn of i'' '.'^'"^ '"''' ''"I^"-- ^""e, or to a lapse of eighte n o 1 '''"""^' ^" ^^^ ^"^1 of ""natural, m ,stThess. 1. 3, we 17 V'"'"""^' '^ '""--^ '"^nd ""••_ Lord Jesus Christ." More c. ?'"■ '''''^'^"'^^' "^ ^ope in 1-t.ence of your hope of our' o , uTX ' ""^^' " ^^-' ^^ ^PPeanng patiently exercised n I ?u'''" '''^^' ^'''^^^ '" hi-s read, " How ye turned to ( od fron , ? '"'^ '°^^ ^-^^^ we rue God. and to wait for his Son V° ^'^"^ '""^ ''^'ng and from the dead, even fesu which h ^°"' ^"'''"' ^^°"^ ^e naised de ..vereth us fron, the comin, wrlth ' < T"''" "■^^^'^">'' " -'^o Mattheu- lu. 7. .„ .^ .^^ ^'-^^^ - the impending wrath •> „f -"hy of God who hati c^d^lTV^;^'' '' "'^'^ -'^ And to wa,t for his Son from he.ven ' .V'^^'^'-'-'^'-^ding chapter, I^uke XX,. 3x, « When ye see he^ thi "' '''^'' '^^'''' '''^<^ that the kingdom of God is ni'h . l.Jl '°'"*-^ ^° I^'^^'^' ^now y how us sense would be reXd^d ,n ,h ' '"^ "^ ^'^" ""derstand ^yhe .,thand.cth ::::^t^'^':i^'^^--^s.,,resj joy, or crown of rejoicing ? a e Z "'^"^ '^ «"'■ hope, or -J-d Jesus Christ at' histlirgM:/!'" ^^^ P-- of oj. Here the Apostle anticipates " n ./-'"'^ °"'' S'^'-J' '''"d «J the regal advent, and himsel .nd th '1 '"' °' '""^ ^^-^'nts rhessalonica. No allusion to death "s L% '■ "' ''^ '''^^^"r^ ^^t advent of the glorified S( osThr '^°°'' '"^° S^ory, but the «ame thought fn iii. .3 : To ,1 JT °' '"" ^^-^demption. Th, -blameable in holing ^Lt^^^^j^^ -^ ^tablish your helrt -nnngof ourLordJesu^Chr .Hth "h" °" ^^^^^^' ^^ the - ^5, .. read, not <<the," but ^ri:;:;^-^ ,^r'^^"^ ^ '""e, and remain 20 unto thf turning uf the l,ortl." 'I'hc nearness of the regal advent, is fonihly set forth in chapter v. 2, " Kor yourselvc-s know I>erfectly, that the day of the Lord so conieth as a thief in the night." In the predictions of Christ there are many exhortations to watchfuhiess and caution, concerning that day ; its sudden ajjproach hkened to the act of a tliief, and to a snare which would entrap the unthinking. Peter says, " 'I'he day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night." The glorified one said to the Church in Sardis, " I will come on thee as a thief and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee." Why .hese cautions? and why the knowledge of the brethren at Thessalonica con- cerning the uncertainty of the time, and its unlooked for apjjroach, if the subject in its manifestation was in the far distant future thousands of years f-'ward? And why no allusion to death as the real object, which would come as a thief in the night, and for which we should watch ? And whj? does the Apostle at the end of this epistle say, " I pray God, your whole spirit, and soul, and body, be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ ? " Why does C:hrist and Paul so dwell on the regal coming, and their cautions, and prayers centre on it, as the crisis of destiny to those they addressed? There is but one answer. The regal advent was near. The language of the Ajiostle in ist Tliessalonians, iv. 17, seemingly represents the end of terrestiai uan^i. TheApostl.; had said, " And the dead in Christ sha'' lino iu;, ,' and adc, " Then," ''EvtCta " afterwards, sooner or laui. '1 he sense as immediate, or soon afterwards, or a long time afterwards, shows the flexible use of "ETrn'/ae which in its ordinary sense means a sequence earlier or later, as the spirit of the context demands. The word occurs sixteen times in the New Testament. In some repr, • cntative of a very brief interval. In others of an interval of : :,::iy years. In James iv. 14 of a lifetime, and in ist Corin. xv. 7 3rd and 4c r.. verses, it represents in the first, an interval according to the theory here advocated of forty years, and according to the prevalent theory thousands of years, even to the end of time According to the pre-millenial theory, eighteen or more centuries. In the second, it signifies the interval from the creation of Adam to the resurrection. What indication is reasonably to be found in the SI tWr ,as,i„„ rt„„|,5 /,,"■' "«''"'""' 'I'"' living »i>l,,„„ or .hat the rcurroui, „ ,. '""''>■ ™"'^'™' ""'^ •-" "-""'I. generally. Vet i, i, I, L ' ";, „ '"' ""t"' " '''''' '" C^^'i^"" Joni .0 the >ear„::'o; "''.r, ":Z 'tuirf"'^' ""^"'"« Ai.o.stolic times. It is held is th. rcsurrcrt.on m against whirh is irrl 1 Ir '' "' """' ''"" °'" ^^"il'^"'---. Christ, the ^L:i:i:^:^t^::zr'''''f' ""^''^^'""^ "^ If the average of testiln/^ f "''■''•'^''''■'' "^'^'^"l^'"•■^• Jesus, which is the si \ ''"''"• "' '^ "^^' '^■^'''"^"y o'" this i^ssage o s- ,)tu n ("'' "'^■' '^ ^'"' ""•^^''"^- '^'--'M but is apn rent t "' hT ' \". '''"^^'"^ '"^'^'^'"""^ ^ '""-'"blc genera, IC^ .r ^^^^ C^?;:^^'^ ''^^ :\'''- ^" as linking the events m.cVuf) ' > ' ""^'^'''•^'ood by readers preceding, and . tciT h /^'^^ '''' ^^"^ ^ ^'-' "- iiving believers in the whole "th . . b'T'"" "' l'^' ^'^''^^' ^^^^ through death chin^eH.n^ '"' °"'"" "'"^'""^ ^'^^^^"g table tnfer^e bdnf i " u ' ''"''''"' ^'^"''''""- ''''-' '"^v. bc-^nds of n.e 'uf. ' TT""'^ ^' '^^' ^^''-^^ --'^^ the proves thar he a-sur e - " ' "u ' '^'^ ^^''^^^''^°'^" ^^ ^'^"pture assumption illvr"'; 't "' ')' ''""' °' '""^' ^ "^"^ ^^^ an Paul. Ld a tess " which I ' ''' ,""^ *^^ ^'"" '"-^l"'"^-" °^ Ing plenary insp nt of '< F .K '"''"^"'^'^ ^"'^ ^^'°^^'^ ""P'y- alive at t e " d of i m r 7 ''' "'"^'" "°' '^^^^ ^^o shall be are alive, and renain unto h' '' • '"-^^ ''' ''"^^ " ^^'-^^i^h prevent (^ prec ) he^ h t '""'"^ "' ^'^^ ^°^^' ^^all not \"i precede; them which are asleei) " Ar,A ;„ ^u ev.de„cefro.„«erip.„reih1rS;rit4r„f-;tS-: f ri *''*. and the end of the Levitical dispensation as the season of the second advent and the resurrection. In the light from Scripture concerning the time of these events, we can readil)' perceive the propriety of the Apostle's words, " ^Ve which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord," and seek their solution in some other way, than by denying their inspiration, or referring them to the end of time, or according to the pre-millenarian view, to a distant future. The prevalent view of the resurrection of the dead in Christ, which refens the event to the end of time, or to a period far in the future, confounds the true sense in verses 15 and 17. To under- stand it, we should place ourselves as near as possible to the bereaved believers who were sorrowing over the departed "as others which have no hope." We can only perceive the force of Paul's exhortation in verse 13, by supposing the existence of a belief at Thessalonica in the regal advent as near, and in its bless- mgs as to rest on the living to a far greater extent, than on the dead. We need not think that there was no faith in the resurrec- tion of the dead, although the words in the 13th verse, where the Apostle tells the bereaved not to sorrow for the departed " even as others which have no hope," either intimate this, or refer to an inferior place in the coming kingdom for those who had died before its appearance. There nay have been in the mind, the carnal Jewish view of the kingdom of the Messiah, that which prompted one to say, " Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God," and which led the sons of Zebedee to crave the chief places there ; or perhaps the words of Christ placing John the Baptist above all the prophets ; and those, "Nevertheless he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he," suggested the inference, that a lower place in the kingdom would be given to all those who had lived and died in the inferior dispensations. We can readily see, that to live until the regal advent, it then being so near, apart from all the considerations now mentioned, would be the desire of every one, while in the belief of them the desire would be greatly intei.Mfied. AVe can also see, that to die just before the grand crisis then impending, would, even with the belief of a joyful resurrection^ be regarded as a calamity. We should not lose sight of the human element even in the child of God, or suppose that the faith of the r 'as 23 gospel wholly removes it. We can place ourselves in the midst of .a..i„gdef,h enter £S ht^^' ft i:/"™' -V"*""' look back to such time, SI r '""^ °' "^ '^''" or less testffv ,1?^ u ' "^ °'"' <"™ e-MJerience. more the enrl nf f),^ u . , "^ °' ^ '^"^ m verses m to Id «:?»<, surSn"" '.: '" H'n"!= ""^ ^'"' "°' '° - - near a. ha^d ^ JTonltd rtt" T '"' •'" ""'= ^^ abolition of W„ i„hT. ,) •-" d^pensation of life, the .he subject „ft:i:;i:=;t;7/„ h:t*.'"'^=!""' '° "-'o and remain to the earning „f ?h° Lord l;'lr''"V"'=f'' ::-::7ti;x'tr'f\si'r^- co..of.hf., —L^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^enro",;?; ct finS'tt S' l=c ' ."™i" "- -'^ AnotLr' »?o;S,-i re'TsTc """' """ f'^'"' °' '^"■""'-■ blance. " We sM «% .1 ,' "• "' '""' "°'""^ "f «^«- I, i. , 1 " ''''•■"P' l"" »■= shall all be chanced » It .s to be regretted the principal MSS. here di/Ter »readv One chatwd. ■ Tl ere is such f f '"'• '"" "'^ ■''» ='»« I": whictcemingly'f „m 1 oad'^rfAlT v'"" '"'"ri ""' P'^'^Se .here is nothing ,„ be had^tc&l*^;} iV '?:t? *=^£: I m 24 iv. 13 to the end, in the belief of the regal advjent as near, and It as introducing a reign of life, gives to me the only satisfactory exegesis. It presents the resurrection of the dead, in or by Christ, as at its commencement. More, it shows that •' we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord," and all the faithful from then to the end of time, are not, as were the faithful before, to remam under the power of death until the life-giver came, but when their work of service here is done, are at death caught up to meet the Lord, and with all the dead in Christ raised up at his coming, shall together with them be ever " with the Lord." The difference between the former dispensation, called in Scripture "the ministration of death," and the final age, called " the ministration of the Spirit" and of life, gives the key to unlock this difficult passage, revealing its real sense, and its harmony with all else in Scripture. An error of very serious account which has prevailed in Christendom from very early times to the present, in regarding the Christian dispensation as like the previous ones, under the reign of death, and all the faithful not fully redeemed until the end of time, has led to a sad misunderstanding of the sense of Scripture, and especially of the New Testament, in regard to the kmgdom of God. I have written this series of discourses, chiefly with reference to the unveiling of the testimonies of Scripture concerning the time of the resurrection, as giving the test question, by which the life-nature of the final age may be perceived. Gross ignorance concerning it has prevailed, and to it is traceable various evils in the ecclesiastical, the doctrinal, and the ritual, which have beclouded the Messianic day, hindered the manifes- tation of the righteousness which exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees, and divided and scattered the people of God. After the review of Scripture, so far as I have proceeded in these dis- courses, the previous conviction in my own mind is deepened, that the time of the resurrection, is the great point to be settled, in order to the correction of the serious error now stated— an error which has sealed up the truth of Scrii)ture concerning the kingdom of God, and has reduced Christianity nearly tn the level of the previous and inferior dispensations. So doing, it has blighted Christianity ; it has lessened its power to save ; it has incorpor- 25 ated Judaism with it ; it has presented it in earthly ecclesiasticisms n Jew,sh r,u,ahsn, and in doctr^'nal corruptions It ha " "oTed ts re,gn,ng n.g, us pure Word as alone tL law of his rei^rand the assemblies of the faithful as alone his Church on elrd" subsututing human expositions of Scripture, and churches rS g on foundations created and placed at the will of man It ha! dimmed the light of the Messianic day. As we close the review ot ist Thessalonians, both the letter and the spirit of Us last chapt..- declare the near approa h o the day of the Lord-the day of his regal advent. tI day o the resurreaion of the dead in Christ, and the Messianic 7ay of eternal life are in the tenth verse, in its closing words "live together with him," impressively presented. The resur^tioi of King, the L fe-giver. was introductory to a reign of life to the end 1 " '"^f.^-^^-^-^^-SO, under the perLal reign of H.m who IS the life." may trust in his precious words, " He that livet" and believeth in me shall never die." Death, to the faithfuT n the former dispensations meant more than the end of earthly life It included seclusion in SM,/ or J^a^es until the resurrection at he regal advent of the Messiah. Death, to the faithfu in the r TH ■"'■""' '°" ^' ^°' '^ '^'''^'y ^he end of earth ^ hfe There is now no SAeof or Ifa.es. Death is now ineffectual ho d him who IS m Christ. To him there is no resurrection in the sense that that word applied to the faithful in former ages There ,s translation : there is the being " aught up " to meet the Lord, and the risen dead in Christ, and those befSre caugl u^ and so we shall be with them for ever " with the Lord." It is not po.s^ble to read the first eleven verses of the fifth chapter, and not be convinced, that they as immediately following hose in the preceding chapter, teach the nearness in Apostolic times, of the regal advent, the resurrection of the faithful dead of he pas , and the introduction of a reign of life, to continue to the end of time. Paul speaks of events so near, as to demand the same degree of watchfulness, as we would deem needful, if we were aware of thieves about to break into our households He speaks not of death, as that to be an object of dread, and watch iij 26 fulness In the tenth verse, he uses words which do not mean lie or death, r^.y^^^sv and K«9..S^^,,. The former occurs in the 6th verse, and is rendered "watch." It, in the loth verse in the A. V IS rendered " wake." The Vwgate gives the true sense ngtlemus. The other is not the word in verse 13 iv chapter, and there rendered "sleep," as meaning death It" signifies either natural sleep, or moral inaction. The Apostle in speaking of those " not appointed to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us," indicates, that whether we are watchful or drowsy, which, as all are not alike faithful to duty might be the condition of many at the regal advent, never- theless 'we should live to^^ether with him." The Apostle is speaking not of the condition of Christians as it should be, but as it is : and IS intimating that much will be forgiven, if amidst a degree of unfaithfulness, the heart is still beating for Christ, and his appearing. But he presents to all, whether watchful or not, a motive having reference to the day of the Lord as so near, thai they should be watching unto prayer, and not be as the Gentiles around them, children of the night in which men sleep. He exhorts Christians, as If many of them were inclined to slumber, even when the Bridegi-oom was near. He says, " Therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober." He says, " Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day." He adds "Let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breast-plate of faith and love, and for an helmet the hope of salvation." Neither death, nor the end of time, is once presented as the motive to watchfulness. " The day of the Lord," " The coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto him,' ' furnislied to the apostle the grand motive, and it he enforced by the plainest intimations of their nearness to those then living He appealed to their consciousness, " For yourselves know per fectly that the day of ihe Lord so cometh as a thief in the night " He wrote to them concerning that which had been the burthen of his mmistry among them, and in which they had been fully indoc- trinated. His inspired messages centred on the glorified Christ and on what he would do when he came in his glory. As the Master had said, so also said the servant of Jesus Christ. In the enthusiasm he felt in view of the near advent of glory, he uttered 27 faithful of past n'ef No, ' "^f ' "= '^T"'"'''' ^^P^^ °f *= done by Ch'ris. wh „ ;„ ft fl L*'?^ ' ^''^''i^'' "«= "°* sacrifice of his denth for i,\„ j . '"^ ™'' P'opitiiting .i.e kingdom ofc k Jo , 'Ttarrf !;"'' °" ""'■=' validity ,o all the acts of its kS The ff "■°''''' «™ glories, he ever reearded a tit f ] '"«' I"":«*ng the Of eternal redemp^fo 'its^'^ZTZZ'^^^^^T' T difference in the suffering Christ in th. ZT /, '"""^ ^^^ triumphant Christ, as he ob e vei t h^ ' '"' ''" ^"'^"'"^ ^"^ away sin, and the kgaK^tWH^i^ng^^^^^^^^ m Its consunimatinn n^u^ " "^' age efficient fixed onthe rdTe igned ,:"" 'T'*"' '"^ ^^'' "'^^ -- and on d,e perfecSr.',, ^tae' Cse" ''Sr '.T'^H ''"'■■' sat on of the fuilne^ nf f,, , Purpose, That m the dispen- Rot's rr, "rt're'd"' . Td r -r '''" ™"- '- «- it is high .i^:raw Ifon/o; iep' for r^ *= "T' '"" nearer. han„.he„.e .eUeved. The'n^hf L"^,: -Z.'td:; "The'rd of^ea:: T^^-zr"':'"""^'""^ '^y- In .s. Corin. i. j, we read " So rt, , "^ >"""■ ''''" *°"'>'" Siting for .he cLng^^.^'^ '^erOhS"^:;" t ?h p.er^fTh:tf D? "' "T"™" '^^ '-<' -- ■• judg'e .he .vor'ld : 3if .he" ZJT^^Z /nteX^""'^ *"' nnwor„,v.„j„dge.he smalles. „a..er ? - '„° hap ""'rr ayswth reference to the great even, which SI ed L 1^ ~"'° " '•',' ""■ ^' '"= ^-^ °f *= Epistle he «,s '"if oLth "'"Vy" '■'"■''' '" '™ l-^ """h™". the Lord 0/ Sp,r,t m the believer ,s ,n .he A. V. regarding i.s comple ' yfl i' I. 28 tion feebly expressed. He " will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." Rather read, " He will perfect it up to the day of Jesus Christ." The verb '^iriTtUcru signifies not a course up to the perfect standard, but the consummation of the work — At the day of Jesus Christ — " In the day of the Lord," which then was so near, and the " day and hour " so uncertain, that for its appearance they were ever to be watching. In the 9th and loth verses, Paul prays for the increase of love and knowledge in view of " that day," " that ye may approve things that are excellent ; that ye may be sincere, and without offence till the day of Christ." This, the duty of the believer by the ever present power of the Holy Spirit. The other, the work of God the Son, who in the day of his coming would crown the whole with the seal of per- fection. Can we wonder that Paul should say, Phil. i. 23, " For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ which is far better." Not unclothed to be with Christ, but " clothed upon with the house that is from heaven." He had no faith in the vagaries of heathen poets, who peopled their Elysium and Tartarus with impalpable phantoms. He longed to be with Christ, but at " that day," and clothed with the spiritual body. He speaks not of death. He strangely uses a remarkable verb rendered in the A. V. " to depart," if by it he si/>i/>fy and only signified death. He uses the mfinitive form with the article and the preposition e'J to' 'avaXwra/, which with what precedes, may be rendered, having a strong desire for the return. What return ? The answer may be found in Luke xii. 36, where the same verb 'a.u(x.>Ma%t is found, and where we read, " And ye yourselves, like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding." The kingdom of God is the subject of the context. Jesus had said, " Fear not little flock for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." He exhorts them to lay up treasure for it— to have their hearts set on it—" for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." He was going to his Father with the trophies of his me''iatorial work, as the price of his marriage to the church. He was to "return ' from the wedding. He exhorts to a watch- ful waiting for his return, saying, " Be ye therefore ready also ; for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not." 29 Not mthout reference to these words of Christ did Paul say, " having a strong desire for the return." He uses a Greek verb which IS only in the New Testament, found in Luke xii. 36, and Phil. 1. 23. Once he uses the noun, in 2nd Tim. iv. 6, and this IS the only instance of this word in the New Testament. Did he simply and only mean death ? Of it he frequently speaks, but never clothing his thoughts concerning it with such a verb Why does he do so in Phil. i. 23, if not to show that he meant it to comprehend and forcibly point to the return of the glorified one, at the advent as the King of the final age. Mark the words that follow, " And to be with Christ which is far better." Consider their harmony with the closing words in the 17th verse of the 4th chap, of ist Thcssalonians— those which end his pre- dictions concerning the resurrection— those which give the con- summation of the resurrection, in our gathering together with Christ ; " and so shall we ever be with the Lord." These words define when we would be with Christ. Other words of his, such as those in Coll. iii. 4, " When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory," sustain a truth, which pre-eminently appears in the New Testament, and which is not in the slightest degree diminished by his words in 2nd Corin. v. 8, " We are confident, and willing rather to be absent from the body' and to be present with the Lord," for these words are to be interpreted in the sense of the ist and 4th verses, which present the "house not made Avith hands eternal in the heavens," and "that mortality might be swallowed up of life," expressions only referrible to the resurrection. The prevalent view of Phil. i. 23 is untenable. The true sense of It has been overlooked, because determined by the references before, and after, to life and death. The 23rd verse introduces a subject, which not then, nor until the regal advent, would have an immediate relation to the death of the believer. Paul uses words, as 1\>, *£w,&L,/*iav ''i^^^, " having an intense desire," which are not applicable to death, and are only consonant with the return of his Lord in regal glory, and " our gathering together unto him." Death before the regal advent involved an interval of silence in flades. Peter at Pentecost said of Christ, " His soul was not left in Hades:' Not left there, because it is further said, " this it I! W m .30 Jesus hath God raised up." Even Christ after his resurrection, which to him was not perfected until after his ascension, said to Mary, " I am not yet ascended to my Father." To the bereaved brethren at Thessalonica, Paul says nothing of death as the door to the vision and company of Christ. He comforts them solely by the nearness of the regal advent, and the resurrection. He himself about to die, points to the crown of rigliteousness to be received " at that day "—the day of " his appearing." In the 2oth verse, with reference to his evangelistic labours, he says, " Now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death." This was the holocaust or whole burnt offering under the law. This in Christianity is the continual testimony for Christ in life^in all the activities of life, and in the passive endurance of bonds, and imprisonment, and death, for the cause of Christ. Can we wonder at Paul's following words, " For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gam." Are they not wholly consonant with other words of his, " Living or dying we are the Lord's," and to those in the 20th verse, " Chiist shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death." The Apostle, with all the spiritually minded of his day, desired to live to the day of Christ. They had ever " the intense desire for the return," and "being with Christ." It was to them a veritable enthusiasm, and not a mad fanaticism. It was as Coleridge has it, "A true Christian enthusiasm, the vivifying influences of the altar, the censer, and the sacrifice," and I may add, the completion of these in the regal advent of Him, at whose kmgly presence, the altar, and the censer, and the sacrifice— the divine agencies of worship and mediation in the night season of Judiasm, as the stars in the firmament pale and vanish before the rising sun, so these lesser lights would fade from the vision before the Sun of righteousness which was about to arise, " with healing in his wings," Enthusiasm is a strong word. Paul was said to be beside himself His excuse was, " It is for God, it is for your cause." He said, " If any one is in Christ a new creature, old things are passed away, behold all things are become new." He had no faith in the Jewish notion of a visible regal advent, and earth as furnishing the capital of the kingdom, or the throne, or the court, or the parapharnalia of an earthly royalty. He remembered the 31 The svmbok n«,.H ^ ^ ^"'' ^"'^ *^^ resurrection. ua, mrer H Mns ptZTn It""' "'.'"'"■'"■'^ '" " 'Pi* or .„e supe™.™, as Caer.he ^^'i^X oTr^u r a resurrection of the de,d H. '"IT ?' "" ^P'*' 'P^l-^ °f shall rise first. °1* xtet if ,6 w'l ' "''"; ""'"> '" '="*' sav that " 'ness. IV. i6. Will any one learned in Greek ZTZ'r" ' '■"" '"^"" *^''<""'^^ of *edeadi. Or how re e de'nH T ''' ;""' "' "="'' " B"' »».e will say they conte ? » 7t, '"' ""'"^ ""'"' "" ' ""'^ "i"> »l>« body do dead? "' '"'" ""' ■"="" ""•'■' "'= bodies of the .h.. wtrso"°:Xrr;^r^e\:: - :s 7:2 *: "Ltr L::,dT:^s^d \re^""^ °^^^"" *-" •in- ^he Snir,> nf r.7 , ^^ '^™^ '"^""^r of speak- wh^re^t^d'.^:- etrS^d". .'wf '"^ ~™ ^estaLnt, dead » " fl,« ,1 ' li'ok™ or make alive the Locke savs " ,?„r ■/' """ "'="'■" '" """'h" P'-e Mr. beetenT: diT '.! ':*"" """ ^'' '''"" ""^^ = distinction « tllcttrhfsm C " °' *' ''^'' ^° *=" '"^ ^'^ bodies Of the dZt .L?:r;fVrApoT^.if;*= r :IeT W r ''; "^^^ -ised.a;d th'wUttdTd %\ m 32 How are the dead bodies raised ? and with what bodies do the dead bodies come ? which seems to have no very agreeable sense." In another place he says, " In the New Testament, I find our Saviour and the Apostles, to preach the resurrection of the dead, and the resurrection from the dead, in many places, but I do not remember any place, where the resurrection of the same body is so much as mentioned. Nay, which is very re- markable in the case, I do not remember in any place of tne New Testament, (where the general resurrection at the la.«t day is spoken of) any such expression as the resurrection of the body, much less of the same body." I may state here, that about twenty years ago, while actively engaged in the ministry, that in a critical examination of ist Corin, xv, 35, in the Ciieek, I was led to decline belief in the resurrection of the body, and especial; when I found such a phrase is not discoverable in Scripture, and when I found in that passage a decisive test of the true sense of 0/ nx^oi and tto* mxjusv in other places in Scripture, defining it of persons, and not of the bodies of the persons. My change of mind then, led me to a closer investigation of Scripture concerning the doctrines of the last times, which was shortly after interrupted for several years, by a failure of health from nervous prostration. When again re- stored to a fair measure of strength, the flaw in the orthodox faith on a doctrine so generally held as the resurrection of the body, suggested doubts concerning other parts of Eschatology. But some years elapsed, which were merely seasons of patient investi- gation. Six years ago I became convinced, that the visions of John at Patmos were ])rior to the destruction of Jerusalem ; and that his banishment to Patmos took place in the reign of Nero. Before, I had been impressed by the prophecies of Christ, and by the many references in the Epistles, to an advent of the glorified Son as soon to happen. The more I searched the Scriptures did I see a mass ot evidence, antagonistic to the pre- vailing belief concerning the second advent as to be at the end of time, or at a yet distant future. Scanning the Messianic predic- tions in the Old Testament, and observing them as chiefly cen- tering on the reigning Messiah, so as to present apparently only one advent, and that of a reigning king. Entering the vestibule S3 pro„h«,ic minder in f "'„' f '" "'°™''''' ''-■'d - •!>» mmiite examination of Scrioture nlH ,„H T "* '° ^ search,;,!, so the more r ,v, , "'"'' ""^ "'« """= I evidence „, he OH T , '■"" •■" "^^ ™""'lMive mass of onthesidrof asp«dyr:rX„r'„^"" """V" "' ^=^' whelming, and stuilifyi:;, » .fe r va n^l^r^.Tilf ^ ""'■ SniLt'L:. ';ra::r. "rr-'^' ^'^ *^ "-- fluence of tirformer theo, ' '"', '''''■ """ '"•■='^%'. ""d m- or scr,t„,.e, .etr r^diS:; X"f: ir rit-r S" r t'^ f'.trir; '^■™-. -V- *^ --*; ^d three even^as s „ , onC ZTlZ ' f '"""" "'"'''''' *^ Mosaic age, and'at thcTe Li:; f"" e'l^™;' *= '"' 1 T beginning of the final ii,,. ,« ,1, . j * " '^"■"8'"* the past ..meLthe pa ing'a, of th Th"!' °' *'= '"'™ "' "" .ho introduction 01 Tew h avens f„ , ° '"'? """ ''"*• ••""<' eth righteousnes, ul f '"' ""*' "''"«'" dwell- .he old nd ," t e „ V Dea't, '"■""=' ""^ "■*^°' '''"■"«'™ " .i>e faithfnl dead in"- 1' coldr,S:^.';,*^ ^^^of ^h'^ iver nc Messinh T ;f« . • • • , '^avent of the de- ™/.,#..5^*;Jw J'?: I •;;;;';;• -<• dea.h ,. ,v .he judgment, simultaneous at t e M hT"; ^rarTfT ' ""^ «.otified host of the redeemed""' Z ul, uS d' ssut°m\r '" fectrcgnof ,hefi„„.,ge,as..ere in the other, "he Jud;;™ ' I ever acting and ever deciding. the judgment seat of Christ. 84 If'e arc always manifested before A false view of the resurrection as that of tlie body—" the resurrection of the flesh," as it was called in some of the personal creeds of the third century, has fixed the mind of Christendom on the regal advent as in the future, or at the end of time. More, it has prevented a right understanding of ihc final a^f as a dispen- sation of life. When the body of the Mosaic dispensation per- ished in A. I). 70, its spirit entered the final age, and has found nutriment and shelter in the cherished doctrine of the resurrection of the body. It has permeated what is called Christian Escha- tology. It has brought Christianity as represented in the creeds of Churchianity, down to its own level. There is no reigning king. He is in the far country waiting " to receive a kingdom and to return." His mediatorial work is yet unfinished. He is still the pleading intercessor. The Father is even now Judge. He has not yet " committed all judgment to the Son, that all men should honour the Son as they honour the Father." The reign of the Son as Judge is limited to the last day of time. Till then all the events of all times accumulate, and not until then is the day of full redemption. All this Judaized Chris- tianity had its origin and its prevalence largely from the notion begotten in early Ciiristian times, of the resurrection of the dead as the resurrection of the bodies of the dead. The spiritual res- urrection of Scripture has not furnished ocular dtunonstration, and i/ierefoi-e it is yet future. The loud-sounding trumpet has not been heard. The opened graves have not been seen. The spir- itual and the supernatural have not made their events felt in the sphere of the material, and therefore most sage conclusion, the resurrection predicted in Scripture is not yet, and the kingdom of God is not come. It was predicted by Christ to come at the con- clusion of the age, and it is confidently affirmed that his words signify the end of time, which is not once named in Scripture as the period of the resurrection, or of the regal advent, or of the establishment of the kingdom of God. I have referred to the belief in the resurrection as thai of the body, as the occasion of the ancient and yet prevalent Escha- 30 tology, which places the r.-gal -idvom .1, • • Judgment at the end of tin^t 10^^ '"'''"'''''''' ^"^ the a very human tendency uer^rerthe TT ^ '^' "^""''^' '" '^-^-rring to the supernatur. Tl '."'"'" '" '^'■"J^'^^'^>'' another cause in the Zt ^'■^"•''^-■nundane, literally. X'et the authorised verl„,sT'r". °'"^'"" ^^^'^^ ^^^^ '» and ^„u„ rende d L tho't ,7'''' "'^'' '"^'^^^ °^ ««S stead or words dc::fing^te tot"': o7''^ T' ^'"' ^"' ^"■ "* the general, if not the un fL n °!; "^""' '° ^^' ^^^'^^ the . .o instances in whichTt ^f T"'"^ °^ "'^' ^'^^^ ^"^^'^ '" •"ent. The impJca^ce of V ^^ '" ^'^^ ""'"'^ ^'^' '^'-ta- peciallvwhere it^ "din "' ' '''"■''*'^'"" "'" '^'^ ^-d, es. cannot be overstated """"'"" "'"^ ^^'^ '^'"«^-" «f ^^od, I will give a few instances where thp fn, • . the rendering in the authori. d v^r oV T" •' ^'^^'"^'^ '>• ye therefore, and nrav -ilw.vt\. ? "''*' '•"• ^^' " ^^''"^h escape all these ti^VtaUh;.'^^^^^^ '' "^""-^^^^ -^^'^>' '° and to stand before tTe^n '/::>' Tt ' '^^ ^""^ '" ''''' hope towards (Jod, which th^l h , "'''''• '5' " And have shall be (M..//... • :; ;' J, 'r^^'^'^^ .^'- ^"-v, .hat there of the just and unjust "1^^ Resurrection of the deac', both this ignorance God LrloZ/7 ,'°' ''' "^"^ '^'' '''"" "^ everywhere torepent Be" K. "°"' '°"™''^"^'-'^'^ '-"' '"^n which he will jul",.^::^^^^^^ ?'"'"'^' '-^ '^^y '» ^he ness." Romans Hi ,8 ..1::/'''^'^^''^^' "°^'^ '" "gh^eous- present time are n 'Jor'thv to '''' ^'^ "'^^''"S^ ^''^'^'^ o, Having promise nf tN« i,v .^ miothy, iv. .o.co,„e,. iL, ,;r/i:; t : 7-; -^, -^ *- ««ch .-. in store for themselves i .onH Z"^- '-'^'^l^'^'^ v'- '9, "Laying up come few .;.;::;/,,t::vr^^^^^^^^ ^^- ^° "al life." Second Timothy' iv ?. J ^ T ^'^ ^'^'^ °" ^^^^■ God, and the Lord Jesu cL L u, k'?' '^'' ''^'^^'°^^ ^'^^'^ y-'^^.^^-) the quick and t'de^^^^^^^^ M. /. « W .. Rev. xii c " And «h > , I 'Appearing and his kingdom." .*, "Are they „„, all ministerta" s p n s "Jt „ ■"*■ '' .-en. Who ..„ ,.. ,,,„, „„ ^:r:'^rs:/xToa' I * J ;3t; Heb. vi. 5, " The powers ot the world to come," read, "■ the pow- ers of the approaching age." Rarely is MeXXw correctly rendered in the A. V. One instance may be given in Heb, viii. 5, " As Moses was admonished of God, when he was alwut to make the taber- nacle," but not one can I find where the word has relation to the kmgdom of God. These instances where MsXXcr appears in con- nection with the resurrection, the judgment, and the glory then about to be revealed, which in ist Peter i. ,5, is called, a " salva- tion ready to be revealed in the last time," give more than a hint concerning the nearness of " the Inst time," and rebuke any at- tempt to make the prophecies of Christ in Matt, xxiv, Mark xiii, and Luke xvii. and xxi. chapters accord with the accepted Escha- tologv. 1 Many may say, " who can believe in the resurrection as eighteen centuries in the past. Such a view demands an entire riddance of our theological preconceptions, and of our ways in literalizing Scripture symbolism, and thereby 'waiting for his Son from heaven,' as the first disciples were exhorted to do. It shows an amazing difference in the post mortem condition of saints before and after the regal advent. To those before, a continuance in death, followed by a resurrection to everlasting life, when the Life-giver came in his glory ; while to those in the reign of Christ, death is the door to glory and the vision of Christ." Not how- ever should be added, any ascription to death of any power to save, or to translate the believer to the vision of Christ, for death although abolished, or rather as the verb x«T«py.,Ta. in ist. Corinthians xv. 26, means "made ineffectual," is still the remnant of the last enemy. To the Christian, death is now as much swallowed up in victory, as it was to all the faithful of former times, at their resurrection at the regal advent. As the faithful now enter the valley of death, they prove that only its shadow is there. Its power to hold—its former power which held the faithful in iron bondage until the advent of the delivering King, is gone, and gone for ever. There is an amazing difference in the post mortem condition of saints before, and after the regal advent. The latter have the w».^« (spirit) the special gift of the final age, called by Paul " the spirit of adopliun," or rather ■' of sonship," •' the earnest of our inheritance," that " by 37 fruits when jesu. a^Sed'^ I ^r' TL"'°r?; °' '"' ascension to the re^il aHvpnf i^^ ^ '"''''■'■'''' ^''O'" ^lie Holy Spirit, and :^:^zrj'Tr'f^t ''''^ '''^ "'■^- immortal as a Son of TnH r "'^"^^ '"''^'^^ ^he believer I live, ye sh^. '^e alsa' ' ""'^""^" '""^ ^^''^ '' ''^"^^' " because re!:::^;:^l;Lf^'^ T ^.^ --^ed by t,. Wew or the on the .roundTLT -n; it^ L^ Illrc^ ^ ^^^'^^' '^ 's concerned, and therefore unworthy of nt k ""''''^"' supported by an array of texts nf7. '' ^'''^^'^' ^^'«" tion of certi words vvhihlal.'h' "'', '"^ '^ ^" '"^^^^P-^^- the resurrection Ttheh ^ '^' ''^""^ '^^"^"^' ^"^ therefore of MoseslSe^V t rr^a J/^ 'rr'^" ^^°^^' ^^'^-" ^'-^ of the resurrection het Z '^^'/'^^'/^'^ ^'"^^^^^"^^ of the doctrine the Church un e"ir In ZT / T '""' ^"' '^ "°^' '^'^^ ^^ various Church creeds on the 1 . ''''' '° ^"' ^^^'^^'"" ^he ful. suffice to say tht tTev .,l'^ T'"' '°"''^'°" °^ *'^^^ ^^^^h- of behevors a delth d^ i. '." 'T''''' ^'^^^' '''-' ^'^^ «o^- they are with cllt riTTf' ■'''' "^° ^'°^^' -^ that according to these c'eed^ /J " '''^"^' ^'^^ resurrection but of th'e aniX nat fral loT or" "^'"^ °' '" '^^^^°"^''^^' body "-the very same ^ .J^i'I sT PaT "'^^ "' " ''" ^'^"^^ the kingdom of God." Cot rl/ "t ''^''""'^^ '"'^^"^ "neither doth corruption inCr^coL^o^^^^ -^^' hopd::::!:;lirt;;i'!:ir'"'''"'r''^'-^^'-^^^ - ^' — ^ resurrection. It'Sl no v i f^r"',t';""""'^^' '°^-^"- ^^^^^^ to look scornfully at the Z t^lTlt''""': ^^ ''' ''''-'^^' and contemptuously reject it v^ZZ, " "^'''^' interjection, review of Scripture t v i 1 hi H T u '''''''^^'^-^ ^^^ a fresh the Scriptures daily to s L ' 1 1' '^ " "'° ^" ---dy to search on m..ny i„.ponant doctrmrand with the """'' ""'"'^ monious dogma on the doctrTne of thf comparatively har. 38 concerning that upon which they nearly agree. And their deliver- ances on the post mortem condition of the faithful, that the souls of believers at death pass into glory, and are at once, and forever with Christ, will so long as these deliverances are held, convey to the mind, which looks beneath the verbiage to the substance, the very doctrine here advocated, concerning the faithful in the reign of Christ ; and will also suggest a full, and not a partial redemp- tion, and the substitution in the creeds, of the word " person" in- stead of " soul." Scripture announces " the day (not days) of re- demption," and gives no hint of the consummation as fulfilled, first, on the soul immediately after death, and then on the body at the last day of time. The celebrated William Tyndale, the contemporary of Luther, and noted as having made the first English version of the Bible,' (that by Wickliffe one hundred and fifty years earlier of course excepted), was the most learned Biblical scholar of his day. He was well aware of the confusion in the received creed of his day, concerning the resurrection. For the truth he led a suffering life, and that unto death, for he perished at the stake. In his controversy with the learned, and in many respects estimable Sir Thomas More, a bigoted, yet no doubt conscientious Roman Catholic, he said, "and ye in putting them (souls) in heaven, hell, and pur- gatory, destroy the arguments wherewith Christ and Paul prove the resurrection. * * * If the souls be in heaven, tell me . why they be not in as good case as the angels be ? And then what cause is there of the resurrection ?" If Tyndale were here now, he would say to the members of the Protestant Churches, "and ye in jjutting them (souls) in heaven, destroy the arguments wherewith Christ and Paul prove the resur- rection; If the souls be in heaven, tell me, why they be not in as good case as the angels be ? And then what cause is there of the resurrection?" What answer would be given, but that the resurrection is that of the body, at the end of time. If Tyndale were then to ask, " what of the souls of believers at death passing immediately into glory, and being at once and forever with the Lord ? Is this also a rcurrcction ?" They would say, no, it is a translation, it is the being caught up to meet the Lord. In short, the inevitable 39 .ogta^TS'C,?;if';r''°"'''°"^' *' "'- learned .he<v of the sanctified soul presentli aSr, l*? .? re-iurrecfon, as that second resurrection a tS of ,rtod. h °' ""■?'"'>•■ ""<■ ">= Anabaptists, he writes confcedt t t ' u" '"' '"""" ••"S'^"" ">« ion, that th; departed s,in,r ^' ""'"•■'P'' '"'"'=°''» »" "Pi"- theReforn^ers'^^corsed^r'"''"''*'"''''''''-™- '"*-=•. »nd the resurreclnet'ri'" "'''"'"'"= ^^ '^** where we read " A„„rt, * / "■' """ "" Secies, ix. ,o, soio„,on:hii'.h;X:H!'r ;'h *' '"^'' "= '"--""- ■ think of nothing. C, ' ' , rtl ■''" ""^ *" ''^'""' """ when awakened* wi„ Sn ' i h eUXr^ha '^ , " '""' '"' moment." ^neniseJves to have slept scarcely a tion and the judgment t ' '''°"^ '^'^"^' ^^^ ^^^"'^e*^- deliverance fthTu'LtlSr"'; '%^''^^ they traverse the is not so, if we coLidTrZ ^ f "''"''^ "" ''"'''■ «"^ 'his deliverances. In a enser^r,/' '"• ^'^ "'^^^'''^"^^ ^^^'^-^ the reign of Chri"t "Th. . • T''''^''^' ^"^ '-^'"'^^^ ^eld ^luentlyusedincLds and "" "'""^- "'^"" '^ ^ P^^^^ fr- the books of n"alld ; "f '^^"""^"tanes. and sermons. In all Christ as now.' Tl^tlenL^D T' '^""^ °" ^^^ ^^^^ oHhe 96th psalm, '^oT^Iwcli-ldr;" '/• ^"^^^^'-^^ ^^^^^- receive her King » JZ . ' ^""'"^ '' ^°'"^' ^^' ^arth present reignin" KinT. H ^''''"'" '" ^'^^"^^^^ ''^^'^ ^^P^Y a all men in a c\S L ,iL?Th"' rf T^'""°"^ ^"^^^-'^^ in a sense held the^lZrc "of whlt'l it T^T' ''' '''''' the reign of Christ • ^«/ // /,.; / Tv 7 advocate concerning W.. It has he d ess inTha't f ' """' ""''' ''""' ''^'^^"^' advent as d.nn^ f4 th H r "°' >-ecognized the reeal regarding the^eignas'm'r' ^V ?'°"" dispensation, and in «n-.eL.a„.j,:----ra:Zet.7:3;: i"' 40 Father hath given " all judgment," and under wliom " he hath put all things," himself excepted, " which did put all things under him," so that the Son " is Lord of all." " Over all, God blessed forever." The Church has failed to see in the ascription of all power in heaven and in earth to the Son, the lapse of the me- diatorship in the assumption of absolute authority. Let the reader carefully notice John v. 22, 23; ist Corin. xv. 27, 28 ; Phil. ii. 9, 10, II ; and Rev. i. 8, and he will see that the medi- atorship of the Christ /■,a/e place to the absolute sovereignty of the Son of God at the regal advent ; and he will also perceive from other parts of Scripture, as Luke xxi, 31, and Heb. i, 6, where in the first, the kingdom is said to be nigh at hand when Jerusalem was captured by the Romans and her temple de- stroyed, and in the second where the Son is presented as an object of worship when God " again hath introduced the first be- gotten into the world," that the Son began his rule over the final age when the Levitical economy finally passed away. His throne resting on a 7C'/ii>//y perfected atonement. Himself as " Over all, God blessed forever." His sceptre ever extended to the world of smners, and each one touching it in repentance and faith, find in that comprehensive yet simple act, the remission of sin, and " an- mheritance among all them which are sanctified." All contro- versy forever silenced concerning the Deity of the Son of God, for he is " over all," and respecting the nature of the atonement for it is simply and wholly perfect. These two fundamental doc- trines fc ever removed from the field of controversy, because com- prised in the person and rule of the Priest-King, in submission to whom is life, and in rejection of whom is death. The universal Church has held concerning the reign of the Son, vwxe than Scripture teaches. It has placed the regal advent, the resurrection and the judgment at the end of time, of which' end ot time there is not in Scripture the remotest hint in its relation to these events. With all deference to others, I must say, that after a patient and thorough examination o. Scripture. I have found only one allusion to the end of time, and it in ist Corin. XV. 24, but the reference there is not to the regal advent, but to the end of the reign— to the giving up of the kingdom to the Father, '*n<hen he shall have put down all rule and all authority and " He must refen ,m |" ,™ ' "' "■" "'" '^P""' »"*■ Then ■hee„d,r„-;";o:^^„x 1',::; :;f' r"r "'»'-'•" have delivered nr th„ v J °^ '""^' ^^'^'^^'^ he shall he *al, haT: ,„?<,, „'':,f,:;" '"f [J -en.ho Fa.her; » ■..*„ then ako the .ign „ "| ' sir, " ''""''"■">' •'""' 1"'""." ■""! comes ,o an end fo 1 '°h °'" °"' '=°<' '''=^=«' f- 'ver ,■■ " Then the end " F only reference to thrend'oV\ "' ';","■'" -^^' '"^ ^'^''^ '^ 'h^ There are many such nhr "' ^ '''"" ^'^""^ ^" S^"P'"re. last day," <^ theld^\|f ^;^;;- ^f °^ ^'- ^ays/<. the hand." "the ends of the loM""^" 'f "' ''" "^'"-^ '^ ^^ reader not to be misled ill ^''' '"'' ^"^'- '" ^ ^'^"^ ^he phrases in their reCn to tif >'''"' '"^ ^° ^"^'^^I-^^ '^^ in Scripture. The e d of ^ radlr' " '"7"^ " '' ^'^^ ago; yet Peter at Pentecos ^ o :tf" thTrst'^f '"" """"^^ or near. Paul in rst Corin. [. . , ' <'th v ''• "' ^""^^'^ admonition, ..^.;; ,,,/,.;,, the ends oT^K ^^^ ''""'" ^""^ "''"■ Heb. i. 2, we read " Hnl / "^ "'°'''^ ''^'"^ ^"'"f^-" In his Son," Ind i : x' .6 < Bu't"n^ '"' '""" ''"^'^^ ""'^ ^ ^^ hath he appeared to put :^" "Z "T " '■'' '"' '^ "'' ^^''^^^' in ist Pete; iv. ;, . b, the el '^ -• '-"''' °' ^""•"'^'" ^"^ ^-->. sober and ttc^u to ;;::^ .;''Ttr " '^"'' '' '' others having reference to the end of the M ' ^'''T' '"^ —to. to the reign or .ge ^rtL.^- ^^l- man in his own order (or ba d c ;t ^ ^^'fi T f ' " '^"' '^^''^••>' they that are Christ's aUiscomu!g'N:^ t thH' ''T'' jf,.^ei:t:^r^rio:;r^jxr^r"-^^- be^. the then living generation passed a.-a^- ^^^ ^J^^^^^ 42 In I St Corin. xvi. 22 he says, " Maran atha" the Lord cometh or is coming. In Phil. iv. 5, " The Lord is at hand." In Heb. x. 37, " For yet a little while," (^/x/)o» ooro» o<ro» 1 very little while. To give intensity to what he says he repeats om. In Liddel & Scott's classical lexicon we read, " oo-o», oaoi, only just, the least bit,") " and he that is coming will come and shall not tarry." James says, " Be patient therefore brethren unto the coming of the Lord." "The coming of the Lord drawethnigh." "The Judge standeth before the door." Peter in many parts of his epistles speak, of " the appearing " and " the revelation " of the Lord Jesus, in a way that precludes the thought of the end of time as the season. The first chapter of his first epistle is crowded with such statements, and with reflections on them. In chap. iv. 5th verse, we read, " who shall give ac- count to him that is ready (iToz/Awr exo»T< held in readiness) to judge the quick and the dead." He adds, " But the end of all things is at hand, be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer," thus repeating the cautions of Christ in Luke xxi. 34 to the end, with reference to his second and regal coming. John said of his day, " Little children, it is the last time, and as ye have heard (from Christ) that antichrist shall come, even now there are many ant'christs, whereby we know it is the last time.' Full of confidence in the near coming in glory of his Lord, and our gathering together with him,, he says, " And now little children, abide in him, that when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming." He adds to enforce the exhortation, " If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him." And then as the grand motive to righteousness, he speaks of the love of the Father, as the origin of divine sonship, that love mani- fested in the whole work of Christ, but to be more illustriously displayed, when he shall appear in regal glory, for then shall be the manifestation of the sons of God, Rom. viii. 19. In view of this as then near at hand, the enraptured apostle says, " Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God, therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, 43 and it doth not yet appear what we shall be : but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as ne IS. - The scintillations from Messianic prophecy, focalized by Him whose testimony is the spirit of prophecy, flooded the New Testa- ment with the hght of the day of Messiah's glory. Hence the difference in the older and in the later divine records. The one having as Its seal " the mount that might be touched and that' burned with file," and enshrouded in "blackness and darkness and tempest." The'other, the signet of « Mount Sion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem," where are "an innumer- able company of angels," " the general assembly and church of the first born" and " the spirits of just men made perfect." Thev were severally representative of "the law of a carnal command- ment, and of " the power of an endless life-of " the law which made nothing perfect," and of the " better hope by the which we draw nigh unto God." Representative also of " the ministration of condemnation," about to be shaken and removed, "that those things which cannot be shaken may remain." The one, styled ^things that are made," Heb. xii, 27. Adumbrative and symbolical things-material, as representing the spiritual-the old heavens and earth. Tha other " a kingdom which cannot be moved " All those " thmgs which are made" fulfilled the divine design and m A D. 70 gave place to the spiritual and immovable kingdom which came not with observation, and whose events of resurrec tion and judgment and continuous life giving action, were not patent to the senses of men, nor were heard in the din of a busv and sensual world. ^ It needed but a word from the omnipotent King to awaken all the righteous dead to everlasting life. " He spake and it was done. Not a ripple on the great sea of earthly life indicated the wondrous transformation. The world moved on as before, when the kingdom which came without observation received into itself all the excellence of form*:r times. The world moved on as be- fore, when the established kingdom, as "the ministration of the spirit testified to death as made ineffectual to hold him who hveth and believeth in Christ. The apathy and unbelief of the 44 world infected the cluircli. She walked by sight and not by faith. The words of the Lord Jesus, John vi, 51 and 58, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven : if any man eat of this bread he shall live forever." ''Not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead ; he that eateth of this bread shall live for- ever" — words which revealed the consummation of all gospel blessings, in eternal life immediately after death to all the faith- ful in the final age, were not apprehended in rheir true sense because of the prevailing unbelief The Church after the regal advent, like many of the disciples who had heard these words from the lips of Christ, said, " this is an hard saying, who can hear it." The Church invited the ehtrance of Judaism and of Plato- ism. The one, with its last day regal advent and resurrection and judgment, projected to the end of time, and the other, with its soul-life after death. A mottled Christianity has signalized the centuries since, and a Babel of different languages and hostile sects. Although wounded in the house of her friends, Chris- tianity reveals her divine mission in her survival to the present. She lives in her human bands, yet longs to be disenthralled. " The whole creation groaneth and travail eth" for her emancipa- tion. It will come, 7vhen the Church universal turns Irorn the testimonies of men to the law and to the testimony of God, and sees there the spirituality of the Kingdom of God, in the difference in the former, and in the final dispensations — the reign of death in the one, and the reign of life in the other — the earthly depu^ ties ruling in the one, and the Messiah as God over all and blessed forever, ruling over the other. Then, the spiritual nature of the final age will be seen, and the eye of faith resolve all its acts. Then, the recognition of the resurrection at the regal advent, and of the continuous gift of eternal lite in the final age to the faithful, as they pass through the valley of the shadow of death, and of the presence of the Son of God as sovereign and reigning King, and of Holy Scripture as alone the law of his reign, will lift Christianity above the inventions of men, will rebuke the schisms of the past and the present, will reveal the righteousness of the kingdom of God, and will thus prepare the way for the purification and unity of Chris 46 ter.dom, and the extension of the gospel over all the earth and entefed the kSdoi of r H ""^ '"'^"^ ^"^ ^'^^^^d' .,-. study .here ..Li^, .he sli^r ^o ^^i*":" Z and the corresponding places in ^1^ Vt \^ ' '"'^- ^^ 35, words of the Zori nf / u '"^P"-^^'"" gathered from the nf M • prophets, be prepared to begin a review law and to the testimony," that u fai^. may .<Totl / '° ^^ wisdom of men, but in L power of God 'If as Ltn " f •' God hath yet more truth fnd light to b^a^^^^^^^^^^^^ b.heve that they can only come "from- "■ - '^^ "' '""^'J May Holy Word. m!,"'' '!?'?. "°".!™''^ ^"d "8'^t to break forth God's Holy Word? to fro! I ; purify faith, to resolve and realize the n 46 righteousness of the kingdom of God, to gather in o 'e the people of God now scattered abroad, and all to the evangelization of the heathen world. Should we no^ expect this additional truth and light in this century ? which beyond all others is signalized by the missionary spirit, and by corresponding efforts for the diffusion of the Gospel. When, if not now, should we be praying, and look- ing, for more truth and light to break forth from God'i Holy Word ? Christendom is filled with numerous and hostile sects. The earnest endeavours in this missionr.ry century, are tending to fill the heathen nations with the same result of warring sects. Human names and party symbols, hide the ineffable name " which is above every name," and Churches of Cranmer, and Calvin, and Wesley, and a host of others, decorated with human names, and ecclesiastical and doctrinal ind ritual titles, proclaim that the kingdom of God is not yet come. Post-millennarianism projects the kingdom of God to the end of time. Pre-millennarianism pronounces all the past of Christian- ity in the aggregate a failure. Ritualism, or Sacramentarianism is flooding Protestant Christendom, and with her christiar'zed Judaism is labouring for the return of medireval superstition, and tl>e prostration of the mind at the feet of so-called priests, of whom New Testament Christianity knows nothing. Infidelity, reinvigor- ated by the revival of physical science, is not as in the last century confining her assaults to the Bible as a divine revelation, but is aiming to overthrow that which is the only basis of any religion, namely, the existence of a personal God. All these combined, are producing an eclipse of faith, and a crisis in the history oi Chris- tianity, which imperatively demands a review of Scripture concern- ing its doctrines, but more especially a review of its revelations respecting the kingdom of God, and its King as whether now reigning in the plenitude of Deity over the final age, or as has hitherto been believed, as yet Mediator and Intercessor, and as such subordinate to the Father- The Christian world may yet be convinced, that if the doctrine of the absolute authority of the Son as God over all, is still to be superceded by the pre- vailing view of Him as Medi.itor and Intercessor, and as still filling those offices, which proclaim an unfinished atonement, that it beats the air in .epelling an overspreading ritualism, and that 47 UmyZ:'^:'^T' "hole Christian brotherhood are vain, unity andtha, H.!, """' ™Sn, gives the Divine reason for place in spiritual c£ia",,. " '"'"'■ "'"'" "'"""™ >- "" jsraei oj God shou d find shelter?" WK.f r l r "^""'f so-called .isible church of CI? if 1'? f -^'^ '"'"'•^ ^'^ ''^^ ♦),«c ^"'°"' ^^ °f fhe past now presented ? I have not In Ki^^rrc^i: r -r t detnr^^^^^ essence of all theolo£.ie. t i "f "^^' "^'^» '^e concentrated «tna nnd /« t/ie Jh>rJ alone, the resolution of all truth. We are apt to be too much concerned about the future of fh. lormulas We might moderate our fears, and call into exercle a thfir, oflr^: ^" '°°' ^^ ^'^^'^^^^^^ Christendom, and eTat ^heK,ea,oftheChnst,an Church presented in the New Testa ^reiv . Tr' '' '' '''"'^''''' ^h-^ serious concern for the ^Z^t ,^''"'"^^^-^'^""S^«encies if conscience is not in- fringed hereby, but let us not in view of what Scripture teachls concern,ng the unity of all beUevers in Christ, uppo^e thl; resent arrangements are divine, and therefore to ' endSre o the tnd. God .nusf have "yet more truth and light to break for t^ M] 4H from his Holy Word." The ecclesiastical and doctrinal condition of Christendom is so wide apart from that of apostolic times, and the teaching of Scripture ; and the righteousness manifest, is so little beyond that ot the Scribes and Pharisees, as to warrant the inference, that Christianity is yet in the season of her youth, and that her growth to matunty may fill up five times the number of the centuries .she has yet counted. Why should we not look to a \ glorious consummation of the reign of the Son of God? The Patriarchal dispensation, ended in an overspreading of idolatry and wickedness. The Mosaic, ex- pired in the desolation c ♦" Jerusalem, the burning ot the temple, and the scattering of an a^)ostate people — in scenes of horror, likened by our Lord to the catastrophes that overwhelmed the world at the deluge, and Sodom and (lomorrah. The end of the Kingdom of God, because it is the reign of God — of the God-man who hath all power in heaven and on earth, will not, cannot be as that of the others. It will be a glorious consummation, preceded by ages of light and peace and joy, that passeth all present under- standing. Instead of time expiring with the inconceivably dread- ful judgment day, said to W- " the day for which all other days were made," whose terrors depicted in the famous hymn of the middle ages, called the Dies inc, have sent anguish and dismay into the minds of saint and sinner; thr end \\hen the Son " shall have delivered up tin kingdom to God e^-cn the Father," and the transition into eternity will be silent and unnoticable, as the perfect resemblance gives place to its perfect original. It will be ctn evolution without a jar, because redemption has completed its work, and earth is as heaven. This is the end, because it will be " when he shall have put down all rule, and all authority, and power," and therefore, when all evil has been wholly extirpated and removed. The regal advent and the resurrection of the past, gives a brightly suggestive view or the Kingdom of God's dear Son. It illustrates the love of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the comnumion, on joint participation of the Holy Ghost. It places thf Son where Scripture ever teaches as "God over all," "the Aipha and the Otiuga, the first and the last," "the Almighty." 49 It reveals the Son as " Kini/ of the aires " tw« r • .- -tions pouring all their ^vealth^nd t ^ nco in o "?"„';"" nge. Itshowshisagcasanaa-oflif. T? n ' "'*-' '^'' ''Heth.liv.hanc.UUr: Ll J^r-^ fn "■"^'^' "Sn reign of ,hc Son, it sounds the knel of n,l T r "' .nChristondon,, and n.anifests t s,i „: f ' ™^ °' "'""'■'"' the Lord shall l,e Kin,, overall h °V "'"'''■ " '">''^' "And oneshe„hetd, -and unto hi„, »hal, the" afh':!": IclT^:! nominationalism .. 1; - '""'/■'"•■^■«=<1 realm of I.e- Of .he earth, for I an, .„d ZZ::i::JZP'' "" "■^- ^"^ ™":f:s::i,c:r^;::C.rdr„.rrf:%- »uperna,„ral even,, , tlldt fer tl °" "" 'T"""' "' *» dennhion of proph tici s™bdL '„ th™",!" '" """ '" "»= words of St. Pa.^, " we wa Ik bv f 1 . k "'^ ™' """" ""•• a. the thing, which a'slel ta a heli/ "I'': " "^ '°°^ ""' We look by the eye of faith,'and ^ byhX ^'er T"^' objecaon so formidable to ,nany , need say not „ f ^.he Th'! -He ,„.r,e...o„ of the Bible which is la^Z e:;:^ 7^ as of the past, traverses the deliverances of the univ, r.,l rl u on these doctrines, not much more need be ^W rn„ ! u .ention to the supreme authority of sSfpt'^'/t'^rbyldL: 50 to this higher law that Luther revived the true doctrine of justifi- cation by faith, which was denounced by the Romish Church as a novelty. But it was as an axe laid at the root of the great tree of sacerdotalism. It did not merely antagonize the doctrine of jus- tification as then held, and dating back for over twelve centuries, but it shook the fabric of church deliverances, and removed many doctrines then considered essential to human ^salvation. In view of the justification of the sinner by faith in Christ only, there re- mained no place for the mediating and absolving priest, or the atoning sacrifice of the Mass, or purgatory, or prayers for the dead, or the worship of Mary and the Saints, or for the ritualism which for twelve centuries or more had given the visible expression of Christian doctrine. Only three centuries have elapsed since Christendom was shaken to its base, and chiefly by the resurrec- tion to life of a doctrine which had been smothered by ritualism and sacerdotalism. Many then said that Christianity was over- thrown. We now say that excrescences were removed, and Chris- tianity was strengthened. Many may say, if the regal advent and the resurrection as of the past displace the present views, that Christianity will be seriously injured. What if the views now pre- sented are revived divine truths, and needed to the perfection of the doctrine of justification by faith ? What if the words of the prophet, " Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth," demand a looking to the reigning King who was Priest, but now is the Priest-King ? Christianity seriously injured ! She will be largely illustrated. Justification by faith injured ! The doctrine Avill be fully developed. It now suffers by the almost ex- clusive reference to the priestly Christ. It will be perfected as faith is extended to embrace also the reigning and sovereign Son of God. The third objection to the regal advent and the resurrection as of the past, has not yet been noticed in these pages, but to my own mind it has been for some years, and until I was led to con- sider these events as of the past, the most formidable objection of the three. Before, it was not easy to see that the ruin of Jeru- salem and the temple, and the removal of the whole Mosaic system, could be tn themselves matters of great concern to Chris- tians at Rome and Corinth and Thessalonica and Phillipi. The 61 pertinency of the Saviour's words tn . I, ■ -x readily understood but not IZ r ' '" ^"^'''^ '^""'^ be other countries, no; treri:^^^ '''' ^°"-- - parts. It is true that the Je vs 'tre , '^"'^'^ *° ^'^°^^^ '" ^^^er their national ruin and disp r ion ? P-^ecutors, and that progress or Christianity, trnroTurso^ as tf"^^ '' f language used in the New Testament Th , ''''"■^"' '^'^ considerable number of discinleTfn 7^ ^P^^^^^ James and a nearly up to the time of e'dttr ^^n ^f !h '^^ ^' J--^>- that the enmity of the Tews ^vTrT I. ' "'^' ^'^^^'^ ^^ows by that power'which aliTti: IZTTb ' ^'%^°"''^" '^''''~~ years far exceeded the Tews In ^ "i ' '"^^ '" subsequent How to find a way out of his dffl'f'"^ the Church of God. hasthemmdsofothl '"^"^^'^■^^'^ "^>' """^ as it removaloftheLevitiartTrrD /"";'? '^"' ^^^ «-^ then of the Kingdom of God ni^^''^"""'^ '^^ establishment application of thVp^Z-^JjlTa:^^^^^^^^ °' f' ^'--'^ tians on the whole earth sp^n..^ ^ ""P"'^^^' ^o Chris- ficulty before soTen^ L h'"^ ''''^""^ appropriate. The dif- J' ure so perpiexmg then vanished. The rrisi« ,•„ a r. 70 was a tune of fear and hope to thp Ch ■ J ^- ^•' ^vas to those in Jude. The ' ^ ^^ ^^"' "' ^°™^' ^« ^^ redemption signii?Lh?Sav^n^^^^^ ^"^ ^'^ when these thinss b.-»in t„ ,„ . ' "'"' '«'■ =8. "And your he»ds ; forTo '"d :„ r: d """i '"■" '°"'* "P" •■■"<' "« "P faithful ,0 the enZf he e^^™ '"T "'''''" ^"■'="<''' "" *e Jfo'ies and death the lZ„- , ■'™'"' *"= •'''""'"™ of faithful of the pas, ™d,tT'° ™""'''"S "«= "f "11 the only the Shad?::; .he', X^^ for '"''' '" *■^'■ -n was the grand crisis of all .Lt il fi a, "Tf"* '"•'" awayofthe reign of de-jth nn^ r ' '"S^'^cant of the passmg through righteo'usnisful etlaUiffbr T '^''''".T^ '° "'^'«" Guided by such a view the H ffi , ' ■' "' '^'"'" o" Lord." co.n„,oni;:receiv:d™:;ortS™ Sr ^rSf' ?"' 7 *^ 52 Before the general tenor and the harmonious adjustment of Scripture, the three objections fade away. Especially is it so, as the words of Christ in Matt. xxiv. 29 to 36 are carefully studied. There we see predicted in " the tribulation of Mt^^ days" thedeso- ' lation of Jerusalem and the end of the temple. There is an im- mediate sequence, the final end of the Mosaic system civil and ecclesiastical, indicated by the words Et/fliwi S« /xit* — words, which no critical skill can change the rendering — " immediately after." There are figures employed, similar to those used by the prophets concerning the end of the Empires of Babylon and Egypt. The sun darkened. The moon not giving her light. The stars falling from the heavens, and the powers of the heavens shaken. All these symbols representing the end of Judaism, and all together, "the Son of man coming in the cloiids of heaven with great power and glory." Another connected sequence, the resurrection of all the righteous dead, — " And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." As we read these words, those of Paul, 2nd Thess. ii. i, flash on the mind, "Now we beseech you brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him." Then the parable of the fig tree, " When his branch is yet tender, and putting forth leaves ye know that summer is nigh." Then its explanation, " So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it (summer) is near, even at the doors." Tlie wintet of death almost gone, and the sum- mer of life almost come. What precision marks the Saviour's fol- lowing words : " Verily, I say unto you, this generation shall not pass, till all these things are fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but ray words shall not pass away." Criticism has done its utmost to make -n ymx avnt — " this generation" mean this race or nation, but without avail. Expositors in despair have advocated a double sense with a like result. In Matt. xxiv. Mark xiii. and Luke xxi. the judgment on Jerusalem, the regal advent, the resur- rection and the judgment, are placed as synchronous events. Jesus said, Matt, xviii. 1 6, " in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established." There are here not only two, but three witnesses, testifying to the end of the reign of death, and to the beginning of the reign of life at the second and regal advent. Can we wonder that the judgment on Jerusalem, it being the 53 visible sign of such stupendous events i^ th^ .- i j resurrection and the judgment shouM T k ^ '^''"'' '^" Apostolic times, in al part oflhf m 'u''''" '" ^^"^^'""^ '" death . neart, ended, and *e ,ei.„ of ^Z ah™ .^'Sg "' hill o, Zion. Isaiah\.v tr , ./Ana tfr- ""' ™ ""^ ""'^ Lord of Ho3,s .ake un.o a,I p iple^ "■ oft;*"'""" T '"' wines on the lees of fit thmj f .V / ' """»*• " "east of wen refined Tnd he v 1 df , T™"' "'''""'^ ■"• *= '<=== covering cas. ot a r; ^it "^i:*::.?"""'" "' '"^"^*^ nations. He wi„ swallow^p' dllh'Tn ^ ^ ^^e^^I orCo^d will ivipe away tears from off all faces • and ,1 e „i T f, pie shall he takeaway from o^all he'ea tl, oT ,h V H^rt spo en it. And it shall be said in that d y Lo , , s o°u?rt, we have waited for him and ire will save „s Ibl the L„ d ' the dunghill." Hoseaxiii ,. "; ' ''^^ '^°''" f^"- power of the grave Ar;iT' •„ T ''"''™ ^^^"^ ^^^"^ ^he accomplished. "Vet have T „. „ I '^"'"""■'' '""i «"'=<= ^ion." ..p„, ,he «„'gd: srheTU'THd^he""',,'"'^ ""' '' a...on,then.atio„s,.. - A" -he endtr.iror.dM'Jr ^.^X 1 I ': ("I 64 and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee." " O let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for thou shalt judge the people righteously and govern the nations upon earth." " O worship the Lord in the beauty of holi- ness : fear before him all the earth. Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth : the world also shall be established that it shall not be .aoved : he shall judge tlie people righteously. Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad ; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. Let the fields be joyfu', and all that is therein : then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice. Before the Lord, for he Cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth ; he shall judge the world with righteousness and the people with his truth." The regal advent is of the past. Scripture luminously declares it. Its testimony concerning the regal advent embraces the resur- rection as also of the past. This was to be when Michael the great prince should stand up in regal majesty, at " a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time, and af that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn m.any to righteousness, as the stars forever and ever." Dan. xii. i to 4. Christ, in Matt. xxiv. 21, says of this time of trouble, as to be fulfilled at the desolation of Jerusalem, " for then shall be great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be." He, in verse 30, announces his regal advent, and in the verse following, the resur- rection and the gathering together of " the elect, from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." In Mark xiii. 27, we read, "from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven." In Daniel xii. 7 is a prophecy, the significance of which has not yet been per- ceived by many, yet its evident import confines the completion of Daniel's prophecies, at least of those in the twelfth chapter, to the events of A. D. 70. Let the reader seriously ponder it. " And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto 55 heaven, and svvare by hini that liveth for ever that h «, „ , . a t.me, t.mes, and a half, a.^ ,,,,,. /e s7a^' t^ \ " '°' ''<^t^^'' i''e power of the holy peopl an t^^^^^^^^^^^ Let this prophecy be ohre/i vi i ^''^^K^^ shall be fuihhed:^ " And th^ sha7r^i^^;re;;e tf r^^"^^^^ '^ ^"^^ -■• ^4- «...i'..//.V./...«//i,J/ff^^ ;^^^^^^^^ shall be led of the Gentiles until the tinl "f i . ? '''"" '^^ ^'■°^^^" ^^^^ the resurrection of the Ja hfu de H ?"'"^^ "^^ '"^«"^^ -^" -'^ 70, announced by D^i^^^^^^:^^^^^^^ - A. D. by Apostolic testimony 1 as a 2 ^ ^ "'' ^"^ c°"fi™ed "worthyofaUacceptationT "''"'^"^^^^^ ^° ^^^e it Some eminent writers have in na<;t tm. trine of the regal advent as of AD " m °''?^ '" '°" verbally, or tacitly, admitted the force of the ^7 T '''''' so far as I know have wWh. ^ evidence ; but none the judgment, Ikd I C " "' "'''°"^ ^° ^^^^ ™«-n, reigns iLheLlness of tl^"lX;d%r ''' '^" °^" ^^^ measure perceived these rl,f" ^ '^''">' '""^t have in some Of univel, Chr.llXlnT;:^ ^^ ^^/^ feared the wrath regarding the reeal advent Z. ?u P"^^"^ation ot their views understand Scripture, i, is imp Jbletr 1 .r"' ""' ''" ? ' reason for their inattention tn ,!,« t 8'"^ ""^ °"»f regal advent as of Td " on l/"'"*' °"''= """""= °' '"« and the kingdom of the fiS^e "■"™"' ""^ ^"^«'"'"'. m,ed:;" r r„:,f:.roTLt:s"'"'= ^^°=^'^''- '-'■ coraingcftheSonof Man."J,he R^v r TT'' """ '"^ Curate of Emmanuel, CambenverLondonli'' .^f^'"/' ?- reviewer in the Tournal nf s!, a '1™°°"'— « the words of a wo*ofe„raorir;iirmot''::::i':i£:Sh''^'r;^ gathering of the elect and the h' , '"'"'"^ °' ^^'"''^^' 'he _--,-, ° , eject, and the desolation of the once fsvnr- ? believed the de^cUat s I^^He^lnd't ''^=''''" '""'■""^ '«-n rte Had ma'..o, respecting his f I !: 56 advent during the lifetime of their then existing generation. Thev never dreamed of thousands of years intervening between his first and second coming. ♦ * # Never spoke of this coming in connection with the return of the Jews to their own land ♦ * or of a persona' and visible reign of Christ on earth, but with the destruction of the Jewish people." "It is a thoroughly ascer- tained and most deplorable reality, that no small portion of our fellow Christians are taking it for granted, that in giving ear to visionary conjectures respecting a -ersonal reign of Christ on earth, and the splendours of a millennial paradise — they are being instructed in the things which belong to their everiasting peace." " A more momentous subject than the true chatader of the second coming does not exist in the whole range of theology. If the views here advanced are true, the belief in an advent yet to take place must be erroneous ; if false, they ought to be refuted, and their incompatibility with the general tenor of God's holy word demonstrated. If true, the views advocated ought not to be held in silence; if false, no punishment is too great for so daring an innovation. If Christ has come the second time. He cannot come again, and if his kingdom is now set up, it is folly to look for the establishment of another." The same writer in the preface of a book, " The .\pocalypse Fulfilled." or an answer to "Apocalyptic Sketches," by Dr. Cum- ming, says, "The principle upon which I have conducted tl ,;, in- vestigation is founded on tli.it most clear, universally expressed, and Scriptural truth, that our Lord came, as he said, to destroy Jerusalem, and to close the dispensation. No doctrine of Chris- tianity stands on more ample evidence, and none is capable of more complete and definite proof The reason why it is not more generally insisted upon, is, that we are accustomed to look at the destruction of Jerusalem, and the close of the Jewish dis- pensation, in the same light as the destruction ot any other city or people. This is a false point of view. That awful consum- mation was the grandest event, both in its nature and conse- quences which has rolled along the stream of time. It was the breaking up, not of a dynasty, but of a dispensation, not of a city and nation, but of a religion— a religion established by God him- self, and which for two thousand years was the only religion vouchsafed to man." 57 connected together in Holy Scripture Tf '"'"r'' ? ^"''^"^'''y -/^, before that generation ptrawav i^h ' "'^"^' "" '' before his disciples had gone throur/r '"""' '^'^ ^" ^'"''' some who heard his words did n'!? !• "'''"' °^ ^^^^^^' '-^"^ if ' Son of Man comingTh s Kt.d f '"'^'^ ^"^ ^'^^^ ^^ ^^e elect at the same ti^ " Thfr fs no" ^ "• '' ''" ^^''^"^^ '^'^ be true, or the B.ble must bT ^e ThT? ^' ^"^^ ""' ^'^'^" proved to a den^onstration by his effectil^ J t^ '° "^"""^ '« he came ; that he also gathered h,-<:,f , ^ ^''J'"*^ ^^'^ ^^'h'"ch necessarily incapable of' e si' kin^ ^f '°"f '" ^"^^"^^^ '^ consequence, and the deduHht n P™°^ '' ^"^^ "^tural Son of Man." '"'^' "°''°"^'^ ^'^^ the coming of the In an article furnished bv Mr t^o 1856, of the ' foumal of slr!^ T ."^'^" '" '^^ J"^^ """'ber. of the Apocalypse!™ sSts'hat^l"" °" ^'^ ^^^^"'^ ^^^^ at the destruction of jTus^m " ^r"^ °' '''^"^^ ^°°^ P'^<=e tion. And here I am jrr?; ^'" ""^^I^'^^ "^o^e considera- the late Prof LeVXtyVnttSrTfr^^^ overwhelmed with the crowd of matTthat I Wdl ' '" " ""^'^ first to seize. It is truly a noble .Z 7- ^ ''"°^' °" ^'''^h church should have lost sfght o it Tn .f "'"^'"'^^^^- "^^ ^'^« loss to conceive, partic^l^ta^ '^r/T^^' ' ^ ^ - J-es this was the. only L ent rt^ ^ ' T T " "'^ I unhesitatingly afiRrm that no doctrine of Chrk" ''^''' '^^'' a more complete and magnificent proof th f""^' '^""^^ °" the time of the second cominTof' X L^^v' ^IT '""' '°^ terms ' the last days'-the hst dn r u °'"^'>' ^^^ the '/he end of the world' tn^he L of I ?"". "°"°'"^' tion, . the earth'-the land of nli? ^ -^"'"'^ ^'^P^nsa- understood, there woSd have 1 T ''"'''' ^^^nslated .n^ Christians." Headdsil'ano^hr LTe'^It^ilt!^^^^^^^^ ^'"^"^ that our Lord's coming is onlv .n^ • ^^ "^^^ ^o state second advent i^Yi^^ / .8) L °"'^ '" '^*^"P^"^^ - ^^'^ can be no ...icomlng tl^ut::!';:; f^mT^"^'' ^^^^^ his kmgdom." "" ais.mct frum his coming in As I was about finishing the MS for thic , .• • "'B| 58 friend to Mr. Dezprez's writings, and especially to what he says of the gathering of the elect at the regal advent. His language is precise and intelligible. He says, " then he also gathered his elect at the same time. There is no alternative ; this must either be true, or the Bible must be false. That he did so come is proved to a demonstration by his effecting the objects (those in the material sphere) for which he came : that he also gathered his elect (although the subject is necessarily incapable of the same kind of ptoof) is the natural consequence, and the deducible cor- oUaiy from the coming of the Son of Man." I rejoice that Mr. Dezprez more than twenty years ago was at least on the same line of thought touching the resurrection which is given in these pages. There are no doubt many instances of like kind. May they be multiplied, that the explicatioriof the Word of God on this impor- tant doctrine may be seen to be the work of many, and so that to the furtherance of truth the probable sneer may be checked, " it is oxAy your work." Professor I,ee said of the regal advent as of A. D. 70. " How the Church should have lost sight of it in this its simplicity I am at a loss to conceive, particularly as it is quite certain that in early times this was the only view e7ttertained." This remark of one so distinguished as a scholar and divine, throws no light on the cause of the negligence of the church. He only here gives what seem- ed to him a fact, and leaves to others the discovery of its cause. Mr. Dezprez alludes to mistranslations of fortain words in the authorized version, aa at least one of the reasons of the inattention of the church, which is also a fact, concerning which the eminent and learned divines after the Reformation, when the Bible had become an open book, have shown no haste to discover and amend. There is however a cause which is the chief of all, in that none of the Churches of ancient or modern times, have made any special and asily applied provision for the reception of any more truth and light which God may cause " to break forth from his Holy Word." The semper eadem of the Church of Rome, if not formally avowed by the Protestant Churches, is by them sub- stantially held, and not in a way quite consonant with their avowed principles of freedom and progression, nor with the language they use deprecatory of the Jesuitism of the Romish Church. Their theological formulas, and these rigidly enforced on the teaching 09 alike unfriendly to anv ctn 7t ''"°^ '' "''"' ^^^''■'^™^^ti"n, and from an absolute unwUlZe^ '"^'f ^"^es not so much as from the me^anic Z. ." '"""'"' '''' ^^''^"'^ ^^""^ ^^ ^o^'- which for their Vs"ficai^;? "' T"''°" ^''^^ ^'"^"^^'^ ^y^^^-^^ oHhe ac.eptedk:;:r ;:r- tr r ;^:r" ''^^ ™^^^^ ever lean on it without very soeci.l. on. furtherance must a very gross mistake in the fou h th "] '" f ■ '^"'"'^'- "^"'^^ cerning the regal advent tV "eed-makmg century, con- not bctn rect fi d si e ' and""""'r '"' '''^ J"<^^--^' ^-'^ attempt to dos:^Xinr r^Ts:!::^:;;; "fs r'"-^^'' ^t such opposition, as to cau... \ ''"^cesstul.is likely to meet with ledge s beine incren^M ,„h ""^ "*^" ''"»"" movers under^re TZeoTrtMl "''" "' <"'°""'''°" '''"''' "'= weary in well-doina nnri ««i„ i , uecome taint and than they do n'^are firm °".' r^'u"^ ''"^ "'^° ^^'-^^ ^^^ more the spoiling o Si "o™' As 'r ^'^ f^ °' ^^"'^> ^^^^ i^^^^^y Churihes. .^ does se/mthat the t Z t^l'rr ^"' ^^^^ '" ^'^^ they become moved to attemnt MT °/ *" ^^"^ ^^ '"'"•sters when is more than ^/uy can bel ?! u/ ?m'''°" °''°^'""''^' «"«'•' - w, .hi., ., »„, „ „■;— •;;;-> — — 60 ministers of all the churches will as a class compare favourably with the like number of men in any piofession or,^ business. The Christian people will greatly err if they apply the evil noticed to them. Where the ministers fail in duty the onus lies chiefly if not wholly on the church-systems, which in their recorded prin- ciples are not framed according to the letter and the spirit ot the New Testament. It avails little to say. that in Protestant Churches the creed is subject to revision and amendment, as I am not con- sidering things in the abstract, but in the concrete. Even in the Church of Rome, the creed admits of increase and development and there is not in Protestant Churches in the abstract any hind- rance to its reformation, but in the concrete the hindrance is nearly insuperable, and to reformers may involve t'cclesiastical death, and so, because no special and edsily applied provision has been made for the reception of more truth and light which may break forth from God's Holy \Vord. It may be said that it is easier to point out evils than it is to show a way to their correction. It may be therefore very pertin- ently asked, " If you from Scripture can present a remedy for the consideration of the Christian people, it is your duty to do so." In so doing I would say, that I have no controversy with the mere frame works of particular Churches. I am pleading on a question of liberty so as to .secure the freedom of the ministry in all the Churches, and that, in order to the free interpretation of Scripture by each minister, uxidisturbed by the pains and penalties now existing. The form of the Church may be important, but the freedom of the ministry in declaring the whole counsel of God is vastly more important. Puritan although I am to the core, I am not a bigot concerning the form of the Church. I would rather plead for that, which if gained would in time purify the doctrinal and then the ecclesiastical. In the New Testament, there is little said of the form of the Church, but there is there much said, and more to be reasonably implied, concerning two things, and these apart from the mere frame work of the Church are the vital forces in any and all Churches of Christ. They are, faith in the Son of God as the Priest-King and as " over all, God blessed for ever," and the "continuing" steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine," wliich now to us means, abiding in their recorded teachings. These two principles should be sacred and inviolable in every Church of 61 Christ. By faitJi in fh« fi obedience in both, ,v. m„d nn/^ ""■' "'""''■ "" '"^ ™'in"«l Catholic Church. The "hot U^. 'T^.T"""""" ""'' "'••' ""ly fundamental PHnci,„;'::;t ' ll'^f ""^^ """^■' » *- frame worlcs no». existing „r i„ ,m ■ " ™"°"' ^'■""^l' of Scripture, out.ide oMhe 1 tT' """'^ '" "" '"'""-'""o" Where these two princin c" , !, -c ,""?' ''™"'"'='' "«i"<l- a neces^nry conJiucn o, ™, fo? , "? ''' ^"'™'i°". -<< - out every thing elie. „lacl g I X a, h' Tk,'""' ""' ™"= /»'m.*te/j. neces.sarv to ,,|J f debateable subjects, not free discussion ,ndXndl"cor/ ■ "^T"™"'— ''J-:.^ for •he ministry d.rect,y r" s b't cl^'; Lt""''""- ''''^^ '""='-- to his Word as the only law „r M ' ""«""'« ^'"S< and all existing Churches, "he 1 [ ' '"'"■ '/ ""'^ '""Iwionize ■hey sweep away all h, man'y cL st !;e'd '" ,"'"• """"«"■ ""« tion and communion; tha hrvlr"^, "''' '™^ "^ ''''"- from bondage to au.hori ,i e 'th'oW.,,"; "•""'"« """""> put. ^tlV.;y to t*ef ' T T"'-"' "--" before Churches, and'^^her2:'i ^1^1 nT^^'^r ''°" "' '^'^«"« that I need add, is to refer suT „ ?? *'l''f »'"« 'o many, all ™. .8, "Upon this rock I wil i M V!""^' "' ^^'^'' M"t. must either mean Pe er or h „„r "' ^''"'"''■" '''''= " 'o<^k " and concerning thaJ'Th e e d tTi^.e d "iV""" '^ ™-"'' language, that, and only ,!,„ whi, h ''"1^''°'''"' '« *« in its acts of the ..postles in the fou Jinl «"*'';•'"'' ''''fined all the of Christ, In the ec'rH. „f * ^ "Pbu'Uing of the Church nothing that co Mr ve 'o add'JTot ' """ '^" '^ o^^^'"""' of the Church was secured b ,t lelief of'T ° ,'"" ■''"= ""'*' ■n the words "thou art ■ » in r, . "'"'' '^V<i«!T,l „ atoning and anointed n'e Z^^^IST'"^' '"""'"^ ■n the Son of God declared ,o b sth ''with J"""* ""^ ' " """ h^spnit of holiness, by the res rrenH„„"*,Td'"r ? '" <.~on;a„d.o;he^-:;?4rara:tr;;rs^:;-; ! 02 power as the Mfe-giver, in laisinsr to everlasting life all the faithful of the past, and ( ontiniiously all the faithful, to the end of time, thus verifying his words, " For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself, and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of Man" — John v. 26-27. In view of the ideal of the Church of Christ here given, and of the so-called churches of Christ for at least fifteet 'enturies in the past, we need not greatly wonder at the true doctrine of justifica. tion being only revealed in the sixteenth century, nor at the view of the regal advent and the resurrection as of the ])ast now pre- sented in this the nineteenth century. We might marvel with exceeding amazement at such late developments, could we believe that the church up to the Reformation had rested only on the supremacy of the Son of God, and on Holy Scripture ; or even that since then the churches were and are on the Divine basis solely. But such a view cannot be maintained. At the Reforma- tion we cast off the Pope, and professed to abjure all human authority, yet in fact we only renounced one form of human authority and held to many others. Many churches have been founded on particular expositions of Scripture. The authority of a noted man, or that of a number ot men has been deemed suffi- cient to create a church of Christ ! ! Here and there, and at many times in the last three centuries has the cry been heard ffom men, " On this rock (our views concerning the teaching of Scripture) we will build our church," and they did build our church. What one or more did, others of course claimed to do, and so the anti-Christian work has gone on to the dividing and the scattering of the Israel of God ; and to what is perhaps worse, to the enthronement of a ])rinciple of human authoritv in the cre- ation and upbuilding of societies called by their founders and adherents churches of Christ, involving in them necessarily, not the preaching of the whole counsel of God to the people, but its publication as it accords with the accepted creed of each party. In view of such facts we need not be amazed at any late devel- opment of Divine truth. We should ruther marvel and with ex- ceeding amazement, that for fifteen centuries or more, the words of Christ concerning that on which He would build His Church have not been received as inviolable — not to be diminished nor • 63 tf^eir expositions of Scr,uTco^"^^^ '' ''^'^>'- '•^• .Christ, or ^vM.;;, determiners^ .'^'"" '^''""^' ••'""•'■''-" of munion. " "^^'^"»"^« the condu.ons of salvation and com- A look of pity and ast<,n.shn.c.v. like thit u-h; i revelafon of the doctrine >r n^tific ' k r ^" '' S'^'^'-'t*-'^ the century, „,ay rest on what ^s '. t' '^i Tn H ' '" ''' '''''''''^ advent and the resurrectio ' v VT ''"'''■"'■"^' '''^' '•^«^I not be wiser to allow M^/- ,w. .o\ ! ^""'^ ' '"" ""'^''^ '* 01nistendon,andontheirsandard in -T ''' ^'^""'^^ "^ «/^MV^ provision is to I ,e fou d for t h ' " ■^'^""'''"' ^"•'■^•' and light, which God marcle „ r??"^^''^"^ '"^^^^ ^^"^h Word. ^ "'""'' ^° '''•e«'< ^orth out of his Holy Scripture, l>y this on or the o herTVl ^'^ '"^-1-tatioJ o in use the right n^ethod fo e 't il, r'" J^! ''''''''^^ ^^^ '^alls "the unity of the faith "whirh "^ ^'^'^ "''"'^'^ '^'-^"i knowledge of the nvea^ing of S i turr''"; "" 'T' "■^'"^ '" '^^^ chiefly concerned for the reco^n it^' r ^^'P'''^'^'' ^'^ I'-opl, "shed in a particular Ch^rc '^'^^s th ' T''^ "^"^' ^■^^•^'^■ eithermaking it a condition 1^^ ^ZZa "''''' '''''''' regard.ng ,ts acceptance necessary to t c" rowl "'h'"""""' "^ the sect. As the Churches hnv i \^''''''^ ^nd welfare of they have pledged the n^n^'f ""^';' ^'^ '«- Christ laid, thepeopleare thoughtle V ed osf H "T' ''"' '^^"'^•^' -^ Prehend .the crucbl , , est on , f u'' "''' ^°'^ "'^^ '^°»^- thoughtfuhnind,vi.!w r "h "'•^'°"'' '^^-^ - -ery ;ve of church «; oth^r c^;L;:;: T:r?^''^"^^ ^^^-^-^ them to substitute another in,l 1,.« ■ hoivcver, enough to Scri,,,„re s„«i„ the eree^ of ou ^r""',!';"' '""'"'°"' """■ "«« examine Seripture from alnnT ■ "u ' '^"" '" "»^ i"'l"i'y "hewrongcLch.sioIVe^nt:;:;:!""''' "*''='■ '""^<'«- The mistake is a common,;: TZT^^:^ '"V^"'»"- however, ,s only shgh.ly if a, all perce ed T-l ; ,","""'' «i Of God according to t,:"':^:::'';; .r;::ii^ ;:tt x ii S*" *S"! 64 • people indoctrinated thereby, see only in the creed the sense of Scripture, and are insensibly incapacitated to an independent examination and understanding of the Word of God. It is generally believed that any great change in Church creeds through a letter understanding ol the Scriptures is impossible, and so because of the general agreement in all evangelical Churches on all important doctrines; but what if on one subject on which they all agree, namely,, that the end of time is the season of the regal advent, the resurrection and the judgment, they from that as a stand-point, look at and interpret Scripture concerning the nature of the Kingdom of God, whether as a dispensation of life, o. like to those before, a dispensation of deatli ; or at its King as whether soverign .ruler, or now and to the end of time filling offices which involve subordination to the Father ? The first view is necessarily seen from the stand-point taken and advo. cated in these pages, while the other as inevitably comes from a view of Scripture as seen from the other stand-point. If mine is the true one, and as to whether it is such I need only refer to the many passages from Scripture given to support it, the belief that any great change in theology is not to be expected from a better understanding ot Scripture must be abandoned. The time of the regal advent and the resurrection involves a crucial question, as to the real meaning of Scripture concerning the nature of the King- dom of God, and the position of its King ; the true settlement of which will have a direct and special bearing on the realization of the highest ends, in the unity, the spirituality and the righteous- ness of the Israel of Gc^ everywhere. And therefore in conclusion, I ask all who esteem the true knowledge of Scripture as above all earthly good, to make this question a special study. I do so from a profound conviction, that on its true solution the highest issues depend, in the unity of all be^'evers with each other, and in the Son of God; in the knowledge and practice of " his righteousness " which exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees ; and in the coming in of the day c light and joy and peace, when •' the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." T further such ends, and not for curious enquiry, nor for sensational results, have I now given to the public in these pages " The rtjal advent and the resurrection, of the past."