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Whenever possible, these have been omitted from filming/ II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajout^es lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte, mais. lorsque cela dtait possible, ces pages n'ont pas 6ti film^es. Additional comments:/ Commentaires suppldmentaires: L'Institut a microfilme le meilleur exemplaire qu1l lui a etd possible de se procurer, Les details de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-dtre uniques du point de vue bibliographique. qui peuvent modifier une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une modification dans la m^thode normale de filmage sont indiqu^s ci-dessous. r~n Coloured pagss/ Pages de coui«T *° !!" "^f ""'' backslidden pro- lessor, Ivomember therefore from whence «-u art fallen, and repent, and do the firsi works ; or else I will come unto thee qnickl v and w,ll remove thy candlestick ouT^n L' place, except thou repent.»-Kev. ii. 5. The servant who hid his talent, was cast into outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnash ..g of teeth."_Matt. xxv. 30. He was p't" .shed, not for extravagance, not for was'L: or mjurmg his Lord's money, but for hid ;: t,-for neglecting to improve it. How man^ alents are buried in the church, which 72 o be employed in the work of Jhe Lord t lents for training children in the way hey SrCOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 21 Should go ; talents for awakening sinners by private conversation ; talents for comforting the afflicted, and pointing them to Him who by the grace of God, tasted death for every inan ; talents for building up the Church upon Us most holy faith ; talents for sendiug the Bible and the Missionary to the ends of the earth. Oh ! ye slumbering professors, what talents have you? how are they employed? ihe Master will come to you and to me. He may come quicUy ; what shall be our re- ward ? Let us address a few words to those who are « looking for and hasting unto the comin ns. Be patient, therefore, brethren, nnto the coming of the Lord." If now you have protracted suffering, then there will be a complete release ! If „ow you liave a great fight of affliction, then you will have an un- disturbed and eternal peace ! If „ow vou are absent from the Lord, then you shall be present with Him. But the doctrine of Christ's second Advent IS also designed to encourage the hope of the Christian believer ; this expectation of see- ing Christ, and being " ii/ce Him," has o-iven nse to the desire, that He would come guick. ly ; U has prompted men of ardor to be al most impatient at His apparent delay; and hence their miscalculations have resulted in disappointment and shame. But there are others wlio have no less confidence in Christ's second appearing ; but they think the time is not yet ; and they are attending to the words of the Apostle, "/.o^,, to the e,zd for the grace that IS to be brought unto you at the rcvelatwn of Jesus Christ /" they remember the words of the Saviour, " take ye heed, watch and w-av Jor ye know not when the time is." Is the follower of Christ to be stimulated «ECOin> ADVENT OP CHRIST. 83 to fidelity and constancy, amidst all the per- plex.ties and discouragements of life, let him attend to the ,.-ords of the beloved Apostle, whose matured piety and long experience qualified hun to give the best advice : " And now httle children, abide in Him, that when He shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming." Is the Church to bo urged to greater de- grees of heavenly muidedness, so as to coun- teract the gilded attractions of this transitory state ? what is so calculated to refine and ele- vate Its taste and desires, as the prospect of being at the marriage supper of the Lamb ; to whom, as his bride, the Church is affi- anced. " If ye, then, be risen witli Christ seek those things which are above, where' Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on thin-s on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life IS hid with Christ in God. When Christ who IS our life, shall appear, then shall yj also appear with Him in glory."_Col. iii. 1-4, The truly spiritual Church of Christ ear- nestly desires His coming,-it has done so 24 LECTURES ON TH« ever ».nce John struck that note, « Even so, Come, Lord Jesns ;" the spiritual presence of the Saviour is no substitute for his persona! presenc. The faith of the believer,^"not a grace that is to last forever." Faith is the telescope that we use to see, and catch some g-eam of glory of the distant personal Christ: his dispensation itself shall pass away ; and taith, which 13 so precious now, shall be lost and merged in sight. Faith here is but a temporary thing ; it is b„t a substitute for sight,_it IS not to supersede or render it un- necessary So John, the beloved disciple, who lived nearest to Christ, who leaned ujon His bosom at supper; John was so little sa- tisfied with seeing by faith, that from the commencement of the Apocalypse to its close, he longs to see Christ by sight : « Come Lo d Jesus." The friend is not satisfied with epistolary intercourse with his friend — he longs to see him in the flesh. The bride IS not satisfied that the bridegroom should be dista„t,-she longs for his presence. The Christian Church is not satisfied that the Lord should be beyond the horizon,-she longs and prays, « Come, Lord Jesu3."_Dr Cumming in Apoc. p. 395. i SECOND ADVSNT OP CHRIST. 25 In concluding these remarks, we would say, that the Church is in a state of widowhood the bridegroom is taken away ; the bride the Church, is ia the wilderness of this world.' iiut we look for the personal return of Christ the Husband. To His spouse. He says : « Ye now have sorrow, but I will see you again and your heart shall rejoice ; and your ioy' no man taketh from yon—John xvi. 19,20, i fSBB!?.- LECTURE II. ERRORS RESPEOmo THE *IME OP CHRIST-S . SECOND COMING. '''"^^^^^ Acts I. 7; the Father hath put in Hu own power." In our last dfecourse, we were led to observe that the second Advent of Christ has ev^r' been the great object of the Church's hole parfcnlarly since the angel said : "This sale Jsus which is taken up fronr you into W 12 nTm r°T r "'° '"^""«^' - y« have semi Him go into heaven."_Acts i. 2. But although the angel did not say when ChriS return should take place, yet men have 1 Slimed to lift up the veil of futuritv a.Id into the hidden things of God, tdlll IJ mulated by an ardent desire and a viviSlma gmation, they have ransacked the annXof chronology; they have noted down raemora ble events and occurrences; they haveTet ^.gns in the sun, in the moon, 'and in ^^ 2S LECTURES ON THE Stars; and then, with the greatest presiimi>- tion, they hnve told the world, the very day when Christ shall appear. How much bet- ter would it have been, if they had regarded the words of Christ, spoken in reply to the question, « Wilt thou at this time restore again tlio Kingdom to Israel." 7 he Saviour said : " It is not for you to know the times, or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power." But as this rebuke has often been disregarded, and the time of Christ's second Advent frequently set, espe- cially within the past ten or twelve years, we shall now — First, refer to some of those errors respect- ing the TIME of Christ's second Advent:— The disciples themselves mistook some of our Lord's predictions, respecting the destruc- tion of Jerusalem, and applied them to His second Advent. For instance, when they had shew-n Christ the buildings of the tem- ple. He informed them that a time was com- ing, when there should not be left one stone of them upon another, that should not be thrown down.— Matt. xxiv. 1, 2, 3. The as- tonished disciples said : « Tell us when shall I !'!f SECOtTD ADVENT Of CHRIST. ^9 these things be, and what shall of Thv be tho sign ri-,,- / ''°"''"^' """ M tie end of the world " Chnst gave them the signs of the times par oS'r "^ :'"" '^-■"-'-" *ouid be'd : mneduuely concerned ; He also gave si^ns of H,s second Advent. But as to the time of His .econa conring, and tke en.1 ojlZllJ Jesus saitl, « Bui or fl,r,f , , ^'^^ z:^ ir;:' 'if'- ^*^ *'" ^^^^^ *- r/ie/-. And then He o-ave thprr. fi • i « 'Pol, I -, b^ve mem this advice* Take ye heed, watch and nn v • f. i ' notwheathetimeis.»-SxSL3r Upon the above text th^ a / . ' ' remark: "If the abovV^ '^'*^"""°'-^ «"« the definite time of the ZoS "^ J ^^^^^^^^ heaven they equally prove tLts^ir elf wdl never understand the time -ft that which is affirmed concerning m' also affirmed concerning Christ bttt'u" pose that the Lord will „ot knox^ the ^ ^ His second glorious appearing for th« ITi vationofHispeople^LU^i/r,^;-- -.3 to suppose that which is supreSy ao LECTURES ON THE absurd and preposterous."- This statement proceeds upon the supposition, that if such knowledge be communicated to Christ Jesus, It must necessarily be made known to men also 5 we do not see the necessity of this and we are quite inclined to think, that the glori- fied humanity of Christ in heaven, may have been made acquainted with the time of His second Advent. But it is pretty evident, that no one on earth knows when that time will arrive, for those persons who profess to have that knowledge, and have foretold the very day when It should occur, have been so frequent- ly mistaken, that it clearly appears they do not know the time j and therefore we can have no confidence in their future predic- tions. " It is worthy of remark," says Dr. Un- wick, « that the only errors mentioned in the New Testament, respecting the time of our Lord's coming, all consist in dating it too early:' I shall give several examples : 1st. The case of the se rvant represented, as say^ * Grand Crisis, P- 233ri^his'^^;i~;^cir^^ have been prepared by one individual, was '^ issued bv request of the Advent Brethren," so that, we must look «pon It as a Standard Work of 'those persons SECONP ADVENT OP CHRIST. 31 ing, « my Lord delayeth His corainff" Th» servant had taken „p a wrong impr;;';' '„ of he date when his master was to be looked for? and as his master did not show himself «ccordmg to that false date, the servant,^ stead of d,str„stmg his own understand n.^ memory or calculation, as the case „S wouTd T " """"^''°"' *'-'• "- "-£r sTa cteaT r"'^'" '"' ""''' P--''-d, and so acted to h,s rmn. (Has not this case been rcpeateJly realized amnn„. ti ti,i y ^'''^'izei among the expectants of the pre-millenniul Advent?) The next in stance adduced hun, tt ■ , '"" nobleman Tn f '^''''' " *''^' "^ «!« (that IS the disciples) " about an immediate appearmg, he int.mates that both His c^'d Advent and the appearing of the Kmgdom "1 tt c'e^r irr^ """ "' ^ considen^i^in. ! v^r^+ +1 , ^ ^^^Jstcike, shows i> no to have been H,s wi.-l that th y shiuld look upon those events as at hand."/ " ClSt'sTn r'-"^^'"'"^ *he time of ^'tiiist s second commg, arose it, th. ni i • Quoted bj Brown, pT 4i7 33 ' LECTURES ON TUB St. Paul liad written his fi rst epistle to that for Churcl. >„ w,Hch l>e i.sed tl.ese words: " lor the Lord himself shall descend from heaven w,th a shout with the voice of the arcran- ge , and w,th the t.n.np of God ; and the dead ,„ Christ shnll rise fast ! then we which are ahve and remain, shall be cauglu up to^^e. ther wath them in the clcds, to n.eet t\o Lord zu he mr : and so shall we be ever witli the Lord. Wlierefore comfort one another With these w«rse most skilled ;r '"'* ''''"'"'-'■ '^^'"^ Lactuntius was one of the greatest writers in his day. But we need not add the two centuries past away, and Christ did not come. In ^^^ seventeenth century, Vax^\asa^■ehnen^^ a higj pretender to a spirit of prophecy seU 't m the year 1613, induced thereto by a fond second A^ . '■''^ra^vell, there arose a set of second Advent men, commonly called F,nh ^narchy-^nenfmey aro described by L" sheim, as "^rons-headed and turbulent JZ yts, who expected Chrisfs sudden app ' ance upon earth : thev elaimprl f„ i, ',^P\°-'^' nf rnr}\ J ., ^ Claimed to be the samts ?^:ffif!li^;i2yfxpeoted, when Christ should • Bp. Burnett. ' ~ — ~ ~ M 36 LECTURES ON THE V I f . come, they, as His deputies, were to govern all things under Him." But these turbulent enthusiasts have long been quiet in death, and yet Christ's second Advent has not taken place. Dr. Adam Clarke says, '-' it has long been the idle expectation of many persons, that the millennium, in their sense, was at hand, and its commencemait has been expected in every century since the Christian era. It has been fixed for several different years dur- ing the short period of my own life ; I be- lieved those predictions to be vain, and I have lived to see them such." We noAv come to the nineteenth, the pre- sent century. These early errors to which we have briefly adverted, were revived by Mr. Miller, a Baptist Minister in the United States ; he calculated from prophecy, chrono- gy, history, and other sources of information, that the second Advent of Christ should take place in 1843. When that prediction failed, a tarrying time of four years was announced, and then it was stated that Christ would come, that Christ must come, in 184.7. And I my- self heard one of those bold men say in the SECO.^D ADVENT OF CHRIST. 87 aays,-he was .«r. o/ it; f^r the Holy Ghost la d tilt -" ^''' ''" ^''^^ «'-' '^-^ a!!m f "*' "'"''' "P"'' 'he hearts of Ms who had embraced tha ' ' "* '1""'^ sHenced by the faflut If « ^^ '"''" "°* '""« Phec.es; aL hen f Ta^tl^l T TT^"* ''"■ wintBv ti *• ' '^''' ''"t' during the wmter, the time of Christ's second AdvenI was a^ain appointed,_the 26th of May la," he day of the annular eclipse, was t Je sit' time. It was nnWiVi„ „♦ * j ^ ed thnt pT f "" '°y ^*a*ed, correctly report- ed, that Christ might come sooner, He mi-.ht come the next month, or even that ;er; n" ht but He could not be later than the sSll' that ime, had to acknowledge his mistake in the place where he uttered his prediction. 1854 VI r' ''"^"'" ^'^ «"d the vear ng the t me when Christ's second Advent is to take place. We shall introd.^e the argu ments by which they endeavour to sup^rt 38 LECTURES ON THE their opinions, when we treat upon the pro- phecies from which they draw their conclu« sions. There appears some incougrnity in their statements, in different parts of their books, as the following extract will show, when compared with the above : « Ajrain it is evi- dent the wise virgins themselves were not in full preparation to meet their Lord when the cry was sounded. They were awakened from their sleep, arose upon their feet, and trimmed their lamps ;" all of which constituted a part of the preparation. But it is plain, from other portions of God^s truth, that the trans- formation from mortality to immortality, will be instantaneous, as the ligiitning's flash, when the last trump shall sound ; and no previous warning, it appears, will be given to render the time of Christ's appearing S^rtain, as it would be, if announced by celestial beings to the saints; otherwise they would not be associated with the worldling in the same field, or at the same mill, in the com- mon avocations of life nor reposing on the couch. Had the erring brethren contented themselves with stating that certain eveuta SECO.VB ADVEJ.T OP CHRIST. 39 foretuid .„ ,eripu„e, as preceding, the com- look <^U fof Ihe V ' '^' ""'^' "^^ "P°" *« heed watlh ^ ^"^"'"'•'-^e must "take need watcn and pray, then no fault could be found wuh their statements. E„t when thev assert that Christ «„// ., ^ and tl^t they are not mistaken thu time and that they cannot be mistaken ;-we /,«S nay we ,,,,,,,, «--• ^^ we are p^d IZ.^.. """ "'^ "^ ^^■"'^'^'^^'' °- - We do not find that the time of the second so 21" !""'"' '■" *^ ^^'^"^'"-•' *"« ^s so much obscurity about some of their Scrin- «rc dates, that there is no certainty wh ', he time to which they are applied began so ermirTt'r"'""--'^-^*'^^?"^^' tcrmmato. Look, for instance, to the seventy weeks spoken of by Daniel ; when thS weelcs began and ended, is, even to this day thr,9o7 1 ^•'"^°;°«*'^°^«sy. Look, also, to the 1290 days of ^ntichristian rule (Daniel xu. Z); the beginlng and end of this period IS confessedly unsettled. Bishop Newton, a pre-miUennarian says, " the question wa.. ast- It 410 LECTURES ON THE ed, not only how long the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the transgression of desolation continue, but also how long the vision shall last ; so the answer is to be under- stood, and these 2,300' days denote the whole time from the begining of the vision to the cleansing of the sanctuary. The sanctuary is not yet cleansed, and consequently these years are not yet expired. * * * It is diffi- cult to fix the precise time, when the prophetic dates begin and when they end, till the pro- phecies are fulfilled, and the event declares the certainty of them." * l»ut let us proceed to examine some pas- sages of Scripture which are supposed to point definitely to the period of Christ's second Advent. Daniel ii. 31,-35 j and the interpretation Which we have in verses 37 45. In this pi ophecy, there are four monarchies mention- ed, the last of them is the Imperial govern- ment of Pagan Rome. The " little stone cut out of the mountain" smites this fourth mon- archy and demolishes it; then the ''little stone" is spoken of as increasing till it fills • Di9. on Prop., p. 290. SECOND ADVENT OP CHRIST. 41 the Whole earth,-and it shall stand for ever." But the prophecy does not say when this « lit- le stone" shall fill the whole earth ; .^ L re- ly speaks of the fcu^t, tJuu it shall be. i prophecy then proves .^^n, as to the ttl The?"f '"'°"' ''''"''"* ^'^'^U t=»ke place. _ i* , and Its uUerpretation in verses 16-28. In this prophecy, Daniel has anotl^, ,,-,^ ^f the same subiect wit), +i,„ i ix- •"""' oi horn " A^ o x ' T ® addition of a " ^«i deuructton of Chri^^s enemies, and not to the time of his second Advent. Another prophecy, is Daniel xi. 40 : "And at the time of the end, shall the king of the sou h push at him : and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chanots, and with horsemen, and with many ships and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow, and pass over." Mr Be- nck says, on these events : « And the kin- of the north shall come against him." It is obvious that the power to be pushed against, IS, that "certain king" namely, Turkey, for It IS spoken of as distinct from « the king of the south" and " the king of the north." After tracing the history of the Western em- pire, the prophet returns to the Eastern em- pire, and planting his feet on the seat of government, the metropolis of that vast Ea*. b3 K I .c 50 LECTURES ON THiS pire, now under the dominion of the Turks, and viewing the kingdoms from that point of observation, he calls Egypt « the king of the south," because it is the only kingdom lying m that direction ; and Russia, " the king of the north," because it is the only power situ- ated toward that point of the compass. With- out going into the minuta) of its history, (Egypt), from that time until the present, we would observe, that it continued much in this condition until the war of 1832, when Mehemet Ali, Pacha of Egypt, at- tempted to make himself independent of the Ottoman Porte, in the event of which the declaration of the prophet was fulfiUed : " the king of the south shall push at him :"* namely, at Tm-key ; for Syria, at this time, belonged to the Turkish empire. And " the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind;" the word usually trans- lated "whirlwind," says Kitto, means, more properly, k stm-m. But who is to come like a storm ? Gog and Magog, or as one wri- ter expresses it, « the Prince of Kosh," that IS, Russia. The two leading characteristics of a whirlwind are : 1st. Velocity ^ 2nd. Irre- iiiil • KCOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 51 «wtiUe violence. Hence, we couch.de, in respect to this f„lfil„ie,.t, « a .short work will the Lord make upon the earth." The position here taken, has been objected to by some, from the ulea that it would require too much time for the accomplishment of the work, and consequently place the coming of our Kmg too distant in the future. But it may be remarked, that a g,-eater work was per- formed by Bonaparte in a less period ; : an three months; and can we not rely on the word of God, when He declares it shall be done'* In the above extracts, we see the writer apphcs«theki„gofthe south pushing at him ; ' the certain king, to the Pacha of Egypt and his efforts in J832. « The king of the north coming against him as a whirlwind, to the empure of Eussia, the present war; the wnter thus making these two attacks to be 21 years apart, whereas Daniel speaks of them as being simultaneous; besides, in the present ''"f' *'f P«°l'^ of Egypt is actually aiding, and not pusldng against Turkey. __^^ t again, so far as the war has progressed, • Grand Crisia, pp. 131, 134 ~ — Bi i !i almost every result has been obtained infiu vor of the Turks, and the Russians have re- treated, whereas Daniel says, " the king of the north". . . .shall enter into the countries, and shall overjloiv and pass aver. He shall also en- ter into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown, but there shall escape out of his hand, Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries ; and the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt : and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps."— Daniel xi. 40, 41,42, 43. According to the Adventists' the ly, this ex- tensive conquest has to be accomplished in this year of 1894; but where is there the least prospect of it ? We are inclined to think with Bishop New- ton, that these predictions respecting the kings of the south and of the north had their fulfilment, when the Othmar got possession of Greece, Constantinople, Ju aa and Egypt. But to show more clearly how exactly DanieFs SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 53 «i prophecy was fulfilled in all its details by the conquests of the Mohammedans, we shall give a quotation from the Bishop's Dissertation, pp. 350, 351 : "And at the time of the end," that is, (as Mr. Mede rightly expounds it), " in the latter days of the Roman Empire ; shall the *king of the south push at him;' that is, the Saracens, who were of the Ara- bians, and came from the south : and under the conduct of their false prophet Moham- med and his successors, made war upon the Emperor Heroclius, and with amazing rapidity deprived him of Egypt, Syria, and many of his finest provinces. They were only to push at and sorely wound the Greek empire ; but they were not to subvert and destroy it! >*And the king of the north shall come agamst him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships, and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over;" that is, the Turks who were originally of the Scythians, and came from the north ; and after the Saracens seized on Syria, and assaulted with great vio- lence the remains of the Greek empire, and ir, time rendered themselves absolute mas- b5 * 54 LECTURES ON THS P ters of the whole. The Saracens dismem- bered, and weakened the Greek empire, but the Turks totally ruined and destroyed it ; and for this reason, we may presume, so much more is said of the Turks than of the Saracens. Their chariots and their horse- men are particularly mentioned, because their armies consisted chiefly of horses. Their ships, too, are said to be many ; and, indeed, without many ships, they could never have gotten possession of so many islands and m.aritmie countries, nor have so frequently vanquished the Venetiaus, who were at that time the greatest naval power in Europe. The words " shall enter into the countries, and overflow, and pass over," give us an exact idea of their overflowing the western parts of Asia, and then passing over into Europe, and fixing the seat of their empire at Constanti- nople, as they did under their Seventh Em- peror, Mohammed the Second. Among his other conquests, this king of the north was to take possession of the Holy Land, and to subdue the neighbouring countries, but the mixed people of Arabia were to escape out of his hands. " He shall enter also into SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 55 i the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown ; but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom and Moab, and the Chief of the children of Ammon :" (ver. 41 .) Now nothing is better known, than that the Turks took possession of the Hcly Land, and remain masters of it to this day. 77ie last prophecy in Daniel, which we shall now consider, is found in chapter xii. 5-13 : " Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood othcx two, the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on tiiat sido of the bank of the river. And one said to the man clothed in linen, which ivas upon the waters of the river. How long shall it be to the end of these wonders 1 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 heaven, and sware by Him that liveth for ever, that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when He shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished. And I heard, but I under- stood not : then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things ? And He said, 56 LECTURES ON THB Go thy way, Daniel : for the words are closed np and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried ; but the wicked shall do wickedly : and none of the wicked shall understand j but the wise shall understand. And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh de- solate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he that waite.h, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days. But go thou thy way till the end be : for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the da^^s." The author of the « Grand Crisis," says upon this passage : " The daily sacrifice shall be taken away," that is, the true worship re- moved, " and the abomination that maketh desolate set up." This refers to the same power that is brought to view in Daniel vii. 24,25; xi. 31; and Matt. xxiv. 15, namely, the Papal poiver. This power was established in the sense of the prophecy in A.D. 519. It was then that the Catholic Church was na- tionalized, and the mode of faith held by that body adopted as the religion of the empire. SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 67 In this chapter (Daniel xii.) the Angel de- clares there shall be « time, times, and an half." This the prophet did not understand. He then enquires : " What shall be the end of these things 1" To this, the Angel replies : (ver. 11.) "And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abom- ination which maketh desolate set up, there shall he a thousand two hundred and ninety days." On turning to history, we find this has been exactly fulfilled. In the year 519, the abomination was set up. The Emperor Justin, by a decree, caused the Catholic Faith to become the dominant religion, and the Church became incorporated with the State ; but in 1809, just 1,290 years after this union, Bonaparte deprived his Holiness of his tem- poralities, since which time, the power of the Pope, as a temporal Prince, has been but a second-rate power, (p. 177-) But some of the Adventists themselves dif- fer from the above writer, in the application of the words "the abomination of desola- tion ;" they believe it to be the Imperial Ro- Qiian Power, and that the prophecy recognizes it from the time it became connected with ifi 58 LECTURES ON THE Im the history of God's people, until the end of the chronological period. They view it as one ahominatmi of desolation, xvhether Pagan or Papal,— that it first desolated the sanctuary —(Jewish) ; and secondly, the host— (Chris- tian) ; that it ivas the " little horn" which « waxed exceeding great," (Dan. viii.) ; and secondly, the "little horn," 'Uvhose lookw^s more stout than his fellows," (Daniel vii ) • that first in its Pagan state, it caused the saints to flee out of Judea, as described in Matt. XXIV., Mark xiii., and Luke xxi. ; and second- ly, It caused the saints to « flee into the wil- derness," in its Papal form. (Grand Crisis, p. 187.) ' This prophecy is applied to the Eastern or Crreek Church; and to iMohammedanism, in Its rise, progress, ejects, and termination, bv .Bishop Newton, and others. One angel asks another, (ver. 6,) « How long shall it be till the end of these wonders?" to which the other angel replied : « For time, times, and an half," (ver. 7.) Daniel did not understand this answer, so he prayed, " O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things ? And He said, Go thy way, Daniel : for the words are 1 i SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 59 closed up and sealed till the time of the end,^^ The time, times, and a half time, are said to be 1,260 prophetic days or years, at the end of which, Mohammedanism is to be destroyed. But when did the 1,260 years begin?. The author of the Grand Crisis we have seen, ap- plies the prophecy to Popery, and fixes upon the date A. D. 519, as its commencement, and 1809 ay its close. Bishop Newton supposes the prophecy refers to the rise of Mohamme- danism, about A. D. 606 ; and its,continuance will be 1,260 days, which would bring its close to 1866. But the learned Bishop does. not give the date of its overthrow. He says, " here" (Dan. xii.) " are three different periods assigned : 1,260 years, 1,290 years, 1,335 years, and what is the precise time of their begin- ning, and consequently of their ending, as well as what are the great and signal events which will take place at the end of each pe- riod, we can only conjecture; time alone can, with certainty discover." Dr. Clarke says, « I believe, v/ith Bishop . Newton, the words abomination that maketh desolate, is a proverbial phrase-, and may be applied to any thing substituted in the place 4 r-itsafejA^^tfjaafcaa.^^if^iMa 60 LECTURES Olf THE 4 ■■ Of, or set up in opposition to, the ordinances of God, His worship, His truth, &c. Adrian's temple, built in the place of God's temple at Jerusalem, the Church of St. Sophia turned into a Mohammedan mosque, , tn no tv. t. *i " ^ iNow, it appears o us, that he prophet here speaks of the ^etlrng yp of the abomination, and not its 'f'f^'^-'^'^'^e. And the time th^t is to elapse between the setting up and some particSr peno , not mentioned, is to be 1,290'yeTrs But towlHch abomination in the Book of Darnel does Christ allude ? for there are tl^-ee places which speak of the abomination, viz • chap. viu. 11-13, xi. 31, Kii. 11. Wefoiri ''■ 64 LECTURERS ON THB able to answer these questions with any de- gree of certainty, and we consider it better not to add our conjectures to the statements of others, lest we should increase the number of errors. Other Adventists believe the abomination of desolation to be the Imperial Homan Power, as before intimated. But other writers apply this prophecy to the siege of Jerusalem, A. D. 69-70. Dr. Gum- ming says, " down to this," (ver. 23) " he seems to me to refer especially to the downfall of JermalemC'' then from verse 23 onward he guards them against misinterpreting the signs of His Advent. From verses 23 to 29, and from verses 30 to 4^1, he describes his own second coming and the end of the age.* Dr. Clarke says, " this abomination of deso- latio7i, (St. Luke, chap. xxi. 20, 21) refers to the Roman kings ; and this abomination standing in the holy place is the Roman army besieging Jerusalem ; this, our Lord says, is what was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, in the ninth and eleventh chapters of his pro- phecy, — and in reference to this event they are understood by the Rabbins. The Roman • Apoc, 2nd eeries, p. 431, SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. «9 army is called an abomination, for its ensirrn, and images, which were so to thlr ■Wp.u.s says, the Romarbll'/S :":s ;;::?'? ''""'''' ^-•^ •"-«'' ''- «': there Jh.t"" '"'' """ "^''"fi-'l '° *««» - canl'd' /; ; "''" ^™5^ '^ "'"'^fo'" fitly LorV'ril? ^"''■'r""'-'^ "°«ced here that o„r qnestiof < J,° ^'"-°'°.?-al answer to the q^^iestion « tell us when shall these things be » He mentions the signs which are to precede the two great events the f,II J t ' . and his second Adven^b:* tl^rt": sl-ouicl appear, and what time should eW between these signs, we are not info!mS and consecnently the date of o„ Lo" d's a'' pearmg cannot be gathered from this chapter" Matt. XXV. 13 : « Watch, therefore for vJ know neither the dav nor tT,„ 7 ^ tlie ■=!nn r.f ivr ^ *° '^"""^ wherein the Son of Man cometh." These words are the apphcatzon which Christ made of th! parable of the ten virgins Th 7 ! , refers tn Phvic*' ^'fs'ns. That parab e joiKrfc 10 unrist s second nnm.".-.™ * • ■ $6 LECTURES ON THB 1-^ w |i 5. P ll! ditiori of the church, in which some will be found wise and ready for their Lord, but others will be found foolish or neglectful, and consequently they will be punished. The duty Christ urges is not to Jlnd out the time of his coining, but to be ready for it, Mark xiii: In"the preceding part of this chapter, Christ had given the signs which should precede the destruction of Jerusalem, verses 1-23. H3 then proceeds to speak of His second coming in verses 26, 27, 32 and 33 ; He says, « then shall they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And then shall He send his angels and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. But," says he, « of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no not the angels which are in hea- ven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray, for ye know not the time." Now does Christ here state the ti7ne or date of his second coming ; or does he set the disciples to work to find out that hidden secret, which the very angels in heaven could not know '? Nothing of the kind j but he says, SECOND ADVENT OP CHRIST. «? 37 For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far jonrney, who left his house a ^ 1^ authority to his servants, and T:;' ^Z Watch ye therefore, for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at e -^n or at mzdnaght, or at the cock-crow no- or m'the mornrngj ,est coming suddenly he" fi^dy" sleepmg. And what I say rito vo„ T unto all watch." Is not' L X ^Pa and des.gn of this parable to show tha tl be igaoran of the time when Christ should come ; and that M should ^aatck for it in consequence of their not knowiag the m. Lukexii.35-40: " Let your loi^s be g d S al^out, and your lights burning ; and ye your, selves Lke unto men that wait for their Lord when he will return from the wed Ll I'' when he cometh and knocketh, they ma^ ot "nto Him immediately. Ble'sseZareVhC rvants whom the Lord when he comeTh shall find watching : verilv I .av „ T ;■- he shall gird himself, I'd lyrr::' «t down to meat, and will nn^. ,._.. . 68 LECTURES ON THE I > ii J \i AM serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the good man of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also ; for the Son of Man Cometh at an hour when ye think not." Here Christ speaks of his second coming as resembling a man returning from a marriage feast ; the time of his return being so uncer- tain that they could not tell whether he would come in the second watch or in the third watch of the night, but like good se¥vants they were to be ready for him. Again our Lord spealcs of the uncertainty of the time in which a thief might enter the house as resembling the uncer- tainty of his coming ; the thief might know the hour when he would enter the house, but surely he would not inform the occupants of that house when he would come. Our Lord thus compares the uncertainty of his own second coming to the coming of the thief, which could not be known. Here also Christ urges the duty of watchfulness. SECOND ADVENT OP CHRIST. 69 Upon the Book of the Revelations of St. John Bishop Burnett says, p. 412, "But in the Apocalypse of St. John, which is the last ^eve ation we are to expect, there are several propheces that reach to the consummation of this world and the first resurrection. The seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven V as do all terminate upon that great period. But they are rather historical prophecies than chronological ; they tell us, in their language" he events, but do not measure or express the tune wherein they come to pass. Others her are that may be called chronclogicaZ, as the readmg under foot the holy oily, forty and two months, Apoc. xi. 2. The witnesses opposmg Antichrist, 'one thousand twohun- dreu and sixty days,' Apoc. xi. 3. The flirfu of the woman into the wilderness for the and half a time,' Apoc. xii. 6 and 14. And ast ly, the war of the beasts against the saints forty-two months,^ Apoc. xiii. 5. These ^11 ^ you see, express a time for their completion •' -d all the same time, if I be not mistS; but they do not rea^h to the end of the tvMd or if some of them did reachso d, yet beclse ';li .70 LECTURES ON THE I ,i we do not certainly know where to fix the beginning, we must still be at a loss wJmt, or in what year, they will expire. As, for instance, if the reign of the beast, or the preaching of the witnesses be 1,260 years, as is reasonably supposed, yet if we do not know certainly when this reign or this preaching began neither can we tell when it will end." There are several passages in this book, which will come under consi aeration in subsequent lec- tures, and therefore we shall not introduce them here. 1. We observe, in conclusion, that none of these passages give us any reason to think that the coming of our Lord will be known to the Church till he is actually announced from heaveji ; * and the' -^fore we believe that those persons who spen( . their time and ener- gies to find out the day or year Christ shall come, have got upon the tvrong track ; « tliey have snitched o^/' as one of them humorously said of other churches ; and when they have thus switched off they have soon come to a stand still ; while the chariot of the Lord has gone forward, and is still going forward in Grand Crisis, p. 256. ' ^ ■ |[^l I..- SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST, 71 the right direction, watching and praying till Christ shall say, it is enough. 2. Another point to bo observed is, that Chr,st, in every one of these passages, ur<^es .pon his disciples to b, ,,^y %^ ,| ^^^^.^f not to spend their days in pi.yi„g i„to thos^ times and seasons which the Father hath put m his own power; trying to find out what out. We think, therefore, it is much better to be warhng in the vineyard while it is dav than to be loitering and lounging for the night expecting the reward, though we neglect the' Hi 1 rr f 1- ff ■ i ; ■ ! i i i 1 i \^ I.ECTURE m.— P \RT I. THE WORK TO BE DONE BE-WEEY CHRIST'S ASCENSION TO HEAVEN AND HIS SECOND ADVENT. DISCIPLINO ALL NATIONS. W'TT. XJTviii. 19, 20. "Go ye then/ore, and teach all nations, baptizing them ever I have commanded you: and, to! 1 am with „o„ alu,ay, even unto the e,ul of the world. aZ. ' Our last discourse in this series was confined to the Ume or period of Christ s secmul Advent, m which we were led briefly to review some of the errors upon this subject, into which persons and parties have fallen from the days then tl '' ' '° "^^ P'"'^^'^"* "me. And then to examine passages of Scripti.re which 2!" ! *f , °°'"<' ' ''"* ^« found that these passages did not allude to the period or date 7*^ Ll:CTURES OS THE of our Lord's return, and scarcelyany of them referred even to the event itself. We then examined other passages, which are undoubtedly applied to the second Advent of Christ ; but these passages did not disclcse to us the time when Christ should appear ; but they seemed studiously to keep the date out of sight, and they all strongly urged the ne- cessity of being ready for it,— not to find out ivhen it should take place ; but « to take heed, watch and pray." Let us nov/ proceed to consider the zaor/c which was to be done between the ascension of Christ to heaven, and His return from thence. That work comprehends chiefly, the discipling of all nations; the restoration of the Jeivs ; the destruction of Christ's enemies, viz., Anti- christ and the false prophet. At present, we can only direct your attention to the disci- pli?ig of all 7iations, In the text, wt find, Christ said unto the disciples : " Go ye there- fore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to ob^ serve all things whatsoever I have command- ed you : and, lo ! I am with you alway, even SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 75 unto the end of the world " Ti.,- ts ongm u, the comprehensive scheme of 1^— rede„.ption,-he„ce we find Tt ,ef I. In the New Covenant into which God ..TEKE. WITH THE WNP.Mav,rLth xln. Cue read: «I the Lord have call^^ thee .n righteousness, and will hold t K '^and, and wm keep thee, and give thee for a c^o.™ofthepeople,fora4toftl^G:„! by he Fat^ ^'^'"^^V' "" """'''''' *° Christ cy tlie iather, in which we see He w^» ... ported to he .;. .„,, :i5 rs covenantisalh,dedtoinGe„.iii.-;5:«A„d ma , and between thy seed and her seed • it shall bruise thy head anH ti, "\^««a, it his heel '' tZ ' T *°" *^'* ^'•"ise ntcl Ihese worde are altogether of a , general k^nd. But this covenant^was more them ? .? ^ ""'' " ^'''^^ ««W, that in xxvi. 4. ' ^"'"- '« ' ^^"- J8 ; I» Heb. viii. 10, 11, St. Paul shews that 7i} LTJCTURES ON THE this covenant of grace comprehends not only all nations, collectively, but all persons indi- vidually, " For this is the covenant, that I will make \yiLi.i i c house of Israel, after those days, saitli .he Lord ; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts : and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people : And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying. Know the Lord, for all shall know me, from the least to the great- est," Guided by the light of this inspired Apostle, we look forward and see that a time has yet to come, when all nations shall be so discipled that every neighbour, and every bro- ther will " know the Lord^^ and that Christ in His commission to the disciples, was only carrying out the provisions of that covenant. But we proceed to consider — II. Secondly, some Prophecies which re- fer to the discipling of all nations : — Ps. xxii. 27 : " All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord ; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Him." It is, we believe, universally admitted, that SECOND ADVENT OF CHBIST. 77 ttis Psalm concerns the Messiah Christ : His Passwn, and His Kingdom; and that the pas- sage we have read, foretells a period when all nations shall be so far discipled, that they shall remember, and turn unto the Lord, and all kindreds of the nations shall n,orship be- fore Hun. The word rendered ^cindreds, me^ns famzhes ; that is, all the families of all the nations, shall embrace the Gospel for their salvation.— Br. Clarke. Ps. Ixxii. 8,11,17: « He shall have do- mmion also from sea to sea, and from the river imto the ends of the earth. They that dwell m the wilderness shall bow before Him ; and His enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish, and of the isles shall brin^ pre- sents : the kings of Sheba and Seba shall of- fer g,fts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him, all nations shall serve Him." "His name shall endure for ever, His name shall be con- toued as long as the sun : and men shall be blessed m Him : all nations shall call Him blessed " And after this, David offers up an inspired prayer in which these words occur: And let the whole earth be filled with His Clory. Amenand Amen." (ver. 19.) 1 ' i 1 i i 1. - i 1 ; * i f . ■ r t 1 i i ■ 78 LECTURES ON THE This Psalm too, refers primarily to Christ, and the passages we have read, shew that the dominion of Christ is to be as extensive as mmis habitations J that it is to stretch from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth : — All natiojis shall serve Him, — all na- tions shall call Him blessed. The Psahiiist anticipated the time when one simultaneous shout of hallowed praise, shall arise from every nation to the glory of Christ ; " all na- tions shall call Him blessed." Isa. ii. 2-4 : " And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills ; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths ; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people ; and they shall beat their swords into plough shares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 79 not Jift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." Here we have a prophecy of thai supremacy, to which Chnsts kinsc-.nm .aall bo raised,-ancl the success of His .-^ve^nment is such, that from meuce they sImU Ua, n war no more. But this part of the tri:-, ,,i,s of Christ is not yet ac- comphshcd; fur how to destroy most lives in battle, IS a study to which men now apply themselves most assiduously. As the poet " How fo dislodge most souls from their frail shrines By bomb, sword, ball and bayonet, is the art ' Which some call great and glorious." Isaiah ii. 1-9 : « And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch sha 1 grow out of his roo, : a„d he spnut of the Lord shall rest upon Wm he sp.r.t of wisdom and unders'tandi g,' the sp.ru of counsel and might, the spirl of knowfedge and of the fear of the Lord a«d shal make him of quick understand.' .ng in the fear of the Lord, and He sl.all «ot judge after the sight of his eyes, neUhe" reprove after the hearing of his e^rs : hi wuh righteousness shaU He judge the poor I I m LECTURES ON THE III F» * I:* and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth ; and He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked. And righteous- ness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faith- fulness the girdle of His reins. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid ; and the calf and the young lion and the falling together, and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed : their young ones shall lie down together : and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cock- atrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain : for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." We have the authority of St. Paul for applying this prophecy to the final and peaceful triumphs of Christ's king- dom upon earth. In Romans xv. 12 : he says, " Esaias saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and He that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles ; in Him shall the Gentiles trust." The peaceful state of things mentioned in the SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 81 prediction, is attributed to the uniycrsal spread of the Gospel : - fcrr the earth shall he full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters eover tfie scaP Dan. ii. 34, 35 : « T),o„ sawcst till that a stone was cut out without hands, whicli sniote the image upon his feet that were of iron and Clay, and bralte them to pieces. • • • • And the stone that smote the iniage became a geat mou„taur,««,;^/to; the whole earth.^' and fill the whole eartli, is the kingdom of Chnst, as we see by the interpretation, (ver. sit^'and If ■''','u"''"'"^°J"''s™-t shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion And the kmgdom and dominion, and the h:ri:ii t ''"'^'°" "'^^'- *° -^ neaven, slrall be given to the iieorde of ti,o samts of the most High, wiios^ k iWoL t an everlasting kingdom, and all dZ^Z^ shall serve and obey Him. "Simons In the context, we fiiid that Antichristian great , but its day ,s limited, the shades of iti c r •' ill ,t f i 1^ 1 1 ' If fl 8? LECTURES ON THE! night have began to gather arouiKl, its end draws nigh, its destruction is determined upon. But the sovereignty of Clhrisfs kingdom is everlasting and all dominions shall serve and obey Him. The few prophecies we have referred to, most clearly shew that all thn nations, f a wilies and indi'vuhmh of the world are, at some pe- riod, to 2^i'ofess Christianiti/, — to be the disciples of Jesus, to knoiv the Lord, We proceed to consider — Ml. Thirdly, some Statements and Para- bles OF Christ, which refer to the discipling of all nations :— Matt. xxiv. lit '^And this Gospel of the kingtlora shall l)e preached in all the ivorldy fur a witness unto all nations, and then shall THE END COME." Do not the words " all the world" clearly convey the idea of all natio?Ks, families iind individaals^ and that the gospel has to bo preached to them, and then shall the end come^ but not before. Matt, xxviii. 19, 20 : '' Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the SECOND APVE.NT OF CHRIST. ^3 Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you • and, lo ! T nm with yon alway, even unto the' end 01 the v/orld. Amen." The word " ^w/i" here means <^ make disciphs r>f ail nations; (Dr. Clnrkc), brmg them to an acqnaintance with God ; and for the accomplisliment of this ^vork, Christ i)romi.sed to be with them even unto the end of the worldP Let ns now look at some of our Lord's parables which have reference to the work to be done between His ascension to heaven and His return. Matt. xiii. 24^-28 : " Another parable put He forth unto them, saying. The kin.crdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in liis field: But while men slept, his enemy came and soAved tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade Avas sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares .-dso. So the servants' of the householder came and said unto him, ^'ir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field 'i from whence then hath it tares? He said unto thi'm, An onemy hath done this. The servants said untu Him, \Allt thou then th.it we go and gather them up ? But He said, c2 i.i hi i m i! il ^•^ LECTURES Olf 'HE t Nay; lest while ye her up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest ; and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Ga- ther ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them : but gather the wheat into my barn." It has been said elsewhere that the wheat re])resents the good ; and the tares the nicked ^ or no)i-2)rofessors. The par- able is acknowledged to refer to the state of the world at some period or other, but as there has not been a time in which all men professed the religion of Christ, such a time is yet to come. But the tares here mean degenerate or bastard ivlieat, as critical Greek scholars all adinit, so far as I am acquainted with them. The tares then, resemble degene- rate professors of the Cliristian religion. Dr. Clarke says <'' every Christian society, how pure soever its })rinciples may be, has its bas- tard ivheat—tlwse 'id to bear a*resemblance to the goodjmt ivnose hearts are nU rigid ivitli GodP Matt. xiii. 33 : - Another parable spake ho unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was ll!^!![i SECOND ADVEiNT OF CHRIST. 85 eavened." Does not this parable teach that the gospel will work its widening way through the mass of human society imtil it lemen the whole ? Matt. >-xv. i-13: Then shall the kingdom 01 heav.n be likened unto ten virgins, which t '. their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegToom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolisli. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them ; Bnt the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bride- groom tarried, they all slumbered and slept, And at midnight there was a cry made, Be- hold, the bridegroom cometh ; go yc out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto tlic wise. Give us of your oil ; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so, lest there be not enouo-h fo- us and you ; bat go ye rather to tliem that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while thev went to buy tlie bridegroom came ; and they that were ready went in with him to the mar- riage : and Hie door was shut. Afterxvard cama a.so the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, c3 ir- imuKisraai&.'t ■•mti Be LECTURES ON Xli2 Open to ns.- But he answered and said. Ver- ily I say unto you, I know ye not. Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh." These two classes of virgius resemble the human race, as it will be found when Christ the bridegroom comes. Dr. Clarke, says : the "virgins denote the purity of the Christian doctrine and character, in this parable, the bridegroom is generally understood to mean Jesus Christ. 'Xhc feast, that state of felicity, to which lie has promised to raise liis gen- uine followers, '.riie zeise or 2^^'udent, and fodish virg?jiSy those who irifli/ enjoy^ and those who q\\\^ irrofcss \\\q, imrity and holiness of religion. The oil, the grace and salvation of God ; or, that faith which works by love. The vessel the heart in A\iiich this oil is con- tained. The laonp, the }}rofess;on of enjoy- ing the burning and shiniug light of Ine Gos- pel of Christ. Going forlh, the whole of their sojourning uj^ion earth." This parable then teaches that the human race ivill all 2>r''fess the Christian religion, olthougli. some will be wise and prudent^ others fodish and carele^%. Matthew XXV. U-^SO : As this parable is SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 87 lengthy, we have not trans.'ribecl it. You observe tliat all the persons to whom the talents were e.itrusted, were servants, they belonged to the same master, and they all had goods entrnsted to them for improvement.- And hat servant who was punished, was not pnn shed ior rehcUion and or:position to his «^aster,_ln,t for indolence ; he was a sloth- ful servant. This parable, too, leads us to the same conclusion, namely, that when Christ Shall come, all persons ivUl he His servants- cMmll have had talents to improve ; bnt some v^'H be fouad s'othful servants, while others nave been diligent. There are other parables, such as the fish- ^ngnet and the mustard seed, which refer to a stmilar state of things, when Christ shall come. But these are enough! We think no l-ng ca.1 1^ clearer, from the words of the Son of (,od, than that all nations, fanulies and tndnnduals, ^oiU profess the CMstian reli- gwn before Christ's seeond eomiwr. IV. fourthly: The Apostle's lead us to expect the same state of things as being ac- comphshed. before the second Advent of Christ :— c4 ■,| y- ■'*• I ' "'^ i ' 'i - - -, i J 1 i 1 ■ ;i i ■■,( • < ■i 1 88 LECTURES OX THK Romans x. 18 : iSt. Paul, rcferririg to the preaching of the Gospel, says : '' Have they not heard 1 Yes, verily ; their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." The Apostle here says of the Gospel, what the Psahnist had said of the heavenly bodies. Their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the end of the world. As those celestial luminaries have given testimony of the eternal power and godhead of the Deity, to all the habitable it'Oi-ld, so the Gospel of Christ is intended, and shall idtimately bear testimony of His eternal mercy and goodness as extensively over this earth as the light of the sun itself, Phil. ii. 10, 11: "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth j and that every tongue should con- fess that Jesus Christ is Lord, Xo the glory of God the Father." We quoted this text, seve- ral months ago, and gave the words " should boiD^^ " shoidd confess^ m the sense of pro- mise — they si tall do it. One person, in parti- cular, with some degree of tact, gave a most im-etched and unscriptural zxWio^i^m to the word seii SECOND ADVENT OP CHRIST. 89 " shmildr he said theij ought to do it, and not, they shall do it ; and thereby he tried to shew that we had perverted the passage, giv- ing a meaning to it, which, Paul the writer, did not intend. Now, that way of arguing, may take with persons who are unable or unwilling to examine the matter. If you look to the margin of your Bible, you will find a reference to Isaiah xlv. 22, 23, to which St. Paul evidently alludes. The passage reads thus : <^ Look unto me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth ; for I am God and there is none else. I have sicorn by myself , the word is gone out of my month in right- eousness, mid. shall not return; that unto me every knee shall boiv, every tongue shall sioearP Thus, you see that our interpreta- tion of that passage is supported by the tvord, yea, by the oath of God himself. ^ Then St. Paul quotes these words m Rom. xlv. 11, where he uses the words in the same way. He says : " It is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue s/i^?// confess to God." We therefore look upon these passages, in Isaiah, and m Romans j quoted also by St. Paul in the c5 ill 90 LECTURES ON THB V IS If I ' ill epistle to the Philipi)ians, as shewing most positively and conclusively, that the time will come, i(;he?i every knee shall hoiv to the na77ie of Jesus, and every tongice shall confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of Gcd the Father, Onreviewin g the spread of the Gospel, and its blessed results, we would say, in the lan- guage ef the eloquent Dr. Gumming : " -When the Gospel has been preached as a witness to all, then shall Messiah come in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory ; and the end shall come— the end of our disputes, quarrels, pride, sectarianism, selfishness, vain glory; the end of despotism on the part of the rulers, and of insubordination in the suhiects : the end of the toils of slavery, and the suffer- ings of martyrdom ; the end of Popery, Pusy- ism. Paganism, and Mohammedanism,— the Missal, the Breviary, the Shaster, and the Koran. That great rainbow of the covenant, that starts from the cross, vaults into the sky, and sweeps over the throne, shall complete its orbit, and rost again upon the groimd, and Christ and Christianity shall be all and in all. 1 hen shall the desert rejoice and blossom aa SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 91 the rose. Then the tree of life shall be where the cypress is. Then shall nations sing God's praise, and Zion recount God's marvels. Then shall history retrace, with new joy,God\s foot- prints. Then shall the glory of Jesus sparkle in the dew-drop, and in the boundless sea ; in the minutest atom, and in the greatest «tar ; and this earth, re-strung, re-tuned, shall be one grand yEolian harp, swept by the breath of the Holy Spirit, pouring forth those melodies which began on Calvary, and shall sound through .Jl generations.' In conclusion :— 1st. Yon observe by the foregoing Scriptures, that all nations have to be so far discipled to Christ, that qyqyy family and every individual in the world ivill, at some particular time, profess the religion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Mark you, we do not say they w^ill all be converted to God, horn of His spirit, and lead a sober, godly, and rights ^ous life. But w^e do say, they ivill all profess the Christian religion. But it has been said, the Gospel has been pnsached to all nations. If even that were true, which we d o not admit, yet has there ♦ Pmfu«e to Lectures on Daniel *~ i,% %. v^, ^ IMAGE EVALUATrON TEST TARGET {fM-3) y // // w / 1.0 I.I 11.25 112.8 145 Mi _ Sim 2.2 lis \tm 1.8 14 III 1.6 Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 iV iV % \\ ^9> .V 1^% "O ;\ V ^ /l^. ^ Ss Il i|- ::,il 02 LECTURES ON THE ever been a time when every nation, family and indivichial in the world, professed the Christian religion ? Never ! then that time has yet to come ; the ^vork of discipling all na- tions is still unfinished. 2nd. Consider the i^resent state of the world with respect to the religion they profess:-— Taking the world's population at the lowest estimate, 800 millions ; of that number, there are : — .455 millions of Pagans, 140 <' of Mohammedans, 5 « of Jews ; and but 200 " who profess the Christian religion— in the Roman Catholic, the Greek, and the Protestant Churches. Thus, you see' that at this period of time, only about one- fourth of the world's population, profess the Christian religion. But how soon, or how long it may yet require to win the other three- fourths over to Christ, even in name, none can tell ; but they must be won,— they uill be won : for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. A time will come, when some pure and happy spirit will announce from heaven, the great fact, that the kingdoms of this umld have SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 93 become the kingdoms of our God and of His Christ. 3rd. A conclnsion to which these remarks nati -ally bring us, is, that to expect Christ's second coming to take place to-night, to-mor- row, or even this year, is to expect, the bride- groom to come, before the bride is prepared to receive him, to expect the host to invite us to the feast of fat things, before the animals are slaughtered— to invite us to loines ivell refined, befm-e he has even gathered the grapes ; or it is to announce the arrival of harvest before the seed time is ended. But it ivill not be so; when the messenger calls us to the marriage feast, he will say, " all things are ready, come ye to the marriage." When he commands the angel to thrust in his sickle, it will be when the harvest of the world is ripe. LECTURE IV. TLiS WORK TO BE DONE BETWEEN CHRIST'S ASCENSION TO HEAVEN AND HIS SECOND ADVENT. PART II. THE DESTRUCTION OF ANTICHRIST. 1 Cor. xr. 25. ''For he must reign, till he hath put rr enemies under his feet." " The carnal mind is enmity against God ; it is not subject to his law, neither indeed can be." This is spoken of man as a fallen beinn-, whose degenerate state is so bad that it cannot be sufficiently mended to fit him /or heaven; but he may be created aneiv in Christ Jesus] hence the Apostle says, " and yon that were sometime alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath Jie reconciled m the body of his flesh through death, to pre- sent you holy and unblamable and unreprove- able in his sight," (Col. i. 21, 22.) ill I 96 LECTURES ON THE But the Scriptures speak of Christ's ene- mies, as being large in mimbersy forming com- binations, or societies, which set themselves in formidable array against the " Prince of Peace ;" the Psahnist inquires of such, " Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing ? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, let us break their bands asiinder, and cast away their cords from us ; he that sittcth in the heavens shall laui^h, the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion." These were enemies outside of the Church of Christ, but the Church has had her enemies iviihin, and the greatest and most deadly of these has beeii the Papacy. Daniel spr'-e of this enemy as being remarkable for its origin, springing out of the very bosom of the church itself, remarkable c:so for the degree of its ambition, and the extent of its potver. But its career is limited, its end will assuredly come ; the same Being that foresaw its rise, has fore- iM SFCOND ADVfiA'T OF CllRLST. 97 told Its fall. Another enemy is the false pro- phet or Mohammedanism ; that system arose from obscurity, by thx3 ambition and cnnnino of one man ; it spread itself by the destroyia- elements of fire and sword, and it was firmly seated for hundreds of years ; but its founda- tions are sapped, and its structure will fall to the ground ; and probably the sword, by which It arose to eminence, will be employed for its overth row. These two, Popery and Mohamme- danism, are the great enemies of Christianity ; but the light of inspiration discloses the symp- toms of decay, and points to their final disso- lution ; for Christ " must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet." There are several prophecies in scripture which speak of Antichrist, the Man of Sin ; and the resemblance between them and the' Popedom is such, that writers are almost all agreed that these prophecies speak of that great degeneracy in the Church which we commonly call Popery. To this enemy we shall first direct your attention. Popery, we say, is the great enemy of Christ, spoken of in scripture as a "little horn," and as a " beast." Let us look first to its rise. 98 LECTURES ON THE The plenitude of Popery, in it^? power and grandeur, was not contemplated by its early promoters, they dug the foundations upon which others gradually reared the edifice, and in doing so they never dreamt that its top should reach to heaven, or that their succes- sors should oppose and exalt themselves above all that is called God, or that is worshipped. But the Divine Being foresaw its commence- ment, traced the outline of its future extent and operations, beheld its towering ambi- tion, and then resolved upon its final over- throw. The leaven of Popery began to ope- rate in the days of the Apostles. St. Paul, after predicting its career, says, " the mystery of miquity doth already iccrJc,^^ 'Phis enemy to Christ was predicted by Daniel (vii. 8) as a " little horn having eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things." But its progress in the Church was compara- tively slow till the time when Constantine took Christianity under his protection and patronage ; then, by the worldly honours which that emperor heaped upon it, corruption came in like a flood, its growth became rapid, and it continued to spread for several centuries. SECOND ABVJINT OF CHllIST. 99 ">- li«le l" pir^^''^ ^- '--^. «-l that -.. the ten .i? I^JXSrtS difference of oph^o,. . ' ''"* '^'""^ '^ Sre^' -8Mhcsete„r;Tor"r"'"%''°"°^-- diffl-renceofopinion," ;, f r''^«'«« S^eat horn's ,,h.ckino Zh"° '-^f events the Jitt'e ^^^^^W«!; l"i;"'""'T' ">'' ''"'^^ horn was Plncked „Sf r ""' ""*' «'^ "»•«« horns rh.cki„, .,p ;w thrhir?'' ^^^^'^ ^-^^ conqnest obtained a -V'"''"""'" ChrH534,bytheC^'i''*'7y«"of " l'-^"« horn," 4 '' "PP'y *^ ^'-^e of the lUO LECTURES OIS TilK king of France, first conquering, and then giving the exarchate of Ravenna to Pope . Stephen TI. The second kingdom was given to Peter by Charlemagne in 774. The third, the State of Rome, was vested in the Pope in temporals as well as spirituals, and confirm- ed to him by Leivis the Pious ; these, says this writer, are the three horns whicli were pluck- ed up from the roots before the little horn. — (Dr. Clarke, quoted from Bp. Newton, p. 241.) Where historians and learned men differ so much, as to the time when the little horn arose, and the kingdoms represented by the three horns, it would be presumptuous for us to decide, and it might lead us into an error similar to that into which others have fallen, when they have fixed particular dates to the events predicted by Daniel, and . from thence made their calculations as to when Christ is to come. The fact is, Popeiy arose gradually, little by little, and therefore to date the time of its rise from any particular day, is impossible. Let us now proceed to consider : Secondly, some of his characteristics:- This little horn we understand to be, not one individual person, hut a system or svcces- SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. IQI non of rulers; the great things said to be done by this little horn, and the contin, a„ca of h,s power until the disoipling of all natl™! ;: ''ff-ted,p„ts it beyond all ;,estio„"hra long succession of persons is ,!ieant, and not one individual only. "°* His uncommon penetration and sa,g„citv and h- high rrelensions to superiority abo?e the other horns, are implied in the words : Id^ V". 8, 20 « in this horn were eyes iuL the' eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great h-ngs; and his look was more stout tl^an ht fellow«," that is, the other horns he plucks up three of the other horns which P ceded him, and their kingdoms become hs But notwithstanding this, he is never calk 01 mm, that It waxed exceeding great Th^ greatness of this little horn does" not coi^'l ni the enent of te,nporal .,«..•„ ,15 ZZT'^^'^-^^'^^^rea.a^tLn.A by his making war with the saints, and pre- va.hng against them , his speaki'ng gL, 502 LECTURES ON THff ;" words against the Most High ; his wearing out the saints of the Most High ; liis thinking to change times and laws, which would be given into his hand until time, times and the dividing of time." The history of Popery is the strongest confirmation of this, — fur in what country has she fixed the heel of her despotism without changing the laws, crush- ing the civil liberties of the people, and wear- ing out the saints of the Most High, either by tedious torture or horrible massacre? Spea7ci??g tcords against the Most High^ is another of these characteristics mentioned in prophecy. This signifies opposition to the truth as it is in Jesus ; professing and author- izing corrupt doctrines and practices in wor- ship ; yea, speaking great words against the Must High denotes a sacrilegious claiming of authority in government, entrenching on the prerogatives of the Divine Being. And do not their own authorized publications show tthat every part of this prediction is but toix true^ impiously a7id hla^iiliemciisly true. We cannot conclude this part better than by quoting the words of Bishop Newton, (Dis. on Prop., p. 682.) " I say, the spirit of SECOND ADVENT OF CHRXST. 103 E'KchT"''"' '°'°^^ "^"'^' ^'^^ there and Church orof"" " *'"^ °^ "'« ^"1- a«er. he event: tT"t:Sr°?^I--ed rather tlian to foretel- thiZ . =' P"'*' "Stance, hath ther tt T^ '°™'- ^"' sisted.and doth there"tm ^T '''""^ """'^ ^"''- and idolatrous and btl f"''"''^ *y^'»""'«=»l ^^^«.c. Christ anXuSr"^^ '""^^' '" It .s the very s-im^^ ^'^^^""^'"^^'^'i^n. the ' httle h?r„;:Xll ""k '' ^"^^^-^^^ ^ Daniel ; i„ the ^mn of I ? '■™°"" '""S ''^ ty St. Paul ; and L th? ^ ^'°"^^''*''°"' the two-hor^ed bea 1 1 r :^f "'^' ^'=«^' ««d St. John, auh the cCc :?''*' P^°^''°'' ''^ parted greatly from 11 P°'"'«^^'' "^ de- faith and worsl^r j^t r"'y °f Christian fha'St.P,ulhithfor^t^"::^S""^"""^ The day of the Lord shall ni; ''■ "' ^'^ there come a falling axvav \''°""' «cept >^^- St-Johnforesawtl7c," '' "P"^*''^/ «-tedastobecomerKt2rS:r"'^'^«- I 104 LECTURES ON THE of the earth.' Is the same Church notorious also for enjoming celibacy to her cler^jr, and engaging her nuns to enter into vows of lead- . ing a°single life ^ Doth she make a distmc- tion of meats, and conimand and mstitute certain times and days of fasting, wherem to taste flesh is judged a mortal sin? Nothing can more fully accomplish the predictions ol Daniel and Paul. Doth the Pope make him- self equal, ar.d even superior to God, in affect- ing divine titles, attributes and honors, in assuming a power of dispensing with the immutable laws of nature and the gospel, in substituting for the commandments of O.od the traditions of men." ^ The above (and a great deal more so minute and so full, that to avoid being tedious we have abbreviated) so clearly and constantly point us to Popery that we have no doubt whatever that that system is the man of sin, the son of perdition whom the Lord will des- troy with the brightness of his commg. ihis leads us to consider, thirdly, the durat^m of ^ Dani"el said it should be " until a time, and times, and the dividing of time" (Dan. vu. 25.) IH SECOND ADVENT Of CHR.ST. JO^J ■Again, (Dan. xii. II,) « And fmm h .• the daily sacrifice haltbeZn ""'*''* the abomination that maketi 1 T^^' """^ *here shall be 1290 day ha .r*''"^' "P' or years.. The durSn of p' ^''^T° ""^'^ 1290 v«ars from 1 "P^''^ ^"^ 'hese -riterscl ;ST /,^;rt- '^-'t^ Which ^^ythe^.wi"o"::ra;^r^^^^^^^^ «f their writers says « as wp i« 7 "® -t historians tijt ;he:x":r7r'''%- power, wielded by the PnlT " "''^'^ mated in 1809 is nof th T ^' ""''' '°"'^"'"- -s of the lirry'; n?!"*f '--- this," he adds, "webok f ';; ' '"'""'"^ onr Lord i„ 45 yelrs frl ,,w ""• '?"""=" "^ The present year vfz ,«t '"""' °'"''"^^- * J. ■ y^^^h VIZ., 1854, We hni^r. « 1 trust as the glorious year of rla^To th people of God." (Grand Crisis, pp. 70 37n J-he author of thf- an .' ^ ^ * "^'^^ '^'i-) says, " the next grea erro?^'^ •^'"'-^^''' " - in regard to tl^e t le Td T '"^^P'''^'"- !j::^-the clurationVtrb^r^^rty taiued to a year. Ij. t „, ; "* "'■""'ovv conid be ascer- to step, tmiic acquired his f.r'.f^''"'"'^'' fr"" sTep «ay, at present. wi,„ i". _.'^.f '.'""K"', 't is imDossihl„ S ■ " "= "•'" Of uostroycd. ' 106 LECTURES ON THE do not understand that it means a period of 12G0 solar years, and they have failed to find the true commencement of the era. The general theory dates it from the year 606, when Pliocos proclaimed the universal supre- macy of the Bishop of Rome. This fixes the secondary termination of the 1260 years in 1866. But the time, times find half a time^ began by its primeval epoch earlier than this. The year 606 is the period of the ecclesiastical constitution of the beast, or the time when the dragon gave to its Lion-mouth his autho- rity. Its civil constitution dates 75 years earlier, or from 531, when the Justinian code was completed and published. These two epochs were the real beginnings of the 1260 years. The victorious reign of the beast ought then to terminate about the years 1791 and 1866, or two years earlier or later." (Coming Struggle, p. 13, 14.) This writer adds, " It is a mistake to suppose that the 1260 years limits the existence of the beast, it merely limits his unwaning power. The full power of his civil and ecclesiastical pre-jndicial ex- istence, as a Kqman power, is 1335 years, and this terminates in 1866," SECOND ADVENT OP CHRIST. JQT - tempola vole IS T?:'''''''^''' i« most likely SZ ''' ''"'■"' ^*''=h Pepin k„Vo;;,,^;;;.P°l- S'-^P'-n IL, by from .l«.i ttme J;^ \' '"""*'"- '-60 years from these <)«tes '' "^ co.clnsions fi^hop Norton says : " To fi^ „, , • actlyu'hen these I 260 v.n , '"*= ''^- ^^quently ,,,,,„ twir". '""'""'' ^°"- some nicencss and difTK H ' '? ''' "'""" "^ '""•^t see .heir conch s on ?V"'' ""''''''' ^^« oisely ascertain ," "•'■°"' ''efia-e ve can pre- i^> *i- tiTy^ r . :^^ '^'- 1™* from the bej^innhl"' ^ ,' *" "'' ''^''^^^^'i *he n.. of this ^, I'^wT"'"'""' ^^°- f ow.h and establi i i" /T """' ^"" fr°-J=is coming to thri; . 'td""''''~ op'mon,thebegi„ningof tie .'go '" '"^ not be fixed con,-«f , *i '~ ° >'''''''s <="«- 'he 1,260 veaisof <),!.' '*^'""'»S of to be dated Wf "''^'' "^ ^"tichrist is "citcu iioni tile vptv 70*7 ..i • fall near the year 2 000 l'^' *'"^"- <-""d will o» Prop., pp. i^'^?^ ^^'' Christ." (Dis. Is 1 108 LECTURES OH THE 1 ! I' ! ' By the preceding quotations, you perceive what a difFerence of opinion exists as to the continuance of Popery, or when the 1,260 years shall end. The Adventists say, those years ended in 1,809. The autlior of the « Coming Struggle" supposes the end will be in 1,866; Bishop Newton thinks about the year 2,000. Dr. Clarke thinks about 2,015. I, however, am not so much concerned as to when Popery shall end, as I am in the cer- tainty of its overthrow. Popedom st ill exists, and it cannot be denied that this apostacy is making the most strenuous edorts to regain its former power ; but in spite of those spas- modic efforts lor enlargement, Popery is in its "dotage;" and all its struggles to regain its former power, shall prove only like the con- vulsive throes of a dying man, for sure as the unerring word of pro})hecy. Antichrist is des- tined to fall, and the signs of the times indi- cate that the day cannot be very far distant, when the shout of joy and exultation shall be heard, " Babylon the Great, is fallen ! IS fallen !" Look next to the destruction of this Anti- christ :— In Daniel vii. 9, 10, 11, we have an SECOND Ai.VE,vr OF CHRIST. IQy account of the (ivnmi a. • Aiitichmt IS arraigned, j„dged .^^.^ „^„ de„„ed : . I beheld" says the' p^e , " n the throne, were cast down, and the ALien of days chd sit, whose garment wa. wh ^a snow, and tlie hair of Ins head like the puro Wheels iTT ""^ '^'" "'« '^^^y «--- d ills wheels hke bHrning fire, a fierv stre-,™ issued and came fortli from before hm Z^ sand thousands ministered unto hin an LL' thousand fmes ten thousand stood m' t" • *''" J" and they brought him near beibre him ? that is, he came to himself, and was brought near before himself 1 'J'he author referred to, says most candidly, " 1 arhiut and feel the dij/icul- iy ; I cannot explain it,'^'^* We are inclined to think, that the embar- rassment felt ill the above interpretation, is * Lectures on Daniel, p. 249. si^c;uM> ADVE.vr or chuist. m one result of an error into w],ich tho crumvnt tiuthor iniJiiinpiiy fell v;V • h i ''""' "^ •II i I '^y itji, VIZ. : tho t hcorv of n the ^(vo.Kl \ I V ^^ ^e lose sifrht of "" ^"'^'"^^ ^^^'^^^"t, wuli which we think thn P-'is^Hi-e has nothiijo. to do n.wl i i . • , ^ "^*> ^^"^^ ^tJuk 111)011 it n^* /^/«/ /y ^wt a,., last yud^mcHt, for it „r.^c<.d.s nni T? ii ^iJoient of (lays IS tlic Ktrr- nls, •'",'"' "'"'""-" ^'"' --f^««"oe v^r ' , '^ '"'^''■'•«'"c'.s. Tl,c beast is con- -J-/ rowev .hie,, . canllX^y ■iijssincr over v<>r 10 ;„ i • . , .•^ v'vti vci. j^ m which the nrnnl^nf .''ays, uhdehe sat „po„ the jndgment seat, k-1 112 LECTURES ON THE and the great usurper, Antichrist, is dethroned and destroyed , then there was given unto Christ, " dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him : his dominion is an everlasting do- minion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that w^iich shall not be destroyed." (ver. 13.) Upon these passages. Dr. Gumming says, " chronologically viewed, the order of proceeding is this : Christ comes first ; Christ's foQS arc depressed and destroyed next, and the millennium is immediately established upon earth." We admit this chronological order ; but what do we understand, by the words ? *^ Christ comes first. ^'^ Certainly, not the se- cond Advent : but Christ the Son of man coming before the Ancient of days at the par- ticular judgment which tries and condemns Antichrist; and the dominion of the church being rescued from the hand of the enemy, it is given to Christ, and under his rule it be- came universal. We are naturally led to ask, ^v]lat is implied in this destruction of Antichrist ? to which we answer, first, its temporal power ; hence Daniel, speaking of its destruction, says : " the SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. US judgment shall sit, and they shall take away hts dominion, to consume and to destroy it imto the end." (Dan. vii. 26.) Historians are agreed that Napoleon Bona- parte depnved the Tope of his temporal power, to V . VT^ ^''^'°h time it has been exceedingly feeble, and at present he is sus- tained as a sovereign by foreign bayonets ; ' but the prophecy says, " they shall taL a^vay his dominion, to consume and to destroy it finto the end." (ver. 26.) This destructfon may be gmdual, commencing in 17.92, by the French Revolution ; a still heavier blovt wal struck by the hand of Napoleon, in isol, ZZ period ancn"*'°" ""' ''^' l''^'' -' --« Ti^heder:-''^""*^^''""'^^"*"-- JiHt the destruction of his Ecclesiauical power IS spoken of with equal prec s I I assaid.„Dan.vii.21,22:iibeL~J' same horn made war with the saints, an 1 pr" \^'^'^ against them ; until the A^cien of days came, and judgment was givr'to the -n^f^th^M^IigU; and the time cVn!: withdrawn from Italj. '^^P' ^"" ^^ ^^ 114 LECTURES ON THE that the saints possessed the kingdom." I think we are not mistaken in applying this to the Ecdesiastical power of the " little horn ;" for that kingdom which is takon from him is given to the scihits. The destruction of An- tichrist is predicted by St. Paul in tlie follow- ing words : "whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His moulh,and slnll destroy with the brightness of His coming." (2 Thess. ii. 8.) This indicates a gradual overthrow of his* organization ; he shall be consumed, or wasted away, till the last moment when he shall be suddenly destroyed. This consump- tion of his power began with the Reforma- tion, and has manifested itself by several symptoms of decline, in the expulsion of the Jesuits from all European nations, till the Order was suppressed A.D. 1773, by " His Holiness" Pope Clement XIV.* It is true, the " man of sin" has, since that time, made great efforts, and is now exerting himself to the utmost, to recover his ecclesiastical health, but the means he is using as a medicine to heal him, will operate as a poison; enfeeble his consti- tution and hasten his decease. Or, in other •Maua. His. of the World, vol. 1, p, 3U. ^ SECOND ADVENT OF CHHIST. 115 *oras the means he is emr-loying in If.ly.and other Popish countries, in Trotcstunt Englund and America, to support his to. tering , hrone and syste.n, ^v■dl eventLu,)ly contribute to his own final destruction. Then the kingdom will be given to the saints-revived Christianity will have the sovereignty of the -world. Go\n<^ forth m Its hfo-giving, penetrating, all-transWrning vn-tne,it moulds the institutions and affairs of n:e„ to its own blessed character, making God s w,ll be done on earth even as it is dene m heaven. We would close this part of the subject by a quotation from the " Grand Cri Sis." The author says, " Now, then, let the harlot vaunt herself, let her exclaim, ' I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.' Let her boast of her anticipated supremacy of the world ; let her breathe forth anathemas against the Church of Christ ■ let her popes and cardinals, her bishops and priests revel in the Vatican, and dream of pleasures to come, yet shall her plagues come in one day for the ten horns and the beast shall hate the harlot and shall make her desolate, and naked and shall eat her flesh, and b.,rn her With fire." (P. 371.) '! 1 116 LECTURES ON TUB Let US next consider by irhat means will the destruction of Antichrist l)o accomplished. Daniel says (vii. 11^ concerning luHend, " his body shall be destroyed and given to tlic burn- ing liaine ;" in ver. 18 he says, "but the saints of the Most High shall take the king- dom." St. Paul says, (2 Thcss. ii. 8) " And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom tho Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with tho brightness of his coming." In the book of tho Revela- tions it is said of this Antichrist, " and the benst was taken, and with him the false pro- phet that wrought miracles before him with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them tJiat worship- ped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone." (Rev. xix. 20.) Writers upon the prophecies vary much in their opinions upon the means of destruction made use of against Popery. Bishop Newton says, " the fall of Rome is delineated in Ka'v. 17 and 18 chapters, as of another Babyiun ; and it is declared she shall be destroyed hy fire^ and her destruction shall be a complete and SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIgT. 117 total dcstrucfioii, such os lias nover yet boon thn fiite of Home. Some ol the Princes, who weicouco or her communion, 'shall hate' her as much as they (formally) l„ved her, and hunt ho- uith jlre. It is further intin.uted thai she shall be swallowed up by a svhlerra. neous fire, shall sink like a great milLstoiie in t.io sea, and her smoke shall rise up for ever and ever ; and the soil and situation of Rome ancl tlio neighl)c.riug countries greatly favor such a supposition. After the subversion of the capital eity, (Rev. xix.) < the beast and the fals^ prophot,' the j.owers, civil and cede- siasUcal, wuh those who still adhere to their party, sh.Il make one effort more ; but it shall prove as «..„/, and vain as it is impir»,s ,• they shall both be taken and east alive into a lakl lt;':;7""^,^:""[""«'°-- Thedestrnc! Uon of ^ut.chnst, therefore, of himself, as well as of lus seat, sh.ll be in a terrible man nerB,, „ (Dis. on Prop. p. 698.) Dr. John Gillies, a Scotch Divine, writing upon Babylon's f.,1, says, « the ;rop; ^ account of the instruments shows they'^were to be the same ten }u>rns that formerly tLd been the ^nstruments of her rise a^ Jtir.ua^l 1I8 LECTURES ON THE (p. 234..) The meaning of which is that those ten kingdoms represented by the ten toes in Nebuchadnezzar's image, which en- couraged and fostered Popery in its rise, shall yet be the instruments in destroying that very system. Brown, in his work on the second Advent, says: " Nebnchnclnezzar's vision ex- hibits the fall of Antichristianism, as resulting from a hloiv given to it by the kingdom of Christ. Daniel sees that too, in the saints of the Most High, taking the kin':dom and pos- sessing it. When his day of visitation comes, those who are on the Lord's side will find him an easy prey." (p. 3i7.) Dr. Gumming says : " It will be consumed by the preaching of the Gospsl ; it will be exhausted by the hostility of a thous uid kings who once were charmed with its grandeur, and made drunk with the cup of its intoxi- cation ; but it will be utterly and completely destroyed and broken up by the brightness of the Redeemers coming."! t Lect. on Apoc, p. 246. Now we thmk it highly probable that loar^ pre and sivord^ may destroy the city of Rome and the remaining temporal power held by the SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 119 Pope ; yet we think that spiritual agencies will be employed to destroy the system of Po- pery, until all that is antichristian in it, will be purged away : we have come to this con- clusion by a carcfiil examination of those pro- phecies which speak of its destruction, and we think that both the carnal and the ^pirituil means will be employed in the hand of God ; consequently the destrnction of the city m-iy be sudden, bnt the destruction of the syslem will be gradual, and not some mighty revolu- tion to tear the system into shreds in a mo- ment of time, or like an earthquake to swal- low it up bodily at once.— This will appear if we look at some of the prophecies which speak of its termination. Daniel says : " they shall take away his dominion tocmsume and to destroy it:' (Dan. vii. 26.) Again, " In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom,— /^ shall break in jneces and consume all these kingdoms:^ (Dan. ii. 44.) Now the kinn-dom of Christ not being " of this world" and so not " bearing the sword," does not break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms in any such pitched battle as the armies of men do ; I believe in no such way d2 ^ M iii 120 LECTURES ON THE of deciding the question between Christ and Antichrist ; we believe that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they are, for that reason, mighty to the pulling Viown of strongholds. There may be much carnal warfare in connection with it, but the con- flict is chiefly of another kind. St. Paul, speaking of the downfall of Popery, says : Whom the Lord shall co?tsu?ne ivith the spirit of Ms mouth, and shall destroy ivith the bright- ness of his coming P (2 Thess. ii. 8.) This^we think, refers to spiritual agencies. We are of opinion, then, that with regard to the govern- ment, the head of Popery, its destruction may be sudden ; but with regard to the system, in all its ramiflcations, streams and branches, the destruction will be gradual, and yet it may be rapid. But we see no necessity for the second Ad- vent of Christ to take place immediately Babylon has fallen. We are rather disposed to expect that his kingdom will then extend over this earth with much greater rapidity than before ; but 'when it shall achieve its con- quests, we know not ; we know not when Babylon will fall j we know not when the SECOND ABVENT OF CHRIST. 121 kingdoms of this world will all have become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ ; but believe all this work will be finished befwe Christ's second Advent. We come secondly to direct your attention to Mohammedanism as an enemy to Christ and as the stdjject of Scripture prophecy. The prophecies of Daniel and John un- doubtedly foretold the rise, progress and ex- tension of Mohammedanism ; but in which of their predictions do we find these particu- lars set forth ? are they in one prophecy only, or mseverai ? If we may judge by the ex- positions of learned Commentators, we shall be led to conclude that the origin of the false prophet IS more than once spoken of by the Jewish captive, in different parts of his writ- ings. Dr. Gumming thinks that Daniel viii. y-12,' refers to its rise ; he says : " In mv judgment, therefore, and in the judgment of those who Iiave studied and written at leuo-th upou the subject of this prophecy, it is the 1 urkish or Mohammedau power tliat is here represented by the little horn • • » • th- fea turesjelineated by the prophet, and tliTfacts • Lecture on Daniel, p. 263 d3 122 LECTURES ON THE i!l thrown np in the history of Mohammedanism, so completely tally, that the infcrcnice is almost irresistible, that it is the Turkish or Moham- medan power that is here intended." The same learned writer, in an exposition of Rev. xi. l-ll, speaks of the fifi.h trumpet as representing^ the rise of Mohammedanism ; he says : " In the year 629, the Saracens first is- sued from the desert ; and in A. D. 636, they came down upon Damascus and Jerusalem, like a resistless and overflowing torrent ; and before A.D. 637, a Mohammedan mosqne was built upon the very site of the ancient tem- ple of Solomon, and the cry of the Mu;^zzim was heard where the voice of inspiration had been uttered before ; the Crescent waved vic- torious over Egypt, Spain, Persia, and In- dia. In ten years, that is, from A. D. 634, to A. D. 644, the Saracens reduced 3,060 cities, destroyed 4,000 churches, and raised 1,400 mosques; and, as if to shew how truly the punishment they inflicted was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man ; and that in " those days shall men seek death and shall not find it, and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from him," the Christians SECOND ADVENT OP CHRIST. 123 they spared were tormented with the most cruel and protracted oppression,~their rites were mocked at,— their worship degraded,— their persons assailed,— and insults, without ceasing, were heaped upon their churches, and the commoa language addressed to them, was, « Ye Christian dogs ; ye know your option,— the Koran, the tribute, or the sword !" The origin of its poicer in the Eastern or Greek Church. The d^^generacy of thut church was such that the divine Being was resoh^ed to punish it. A prediction of that punishment is found in Dan. xi. 40-^2. « And at the time of the end, shall the kin- of the south push at him : and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots and With horsemen, and with many ships ' and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. He shall enter al«o into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown; but there shall escape out of his hands, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the cliildren of Amnion. He shall stretch tbrth his hand also npon the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape* d4 124 LECTURES ON THE " The time of the end*^ when this prophecy should be fulfilled, was the latter days of the Roman Empire. The " king of the south''^ as we have noticed before, was the Sar':tcens who were of the Arabians and came from the south : and under the conduct of their false proj)het, Mohammed, and his successors, made war upon the emperor, Heraclius^ and with amaz- ing rapidity deprived him of Egypt, Syria, and many of his finest provinces. They were only to 2ntsh at J and sorely wound, the Greek Em- pire, but they were not to subvert and destroy it. The king of the norths that is, the Turks, who were originally of the Scythians, and and came from the north ; and, after the Sara- cens seized on Syria, assaulted with great violence the remains of the Greek empire, and in time rendered themselves absolute mas- ters of the whole. Their chariots and their horsemen are particularly mentioned, because their armies consisted chiefly of horse ; their s%;5, too, are said to be mmiy \ and, indeed, without many ships, they could never have gotten possession of so many islands, nor have so frequently vanquished the Venetians, who were, at that time, the greatest naval power w\ SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 125 in Europe. By these means, the Turks cot possession of Constantinople, as well as othe^ parts of Europe and Asia, including the holy land, and also Egypt. How long shall Mohammedanism bear rule over the Eastern Church, is a question we may very naturally ask ? Dr. Cummin g sup. poses that the « little horn" in Dan. viii.^9-12, refers to Mohammedanism, and that it \fas pre^dicted to spring up in after ages ; and the end of Its duration was to be 2,300 years from a date which preceded the birth of Christ, 538 or 480 years ; one period being the com- mencement of the Persian dynasty, the other the era of its meridian, or noontide power and glory. He also thinks the 2,300 days termi- named A. D. 1820 ; he says, - every thing in the history of Turkey, up to the spring of 1820, was powerful, peaceful, prosperous; now just notice what begins to take place at that period In the summer of that year Ali Pacha revolted agamst the dominion of the Sultan, and intes- tme war began. In October, 1820, the Greek insurrection took place, and Turkey was crip- pled in its strength and reduced in its territory And from 1820, down to the present hour' d5 * 126 LECTURES ON THE ;' y (1848) plague, earthquake, fire, revolt, des- truction, have not ceased continually to lay it waste, till, in the language of Lamartine, * Turkey is dying rapidly for want of Turks.' "* Daniel mentions one angel as asking another " how long shall it he to tiie end of tliese wonders'?" The other angel, lifting up his hands to heaven, solemnly sware " by hiin tlMit liveth for ever and ever, that it shall be for a time, timesy and an half time, and when he si ball leave accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people y all these things shall be Jin- ishidP Again, it is added, ^'^ and from the time that the daily sacrifice shall he taken awayy and the abomination that maketh desolate set up. there shall be 1290<:%s." Agnin, <- Blessed is h,e that icaiteih, and comelh to the 1335 da.ijsP (Dan. xii. 6, 7, II, 12.) We had occasion to show before, that a time, times, and a half time are, 3^ prophetic years, or 12f>0 years. Y(jw perceive, then, the same length of time is allowed for the tiesolatioji and oppression of the Eastern Church, as was allowed ^Kii the tyranny of the little horn in the Western Church. Daniel, not sufficiently understand- ' ' ' ■■'■■■' ■ ■■■ ■III la^^— ^^ MM I ,,MM ^M I | „ i M^l^— ^WlM^i^ I % * Lecture on Daniel, p. 211. SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 127 ing the answer, inquired « what," or how li.ng shull be the end of these things ? he was answered, that from the time of taking away the diulv sacrifice, and setting up the abomi- naiion th..t maketh desolate, there shall be 1290 clays, that is yctvrs. Dr. Clarke says, Wohamedanism sprang up in A. D. 612, and if we reckon 1290 years from that time, it -will bring US down to 1902, when we might presume, from this culcuJation, that the reli- gion of ihe false prophet will cease to prevail in the world. And " then," as Bishop New- ton says, " a great and glorious revolution will follow ; perhaps the restoration of the Jews, perhaps the destruction of Antichrist. But another still greater and more glorious will succeed, and what can this be so probably lis the full conversion of the Gentiles to the Church of Christ, and the beginning of the .iiiilleniam,or reign r^f the saints upon earth." ,chs of hs palaces between the seas in the glorious holy mounlain ; yet ke shall come to Im end, and .one shall help /«>»." Jf ^,e are right, as we.hmk we are, in applying ihe four pre- cecbng verses to the Turks getting po.ses^ion of Constantinople and the eotaitries mentioned, then we conclude this passage re/ers to the destruciioH of the Turkisli empire. The tid- ings from the east and the north that shall tiouble Inm may come from Persia and Russia. These naucns shall .rouse him to the ntmo,t. and he shall go forth to war against them wrth great fury ; bnt he shall not , revail, but shall be obliged to retreat before them ; then he shall make his last stand in Judea,or, as it IS expressed in the prophecy, « he shall plant the tabernacles of his palaces between the seas m the glorious holy mountain ; and then he shall come to his end and none shall help him. Now, tf we are right in this conjecture 132 LECTURES ON THE ^ then we think the present trouble in the east will come to an end, and the Turkish empire be preserved for a time, and the allied forces of England and France be withdrawn from the country. But, after that, fresh troubles will arise between Russia and Persia oii the one hand, and Turkey on the other ; and Tur- key not then being aided by the western, or any other powers, for the prophecy says, " none shall help him," then he, the Turk, shall be driven from Constantinople, till he take^\ip his position in Judea, anrl there, as the prophecy has it, " he shall come to his eml^ Bishop Newton supposes the Ottoman, or Tur- kish empire, will be overthrown in opposing the settlement of Israel in their ovn land in the latter days, p. 697. 'J'his opinion the Bishop seems to have formed from a prophecy in Ezekiel, 38 and 39 chapters, concerning Gog and Magog, whom he says, ^' we believe to be the Turks or Otlimans, and they shall come up against the children of Israel in the latter days, to oppose their re-settlement in their own land ; and they shall fall, in some extraordi- nary manner, upon the mountains of Israel, they and the people that are with them." SECOND ADVENT OF CHKIST. 133 Again the Bishop quotes the words, "he shall prosper till the indignation," tha is Go^" phsted. ' Fro^ these, and other prophecies, he thinks xlIohammedani.«„ will be over- thrown tn its oppositim to the restoration of the Jeu's to their own land. arJh *''" " ^""""^ Struggle" I find that the ai.thor supposes that Russia wih conquer Ger- many and F,.nee, and the whole of LLJn- t E„,ope wd be in his grasp, and that he is, thus formed, the Gog and Magog of E^ekieJ's in-phooy and that the heart of the empire WiU be hfted up by success, and, in his pride and arrogance he will endeavor to make the world h,s slave. Having succeeded in de! thron„,g the Sultan, he will endeavor fo take possession of Palestine, he lays seige to the ho y city Jerusalem, and thus plants the tabernacle of his palace between tL seas in 1 fTr }'"^^ """"''■^''^ ' h« has now eached the farthest limit of bis conqueri J niss,on ; the decree peels forth from t^e eternal throne, " hitherto shalt thou come but no farther." This writer supposes that' l-reat Bntam, joined by the United States of Ip '' i s'l, 134 LECTURES ON THE i» r If' W America, will proceed from Britain's eastern possessions in India, till the flower and strength of the Anglo-Saxon race meet on the sacred soil of Palestine, and that their being joined by the Jews, will be prepared for the greatest battle that ever was fonght on this struggling earih. On the one side, the motley millions of Rnssia and the nations of continental Enrope, are drawn np on the slopes of the hills and the sides of the valleys towards the north ; while,, on the other, are ranged the thousands of Britain and lier offspring, from Avhose ^irm and reg- "ar ranks gleam forth the dark eyes of the sons of Abraham, determined to ]>re- serve their newly recovered city, or perish, like their ancestors in a former age, in its rnins. All is ready ! That awfnl pause which ensnes before the work of death begins, is broken by the clash of arms ; and ^vhile yet the contending hosts are plunging incessant fire upon battallions of bleeding and quiver- ing flesh, a strange sound. — * The voice of the archangel and the trump of God,' out roar the din of battle, — he calls for a sword against Gog ; the scene that follows baffles descrip- tion. Amid earthquakes and showers of fire, SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 135 the bewildered and maddened multitude of the Autocrat, rush, sword in hand, against each other, while the Israelites and Ando-Saxon allies become Jehovah's sword upon the ene- my." (Pp. 21-32.) The above is a very graphic description, but It looks more like the conjectures of a politician, or the despatches of a conquering general, than the sober exposition of scripture prophecy. Besides, the writer expects the conquest of Europe by Russia, the overthrow of Mohammedanism, and this great battle of Armageddon, all to take place wiinin thirteen years from the time that he wrote in 1849. Five of these years are already passed away ; Russia has not yet subdued o?ie of the conti- nental nations ; besides, when Turkey will come to its end, « none shall help him ;" but we find England and France in close alliance with Turkey. We think, then, this theory of the "Coming Struggle" is based upon the misapphcatinfi of ^vopliecij. If we consider the events connected ivith Turkey since 1820, we are unavoidably led to the conclusion, that its decline is gradual, and It will probably continue to diminish until 136 LECTURES ON THE '' I?*' some occurrence, yet in the future, puts an end to its existence as a nation. Moliamme- dunism, the nUgion of the Turks, the scourge of the Christiun Church in the East, has its destinies interwoven with the Ottoman Power, — and the downfall of the Sultan will Vibrate to tlio extremity of its religious organization ; and from t lie nee w^e may safely expect that Christianity will make rapid inroads upon that system of error, till the light of Divine Reve- lation has caused the Koran to disappear from our earth. Dr. Gumming, speaking of 1820, says : '^ From tliat time the Turkish nation hus rapidly wasted; the last streamlet is barely discernible in the once full and over- flowing channel of the great Euphrates. The shadows of LUissia and Britain are at this moment (1848) by a strange combination, spread over it to prevent its entire evaporation. They AviU not succeed. God has pronounced its doom, and no power on earth can prevent its speedy accomplishment. Yea, all efforts to arrest, will only precipitate the sure catas- trophe. The crescent must give way to the c/oss — the mcsque must one day resound with the name, and shine with the glories of Jesus. SECOND ADVENT Of CHRIST. 137 That river, whose streams make glad the city of our God, shall flow when Erphrates has long rolled its flood . * There is one God,' will then, as now, he the Turkish fiii.h ; but there will be this, to its professors, new and happy addition— 'and Christ is the brightness of his glory, and the express imnge of his person.' The decay and waning is almost complete ; the day also of its regeneration cannot be far distant." * All expositors of prophecy are agreed in this,that the " false proyhee shall he dethroned, that the days of Mohammeda7tism arQ^, num- bered and its end draivcth ?iigh. In conclusion, we observe that while the destruction of Antichrist, and the false pro- phet is a settled question, the time when it shall be completed is to us yet uncertain. The angel said to Daniel, « the coords are closed up and sealed till the time of the eyid^ and we think that' the seal has not yet been broken, nor the closed roll of the prophecy yet unfuld- ed ; and consequently they cannot at pn-sent be so understood as to say, with certainty, when these enemies of Christ shall be des- troyed. Lect. on Apoc, p. 388, 138 LECTURES. How far Christianity may have extended in the world when these enemies are fiij^lly des- troyed, we camiot say ; but when they shall be taken away, "the kingdom and dominion and the grentness of the kingdom nnder the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most Hinh, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him." Dan. vii. 27. Hoiv long after these events (the destruction of Christ's enemies and the universal diffusion of , Christianity) it m y be bfore the second Advent of Christ, ice do 7iot ])rcfess to laioio. We still think "of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no not the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father," and we would much rather be laboring in the vine- yard than spending our time in idle conjec- tures as to when Christ shall come. LECTURE V. THE WORK TO BE DONE BETWEEN CHRIST'S ASCENSION TO HEAVEN AND HIS RETURN FROM THENCE. PART III, THE RESTORATION OF THE JEWS. Romans xi. 26. "And so all Israel shall be saved." 'The covenant into which God entered with Abraham, reads thus : « And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thv seed after thee in their generations, for an ever lasting coYonant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will gi^e unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land where- in thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possesion ; and I leill be Ouir God."—G&n. xvii. 7, 8, HO LECTURES ON THE m With regard to this covenant, Matthew- Henry says : The continuance of this cove- nant is intimated in three things. 1st. It is established^ — not to be altered or revoked ; it is fixed ; it is ratified ; it is made as firm as the Divine power and truth can make it. 2ndly. It is entailed^ — it is a covenant, not with Abraham only, but with his seed after him ; not only his seed after the flesh, but his spiritual seed. 3rdly. It is everlasting, — in the councils of it ; and to everlasting in the con- sequences of it." In the commencement of the chapter, where our text occurs, the Apos- tle asks the question : " Hath God cast away his people f that is, finally. " God forbid y^ says the Apostle. <' God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the w^orld, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead. And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graft- ed in, for God is able to graft them in again. Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved ; as it is written, there shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, SECOND ADVENT OP CHRIST. Ul and shal. tarn away ungodliness from Jacob: for this IS my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concernino- the gospel, they are enemies for your sakesl .but as touching the election, they are beloved for the Father's sake. For the gifts and call- ing of God are without repentance." Brown says (p. 434) : " In this chapter, the Apostle teaches that the rejection of God's ancient people, under the gospel, is to be taken with two limitations: first, that even at this present time (the period of rejection) there is a remnant according to the election of grace ;" and next, that the i:>eo2Dle at large— ^^q bulk and body of the ^^\:iox\,^^contmdistingiiislied from this elect remna?it, —iihaW vet be brouo-ht in. In proof of this, the Apostle carries\s back to the Abrahamic covenant itself. " As touching the election, (of Abraham and liis seed) they are beloved for the Father's sake- dear to God, because of their ancestral con- nections, their lineal descent from, and one- ness in covenant with those fathers with whom God originally established his cove- nant," Their continuance, as a church and as a na- 14*J LECTURES ON THE tion, in that superior eminence to which God raised them, wjis strictly conditional \ and be- cause they did not perform the conditions God required, they were scattered ah'oad. In the dnys of Rehoboam (Solomon's successor) ten tribes revolted, and followed Jeroboam, a man of the tribe of Ephraim, and on that account they were sometimes called Ephraim^ Concerning these ten tribes God said by Isaiah, " within three score and five years, shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people." (Tsa. vii. 8.) In 2 Kings, xvii. 6, 22, 23, we read : *< In the ninth year of Hoshea, the kinj^ of Assyria took Stuiiaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria," Thus the Lord caused to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel." - — Ilosea i. 4, 5. The tribes of Jitdali and Benjamm^ which remained with Rehoboam, were a(t:'rwards carried away captive by Nebuchadnezzar into Babylon, where they remained for seventy years. Under the Medo-Persian government, they were permitted to return, and probably they were accompanied by many individuals belonging to the ten tribes who were now in- corporated with Judah and Benjamin. SECOND. ADVENT OP CHRIST. 143 About forty years after the death of Christ Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans, and the Jews who survived that catastrophe, were scattered abroad, and since that time they have been a bye-word and a proverb among all nations. The preservalion of the Jews, as a lUstinct people among all the nations, whither they have been scattered, was foretold in several prophecies, which show that, though God would make an end of other nations, he won d not make an end of them ; and these prophecies are still fnltilled in our dav, for although the Jews mingle with all nat'ions, yet they are not amalgamated with them, but remain as distinct as they were 1800 y-ars ago. And does not this distinction not only mark a special preserving providence, but also : mtimates that there is yet some particular object to be gained by it ? Keith says, << and viewing only the dispersion of the Jews and some of its attendant circumstances, how their city was laid wnste, their temple evened with the ground, and ploughed over like a field, their country ravaged, and them- selves murdered in mass, falling before the 144 LECTURES ON THfi sword, the famine, and the pestilence ; hoW a remnant was left, but despoiled, persecntedy enslaved, and led into captivity, driven from: their own land, not to a mountainous retreat, where they might subsist with safety, but dispersed among all nations, and left to the mercy of a world that everywhere hated and oppressed them, shattered in pieces like the wreck of a vessel in a mighty storm, scat- tered over the earth like fragments on the waters ; and instead of disappearing or ming- ling among the nations, remaining a perfect- ly distinct people, in every kingdom the same ; meeting everywhere the same insult, mock- ery, and oppression ; finding no resting-place without an enemy soon to dispossess them ; multiplying amidst all their miseries, so that althongh they were left few in numbers, were they now to be restored, the land would over- flow for the multitude of men ; surviving their enemies, beholding unchanged in them- selves, the extinction of many nations, and the convulsions of all ; robbed of their silver and gold ; often bereaved of their very chil- dren ; disjoined and disorganized, but uniform and unaltered ; ever bruised, but never bro- SKCOND ADVEMT OF CHRIST. 145 ken ; crushed alway, but not utterly destroy- ed ; weak, fearful, sorrowful, and afflicted, often driven to madness at the spectacle of their own miseries ; the taunt, and hissing, and mf.mj of all people ; and continuing ever what they are to this day, a proverb and a bye-word to the whole world. How did every fact, from its very nature, defy all con- jecture; and how could mortal man, n, . lookmg a hundred successive geiierations, have foretold any one of these wonders that are now conspicuous in these latter times? Who but the Father of spirits could have re- vealed their unbounded, and yet unceasing wanderings, unveiled all their destiny, and unmasked the minds of the Jews and of their enemies, i„ every age and in every clime? Who does not see that the suflerings of the Je^shaveirot been by chance, but by judg- But shall the Jews always remain so ? will the vad never be taken from their hearts ? is ^ere iio time when the Father of mercies Will say, it IS enough, and then restore them to h,s favor, and to their own country ! U^n this subject, very different opinions have b^en 146 LECTURES ON THK formed. We shall proceed to consider some of them — The first theory is, that the Jews never WILL be restored TO God's FAVOR, NOR TO THEIR OWN Land : — The strongest reason with some is, to use their own words, " it is obvious to all, that if this doctrine be true^^ (that is, the restoration of Israel) " the coming of Christ is not near^ but is an event far in the future.* Because the restoration of the Jews, and the speedy coming of Christ, clash together, are doctrines that cannot be reconciled, the Adventists have set themselves to work to s:ip and undermine this tower of strength, whose foun ' itions have been laid in the divine council.., and whose superstructure is composed of prophecies and promises delivered by prophets and apostles yea, by the sacred persons of the Holy Tri- nity. But they cannot succeed ; God has laid its foundations too deep for such artificers, and he defends it against all the attempts of strong nations, and futile men ; a mpts have been made to falsify Scripture prophecy respecting Jerusalem and the Jews, but they have all • Advent Tracts for the Times, No. 4. IV^ SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. I47 signally foiled. It is but reasonable, however that we shonld look at the arguments of those who tlnnk the Jews shall never be restored. Ihe first argument is, <' Because of the marks of Chronology „hich some of those pas- sages bear, which are supposed to teach such a restM-atton." " According to Usher's chronology, all the prophets w,.h the exception of MaJachi, pro- phes.ed before or at the restoration of the Jews from captivity i„ Babylon. This is a point whiclx has not b.en sntficiently observed by the adTOcatcs of the fnture return of the J ews. For doubtless many predictions, wh ich are by them applied to the future, ought to be applied to the past." To this we reply, that not a few prophecies of Scripture have more than one application : they apply to diiferent events, one illustratino! the other ; and some of the very prophecies which nclunlly referred to the restoration from J:5abylon, appear to have a much more com- prehensive meaning, and can, nay must, be applied to Israel's retnrn before the second Advent of Christ. Take the very first pas- sage which a certain writer produces as _ _J. ii H8 tECTUriES ON THE belonging exclusively to the return of Israel from Babylon, viz., Tsa. xiv. 1, 2 : « For the Lord v^riU have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land : and the strangers shall l)e joined vith them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. And the i)eople shall take them, and bring them to their place ; and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids : and they shall take thinn captives, tvhose ca^itives they were ; and they shall rule over tlieir oppressors." This passage the .said writer tries hard to make us think belongs to the restoration of Israel from Babylon ; we don't doubt it, but we think it contains promises which were not realized at the return from Babylon, for instance, the names of Ijoth Jacob and Israel hero appeared to be used with design as comprehending the twelve tribes, whereas only two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, were captives in Baby- lon. Again it is said, " strangers shall be joined wuth them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob." Now the history of Judah and Benjamin's return does not show us that the Chaldeans, to such an extent as is SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. U9 here spoken of, returned with the Jews to Palestine, and cleaved to them. Again, the prophecy says, "they (the .Tows) shall take hey snail rule over their oppressors." Now this was not in any sense nor i„ any decree ftlhlled when the .Tews returned froL n^^ Ion. I has, while we admit the passage refer- red to their return from Babylon, it ;eforsl a stronger sense, to another retnrn mneh more glorions to the Jews than the former was Bhen tliey returned from I?abvIon,it was b^ an act of dcncncy on tlie part of Cyrus, king of Persia. Bnt when they return th ncu Ume, they will come from some parts as cZ SX'.'""'"' ''""■ "'""''"'' "'■* ''^^- «^ But then there are other passages also which refer to Israel's return, whicireannot wi h any propriety be applied to their return frotn Babylon. For instance, Isa.xi.lJ: " And U shall set his hand again the second time to ^_l}^':J^^M^rn^^^{^^, Egypt, and * Dr. Clarke ou text, also on Isa. xIvTsTlT >i 150 LECTURES ON THB from Path ros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Sliinar,and from Hamatli, and from the islands of the sea." Dr. Clarke s:iys this verse contains a YiW^ l>\\ecYytvhich certaiiily ronains yet to heaccom,' plishcd. Dr. Gillies .says: " Thisd spersion is distinguished from the Eabylonish dispersion by several characti^rs, for it is called a second dispersion, or the restoration from it is called a second restoration ; and both the dispersion and restoration here spoken of, are mentioned as cotemporary ivitU the enlightening of the Gentil's, by the ro'jt of Jesse, whicli indeed is the chief subject of this chapter. The tenth verse speaks of the enlightening of the Gen- tiles : " And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an en- sign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek, and his rest shall be glorious." Then, in the prophecy, it is added, " and it shall come to pass in that dayP viz: when the fidness of the Gentiles shall be brought in ; " that the Lord shall set his hand the second time to recover his people." Their second argument for not believing in the restoration of the J ews, is : " Because of SECOND ADVENT OP CHRIST. 151 the conditional nature of the national prophe- cies,''* Now, this argument, in our estima- tion, IS of no force at all. Admitting that the promises of the Jews' restoration are condi- tionah what then ? can they not comply with those conditions, when that " blindness which has happened to IsraeJ, until the fulness of the Gentdes b3 come in" is removed ? take away that judicial blindness, which is limited m its duration, and what is to hinder the Jews be- ing grafted in again ? Their third argument, is : '^Because of the fearful curses pronounced on that apostate na- twnP To this objection, we might retort the writers own argument, viz : that those curses were delivered before Israel was carried into Babylon,— and why might they not have their fulfilment in that captivity ? But we are not driven to such a subterfuge as this But would reply, with the use of their s^^cond ar- gimient, that these curses as well as the pro- phecies, are conditional-, and if their curses are conditional ? why may not the Jews com- ply with those conditions, and be restored. ' Advent Tracts for the Times. 152 LECTURES ON THE Their fourth argument, is : " Because the middle u'cdl of partition between Jeivs and GentileSy icas broken dmvn by Christ, never more to be rebuilt.''^ But who that longs for the restoration of the Jews, even dreams of bnildmg a partition between converted Jews and converted Gen- tiles ? nay, do we not labour to throw down partition walls that now exist, in keeping up the distinction between Jew and Gentile , are w^ not sending them the Gospel, and Chris- tian Missionaries, the Christian as well as the Jewish Scriptures, have we not opened our communions for their reception and our hearts to their affection and confidence, — nay our pulpits to their ministry and ^ur highest ec- clesiastical offices to their converts who are capable of filling them. While those on the other hand who disbelieve in their restoration, and use no means to recover them, are trying ineffectually to keep up the distinction be- tween Jew and Gentile to the end of the world. I should have been glad to take up all the arguments of those who oppose the restoration of the Jews, but the limits of a lecture require H %se the vs and never L of the irtition 1 Gen- ' down dug up e ; are Chiis- as the ed our hearts ay our est ec- ho are on the )ratioii, trymg oil be- of the all the oration require SECOND ADVENT OF CHHIST. 153 that nothing be irih-oduced but what is really necessary to prove the point in hancL Another theory is, that the Jews shali. BE CONVERTED, SO AS TO BELIEVE THAT JeSUS IS THE Messiah ; but they will not be re- stored TO their OWN Land : — " But if we be content with a conversion of the Jews, without their restoration, and of those two tribes only which are now dispersed throughout the Christian world, and other known parts of the earth : that these should be converted to the Christian faith, and incor- porated into the Christian commonv/ealth, losing their national character and distinction ; if this, I say, will satisfy the prophecies, it is not a thing very difficult to be conceived ; for, when the world is reduced to a better and purer state of Christianity, and that idolatry, in a great measure, removed, which gave the greatest scandal to the Jews, tliey will begin to have better thoughts of our religion, and be disposed to a more ingenuous and unpre- judiced examination of their prophecies, con- cerning the Messiah: God raising up men amongst them, of divine and enlarged spirits, lovers of truth more than of any particular £ 354 LECTURES ON THE sect or opinion ; with light to discern it, and courage to profess it." * Snch passages as the following refer to their con'versloity but the mere absence of any refer- ence, m those passages, to their return, does not preclude the possibility of that return, es- pecially when other passages clearly refer to that event. The passage in question is Zechariah xii. 10 : " And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplica- tions : and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and sliall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bit- terness for his first-born." Now, this prophecy undoubtedly refers to the conversion of the Jews, to believe in Christ whom they })ierced, and to repent of their sins. As this subject will be considered more fully in the last theory, we shall not enlarge here. The third theory is, that the Jews shall be partially, or wholly restored to their own land, but not co7iverUdy so as to believe Christ is the Messiah. * Bishop Burnett's Notes, p. 416. SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 155 The author of the " coming straggle" says, " the restoration of the Jews is a work of time, and will require between fifty and sixty years to accomplish. When Gogue comes to be lord of Europe, like Pharaoh of old, he will not permit Israel to remove themselves and their weaUh bsyond his reach. His dominion must, therefore, be broken before tho north w^ill obey the command to give np, and the south to "keep not back;" and even Israel must tight their way to Palestine, as in the clays of old. The truth is, there are two stages in the restoration of the Jews, the first is before the battle of Armageddon ; and the second after it; but both pre-millenial ; God has said, ^'I ivill save the tents of Judah first, ''^ This is the first stage of restoration. Judah's submission to tbe Lord Jesus, will give them no right to eternal life, or to the glory and honor of the kingdom ; it juslly entitles them to the blessedness of living in the land under the government of Messiah and the saints. — (pp. 91, 92.) " Tliere is, then, a partial and primary restoration of the Jews before the Advent of Christ, which is to serve as the nucleus, or basis, of future operations in the £2 «IV 156 LECTURES ON THE restoration of the rest of the tribes after he has appeared m the kingdom. The pre-ad- ventiial colonization of Palestine will be on purely political principles, and the Jewish colonists will return in unbelief of the Mes- siaship of Jesus, and of the trnth as it is in Him. They will emigrate thither as agri- eulturists and traders, in the hope of ulti- mately establishing their commonwealth, but more immediately of getting rich in silver and gold, by commerce with India, and in cattle and goods, by their industry at home, under the efficient protection of the British power.' ^ These statements will be best met by considering, Fourthly: the last theory which we intend to mention, viz. : that the jews will be BOTH CONVERTED, SO AS TO BELIEVE IN JeSUS, AND RESTORED TO THEIR OWN LAND. The Scripture proofs that the Jews will be ultimately converted to the faith of Christ, are so numerous, that we can only make a selection of them, and add to each such re- marks as may convey the force of the passe "-e more effectually to the mind. ^ In Isaiah Ixii. 4 : " Thou shalt no more be !-: SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 157 termed forsaken ; neither shall thy land any more be termed desolate, but thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah, and thy land Beiilah : for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married." Now, if this prediction belonged to the return from Babylon, it could 7iot be true, for it says, <^ thou shalt no more be termed forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed desolated But did not Christ utter a lamentation over Jerusalem, and de- clare their house was left unto them desolate, and that they should not see him until they should say, " Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord."~Luke xiii. 35. Let their history before Christ came, be compared with their history since, — they crucified the Lord of life and glory ; and tell us whether they have not been forsaken — whether their house, the temple, and their city, yea, and their very country, have not been desolate for nearly 1800 years,— desolate in such a^way as they never were before, and whether they are not, even yet, desolate. Now, as this can- not be denied, we look for another restoration. to their own land, that shall never be fol- lowed by another dispersion ; for Israel shall £3 Itl*^ I WL. 158 LECTURES ON THB be called llephzi-bali : that is, « my delight IS in her," and Palestine shall be called « Beulah," that is, married. Thus God speaks of Israel again becoming his delight, and the connection of Israel with Palestine, he com- pares to the hoiuh of matrimoiiy, which noth- ing shall dissolve but death itself. Besides, this restoration is spoken of as being coicmpo- raneous wilh the co?tversio?i of the Gentiles, (verse 2.) "and the Gentiles shall see thy rigl^teousness, and all kings thy glory." In the book of Ilosca, iii. 4, 5 : '^ For the children of Israel shall aljide many days with- out a king, and without a prince, and with- out a sacrifice, and w^ithout an image, and AvithoLit an ephod, and without teraphim : Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the Lord and his good- ness in the latter days." Dr. Clarke, upon this passage, says: 'Miitherto this prophecy has b^en literally fulfilled. Since the destruc- tion of the temple by the Romans, they have neither had ling, nor ^prince, nor any civil government of their own, but have lived in different nations of the earth as mere exiles ^ SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 159 tliey hiive neither priests nor sacrifices, nor urim, nor thummim ; no prophet— no oracle^ —and no commimication from God of any kind." This was to continue " many days," and it has continued now nearly 1800 years, and it will continue till they acknowledge Him as their Saviour, whom they crucified as a blasphemer, 13ut the prophecy assures us that these days of destruction shall pass away, " and the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king," that is, Messiah, the son of David; " and shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter day." Again, in Zechariah, xii. 10, 11, and xiii. 1, we read : « And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusa- lem, the spirit of gmce and of supplications : and they shall look Tipon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him,as^onc that is in bitterness for his first born. In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourn- ing of Iladadrimmon in the valley of Megid- don. In that day there shall be a fountain e4 \ i 160 LECTURES ON THE ih opened to the house of David and to the inha- bitants of Jerusalem for sin and for unclean- ?? ness.- We sliall quote the words of Erown upon this passage, as being better than any thing of our own. He says : « The first step ]n the wondrous process here described, is the descent of the Spirit upon them natmmlhj,-^ and, first, he comes upon them as a " Spirit of grace;'' this will bring them into a con- vinced, humbled, anxious state, prompting them to confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of tlieir fathers, and that they have walked contrary to the Lord ; but, along with this, he shall come as a '' spirit of suppHcatmz,'' lead- ing them to cry unto God for mercy. In this frame, their heart, nov/ turned to the Lord, fhe veil dro2Js from their eyes, and an object of surpassing glory, yet to them of startling and heort-breaking aspect, stands confessed before their view: It is Jesus. "They look (by iliith) on Him whom they have pierced; and discern now in thao bleeding Saviour, their oivn very Messiah, their heart rnelfs within them, their rcpentings are kindled together, and they mourn for him, as one mourneth for an only son, and are in bitterness as for a first SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 161 born. And, oh ! what an unexampled mourn- ing will that be ! for its intemlty,—^^ the mourning of Hadadrimmon, when their fore- fathers wept so bitterly at the death of Josiah, —for its universality, " the land shall mourn ;" for its i7ulividuaUty, <• all the families that remain, every family apart, and their v-ives apart." But the most glorious, will be its evangelical diameter. It will be the pure fruit of a believing look upon Hi i whom they have pierced. And, O ! when they see that blood which, as a nation, they murderously shed, turned into a fountain open to them- selves for sin and for uncleanness, how will they be disposed to exclaim to their Gentile brethren every where, '-come, hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare v/hat he hath done for my soul." Let us now look into the New Testament, and see if there is nothing here to warrant- the expectation, that Israel will be restored Matt, xxiii. 39 : Christ said unto the Jews, ** Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cojmth in the 7tame of the Lord:' Does not, then, this passage teach us, that as soon as the Jews shall acknow- e5 162 LECTURES ON THE I' ledge Jesus to be the Messiah, then they shall see him by that fliith which bringeth salva- tion. Again, in Luke xxi. 24— where Christ IS speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of the Jews, he says, " And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all na- tions ; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, u?2til the times of the Ge7itiles be fulfilled:' This passage also limits the tin^e of the Jewish dispersion, till the times of the Gentiles he fiiJ filled. h\ 2 Cor. iii. 15, 16, we read, "but even nnto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart, nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be tiiken away." That is, when the writings of tlie Old Testa- ment Scriptures are read by the Jews, their minJs are so blinded thnt they can not see Jesus to be the Messiah; but when (hey turn to the Lord Christ, tlien the vail will bp taken away, and they shall see clearly that this Jesus is the prophet of whom Moses did write. Rom. chap. 11. In this chapter, says Dr. Clarke, St. Paul << discourses concerning the extent and duration of the rejection of his SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 163 countrymen, to prevent their being insulted and despised by the Gentile Christians. — 1st. As to the exfent of this rejection, it is not tib^oiulejy universal ; some of the .lews have embraced ilie Gos[iel, and are incorporated into the Christian Church, Avith the believing Gen' lies ; upon the case of these believing Jews, he comments in the first seven verses. He siys: 'Hath God cast away his people ? QddforhkV he solemnly exclaims, and proves, by his own case, that they were not uncondi- tionally reprob:i ted, even then., when they had but lately perpetrated the crime of murdering the Just One." Again, the Apostle says, ver. 25-27 : " That blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in ; and so all Israel shall be saved : as it is wTitten, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob : For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall tike away their sins." In this passage, the Apostle teaches that partial blindness, or blindness to a fart of them, had happened to Israel; and even that blindness is limited in its duration " untU the 164} LECTURES ON THE M'tess Of the Gentiles be come in ;" that is. Wl a mu titude of nations or Gentiles shal ' s T n '" ^"""' ' ""^ *'^«^ *'"« kind- ness shall be removed, and the Jews will em- br^ce .he fa,th of Christ. Ho says luiw: tlieyshall be h^ught into U. ^oay rf sal^atro: by acknowledging the Messiah. We do not suppose the Ajwstle here means that every Jew, young and old, shall be converted to God, and born of His spirit, but they will be brought nito the way of being saved." The Apostle says still furtlier: "As it is written, there shall come out of Zion the De- jZb " 'sf ?"/ '"" "^"^' --Somnes. from Jacob. &t. Paul, in quoting thse words from i^a^a/., has committed a serio.s blunder, ac- ccrdmg to a writer already referred to, be- cause lie quotes a passage from a prophet who urote before Israef, return from caj.tcvUv, and applies the passage to Israel's restoration be- lore tiie second oomiog of Christ. But we need not say, that St. Paul knew better how to apply prophecies to certain events, than those modern prophets, who have made so many mistakes. SECOND ADVENT OP CHRIST. 165 We have thongkt it desirable to divell upon tins theory, and shew at large, that we believe the restoration of the Jews will comprehend their restoration to the Church of God, by be- lieving that Jesus Christ is the ^Messiah, and also their restoration to Palestine, their own land. We have made a very small selection of those passages which refer to these glorious results. A quotation from Dr. Gumming will conclude this part of our subject: " I antici- pate, then, the restoration of the Jews to their fatherland, and that, too, speedily. Many texts are my witnesses here. Nor is it in vain that their hopes still converge, and kindle as they converge, from a thousand points to Jerusalem ; and that their affections nestle even amidst its ruins, as in their beloved and congenial home. It is true, there is much superstition associated with their veneration for the city of David j but there is also much that IS truly significant. * * * * The captives on the banks of the Euphrates did not present a more touching spectacle, nor do the words of the Psalm, ^ Thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favor the dust thereof,' re- ceive a more striking illustration. The out- 166 LECTURES ON THE l!S- casts of Jerusalem cling to its ruins, and cherish its very dust. Like ivy plants, they announce the wreck, while they labor to ar- rest it. How rooted is Judaism in the heart of a Jew ! what terrible assaults has it with- stood ! what fiery elements has it survived ! Satan has corrupted it, indeed, but he has not conquered it. He has overshadowed it with superstition, but he has not destroyed it.— Even after the lapse of eighteen centuries, bngljit sparks of the live glory start up at inter- vals from the encompassing rubbish— rays of the Shccmah occasiouixnj leap, like lightning splendors, athwart the clouded canopy which once glowed with stars as the city of God. * * * * JMay it not be, that the tidings which have lately come so often from Judea, are the deepening echoes of the returning footsteps of Jehovah, to reign over all the earth— to close the days of Zion's mourning— to shine before His ancients gloriously— to re-kindle on Mount Zion that pyramid of light that shall flame to heaven, and wrap Europe, Africa, Asia, and America,inonegloriousapocalypse?Manyand multiplying are the sign s of its appearing."* •Lect. on Apoc, p. 394. ~~ ~~ ~ SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 167 Let ns now proceed to consider — Fifthly : the time when this restoriition may be expected : — The author of the « Toming Struggle" says : " The restoration of the Jews is a work of time, and will require between fifty and sixty years to accomplish. The truth is, there are two stages in the restoration of the Jews ; the first is, before the battle of Armageddon; and the secrnid, after it ; but both pre-mil- lenial." (p. 91.) This writer, you remember, expects the great battle of Armageddon to take place before 1863; and before that, he expects a partial restoration of the Jews to be brought about. Bishop Newton says : " about the time of the fall of the Othman e^Jipire, and of the Chris- tian Antichrist, the Jews shall turn to the Lord, ami he restored to their oivn landP The Bishop also expects their return to take place about the time of the great battle of Armageddon ; but he supposes the Gog and Magog of that battle, to be the Turks, and he quotes the words, and " they shall come up against the children of Israel in the latter days," to oppose their settlement in their own land, " and they 168 LECTURES ON THE *i '$i I i shall fall," ill some extraordinary manner, " upon the mountain of Israel, they and the people that are with them, so the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God, from that day forward."* A^ain, it is expected the Jews will be re- stored about the time when Antichrist shall be destroyed', that is, the system of Popery.— The Bishop already quoted, says : « The re- storation of the Jews, and the fall of Anti- christ, shall happen about the same time. If the ' sixth vial' (Rev. xvi. 12,) which is poured out on the great river Euphrates, whose waters are dried up to prepare a pas- sage for \\v, kings of the East, is to be under- stood, as Mr. Mede, and others think, of the return of the Jews,— then the return of the Jews is one of the seven last plagues of A?iti^ Christ, But this notion is expressed more clearly in Daniel xi. 36 : ^ He shall prosper till the indignation,' that is, God's indigna- tion against the Jews, ' be accomplished.' And again, afterwards, (xii. 7,) < When God shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all t hese things shall be * Dis. ou Prop., p, 609. ' SECOND ADVENT OP CHRIST. 1G9 finished.'" * In consequence of, and in con- formity to this doctrine, a tradition hath pre- vailed among the Jews, that "the destruc- tion of Rome, and the redemption of Israel shall fall out about the same time."t Again, it appears, from some of the predic- tions which refer to the restoration of the Jews, that the event shall occur ahmit the time of the general conversio7t of the Gentiles, Isaiah xi. 10, 1 1, a passage we have already quoted : " And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people ; to it shall the Gentiles seek : and his rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in that day^ that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover tlie remnant of his people, wdiich shall be left," &c. " This passage," says Dr. Gillies, ** seems plainly to make the restoration of the Jews, which it describes, cotempcrary w^ith that happy period, the bringing in of the ful- ness of the Gentiles, which it describes." Again, " The end of the dispersion of the Jews, is not only made cotemporary wiX\\ the * Di3. on Prop., p. 700. fib. .J_^ 170 LECTURES ON THE gene; m'^ end of the jirophetic wonders more particularly y^^iih. :]io end of what is called time, times _ and m? half;'' (Dan. xii. 7,) and this we have shewn, will be " the end of the npostacy, delusion, and persecution, and the time of the universal conversion of the nations, so that this affords another proof; that the final restoration of the Jews should be cotemporary witli the conversion of the ful- ness of the Gentiles."* " let me notice another fact," says Dr. Gumming,! " namely, that at the close of the destruction of E-ome, there is heard a new and remarkable song, aiallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!' And airain, it is added, they said, aiallelujah, and her smoke rose up for ever and ever ;' and, * I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying. Alleluia; salvation, and glory, and honor, and pov/er, unto the Lord our God.' I showed you tliot the drying of tjie Euphrates is to prepare the way for the conversion of the Jews. Now notice here, the first Hebrew word, in the songs of the redeemed in the * Essay on Prop., p. 170, t Lect. on Apoc, p. 438. SECOND ADVEVT ni. „,. nuvtST OP CUniST. 171 Apocalypse, occurs in this vnr,, namely, Hallelujah- nU t 1 ^- '''''''Se. isheardi„Uxoca;J'o;;;.^'r"T ins Hallelnjah. I believe ' """""^ ' «°""d- fiIme„tofthei,romise of ,! " '"'* *° '"^^ Tm,r, *i • ' ^ °' '"e conversion of the Jew., thc.r restoration to th.ir o^vn land Id their worshippinjT ],;,„ _,, y . /'^'"•'^"'^ iathers crnoi&d onZvZ T'^T ''"''' remarkable corroW ^" ^"'^ '' '« ^ most .''"''' corroborative proof of this ihnt Kimchi, a very celel>,-nfr..l t • i, ' tor. makes the tnlT , ^'^'''' '=°mmenta- Pap.l Rome sSr"°^ °'T""""°" = ' -'-" 1 vome sJiall be desolated, then shMl t^rt:T;ttnt/?*°^'^^'=°-'^- cede the immed' : t" e jo^^^^ '^^^ P- -d ho. Morions will-uir r';:^^;' Jew and (xentilo ^hn^^ i • "^ ' "®^^ reigiicth.' " ^""'^ omnipotent 1 shall refer but to one nuihnr 172 LECTURES ON THE Wii !ii be saved !— the only question may be, ^vhen 1 The time when this return of the natural Israel into the bosom of the Church of God shall take place, is by many postponed to such a late period as deprives tliem of all the prac- tical benefit which should grow out of the hopes we are thus permitted to cherish con- cerning them. They are looked upon as so peculiarly depraved, so deeply sunk in intel- lectual and moral degradation, and especially as so riveted in alienation from the blessed truths of the. Gospel, that no rational hope, it is supposed, can be entertained of their being, by any ordinary means, converted to the faith of Christ, and so the era of their restitution to the state and privileges of God's people is thrown back to the very close of time, mingled up with the throes of the world's dissolution, and reckoned among the physical and moral wonders, with which the present constitution of things is to be wound up. It is not my intention to enter into any minute inquiry regarding the precise period of the complete conversion of the Jevv^s, as predicted to take place in the latter days ; but I do say, there are purposes to be served by the Jewish peo- I )e, tvhen ? ) natural ti of God ;d to such' the prac- iit of the ;rish con- pon as so in intel- especially lo blessed al hope, it leir being, ) the faith restitution ; people is 3, mingled issolution, a.nd moral )nstitiition LS not my e inquiry ! complete }d to take say, there J wish peo- SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 173 P'e after their conve ..on which hnti, . suj'pose the existenc of- st^fnn., ^'^' stautialiy the same ' *"'^' ^"^- require to be prZcl. ■ ^T"*' ^"'^ ^^^ 1 uu piosecuteo tnrouffh a consifloT-.^ ble lapse of time -v . fe" ^ considera- , uine,— V iistance, <at onr Saviour suJ^l^^'^T ''''''"^' ^ith ,he faithful upon?, ,"";'«'"':' y-^ars ^esurrecuon, before tLf„"^^f^'- '"^^ «-t Jiappiness.' ' * '^ompJetioii of final 176 I'ECTURES ON THE r'. (1 il^e name "Mmenmum," is derived from the words « turner a thousand, and " ann^^' a yea., and signifies the space of a tho^nd state of the Cluirch upon earth. This doctrine is supposed to be of Jetoish ong,n The tradition which fixes the ZlZ Jon of the world, in its present imperfect s ate, to S.X thousand years, and announces the approach of a Sabbath of one tbousS years of universal peace and plenty, to be tvshered nr by the glorious advent of the Mes- siah. Tnis tradition has been traced up to lil.as, a rabbuiical writer, who flourished about two centnries before the birth of Christ. The Jews understood several passages of the pro- Fjets as referring to this millennium, in . hich, according to their carnal apprehensions, t e Messiah is to reign on earih, and to bring all nat.ons wuhm the pale, and under subjec! t.o„ to the ordinances of the Jewish church. ■'h..s view IS still entertained by the Jews unto the present day. y^ieje^s This doctrine of the Jews has been adopted w,th modifications, by some CW.««iE' Justin Martyn, the most aaieient of the Father " SECOND ADVENT nt. ^ ^iXT OP CHRIST. Was a o-rpof „, • i/7 "">• &.W ,/J,^ ,,;:;2 ; he believed that 'f^rs. But this oviniT ' ■^"' " ""^'-'^^"d '°-<^d5 for tho„,rt r ""V^'^"^''-^ &1- yas „ot admitted by one T °' ""■' ''""'^^'e «•« &.t eminence, ^tTet '"°''' '''^"^''^ of «moi,g the ancients a^ in"'' ''"'' o«iers tones of MosheiC^ J^f '"' '^ "^ h- Conned an artide ofL'ff ''^""^^'■' "o^ *ny nation. - ''^ established creed in '•the London Encvv^l^v, i- f succinct view of , ° T'n'^ '"^P"^'« "'^ ^^'ith ^c^Wd in the fonn!:;:S:;!7-' - - -as 'About the middlp „f <, '^ MiUo.arians held ' fi,n '* °""*'"T, the That the citv nf r '^""^^^"S tenets : x.. -' that the'^i';/:^:!- f-" oe .e-b. t^" ^f o„ of thoset^^,:' ,';;'- ■^'^^:^" ''^ "- '^abi.' thousand years. sL' rV^'f," °" ^^--^'^ « 4 v",'- ^^^^"^Di^tTT^ 178 LECTURES ON THE yi but hat afrer the fel, . Antichrist all the iust are u, n,se and all that are then on the eS are to continue for that .space of tin^e. 3! veil, ciuci t)e seen on n-irtii .^, ^ wUh h.« servants. 4thly. That the s^ r dunng tins ponod, shall enjoy all the de^f of a terrestrial paradise." Modern pre mi emahsis have partially adopted thesi vi ^ ' and yet among ti^ese moderns there i but ittle harmony „, their opinions. M'e sha briefly state some of then- v^ews, and J ' Foeeed to e.xamane the articles of .he-rctd L.shopJvewton^says: " When these grel even s sl,all conre to pass, of which we coTlec from the prophecies dus to be the proper o der -1 be Protestant wtne.ses shall be greaUv' exalted, aad.he 1260 years of their iCe syiug lu sackcluth,. and of ,he tyrannIX; beast, shall erul togeUrer, the eo.v"fo:'and K.torat,onofthe.iewssueeced,theni:t "" ;■"'" :' '''' f'"""''-^'^ 12n,pire, and the. t L total destrc,et,on of Home and oi Antiehr s^ _jLtiy!i'!!lif2!!i^_topa.s-then shall the * Di3. oii Prop. SECOND ADVEZ^T Oir CHRT.. , . , ^' CHRIST. 170 'i^^^ • St John r?.?'r"- -'' 2^- So r^et, < featan is bound,' &c 7? '" l'''"" I' 's, I conceive to thl ^°-~^'=v- xx. 2-6. f " of Antichrist; the ^ e'/Tf.^' -e„t._the J«^-. and the begi . h "o; « r"' "^^ "^^ ^''"«i«m, thut life th 1 , r ^ ''°"' ^''"- Daniel, of ,26o iar " V'^'^^--'* ^'^^s i„ y--> --o to be r^rlJl T7 ""' ^^^5 ««'"!, ' Blessed is ho th ,t ■ '^ "' ^^"^1 to the J335 year s' r '*'"' "'"' Cometh John sni,h.< 4^2; ~f,«"--^"- 12. So St. P"t in the first^ Ir .'^ " '"'^ *''^^* '^"^th P-'-od ,. and itt "J '" ""' "'■" ''^ this "'"'■tyr.s and confesso s of r" '"' '''"' '""^ °ft>»-sfohcity. TeoTj !';:7^f./,«r>art„ko 180 I-ECTUEES ON THE and rested on the seventh, so the world, it is argued, will continue six thousand years, and the seventh thousand will be the great Sab- batism, or holy rest of the people of God. According to tradition, too, these thousand years of Uie reign of Christ and the saints arc the great day of judgment, in the morn- ing, or beginning whereof, shall be the coming of Christ in flaming fire, and the particular judgment of Antichrist, and the first resur- rection ; and in the evening, or conclusion whereof, shall be the general resurrection of the dead, small and great." But the most remarkable of modern opinions on this subject was much spoken of a few years ago, as espoused by several evangelical clergymen of the Church of England, and the Rev. Mr. Irving. This gentleman delivered his opinion upon the subject, which I shall abridge from the London Encyclopedia:* " That the present visible church of the Gentiles, which hath been the depository of the oracles and the sacraments, since the Jewish state was dissolved— -I mean the mixed multitude who have been baptized in the ♦ Vol. xiv., p. 621. V-^:. SECOND ABVTVT „„ "'"■^^T OP CHRIST. 181 name ofihn Ti-;.-,;*.. man ^«d nil the sects of cS ^f ""?™"''' *°-' f-'eth .hr;;^' ' rsr'^^'r'^' because of its hv,.n„ ■ ^^ scriptures, tio«s, i„fi I It' 'C' idolatries, supersti-' ^vith such a tLib f "T™""' ^-ickecluess, been, nor ever shn J ^ f "''^' "^ ^^^«' "o' fore in the dest ttction "fT'' "^"^ ^''''"^ she in i;i-» ^^™°"°n of Jerusalem, when n; i lrr^'r'/"'^^ "l- ^^e measur^ ii»d.e tX!;:j ri^r^trr?"^"- of the times and L' the , ""^ "^^ ^■S"^ expressly given ™'^;i-P^^^^^ of these great Gentile t^^r" k'^'"" -ntionedinscripture^SCfr'alJlet t .femg of witnesses against the Gentilos-anH the execution is proceeding, he wi be^in to prepare anotlicrarlrnrf * ^^'^ i)to]n to make the whole 1, , i.f' T"'/ °""*""' *« and to th»f ^li •? "''' °^ testimony ; d to that end will turn his Holy Spirit unto ill 182 his LECTURES ON THE ancient people the Jews, who, with the election according to grace, who still are faith- ful among the Gentiles J though I helieve it will chiefly be by the sending of Elias, who is promised before the terrible day of the Lord, and by other mighty and miraculous signs. " That these judgments upon the Gentile nations and all the earth,he will finish by his own personal appearance in flnraing fire, tak- ing vengeance on those ^dio know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesas Christ 5 raising those who sleep in Jesus, and changing those of the Gentile church who still abide in life; and preserving the mourn- ing Jewish church ; and when the promised land shall have been cleared of all intruders, and they themselves, by suffering, perfected for the ha])itation of it, he shall lead them into it with a mighty and outstretched arm : and sit upon the throne of David, judging and hasting righteousness— and rule among the nations, and be the prince of universal peace ; using, in this judgment and government of the earth, his risen saints, who shall be his minis- ters to execute his pleasure. And thus Satan, SECOND AUVENT OP CHRIST. Jgg being cast out, and the prince of )• ^. the heavenly Jerusalem^ ^ h tit' '""^ Jacob, and all the nations o > "'' °^ fulness of peace and .,?.'" ""^"y ''^^t of.ighteoLtJtst^::"^;?""''^'-^^'^ pray." ^^ ^^ ^^^ liope and If our space would n.-lmi'f ^^ •. easily nHd/iply.nes'onota . ' '^' '""''^ «o wo shonl 1 have to vT.ll' *""* '" '^"^"^ same thiuc^s i, 1! ^ «»tetantiully the iuuit,&, ni some more and in nti>„ i t an what we have already ^v We "' also several shades of ,l;ff ' '"'° iHilfenarlans npcm 'imo ""'" "'™"-" *« 1 . . ''i>^n almost evei'v nm'nf ,•„ +i doctnno of fii,. , -n • ^ point ni the lenariault , ' L" ;^ " """^ ^"'^ -"" their ov.-n cl; '^ *''°"S''' •="»" adorn withthp ' "'' "' »l'l"-'"recl consistent ' witli the coniino; of Christ -if ,; • *"'^cnt J jurist at the millennium. 384. LECTURES ON THE One of llie mlllenarian writers says, " Wo maintain that Christ has not yet received any Idngdoyn %eldch he can deliver up, * " The notion," says another, " that the kingdom of Christ signifies the present visible Christian Church, or the Christian rehgion in the hearts of God's people, or both,— and that it has been oncm'ifcsted to the ivorld ever since the c&tahlis]tme?rt of Christianity, is, in the main, erroneous, inasmuch as it mistakes the mea7is for the end, and substitutes what may be considered as the ^preparation for the king- dom, for the establishment and manifestation of itr t We now proceed to show, in opposition to the above, that Christ'^s kingdom is already in bein 'S- When John the Baptist announced Mes- siah's approach, everything concurred to give weight to his testimony. Guided by the signs of the times, and by the chronological predic- tions, expectation was every where awake for the first sound of Messiah's steps. From all parts of the country they flocked to the man of God, who cried aloud in the wilderness, * Quoted by Brown on second Advent, p. 126. ' fib. ik^Mk: SECOND ADVEVT n- AilVEyT OF CHRIST. 185 " Repent ye, for the kino-dnm ^f i hand: Prepare ve tL , T ''^*^«'» '» at followed the s!Zn . t .. ^ '' '"^''^ -1-wastored:; rer^'^'^'^'^-'- from tlieir enem,V« ^ 7«el-savmg them tl-t hated IT"' B'tr;'^'""''"*"'' Lord couvinced them thl / '''''=°"^««« «f our -Sr 1^-FS:; Chr.t. wa.,3^:- l^eing a proplxet, and knowinf "at t^w'" sworn with an oath to him tL tr^, ^"' of his loins he would mS„ A '" ^"'^ ^'i' (David's) throne Z ^ "'''' '" ''* "^ of God exalte Tnd "" ^ "'' ''§'" '"^"'^ ^atherther;:iit:rSi:n;r/'''° «hed forth this. TherSr! It in;-'"''' on-elknowass„rod,y,th;tGo"hr:^^^^ o^\^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 7 A y. * :A 1.0 I.I 1.25 '-iia 112 \U 25 2.2 ;: 1^ ^ us 1^ 1.4 IIM 1.6 Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 14580 (716) 872-4503 ,\ iV 'C <> % V € 4^%. ^4. €> ^ "t,^ ^ '^^ 5 186 LECTURES ON THE that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ."— Acts ii. 29-36. Here it is stated, as explicitly as words can do it, that the promise to David of Messiah's succession to his throne has received its ifite?ided accompHshment — that God has raised up Christ to sit upon that throne, — and that his first exercise of regal authority from the throne of Israel was to send down the Spirit, as had that day been done. He also states that God liath made that same Jesus both Lord and Christ, that is, he affirms that Christ's present exaltation was his proper lordship or royalty, as Messiah ; he hath made him both Lord to RULE, and Christ to save you. Again, in Rev. iii. 7, 8, 12 : " These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth ami no man shutteth,and shntteth and no man open- eth; I know thy works; behold I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it : Him that ovcrcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out," &c. Here Christ speaks of using the key of the house of David in his administration of the church, so that the house ■M SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 187 Of David evidently means the Church of the Kedeemer, u-hich he governs with royal authority. ■* But let us look back to the writinsrs of the mspred prophet, Isaiah ix. 6, 1, ..l,o, i„ anti- cipafng the birth of Christ, says : " For unto us a chdd >s born, i„Uo us a Sou is given : and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Council or, the mighty God, the everlasting I'atlier,the Prince of Peace Of tho • „,. o^Jiifcdct,. uj tlie increase or his government and peace there shall be "o erid, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it ^vi h judgment and with justice, from hence- forth even fbr ever." Here the sovereignty of Chns IS most clearly and stro„gi;se'^ forth, and Us r^ghtco^,s charm,, ^ i..«.";4 and pcrpeluUy, distinctly stated. * Another article in the pre-miUennial creed IS, tliat ^/.e saznu shall reign on this earth in glorified lodies, uitk Christ, during the mil- These i.re-millenuialisls are not agreed as toj<|toMM^shain,e associated with Christ * Brown. ~ — " " fib. ISB I.ECTURES ON THE ! ! m i in his millennial reign. " The early Chili- asts," says Brown, «so far as I have been able to gather their views, thought that those whom Christ will find alive at his cominjr would be left below during the thousand years, and only such as had died before his coming, would appear with him in glory. But the majority of modern pra-millennialists hold that the saints of both classes— the dead by resurrection, the living by instantaneous trans- formation—will appear with Christ in glory at the beginning of the millennium." In answer to this we have to say, the errors which it contains arise from the supposition of Christ's 2'>ersonal reign in the millennium. That the " kingdom shall be given to the peo- ple of the saints," Daniel informs us with sufficient clearness ; but he does not convey the idea that the Saviour shsll first return to OUT ivorldy and personally reign upon earth. What we understand by the kingdom being given to the people of the saints, is, that Christianity shall -so far extend in the tvorldy that all nations J kindreds and people,, trill pro- fess it to he their religion, and thus it will sup- plant and destroy all others '^ and then shall ii»ii le errors siimuin. «KCOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 189 the kingdoms of this world become the king- doiiis of our God and of his Clirist Look at li vfcg, spiritual piety, as it has been m the world; it was not in fevor, it was barely tolerated ; it had not .he ascendancy in human affuirs which it onght to have obtained : U was not the governing principle in either private or public transactions. But in the mil- lennuim, the tables will be turned ; religious m.aples^vill gove,-n thecond^^tofn^en, obtain tUe ascendamy over private conduct and public tmmaclwm, from the higV..t to the lowest thus bringing all into captivity to the obedi- ence of Christ. Living Chris,i.nity exercises h . savercrsnty of the tocU, it «u>ulds ,M in- siuutions and affair, of men, to its own blessed character, making " God's will to be done on eartii, even as it is done in heaven." We shall conclude this section in the words of Lrown: "The difference between the two st.t,.s of the kingdom-before the millennium and durmg that period-is a diiforence merely ot pro^p,ril,y mid extent-the difference be- tween the iH-esenos and the removal of cer- tain gigantic obstructions to its progress and supremacy in the world ; and the removal of 1? 190 LECTURES ON THE which, at the appointed time, will be attended with no change of ccnstilution, feirm or dis- pe7isation, but will merely set free its latent energies, and make way for the developniert of its internal resources to the benediction of a miserable world. As the birth of a man, all puny though he then be, is the manifosta- tioii of his lifej and the manhood, to which he ultimately attains, is but the same life developed and matured ; so the millennial state t»f the kingdom of Christ will be but the full expaiuion and bright dcvdoimicni of it. This kingdom of Christ is already begun, the Sovereign is on his throne, his conquests are proceeding, — the little leaven will yet leaven the whole lump of humanity; the grain of mustard seed may grow to be a tree suflicient to overshadow the whole earth ; but the mass is the same, and the tree is the same, at every stage ; the whole is there from the fii t. Ex- fammiand devckjmient, growth and maturity ^ are all the difference ^"^"^ The next point for our consideration is, the view entertained of the resurrection by the pre-millennialists. They say, " when C rist * Brown, p. 351. SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 191 appears, at the bi^ginning of the millennium, he will raise all the s lints that shall have died hefjre tliat time, and change all that shall then l)e alive*."~-(Brown, 167.) We shall here introduce a quotation from I)r. Gumming* : " The dead that fell asleep m Jesus, and have slept many thousand years, shall hear, when he comes, the approach of his footfall, and recognize the sound of his voice, and shall rise and meet him in the air. The living that ore in Christ shall hear his approach, too, and recognise the tones of his voice, and shall rise and meet him, and the risen, and quickened dead, in the air ; and reisrn with him a thousand years. Abraham, and Noah, and Job, shall hear his voice in their silent sepulchres, and join him in the air.— Paul and Peter, and John, and Luther, and \\ ilberf )rce, and Simeon of Cambridge, and Ven), and Wirinms, and Chalmers,— shall obey his summons from their sequestered and separate tombs, and gather around their glori- ous Lord. One grave shall cleave in twain, and I's buried tenantry shall rise and meet the' Lord, and the other grave, that loo ks equally * Lect. on Apoc, p. 473. "^ ~ " F2 •a ' 192 LECTURES ON THE green, beside it, shall fail to be pierced by that sound, or its dead dust to be moved. The cemeteries of stone and the monuments of bronze shall rend, and the dead saints that are there shall come forth — its sleeping dtist shall be quickened in every sepulchre ; and the stones of cathedrals, and the vaults of churches, and the green tnrf and the marble mausoleum shall alike explode, and pour forth into the air tl^eir troops of awakened dead. Nor less startling will be the scenes that occur among the living : some families shall be met together speaking of the things of this world — in an instant, and without warning, one shall hear a sound significant to his heart, of glory, and riscj as upon the lightning's wing, and with its splendor, and leave, without a farewell, the rest that know not Christ, and remain aston- ished behind." The pre-millennialists also hold that the wicked are to rise in a body, not at the end of the millennium, but at the end of another period to succeed the millennium. The only direct passage which is produced to support this opi- nion is Rev. XX. 4-6 : — « And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was s<».m. ur \ liiiittii SECOND ADYENT OF CHRIST. m given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and such as had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, nei- ther had received his mark upon their fore- heads, or m their hands ; and they lived and ro^igned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead lived not again until the thou- sand years were finished. This is the first resurrection : on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand year»»" We would remind you, that this passage occurs m tlie most figumtive book in all the bible, and is " hard to be understood ." But it is certain this doctrine of two resurrections, one at the commencement of the millennium, and another afler its close, is not supported by other parts of scripture. We would say, with Brown, (p. 219): "It is very strange that the resur- rection of the righteous a thousand years before the wicked, if it be a revealed truth, should be announced in o?te passage only, when the subject of a resurrection is so oflen men- tioned,-the resurrection is a theme upon f3 f-* II M :. i 194 LECTURES ON THE which the apostles delighted to expatiate, yet while they point out the naturs, grounds and connection of the resurrection with the second corning of Christ, the doctrine of a Jirst resur- rection has not dropped from their p?ns." If we k)ok to those pass \ges of scripture which plainly refer to the re:airrect Jon, they convey but one idea upon the subject, viz.^ that the resurrection of the just nnd {he unjust will be simultuneous. — Dau. xii. 2 : ^ Many of them that sleep in the dust of the et>rth hhuW awuke, some to eveilasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." John V. 2S, 29.— Our Lord says : " The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, ai;d shall come forth : they that have done good unto the resur- rection of life,and they that have done e\ il unto the re.' urrection of dumnution." It is scarcely possible to express in plainer words, the state- ment that the resurrection of both class* swill take place at the same time. But it may be desirable here to ndd that the first resurrection sjoken of in Tievelation is not to be understood liter ally ^ hut Jigura- lively t of a spiritual resurrection ; this wil^ SECOJ.D ADVENT OF CHHIST. 195 appear pretty evident if we remember that lus re,g„mg with Christ is said to bo bit a thousand years when-as the righteous dead be mor/f M ^"* ""^ *"'^Jeot will lectr ' •="'""""'' '" '' -^-^i-nt view°"r P='°"l''""y '« «'e pre-miUennial juclgmrnt of the great day. Finding it impossible to deny that the immeduae pnrpce of Chr st's seco„t consumed, the wheat is then gathered into happiness — i.e., the saints are raised from the dead, and reign with Christ a thousand years." * Now w^e admit that the tares represent " apostate and unrighteous" persons^ that is, false and wicked ] rofes-ors of the Christian religion, and that they will be found among the righteous " until the end of this dispen- sation come ;" but how this proves that Christ's Advent is to take place before the * Leet. Apoc, p. 4.10. SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST, 203 millennium, we are at a loss to understand ; for we are inclined to think that, dnrino- thj millennium, they will not be all Israel who are of Israel ; that there will be some unsound professors,-but we have reason also to be- lieve that, afier the millennium, there will be a " hitle season" of aposfacy, when the tares will shew themselves more prominently, and at the close of that period the second Advent will take place, and the tares be burned. This will be more fully considered in a subsequent lecture. The next argument made use of by Dr. Gumming is founded upon 2 Thess. ii. 8- " And then shall that wicked be revealed* whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming." The Dr. asks: « What does this passage prove ? That the* great apostacy, predicted by St. Paul, is to prevail during the whole period from Christ's first to his second Advent, and that this hoary apostacy is to be consumed and utterly dcs- troyed only by the personal Advent and appearance of the Son of God." * • Lee. on Apoc, p. 471. ~ ~" ~ I I 'X -4 4 - 204 LECTURES ON THE It will be admitted that the whole force of the argument here depends upon the meaning of the words, ^ the Lord shall consvme ivith the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy ivith the brightness of his coming:' That this pas- sage predicts the destruction of Antichrist is admitted ; that subject has already been con- sidered in a previous lecture, and we were led to the conclusion, by examining those prophe- cies which refer to its final doom, that the city will probably be consumed by fire and sword, but that the system will be destroyed by spiritual agencies. The above passage from 2 Thess. is in harmony with such an interpretation, and the words " consume with the spirit of his mouth," may refer to the des- truction of the city,— and the words " destroy with the brightness of his coming," may be understood of the fulfilment of such prophe- cies which speak of the great spiritual influ- ences, under the figure of light, which are to be brought to bear upon the world, through the church, at the beginning of the millen- nium ; and thus the " man of sin," as a sys- tem, be destroyed by the brightness of Christ coming in his Gospel. Second advpvt y-.^. AlJVEAT OF CHRIST. 205 The Dr. also supposes that o.ir Lord speaks place at ChZ- ''''""''''^""^' and to take ThelS o! ' r"""""""' appearance.". -Liie dDsence of any referenoo in tu- anrl fl,^ • 1 / "^ ^^'^^^ °^ raised first and tlie xv^jcked afterwards • th. micht n«jAt'«n i -^vvaras , the passage wicked t , ?t'"'l'^°5'°^' *°^ho«^ that the wicKcct will not be raised at ill Ti. ^ I^Iiil. Hi. 11, is dAvelt upon by the Dr nc v to speak of n fi . ' '*P''**'«' »« niade the dp./ V, """ ^^^ '•esurrection of t le dead, because it is a matter of certaLv 'hat all wi 1 att'iin it. *i i-ertainty evidently hid b'for'. "'"''"*'' *"^^"^«' Lr;^l_beforejus eyes the >«< resur- •Liec. on Apoc. n ^^i ' — ■ — 206 I.ECTUKES ON THE rection, and the peculiar phraseology he em- ploys on this occasion proves it to be so — * if by any means I might attain the resurrection from among the dead.' " * There is no need to dispute the doctor's transUition of the Greek, which he emphati- cally renders " the resurrection /rom anwrig the dead," for that translation conveys the apostle's meaning more fuliy. But what does ^t. Paul mean ] We answer, it was not the general resurrection common to both c'asses that he \\ished f r; it was a resurrection peculiar to believers — a resurrection different from ihe ungodly, not with respect to its time, but i'snattere ; and the happiness which should follow it — a resurrection '^ from among^"^ the dead, in which his body should be fashioned like unto Christ's glorious body, (ver. 20, 21.) As the above contain the most weighty orguments used in support of a pre-milleiinial Advent, we shall now place bef re you a diffi- culty which greatly perplexes i!s advocates, viz., how to account for the existence of so large a number of wicked persons in the world at the end of the thousand years of * Lee. on Apoc, p. 472. SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 207 Chrises personal reign upon it. They admit that the conflagration is to take place at the tnne of the second Advent ; but how the wicked are to i^iirvive that ail-consuming fire, IS with ihem this great difficulty. We'shau' not attempt to notice all the schemes thnt have been thought of for their preservation or reproduction, but shall direct your attention to one which, I believe, originated with Perry early m the last centnry, * and which is rro' duced by Dr. Gumming, He says : - It may be my own dVlu.ion, but it does strike me, that I have found the explanation of a nni- versLilly perplexing j)oint--a confessed diffi- culty: 'if there is to be a millennium of a thousand yenrs with Christ, and his own peo- pie, ni the midst of the earth, how is it that when Satan shall be loosed, that thrre shull be found a people in the four corners of the earth called Gog and Magog, who shall be gathered together in battle, and war against the snints of God,m the resurrection body ? Now, I ad- mit there is great difiiculty about this. I will give what I think the probable solution of»n^ctmit tecl and perplexing difficulty. Do * Brown, on second Advent, p. m. ~" ~ \\f 208 LECTURES ON THE you perceive that it is here stated, that when the dead in Christ have risen and ascended to the Lord, the rest of the dead lived not till the thousnnd years were tinislied 1 I suppose, then, that the rest of the dead, that is, the' unconverted, are raised from their graves just at the moment that the thousand years are completely closed, and that * the rest of the dead,' raised in their bodies, are those enemies w^o make war with the saints in their resur- rection bodies. * * * I suppose-and I believe it is the true solution of the difficulty —that the enemies that come from the four corners of the earth are just nhe rest of the dead,' raised at the close of the millennium, and then and there, with all their vices unex- tirpated, their natures un regenerated, their hearts in the gall of bitterness, they shall be headed by the archangel's enersy, and the arch fiend^s hate, and shall make one last, dymg, and desperate attack, upon the saints' of God that dwell in the New Jerusalem." * To the above we would reply, that the accounts we have in scripture, representing the judg -nient ^s taking p lace immediately ♦ Lee. on Apoc, p. 683, 684. ~ SECOND ADVENT OP CHRIST. 209 after the resurrection from the dead, are deci- dedly at variance with the above "solution of the difficulty;" so that, when the dead arise th.^y immediately appear before the judg- ment seat of Christ,— from whence the wicked depart into everlasting fire.—They have, therefore, no opportunity to persecute the church and fight against the cause of Christ. At present, we would only say, the post-mil- lennial theory entirely removes this difficulty, as will be seen in a subsequent lecture. Lf.„: iJ * LECTURE VII. THE MILLENNIUM PART IL POST-MILLENNIAL VIEWS. Rev. XX. 6. " Blessed and holy is he that hath pari in the first resur^ reciion : on such the second death hath no pouer, but they shalbe priests of God, and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand yearsJ' In our last lecture, we were led to point out some errcTS into which we think the pre^iiil- lenirariaiis have fallen, and lo slunv the un- scriptural clihracter of them, but in the con- clusion of that address, Ave int.mntcd that the best refutation of ihose errors, would bo to present whut we hereve to be, scriptural vie^ws of that glorious time-the millennium By the millennium, then, we understand that a time is to come when the kingdom of i' t 1 . 1 m i IM I 11 m ii I'i 212 LECTURES ON THE cur Lord Jesus Christ will so far obtain the ascendancy in our ivorld, that its enemies, i\ntichrist and the false prophet, will be de- stroyed ; the Jews and Gentiles throughout the whole world will profess the Christian religion ; and as Satan will be bound, or re- strained, the truly pious will be happy, honor- able and numerous, far beyond any thing they have ever before been, so that they will oc- cupy the highest places amongst men, and 1?lius the saints will rule the world. But I will quote the views of others upon this sub- ject. Richard Watson, in his Theological Dictionary, says : "Others are inclined to be- lieve that, by the reign of Christ and the saints for a thousand years on earth, nothing more is meant than that, before the general judgment, the Jews shall be converted, gen- uine Christianity be diffused through all na- tions; and mankind enjoy that peace and hap- piness which the faiih and precepts of the Gospel are calculated to confer on all by whom they are sincerely embraced. The state of the Christian church, say they, will be, for a thousand years befcre the general judgment, so pure and so widely extended, that, when SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 2 13 compared with the state of the world in the ages preceding, it may, in the language of Scripture, be called ^ a resurrection from the dead.' " A writer in the London Encyclopaedia, says, " The most common modern opinion confines all the predictions respecting what has been called the millennium, to a spiritual reign of Christ by means of the universal reception of the Gospel, and has been thus stated: 1st. That the Scriptures afford no ground to be- lieve that the church will arrive to a state of prosperity which it never has yet enjoyed. 2nd. That this will continue at least a thou- sand years, or a considerable space of time, in which the work of salvation may be fully accomplished in the utmost extent and glory ot it. In this time, the world will be filled with real Christians, and continue full, by constant propagation, to supply the place of those who leave the world ; there Avill be many thousands burn and live on the earth, to each one that has been born and lived in the pre- ceding six thousand years, so that if they who shall be born in that thousand years shall be all, or most of them, saved, (as they 214 LECTUBES ON THE Will bo, thera w ill, on the whole, be many thoosa.uls of mankind saved to one that shall be lost. 3rd. 'i'his will he a state ol great harianess and glory." Observe, we do not profess to endorse every e.xpression or every Idea contained ui these quotations ; we -rive them to shew the sentiments of writers ^,011 the subject. ^ ^ ;i'he Millenninra is said by Brown, to be 'jvst the full dcfclcjment of the kinsihm of trace tn Us earthly state." 'i bis ho proves by a variety of arguments and illustrations ex- tendnigover twenty pages in hfs bock. 'Let us now i^roceed to consider the mUure of the millennium somewhat in detail. The Lidding of Satan is spoken of in con- nexion with the millennium, llev xx 1-3 • "And T saw an angel come down from heaven' having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain i„ his hand. And he laid hold 0.1 the dragon, tliat old serpent, which ,s the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. And cast him into tlie bottomless p.t tW ,1 ''",'i 7' """^ ''' '^ ''^' "1^°« ''i™.' t at he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilied.'' r " SECOND ADVENT OP CHRIST. 215 I shall here fiirni* yon with Matthew- Henry's reiiKuks upon this pissig.-: "We have here a proplucy of the hmdm!- of Satan, for a c rtiin term of time, in whieii he should have much less power, and the church much more peace than before. The power of Satan w»s hrok.n in part by the scttmg „p of the Gospel kingdom in the worl.l ; ,t was further reduced by tlic empire b^'com.ugChrs-ian ; it was yet further broken by the downfall o( the mystical Babylon ; but still tl„s serpent had many heads, and when one IS wounde,l, another has life remaining in It. Here we have a further limitation and diminution of his power ; where, observe, 1st. To whom this work of binding Satan, is com- mitted ? To an angd from leaven ! It is very probible that this angel is no other than the Lord Jesus Christ. The description of hau will hardly agree wilh any otiier ; he is one wlio has ,iower to himl (he strong man armed, to cast him out, and to spryil his "mjods • and, therefore, must be stronger than lie! ~n(l. riie means he makes usj of in this w-ork: he has a chain, and a Aey ; a great Cham to bind Satan, and the key of the prison 216 LECTURES ON THE in which he was to be confined. Christ never wants proper powers and instruments to break the power of Satan, for he has the powers of heaven, and the keys of hell. 3rd. The exe- cution of this work. He laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Sa- tan. Neither the strength of the dragon, nor the subtlety of the serpent, was sufficient to rescue him out of the hands of Christ. He \cast him into the bottomless pit, cast him down with force and with a just vengeance, to his own place and prison, from which he had been permitted to break out, and disturb the churches, and deceive the nations ; now he is brought back to that prison, and there laid in chains. He is shut up, and a seal set upon him; Christ shuts and none can oj^en ; he shuts by his power, seals by his authority, and his lock and seal even the devils themselves cannot break open. 4th. We have the term cf this confineme^it of Satan,— a thousand years ; after which, he was to be loosed again for a little season. The church should have a considerable time of peace and prosperity, but all her trials were not yet over." Now, we shall give our ideas of this vision SrCOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 217 hi as few and plain words ns possible. Satan has been walking about seeking whom he might devour ; he has done much mischief m the church of Christ, and ruined multitudes of persons ; at the millennium, he will be put under such restraint that he cannot deceive the nations any more ; he will not be per- mif.ted to ^'sift as wheat" the children of God ;~nor to lead captive at his will unsound or cold-hearted professors of religion ; and that this restraint will be continued for a long time, here called a thousand years. The first resiirrcction, (ver. 5,) refers to the suhjecU of Christ's kingdom in the millen- nium. " I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshijiped the beast, neither his image, neither had re- ceived his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. We do not understand that there shall be a literal resurrection of bodies from the dead, of persons who had suffered martyrdom, or any others. We understand that, about the beginning of the millennium, popery will be 218 LKCTLRKS oy THE destroyed j but before its destruction, it will bave mado great efforts to recover its former power mid iufluenoo, and not a few may bave bee., led to fall in witb it,_b„t oti.ers, by Slid, a noble spirit of fidelity to Cbri«t, as dwelt .„ tbe ninrtyrs of old, will .,ot yield to the doinuiul of the man of Mn, they would neither worshi,, the boost nor his imaue, nor receive h.s mark upon their foreheads, or in , thc.r bands; that is, they woukl pay him no homage, show no respect to him at all, and ne.thcr publicly in their fo.eheads, nor pri- vately .„ their hands, bave any conn.ct^^on ^^■Uh th,s enemy of Christ ; these persons are particularly .narked o..t as reigning with t-lnist a thoMsaiKl years. We understand, then, that when the millennium shall beein those faithful seivants of Christ who have en- dured a f^reat fight of affliction for him, and have been trodden down by the oppressor, shall then rise to dignity, honor, happiness and mt uence ; in a word, they shall oconpy the highest post of honor, sitting on the thrones of our wcrld ; and that this rise from oppression to power, fro.n iguominy to honor from sorrow to happiness, will be so great,' that SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 219 it is called thefrst remrrection in the miUen- «ium,an.l that i.or.sons, saints similar to these j a succession of ,l,o,n .hall c..„ti„.,e thus ex- alted or a or.g lime, called a thousnud yo:,rs. l^ob:,l,ly ,h,s chnnge in ,he aiiairs ofthe ClMirch w,ll he attended with a gr.at revival of ehgion, u, which n.any shall he converted to Cod ; for the word rc.urreclion, and others of s m.lar iniport, are usrd in gcriplure in connection with.oras settingforth that spiit- uulck;.g,. Fcr instance: St. Pan, speaks of the conversion of the Komans from Pa- gamsm ,0 Christianity, as a resnrrectien from Cod, ast/,ose that are alive from the deadV- Rom. V,. 13. ^g„in, in his i.pi.t!e to the Eph..sans,he,jno,.s the words :" Awake, then l,at sleeprst, and arise from the dead and Christ ..hall give ihee light." (v. 14 \ AiKl did >iot cur blessed Lord teach the same grent tmth, when he said to M.rtha, "I am the resnrrcetiun and ihe life ; he that I,elieveth in me thongh he were nls; the kings of 8hcbji, and Sobji" shall offer g (Is. Yoa,all kin^-s shall fall down be- fure him : all nations shall serve him."— Ps. Ixxii. 8-10, Zrrh. ix. 10. " And it shnll coine to pass in the last days, that the nionntaiii of the L(rd^s house shall be established in the top o( the mount.ii.is, nud shall be exalted above the hills; a.:d all nations shall flow nnto it. Ami many people shall rro and say, Come ye, and let us iro up to the mounfnin of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob ; and he will tench us of his ways, and we will walk ui h.s paths: fr out of Zion shall g'o fjrth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusaleu).' -Is ,. ii. 2, 3. " And the Lord SHALT. BR King over all the Earth : in that day shall thcr(3 be oxe Lord, and his name one."— Zcch. xiv. 9. What prospects for the world nre Ihrse ! All the Polytheism of the Pagan nations, with its crnel, licentious, and degrading rites, and its myriads of lying vanities, utterly abolished ; the Mahomme^ dau imposture, by which millions are enslaved, ;■ SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 223 brought to an end ; the obstinntc unbelief of the .lows, with th(^ cnrseof (uxl uijori them Kluriuiisly removed; the soiil-dcstioyinir er- rors, ])'n>i,|,efiiuns siiperstiticms, idohitroiis rites, nnd ( riid desjK.tism of Popery, whieli have sat like an incubus ujuin Christeudoni for ages, tonelher with all dcudly heresies, and professed infidelity, mrpt away. Ihen there will he but ** One Loud, one Faith, one Bap- tism, />r the tvhole uorldl Not tl.at we nro wurrant.Hl 1o h ok for a nnivers il ty of xital rehgion,()r the sarin gvonxenimi of all mankind. lUit I h(>. outward reception of the irutk, und pro- fessed sidijcclion to Christ, nil/. ])e iiniversul. The millennium will al^o be distinguished by mneh spiritual j)oiver and glory:' Under this general expression, is iueluded eopious ellusions of the .Spirit, eonverting sinners on a scale hitherto unparalleled since the day of peiiteeost. There wjII be ecclesiastical unity and peace in the churchesof Christ, when we shall see eye to eye. Instead of looking upon each other as rivals or antagonists, we shall find each to he a Chris!i;in brother, whose au- thority we shall not queslion, and whose prin- ciples we shall not suspect. 224 LECTl'RES ON THE Tlie purity of visible Churoli-coinmnnion worship and discipline, will then ho restored according to tiie primitive apostolic puttorn. Dunns the reign of Antichrist, a corrupted form ot Christianity was drawn over the na- tions, and established in political constitutions ot the kingdoms which were subject to that monstrous power. By this moans the children of God were either mixed in visible religious , ^<»"n^';7" with the profane world, or per- secuted for their conforn,ity. But when the millennium shall arrive, the " sanctuary shall be clcansed."_Da„. viii. 14. The . visible communion worship, order, and discipline of the house of God will then be restored to their rr.m„n-c purity. S„ ,t is promised to Zion: Henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircuracised and the unclean."- Isa. hi 1 <" The people shull be all righteous; they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may b. glorified."_rsa. Ix. 21. Again, the ^"i»t^s/,a/l/.keH have the dmnmwn of the world and the wicked shall be in subjection. This IS clear from the united voice of prophecy: The kingdom and dominion, aiid the great- i •> lillif SECOND ADVENT OP CHRIST. 225 ncss of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people oftho saints of the Most Iligh."-Dan. vii. 27. « The saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever."— Dan vu. 18. « The meek shall inherit the earth '' shall reign with Christ a thousand years. The samts are at present made kings and priests unto God, a kingly priesthood, (1. Pet. "• 9.) ; but then they shall be more eminently so, when, by the holiness of their lives the purity of their faith and worship, and their diligence in promoting pure and undefiled re- •gion ; the earth shall be filled with the know- edge of the Lord. With regard to the na- tureot their reign, it will undoubtedly corres- pond, ,„ all respects, with the spiritual and heavenly nature of Christ's kingdom, to the promotion of which all their power will be subservient. In short, it is the prevalence and triumph of the cause of Christ in this worH over that of Satan and all his instromeuts.- How delightful then the prospects which open upon the eye of faith in the prophetic vision , Christianity prevails universally, and the consequences are most blissful ; onr race as- G I 226 LECTURES ON THE -sumes the appearance of one vast virtuous and peaceful family. Our world becomes the seat of one grand triumphant, adormg assembly. At length, the scene mingles with the hea- vens, and, rising in brightness, is blended with the glories on high : « And I heard as it weie the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of many thunderings, saying: Alleluia; for the I Lord God omnipotent reigneth. The kino-- doms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ." Further, as the samts shall possess the kingdom, we naturally suppose that civil rulers rfnd judges shall then be all maintainors of peace and righteousness. 'Ihough Christ will put down all that rule, power, and authority, which opposeth the peace and prosperity of his kingdom, yet as rulers are the ordinance of God, and his min- isters fc-r good, as some form of government seems absolutely necessary to the order and happiness of srciety in this world ; it is tliought that when the kingdoms of this world are become our Lord's and his Christ's, that promise will be fulfilled, where he says, " I will also make thy officers peace, and thine lii SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 227 exacters righteousness j" and, in consequence of this, violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting noi* destruction within thy borders ; but thou shalt call thy walls salva- tion, and thy gates praise." Peace and right- eousness are the two great ends of govern- ment ; Christ himself is king of righteous- ness, and king of peace, and the civil rulers, daring that happy period, will resemble him in their character and administration.* Under such circumstances, we may reason- ably suppose that the inhabitants of every place will rest secure from fear of robbery and murder. War shall be entirely ended. Capi- tal crime and punishment be heard of no more. Governments placed on fair, just and humane foundations. The torch of civil dis- cord will be extingnished. Pagans, Turks, Jews and Deists, will not be found. Tyran- ny, oppression, persecution, bigotry, and cruel- ty, shall cease. Business will be attended to without contention, dishonesty, and covetous- ness. Learning, which has ahvays flourished in proportion as religion has spread, shall then greatly increase, and be employed for the b!\«=!t TTT — — — ' — ■ S . •J^at. Theo. Die, p. 696. G2 d OOQ IICTURES ON THE Of purposes. Above all, the Bible will be «ore h,gh]y appreciated, its har.uouy per! elt by „ ,ll,o„s of h.u^an beings. In fi.ct ' the ea.th shall bo lilled With tht^knowlcSge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." Umvcnal j>eace will distinguish the epoch of the m.llenninm. Persoi.s naturally of the jost savage, ferocious, and cruel dispLio ml?., "'"' "'"' ''"™'^'««' «o it i« pro- mised, 1,0 wolf also shall Iwell with the lamb, and the leop.rd shall lie down with t e ?a iL!T''r"'''^"''''^^°""»^ ■"•--• "- hem "^ Zlr" '' '"'* " "'""^ "''"-^ «'"'» '^^^ the V. "' T ''"'' *° ''•''" «'>"" feed : hei young ones shall lie down together, and tl.e hon shall eat straw like the ox! And e suckmg cluld shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned cliild shall put his ha.id on the eookatrice' den. They s^ not n «« destroy n, all my holy mountain : for the earth sha 1 be full of the knowledge o" tL i-ord, as the waters cover tlie sea."— Isa xj 6, 7, 8, 9. Whether we consider the persons represented by these hurtful animals, to be convAted or not, it is certain they wil then SECOKD AUVK.JiT OF CHHIST. fiOg be effectually restrained from doing Inun, - .cott says, upon this i,assage: « the selfish, he penurious, the rapacious, the contentio « he amb,t,o„s the savage, the subtle, and the mahc o«s, wdl loose their peculiar base dispo- ^.t o„s ,,„d , „,^ ,,^^„^j^^^^ sincere, peace- able benevolent and affectionate ; they will hve together .nh.rmony,he„rken 'to instruc. tion. and be gu.ded by gentle persuasion and entreaties. So that the change would he's evident and surprising, as if the wolf, the tiger, the l,on, the bear, and other fierce car- niverous animals should learn to be gentle andnarmless as the lamb, the kid, the ca f or he cow ; that they should beconr'e so tract-' able that a httle ehiii could lead them." amot'M r" f "^ ^" "° '"''-' »°' ''''^'^^'^-^ among the nations ; for we are told, that in the last days, when the mountain of the Lord s house shall be established i„ the top of the moimtams,a„J shall be exalted above the Lord shall judge among the nations, and Lhall ebuke many people ; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares! and thet spears into pruning hooks : nation .k.„ „ . g3 !!>'l& f^fffl ir 230 LKCTUllKS ON THE mw lift lip sword against nation, neither shall they learn war ony more."— isa. ii. 4. Though war lias hitherto deluged the world with hu- luan blood, nnd been a source of comi)licated cialamities to mankind, yet, when Satan is bound, his inflnence npon wicked men re- str;uiied, and the saints bear rule, it must ne- cessarily cease. ^ A]l these glorious results nre attributed by the pre-milJennarians, to Christ^s personal reign on earth ; but we are disposed to main- tain, that they will arise from the Lord's spe- cial spiritual presence among his people. Christ hath said : « Lo ! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."— Matthew xxviii. 20. Ho has promised to " dwell in them, and walk in them."— 2 Cor. vi. 16, 17. That is, he will be constantly and intimately with them, communicating light, life and con- solation to them by his Spirit. Great effects may be expected from the gracious manifes- tations of Christ to his Church, at the begin- ning of the millennium ; one promise is, " and tlie heathen sliall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore." — Eze, H i' SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 231 xxxvii. OS. Thus, by the special presence of Christ, all oppression shall cease, every chain will flill off; religion, in its vitality, elasticity unci force, will become signally manifest, its character developed, its limits extended, and i becomes at length all in all. The ship of the Church shall outride the storm, a storm of perhaps two thousand years' duration ; the g^tes of hell shall not prevail ; the cause of (^od careering over the billows, shall reach the fair havens, and the " kingdom and domin- ion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, snail be ^iven to the peo- ple of the saints of the Most Ilicrh, whose knigdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him."— Dan. vii. 27. And all this, we consider is just the* triumph of the noio-existing church ; the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, smitiacr the image. No new weapon does the Church get with which to fight her enemies. No change of dispensation does she undero-o. She is already all that she needs to be, complete m her livmg and ever-present H. ad, who has all power in heaven and in earth. Having thus briefly stated our views'of the g4? 2 32 LECTUKLS ON 'IH^ m' nature of the milleiuiiimi, let iis proceed lo consider the arguments that may be produced for the opinion, that this milieniiium will take place before the second Advent of Christ.— ^ .We would first observe, that the kingdom of saints, foretold by Daniel, and the reign of a thousand years, spoken of by John, are iden- tical. Mr. Mede's arguments upon this point, we think, cannot be overthrown. He says, ^' That the ki^i^iom in Daniel, and that of one thousand years in the Ajtocalyiise, are one and the same kingdom, appears thus : First : « Because they begin cdy codem ter- mino, namely, at the destruction of the fourth beast : that in Daniel, when the beast (then ruling in the wicked horn) was slain, and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame, (Daniel vii. 11, 22, 27.) That in the Apocalypse, when the beast and the false pro- phet (the wicked horn in Daniel) were taken, and both cast alive into a lake of fire, burn- ing with brimstone.— Apoc. xix. 20, 21, &c. Secondly : " Because St. John begins the Regnum of a thousand years from the same session of judgment described in Daniel, as ± ,1 ill SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 233 appears by his parallel expression borrowed from them : — Daniel says, chap. vii. ver. 9 : Ihehcld till the thrones were pitched down * " ' ' and the judgmmt (i. e., judges) sat. Ver. 22: And J^/gment toas given to the saints of tlie Most High. And the saints possessed the kin^idom. VIZ. with the Son of iVIan who came in the clouds. St. John says, chap. xx. verse 4 : I saw thrones, and theij sat upon them. And judhe second Advmt of Christ will ,mt take place tiU after the willen- mum IS past, ami the Httl. ason of dcdmsum IS over. By what means is the milh-nnium to be brought about ? Brown has a paragr„ph which IS as well adapted to us and our cnvumstunces as anything that we can give. He .avs (p. rfl^): " Ihe millennial conversion of the world to Christ is not xpected to take place by the agencies now .n operation, but alto- gether ^« a new way» This, he states, as the view of the pre-millennialis-s ; he then adds that upon which most dependence seems to be placed, is ttte personal manifestation of SECOND ADVExNT OF CHRIST. 241 Christ. On the agencies now in operation hey ^ite With great looseness, andTsS ^t a 1' "T" "'^'"'^ '""'^ """"''^'^ throw out at alleged attempts to convert the world by means of E.ble and Missionary Societies Wo ^''-f f ««-'-d i-inuations'agaS the' Wod and the blessed Spirit themselves, as inadequate to accomplish the precL.ted evan- gelization of the world." Now, vve are satisfied that the prea^a^g of the gospel and the spread of scripture trui will contmne to be the instrumentality wS Whether ^x^^'^^:::^ ^^ Church wdl be those instruments, or whether iluTA r^ "i "P '"'^ '^"^P'^^y °«>«f« that w 1 b better adapted for this work, and more self-denymg and faithful in discharging the dimes required for it. But this we do say, the Bible gives us no reason to expect any o her agencies to be emT)loved t»,o„ ti ■ ^ '"^"^ bv rhri=f T '""P'oyed, than those instituted in ir r" '^''''\""*'' "'" '" heaven and n^tfn ; ^^' ^^'^^f'^'-e. and teach all nations," or make disciples of all nations, as n"-f. U2 LECTURES ON THE the word properly ineMiis, " ba])tizing tlicin in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost : Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you : and, lo ! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world ; Amen." Thus, you see, the disciples were to evangelize the world, defare Christ's second coming ; and he promi- ses to be with them, to prosper their work in * discipling all nations ; so that the teaching of his tvw'd, by which they will be enlightened, and baptism, by which they will be received into his church, are the only means to be made use of to " the c?icl of the ivorld?' In conclusion, then, we observe, that as the oXxmoX^'^ present resources are sufficient, it be- comes us all " to comb up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty ;" and that gospel which has converted us, can convert others \ it can convert sinners upon a much larger scale than it has done in modern times. The word, in the hands of a faithful church, and the spirit to apply the efforts of that church, are quite enough to accomplish all the Bible holds out to us in the prospect. SECOND ADVKNT OP CHRIST. 243 Chnst has suffered tlie ohurcJi to lie ,or »ges m Ignoble ease, in pitift,, leanness, in a hmts, poisoned its streams, and tore it to r.eces,-while the M-orld, all nnpitied, lay powerless in the enemy's hand, and its dark gaces were full of the habitations of cruelty. But .w,en the time to favor Zion comes, It ^'ill then be seen that it only needed he energies of this Resent ais/ensat^onJll brought into full play, to accomplish all that 13 promised : and thpn ^iriii ;+ I aiiu men wjll it appear what a nnne of wealth, and what a magazine of power, for the spiritual recovery of a diseased world, were t?t possession of the Church's Head and ^.ere all along the cloury of Ms people'. And the mstnimentalities for spreading the gospel may be indefinitely multiplied ; atl the missionary principle and energy of the church may be quickened from the base torpor of past ages ; majestic steps in providence start- ing men from their stupid slumbers, awin-. heir spirits, and constraining their attention o long despised truths ; these, and other such tlnngs, m connexion with direct and copious effusions of the Spirit, the heart delights t„ 244 LECTURES. think of, as destined to effect that universal submission to the sceptre of Christ, which is tu characterize the latter cTay.* I et us ponder thc^ iin]X)rtrint question, what part am I acting in this great drama ? Am I >tanc]ing all the day i(lle,d Rev. XX. T-io. >Ml be loo^emd out of Ins prison, and shall go out to dece^-ethe nations uMch ore in the four quarters of the earth, Go, and Magog, to gather them together to bitle: "■^number of ^ho,^ is as the sand of the sea. M they camp of the sazn.s about, and the beloved city : an I fire ^nd the denl UM deceived them, was cast into the lal,e of ;:;;.r' »"««*»'-'-»« o-y>..^d nm^ L,nd In our last disconr.^e, we were led to d.sorihe somewhat m detail, the true rn.tnr- .,| il,e milienmum.vi:,, that ,t is ihe matum,, of the Christian Churdi, m which hIi ,.eo|,'e sh U pvoie^s the rel,i.ioH of our bh ssed Rcde.,„er ^\e dehght to Jiuger MhJ'e we v.eu that s|.ir:iual L u.lscapo, in «h d, there w.s noth- ing to offend the most r«fl„Bd '-''■ , 246 LECTURES ON THE produce satiety in those who « hunger and thirst after righteousness ;" a view in which " every prospect pleases," and even man is not '^viUr But the history of, man shows his falls, as well as his dignity ; his career has been marked with some of the deepest degradations ; his picture presents some of the darkest shades,which are but partially relieved ^ by streaks of light emanating from the " sun of righteousness." We might, however, have supposed that when the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cov^er the bed of the sea, that there would be no more material to w(/rk up into weapons of warfare against the Lord and against his anointed. " But the sun f that bright day is destined to set," a cloud, a dark cloud is seen to arise ; it comes from the bottomless pit, " Satan h loosed out of his jyrison'^^ and although at first, his appearance does not alarm the church, in the end he makes a deadly assault upon the saints of (^od j but he falls, he falls to rise no more. The period of his career is called " a little season*'^ We propose to consider the coynmencement^ continuance and close, of that little season. SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 217 First, then, its commencement. " And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison." These words show ns that when the chuch^s How re,^„kahle is this, and yet how often ha3 It happened, in the history of onr mce that the greatest manifestations of the divine' goodness have been speedily followed by the basest eondnct on the part of man. When God created our earth, made it a paradise a prov^nce of heaven, and made manl his oln image, and gave him authority and rule, xvhich was scarcely limited at all in its extent ye how soon .this vicegerent of God throx^ oii his allegiance,and ambitiously seeks tobecome ns God himself; but he tails, and in TZn .me he is doomed to degradation, sorrow a/d death. What a contrast is here, and how so« his ruin was brought about, in hi., body i^ his soul, and in his habitation, our earth Again, when the Divine Being manifested h.s mercy in sending his Son to redeem n« torn all iniquity, this most stuj.endous of 2 God s acts, Avas immediatelv foil j ,. .. J .Vm.,vn.-Ci uy ihe 248 LECTURES ON THE most barbarous attempt to take the young chilcfs lifv.' ; and, day after day, fur thirty suc- cessive years, they planned and plotted against the .-'-on of God. till llually they shed the blood of the Just One, and comaiitted a murder to which there never was, and never can be, a parallel. Thus, after the brightest display of divine mercy, there was the greatest act of I human barbarity. There is yet one more scene to be un folded, when God shull have so far blessed this wilderness of our world, that it sliall become "like Eden, our desert, like the garden of the Lord," and "joy and glad- ness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody." — Isa. li. 3. Then Sa- tan shall be again let loose, and man, multi- tudes of men, shall enlist in his service, and make war against the saints. Thus, at the close of. the millennium, when the thousand years of unbounded good are expired, then the number of rebels against God shall be " as the sand of the sea" for multitude ; but the time is short, it is only for a " little season." This little season shall be further remark- able for the releasa of Satan, When the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison — ver. 7. young ty suc- L gainst ? blood (ler to 1 be, a day of act of more lave so 1, that rt, like i gldd- iig and en Sa- multi- e, and at the ousand d, then be "as )iit the sason." L' mark- en the hall be SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 249 nouoncnr^' ^'''^ " li-ited ; he could could L /^"^^^^^ ^^i^^^ permission,-nor could he enter the herd of swine till Christ suffered him. During the millennium he bo-d, so that he cannot injure the ^n^^ God, nor even lead the wicked capt.ve at his wi 1. But when the " httle season" begins frorh- T"' 'T ""'' ^'^"^' ^"^ — -"' ^^r^'Z^uZl '''^'''' '''-'' lennial church f^e r7 "^"" ''^' "^^" <* ThPv / '^ followmg manner : Jen d^ "T'' '''-''' '''^' ^- ^f I--^" nlwb if '"' ^^^^^^^"^-^^^ ; and this w 11 now be sadly seen. Settling upon her lees her ex ernal prosperity proving a'snare o J ^spintuality inconsistencies mcreasingiy ap. Far and her .nlluenee fo^ world at large grows less and less. The unconverted portion of the world, lone, con- strained by the rel.g.ous influences C' ^here surrounding them to fall in with the ^^n^'^ 'l"^"^' catching apparently its holy ^mpu.ses, but never coming savingly under Z 250 LECTURES ON THE powor. This portion of mankind which, we have reason to fear, will not be small, will never be freed from their irksome restraints, no longer obliged to breathe an atmosphere uncongenial to their nature, and ' feign sub- mission.' Now, < the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,' never slain—will re-assert their claims with an urgency proportioned to the restraints, till now placed upon them, by victorious spiritu- ality, and with a success proportioned to the diminished power and inclination to resist them. Now Satan is at once morally and judicially free, and the extent to which he may carry his conquests over individual men cannot, at present, be ascertained." You perceive, by the above extract, that Satan's being let loose is understood to be his per- mission again to sift the church, in which, by that time, there will be a large proportion of chaff with the wheat ; and the sifting process will so far succeed, that much of it will be ob- tained by him, until he and it are burned up with unquenchable fire. Secondly, the continuance of this « little season." It is remarkable — SECOND ADVENT OP CHRIST. 251 First, for Satan's effwu after his release ■ Satan shall be loosed m,t of Ms prison, and aiall go out to deceive the nations, ^Meh are tn the fmir quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog to gather them together to battle. ^> You observe i„ verse 3, that Satan was " ,,/,,,, tlrT n "''' ''''"'''' ''"^ ''«''-'' ^ ^-.re till the tlmcsand years should be fulfilled.- as we 1 as from our text, tluU Satan will de- ceive the nations after the millennium, i„ a way snmlar to what he f,rmerly deceived them VIZ., by wganizing a new apostesy in the ehurch, and, by his dnpes, make a new attempt agauist the church of Christ. Whe- ther that new apostacy shall resemble the old one. Popery, or whether it will be dissimilar we have no means of ascertaining ; but it\ w 1 be an apostacy i,r which the elements of fallen hunaanity xvill be brought into opera- ion, and the world will hate the church, and his passion of hatred being fa„„ed b^ the temptations of Satan, and not restrained by ether the grace of God or the law of the land, W.1, .,e into a mighty and ex.ens v! flame of persecution, in which Satan and hil 252 LECTURES ON THB It' ' emissaries will try to destroy the church of Christ. Secondly, Satan's sz^ccess in this work of deceiving the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog: « the number of whom is as the sand of the sea." We are not of opinion that the nations, whom Satan will deceive, are persons dwell- ing in reimte parts of the earth ; the ex- pression seems rather to imply that he will try to deceive the tvhole earth, viewed as con- sisting of four quarters, particularly named **' Go 1 . '^^^^"ent to their re- "-I coajnacture, .tn'^ lei " 'Vf" '="' threatenecl 1' "i t ^"'^''^''" ""'^'^"^ -es of His pCe *'".;: ^°^™'t'l-dversa- borrov^^ed from ?' '"■°'*''' '" t''™^ with awfnl u '" P^'^''"«^' 'l«''eril)es, wiiii awiul emphasis, the fnw nf r„i, , comiijo- „,, t„ h- f V^ Jehovah as o lip to his face ; and the effert^ nf ;t so dreadful, as to mak^ nil ii '* inanimate . ''^® animate and nanimate creation tremble, and even to con v.'lse,vvith terror, the whole frime !r . The nrnnli >t *i "^ nature. divL S " ^"'^ °" '° -^^'O'uice the -Ind j'^^^^^^^^^g--' Gog and his army, burial, m terms so very lofty and comprehen- sive as must certainly denote .ome very ex Zi'?/!, -l-^-i!- °^ P-idencell Z 254. LECTURES ON THE '' This is allowed," says the Doctor, " to be the most difficult prophecy in the Old Tejsta- mont. It is difiicult to us, because we know not the king nox peryple intended by it. There are but two opinions on this snbject, that ap- pear to be at all probable: — 1. That which makes Gog Cambyses, king of Persia ; and 2nd. That which makes him Antiochus Epi- PHANES, king of Syria. And, between these two, writers are much divided." The Doc- tor then supplies the names of several emi- nent men, who considered one cr other of these kings to be referred to in the prophecy of Ezekiel. Archbishop Newcome and Bishop Newton, suppose all the above prophecy re- mains yet to be fulfilled. — Dr. Clarke on Ezek. xxxviii. 22.* St. JbA^'s description of Gog and Magog seems to have taken n any of its features from Ezekiel's prophecy \ and hence it may be apposed the two prophets wrote of the same thing, Bishop Newton however thinks it probable that they relate to different events. The one he expects to take effect before the millennium, the other after it He says further, " Gog and Magog, in P]zekiel, are ♦ Dis. on. Prop., p. 669. SKCO.VD Aj,v£NT or cimST. "53 the; ca^e tm 7'^'' '"'' '" '-'• •^°"»' of the eanh." c : {^I T''^'' "'^ -'•'-- bend their forrp, ° '*^°- '" ^'^^^^<'h in t1, "^"""^^ the Jews n setUe.l >n tlieir own land," but in St t u -e the same wilV ,f 41", «" '"'"' inust suppo^P tli^ nfu -^^ekiel, then we throug-hS; ^m« Lr :r;" '^ r"^''" be beliPvnrl ' ''^^^i^i«ni, which can hardly With cJC:;:,-:;- ';r'^^ '^ ^-^^^-^^"^^ concluded, ^afS^UM^JoittS'^^ Sodom, and Effvnt nnri ri T. i "' ^ ""'^ «^e last enemies of the Christian church .re Tea/rrtSir—^^^-^MaS:! tend to say, with the len!?'"^" "^""°* I"^" We convTrn I "''''' of certainty.. we copy from the notes to Bishop Burnetf, Theory of the Earth » ♦),» (:„ii ■ ™cit s " It hns. J, ' fo'lownig extract : Dis. on Prop, p.^ei^ ■ T*^m 256 l^KCTUllES ON THE w t Ji Magog, should come, after the church of Christ and true religion had prevailed in the world a thousand years. Some have supposed that a number of people, and perhaps whole nations, should live in some corner of the earth during the time of the millennium, without partaking of any of the blessings of it ; but will continue in a state of heathenism and wickedness all that time, till at length they will multiply so much as to be able to rise in opposition to the church, and destroy it, were they not prevented by the miraculous inter- position of heaven. And many have sup- posoil that this fact is inconsistent with all the inhabitants of the world being real Chris- tians, and eminently holy in the time of the millennium. But this supposed difiiculty may be easily solved, and the general and great apostacy accounted for, consistent with the supposition that in the millennium all mankind will be real Christians. Near the end of the thousand years, the Divine influences which produced and continued the universal and eminent holiness in the millennium, may be in such a measure withheld, as that real Christians will, in their exercises and conduct, «COND ADVENT or CHRIST. 257 sink much below whit h^A <■ . and indulge a carTlel 1 ^^'" ^^"°" ''<^*°^«. more „egl.ge„t of^lSd^l "'".™'""^^«'» ^es].ect to their chil ! ll '^''P^^'ally with tant point I„ ?' '""^ '" this impor- chddrenwllnotbeT'"'"" °' *-' *eir ed, but grow ;l': 22':f -I -J convert- to God and to the tnuh ?"■' '''' ''"^'"^^^ -ili be then J5!',:*.f-'- 'he world «0"n become full of w!' T'"' '" ""'^ ^^y. church w:,l be Ly Zlt\^T' '""' *« -•" ^row up, under the ;ter';^^ ,*- -ho tan, in the face of all thui L'"' ^""^ ^^■ holiness, which had tuken '^ ' '"'"^ ^"^ ""llennium.and in ,.,t r ^ ""^ ""'^''^h the «%-rive;oag"e;TCr*°'*'"'^'-'"- ha.dne.a„dobsti:a:;^:n-V^^-of far more g„„ty and perver e' t """"' ^ men than ever existed w ^^"''''at'on of g-ater enen.ies o S , 'it^ '*"' -''' ''^ and the Church of Chr t Z^ "^''^''^°«snes3, -ill be united and .uCJZu """^'^'^''^^'ly. from the earth ^^ ''"^^' all these '^he world wm ,ave more wicked person. 258 LECTURES ON THE in it than ever before ; and all these much more sinful, and engaged in all kinds and ways of opposition to Christ and his cause an4 people. The Church will be on the brink of ruin, just ready to sink and be swallowed up, and the appearance and coming of Christ will be less believed, expected or thought of, than at any other time. Then Christ will be revealed from heaven in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them who know not God, and obey not the Gospel." The author of the " Coming Struggle" says, " interpretors have confounded the Gogue and Magogue of Ezekiel ^' ith the Gogue and Ma- gogue of Apocalypse • but, if the reader care- fully examine the two testimonies, he will find that they have reference to different times, eaxeeding re'inote from each other. The Apoc- alyptic Gogue and Magogue, are the nations and their leaders, who rebel against the gov- ernment of Christ and the saints ; who, being seduced from their allegiance, revolt and in- vade Canaan, and lay seige to Jerusalem, but are destroyed by fire from heaven." The Gogue and Magogue of Ezekiel, the same writer supposes, will be the Emperor of the SECOND ADVFNT nv „. ■si-vtHT OF CHRIST. 259 Russians, whom, he e-ynnpfc vi, • son of Nicholas or hk ' ' ' '" *" P^^" Emjeror of S"" f p' ""'' "^^' "'« -^^ q«e Turkey and rf ^'""'"'y ^"'1 '^-n- have -H„rned\hittr^rttt .',-, ",f"" 3honhiscareer,bydesCj,5:2r armies m Judea. ^^ Wnsays: "The names, ' Goer and M„ peacefully settled m tl JL^S ''"-«'' power or powers, called by thesen!^ oniy at ti4a::aTosr:L^;;:f- - With ..el :r;;:rciSE^^^^^^^ ^^^' posite conclusion. Thnt 7) ' "^^ "P" cl-acter, ^^^^^e^LTrfT !" 5a>«e." (p. 445.) '" ^'*°'' ^''« 'M^hSr "!^^'''" '^ explicitly stuted- galher them together to battle." The temp- |. 'I i 260 LECTURES ON THE tations from which he was restrained being strictly of this nature, he is now loosed just to organize a confederacy against the Church again. By what steps he will proceed, and on what precise questions the quarrel will ostensibly be raised— whether he will setup a new rdigion, or whether, as seems more pro- bable, he will breathe into them an aiiti-rcli' gious spirit, that cannot rest so long as God has any open friends, and Christ any wit- nesses, and the Church exists as a visible body— we cannot tell. One thing only is certain— he will succeed in raising a mighty party, " the number of whom is as the sand of the sea." One may wonder at such suc- cess, but the past history of the struggles of the serpent's seed against Christ and his peo- ple, teaches us to wonder at nothing which he may have liberty to do. The bright latter day has set ; the generations that adorned it have died, and other generations have arisen that " know not Joseph." In process of time they may come to deny that matters were ever much better than they are, and laugh at every assertion of the sort. Impatience of of the yoke of religion will, in ^Jl probability, ' being just to Church ?d, and el will let up a re pro- ti'Tcli- is God y wit- visible )nly is nighty 3 sand h suc- kles of is peo- which latter ned it arisen f time were igh at ice of bility, SECOND ADVENT OP CHRIST. 261 ing motive of this party. A desire to shake off this yoke is the true cause of that opS^ fkeirSe th ^Tr^^^' ^-^ -i". it is most ^i^ely, be the chief motive to influence the followers of Gog in his time. ^ M^t T''^ '"^ ""'' '^^ ^^^^^th of the earth, de otes thezr st.eeping all before them heir ^compassing the camp of the sa ntland he beloved city/ seems t'o be an alT^ to herfb W^^^^ ^y Sennl! cnerib, king of Assyria. The daring and blasphemous assumptions of thati? T n^onarch and his mfn of wa^ tS^^ -g confidence of success, and their profound " As it was in the days of Noe so sha/l it h. aim m the days of tU Son of man Thf \ , given m marriage, until the dav thJ^ entered into the ark, and the floo7cli1J:| 262 JLECTURES ON THE destroyed them all. Likewise, also, as it was in the days of Lot ; they did eat, they drank they bought, they sold, they planted, they bmlded But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone /rem heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man IS revealed." Also our text speaking of Gog, and his host says, « they went up on the « breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the samts about, and the beloved city • and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brim- stone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." ' We have preferred giving the above ex- tracts from writers of eminence, rather than to supply onr own views, in our own words • that there will be a " li, ,ie season" of apostacy' after the millennium, appears certain from' those passages of Scripture which describe the state of the world at the time of the second Advent ; but by what means it may be brought about we are not prepared to say. SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 263 The length of time this « little season" fv,„7 ^•', '-"^S'^S according to the extent taire't"^ ^"' °^^" opp'osition to ?od tent of .^- '^^'''"'- ^'^'^ *1^« g^e^t ex- tent of religious influence in the wnvl,l mediately before it, we are led to u^pose Z little season" may last for one, two or Xe centixraes ; and, long as that tir^e is 'in it If tisyet but a little season, compared wh the thousand years of prosperity Which shaip^! " tIa?re"wTr' "^ ^'«»^»'°«d,'' says Paber, from pittvTo ""'' ""' P'""^<= ^* °«e« and general experience may teach us that a oTit'wm T ""' ^'^^^^' ^^^ *^ ^•»^'^- a tTent • r^""' '° thoroughly depraved as to enter mto a regular combination for oi ijod s taithful people."* " Bengel takes it to be a period exceedino- a century; while Faber reckons Ht 3 | years taking the words 'Blessed is he that ^^^^^!Hl.^!!i^^^!if!L!lH^ days,' (olt * Brown, p. 446. ~ — - H2 m ■'' r M 264 lECTUnss OK THE xu. 12 ) to eoiet to the thousand years of the^miilenaium, and the little season to suc- ceed It Some even extend it further."* iJut as the scriptures do not inform us expli- citly, we cannot ay how long the little season will continue. Thirdly, the close of this « little season." Oiw tex says, « and fire came down from God , out of heaven and devoured them." The ^ZV^'\°' *''" '* """''' '"^^^^ that Sa- tan and h.s hosts Will have congregated toge- Ibo^'t r^ nTr'i*'^' ''""'P °f the saint. aDout, and the beloved city." This then will be the last great assault upon the church of Christ. ^ Satan, having deceived the nations, and brought under his influence multitudes of men with Gog, as commander, at their head, leads a mighty army, perhaps not less than a mil- ion figntmg men, towards some particular ocalUy, probably Jerusalem, re-buUt by S' tored Jewish Christians, to which « beloved city" the faithful may have concentraS themselves for mutual protection; and as ^!ifif!lZ!!?!!_lil;iI^hear of the near * Brown, p. 444. SECOND ADVENT OP r»n, "i^l OF CHRIST. 2(J5 approach of Goo- withh- . tian soldiers aJd ^tv '""'^'' "'°«« ^h^s- camp around atou'jfr'.""^'^ '"^ *''-' plate a battle ofTfe^eTT'""^ °''"*^'"- iuvading partv nT , " ^^^" P^'*' The racted. the invader^ esolve^f " "° """- >ng the invaded nJlu! "PO" surround- off, so thit „oro„'*r''^°"tth«'nentirely -y remain i« thTLnd'The?'^. ''"''^" as the beloved city!!lwhen ^T' "" T" thus taken i.n i • ■ the enemy has heart Trei "! ,?''"""' ^"'^ ^^^^^ '» his conquest/irSft? rf^^"" °^ ^P^^''^ his peoD e «L w ' '""^ Hezekiah and ficier^o'rVtll '" r ^"^"^y -^- yes, they Zyt'Z ' ^"* ^'^^^ ^"V' -ying. « this da? -s ^ITof T' M^* ^ '^"' rebuke, and of blas;LmyT!Ltt f ' '"' "' 0!Lord,andhear^p:L'hiretro"L";' and see, and hear all he words i In J ' rib, which iinfi, . / * »ennache- God."- sa xtvH n^r* *^ ^-"S ^ 1 • .1 -^Axvii. d, 17. So will th*» fii+k M,m th,s final struggle, feel their cte £t' terly hopeless, unless God signallv iZZl' i i. 266 LECTURES ON THE wliUe, in tl.e camp of the saints, fear and elect thJt „ J . '^ """^"Se his own he ill, n^^ ^^^""^ "'^^^ ""*« Wm, though rSdl r^'^^'" "^^' *»»« ^«^"i°g a^i L^' V "''r '^' ""^y P°'«t °f inflict- 'from rVr r^I*^' ^°""'*' " «^« <'<'««« down from God out of heaven, and devours them •» Whether it shall be a rain of fire and tTm- ^ will come hke forked and chain lightning, from Goir' '"*' ^''^ " '^^"^*' *hi« fire from God traverses their ranks, and every in- tWw-r,^''"' °" *^^ S'°"»<^- Whether there will be any zntervcd between this signal destruction of the church's last enemy, and ^e second Advent of Christ, we are not pre- Ztr '"'' ' ,r. ^'""^ " P'°'^=*'^'« *at this des tract on wxU be the immediate precursor of the ast trump, for the final judgment and punishment of the devil is record^l the very next verse, and this is just before the account of the last judgment. We shall here quote a paragraph from SECOND .DVKNT OF CHRIST. 267 wiy their own lusts -.t th^ „ ^/ ^ ting His l;v^. '"7 a' the expense of viola- or/er of 1^1" 'T'"^ *^ ''^^"*y «"'«i LECTURE IX. THE RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD. John v. 28, 29. " The hour is eoming, in the which all that are in the ■graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth ; they that have done good, unto the resurrection' of life, and ihey that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damna- tion.^' By the second Advent of Christ we mean his re-appearing to the inhabitants of this earth ; not as formerly, a babe in Bethlehem, nor as a man of grief who is acquainted with sorrow ; but as the Redeemer, who has " seen of the travail of his soul and is satisfied,"— as a mighty conqueror, who comes to gather the spoils he has taken from the '-ncmy ; or, as a nobleman, who has been in a far country, while his affairs have been entrusted to his servants,— 1 i:i comes to receive an account at their handsj and to reward every one accord- ing to h^> works. In uixiuediate connection with the second Advent will be the resurrection from the 272 LECTURES ON THE dead, of all who have departed this life, and the transformation of the then living, into a state like unto those who have been raised from the dead. The doctrine of a resurrection from the dead is one of pure revelation ; it never could have been ascertained by any other means ; although now that it is revealed, it may be illustrated by some ©f God's works, such as the sowing of grain and the future reaping of the crop ; a figure which St. Paul has used so forcibly. This doctrine of the resurrection was known long before our blessed Lord gave it such prominence, m his teaching ; it is very ex- pressly taught in the Old Testament ; in the book of Job (xix. 25-27.) we read : " for I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth : and though after my skin worms destroy thi3 body, yet 'm my flesh shall I see God. Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another ; thougli my reins be consumed within me." It was scarcely possible for Job to express his hope in tlie resurrection of his body in more approi)riate or forcible language. SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 273 In Psalm xvi. 10, we read, from the pen of David : -' fo/ thou will not leave my soul in hell; -either wilt thou suffer thine holy oiv to see corruption." i*^ Isaiah xxvi. 19, we read: « thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust : for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead." Also, in Ezekiel xxxvii. 1—U, we have the vision of the dry bones, wherein their resur- rection to life represented the resurrection from the dead. At the time when our Saviour appeared in Judea, the resurrection from the dead was received as one of the principal articles of the Jewish religion, by the whole body of the nation, except the Sadducees; and with il:at sect our Lord had several conversations, in which he fully proved the truthfulness of the doctrine. And, then, as a full confirmation of our Saviour's teaching, he himself rose f^om the dead, and thereby gave us a proof, a pledge, and a pattern of our own resurrec- tion. In the first epistle to tlie Corinthians chap. 27i LECTURES ON THE XV., St. Paul supplies us with numerous argu- ments, in support of this doctrine of a gene- ral resurrection. In the first thirty-five ver- ses, he considers " whether there be a resur- rection of the dead," and proves, by several arguments, that there will be. Then he states what will be the nature of the resurrec- tion bodies, verses 35-51. And, in the last place, he informs us what shall become of those who « may be found alive in the day of judgment."— Verses 51-57. On the subject of a future resurrection, one important point in discussion has been,whether a remrrection af the ^stance of the body he meant or oi.^e minute aru. indestructible part of u. The latter theory ha^ been adopted difficulties. You will observe, however, that the doctrine is taught in the Bible without any Tery nice distinctions. It is always ex- hibited as a miraculous work ; and represe -ts the same body which is laid in the grave as the subject of this change from death to life by the power of Christ. ' Another point upon which a difference of opinion has prevailed, respects the f*^, of the SECOND ADVENT OP CHRIST. 275 resurrection, as to whether a part of the dead shall be raised to enjoy a thousand years resi- aence m life upon earth, before the other part of the dead shall be raised at all, and thus iorming the theory of two resurrections a thousand years apart. Or whether there will be but one resurrection, in which the righteous and the wicked shall be raised simultaneously. The pre-millennarians hold the doctrine of two resurrections,— and the Millerites, in our day, have adopted their opinion. But, as we do not agree with them upon this subject, we shall proceed to consider — First: The Pre-millennarian Theory. They would persuade us that when Christ appears, according to their views, at the begmning of the millennium, he vnll raise all the saints that shall have died hefwe that time, and diange all that shrill then be alive " The Rev. Mr. Bickersteth, a most excellent Episcopalian Minister, who died in England a few years ago, said : <* If the resurrection of the righteous and the wicked, and the gen- eral judgment of all men, took place at one time, and in the same day, none could be left, as the heads and parents of a redeemed 276 lECTURES ON THE P^fl"n earth (after the general judgment.) But the Holy Scriptures reveaJ to us a pro- gress ,n judgment, and that the resurrection of the righteous and the wicked are dearly rhsHnct ^n Ume. There is the first resurrec! tion of the saiats at the commencement of he m.l lennium, and after the thousand years the rest of the dead (the wicked) live and are judged."* ' ° Bishop Newtont says : « Wickedness being restramed, the reign of righteousness succeeds! and .he admmistration of justice «nd jud-r. ment IS given to the saints of the MostHio-h- and the martyrs and confessors of Jesus, not only those who were beheaded, or suffered anykmd of death under the heathen empe- rors but also those who refused to comply with the Idolatrous worship of the beast and his unage, are raised from the dead and have the principal share in the felicities of Christ's kingdom upon earth. But the rest of the dead hved not again until the thousand years wera hnished, so that this was a peculiar prerooti- tiv ^of the martyrs and confesso rs above the • Brown, p. 16«. ~~~ ' *I>i3. on Prop., p. 661. SECOND ABVENT OP CHRIST 277 rest of mankind. This is the first resurrec- t.on, a^arWa. resurrection, preceding the ^'T rV* '^^' ^ thousand^years."^ iiut the first resiurrection," says the candid and acute Mr. Birks, "offers a still sev^r^ here appeal to innumerable texts where it is plamly revealed. The analogy of scripture silti: '"^T ^-^"^ favor.fppearsS Sight ob^re and ambiguous. In maintaining this doctrine, therefore, we have to rest onlf upon the word of God, and chiefly on this one propke^, (Rev. chap, xx.) Why, then, should LT T' ? ^^^'■^^^^ ^ disputable and bset tenth such difficulties, be now pressed upon the attention of the Church ? The answer is very plam. Grant, for one moment, that the doctrine is true, and you must feel that it is one of deep interest to ourselves." • Dr. Gumming, one of the latest writers who advocate the doctrine of two literal resur- rections, states his views thus : « I have showed you what will take place at the resur- rection, when Christ shall come, ' who is the r_ esurrection and the hfe.' The m oment that •Brown, p. 19I. " " — 278 LECTURES ON THE he cloud shall waft him on its wings from the throne on which he now sits, and bring h.m wxthm the range and the attraction of the orb on which we now stand-that instant every grave that has a saint beneath it, though the ocean's pressure or the Alpine hills and avalanches be upon it, shall sph^t asunder, and Its awakened dead shall come forth /a.S every grave that contains the^ust of an un- renewed and unconverted man-let it be wTbo, ""V ^""'"' *^'^'«*' - -scribed with ho y epitaph-let it be a cathedral vault or marble mausoleum-be it what it may _ the summons will be unheard, and the de'ad dust that ,s there will lie as still and as quTet as the dead in the churchyard, were yo^or to say to them, 'come forth.' You wi see emerge from one grave a cloud of sain thai have heard the sound of the SavioS v t m Its inmost caverns, and rise to reign w th ^ \f:rf T' ' ^"'^ y- -"'- " graves of the dead, who are not in Christ ITT '*'" T^ ^''^""le^s, asif the wind on y swept over them. But the living, what Tl be heir case ? < The dead in Chri;Sai rj e first,' says the apostle ;< and we, Which ;: SECOND ADVEKT OF CHRIST. 279 alive and remain, shall be caught up to meet the Lord an the air.' What a sublime spec- tacle w,ll that be ! What awful and startling severances ! 1 look into that home : one risel as he hears a mysterious bidding, and ascends «nder a mysterious attraction, and meets the I-ord m the air-the mother is taken, the daughter is lei, , or two rise, and the r"^ remain." • hv^rJt".?^''' *" "^''^^ *« arguments by which the doctrine of two resurrections IS attempted to be upheld. W^e may natu- ral y suppose that if this doctrine is revealed in the scriptures, it will have some degree of prommence therein, nearly, if „ot qtite as much, as the doctrine of a resurrection has. The supporters of the theory of a first resur- rection will, of course, have collected all the passages which bear upon the point. We shall examine what they have produced. 1 Cor., XV., and 1 Thess., iv., are commonly adduced as treating of the resurrection of believers, but not mentioning the resurrection of the wicked, which, it is alleged, they would ha ve done if both classes rise together. "The * tiec. on Apoc, p. 480. " %. J^^ '1>>. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) /. ^r &?/ :a fA 1.0 I.I 1.25 •" ISA '■^ ^ IIIIIM M 2.2 - 6" 1.8 iA IIIIII.6 V] <$> ^ "cJ^l e. ^i /. b.^'T^'^' V ^m.. %j Photographic Sciences Corporation -b iV '^ .J>^ % '^U O ..-/&. % ^^ <^ in,""'' 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 14580 (716) 872-4503 ^Vj^^ V^ (/a I 280 LECTURES ON THE ii Wicked are excluded from these passages, not because they will rise at the same time, but because they will not rise on the same prin- ciple. They will not rise as represented by, and entitled to life in Christ. When he said to his disciples, * because I live ye shall live also,' he enunciated a principle under which . the wicked do not stand, and spoke of a life which they will never taste. The character of th^t life, the grounds of it, and the subjects of It, are all restrictive.'' * The writers of these passages, speaking of a resurrection peculiar to believers, could not have intro- duced the resurrection of the wicked as shar- ing m it. But where a resurrection common to both classes is spoken of, we find the wicked are mentioned. Another passage, which has already been referred to in a preceding lecture, is Phil. iii. 11 '''Ifby any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the deadP It is clear that the Apostle's wish was not for a general resurrection, for that was certain to him, and to all, but it was the resurrection of the just, a resurrection peculiar to them, not with regard * Brown, p. 192 ""^ ~ " SECOND ADVENT OF CflRIST. 281 to its times but evident, if ii^ character ; thig we consider what he says in vc ''We look for the Smmnir, the Lard Yems Christ : who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorimis body.'' It IS most evident the Apostle is here speaking of the resurrection of the righteous with regard to the nature of their resurrection bodies, and that the Apostle earnestly desired such a resurrection for himself. Dr. Gumming* says: <^ I think I see,, throughout Scripture, clearly enunciated two resurrections. These two are stated in the 26th chapter of this book, (Revelations,) and that the literal meaning is the true, I think will appear, if you notice a peculiarity in the language of the Apocalypse, viz., that inva- riably after St. John has stated some great symbol, he introduces a parenthetic explana- tion of it, which is of necessity literal. Thus, when he sees seven candlesticks, he appends' the explanation of it ; the seven candlesticks, i.e,, the symbols, are seven churches. The statement, they « are seven churches,' is a literal explanation of the symbol ' seven can- •Lec. on Apoc, p. 479. ~ " 282 aiesticks ;' so here, wh LECTURES ON THE en he states that those that had not the mark of the beast €,v^A • -"-*«. ui me Deast shall ri'if^ litera fulfilment, but it is an historical or ex P lanatory statement of a symbol wh oh lite" Srn'd'nS' '': '"'^'^ ^-'•" That he iearned Doctor thought he saw jj^ literal sections in this chapter, we do n" dolt but It appears to us there must hav. T some obtuseness about his tlSgitl vi^ST for „nle. we a.e very much mlstaleThe Zyto^yT"'.^'' '°"^^*^g ^hich is con! trary to other plain parts oi Scrintnr» „ ^ exther the inspired wrL St. John Eh!! wntten something contrary to th; other il sp.red writers, or else the respecLd au h^ from whom we have quoted the above has failed to discover their harmony; thtj bl pressmg St. John into his service he h?' I literal resurrecSn ' ° ''" ''°'='"°« ^' '^° SECOND ADVENT OP CHRIST. 283 Daniel xii. 2 : "And many of th^ that y ^n tl^ dust oftU eank sMU LlZ, 1 to everlastz^, Ufe, and some toshame and Z lastzng contempt." It is quite plaL X Daniel here speaks of "h.-t nnrl t),of "^^ resurrection, e JerW PT»^*ose who are raised to ever acting hfe, and those v^ho are raised to everlasting contempt. *° In John V. 28 29, oi« blessed Lord says: The hour is coming, in the which all the, are m th^ graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth ; theythat have done good, unto the resur- ■ rection of Ufe, and they that have done evil ■>^^io the resurrection of damnation.'' We do not see the possibility of stating the o^e resurrection from the dead, of both r.ghteous and wicked, as occurring at the same Ume, more fully than these words of Christ do Other passages could easily be W i" . '''""'^'"'''"^ *^« these, bul we hope the above are sufficient to show candid « Jt^' rf »''"'' ^'•^ '^ "*« resurrection ter f^ f : ?r °*'y "« when we say, there is not one plain passage which really teaches, or even appears to intimate, that there shall be two resurrections,with a long interval between them. There is one passage in 1 Theps. iv. 16, 17 which, in its wording, and by tearing it av/ay from its connection with what follows, seems to speak of a first resurrection ; it reads thus : « For the Lord himself shall descend from SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 285 j heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God • and the dead m Christ shall rise first." Now if we were to stop here, and not read what fol- lows we might suppose St. Paul took the lead in the doctrine of two resurrections; but if you observe what stands in immediate eonr ac- tion with that passage, the Apostle's meaning IS perfectly plain ; for he adds, « then '' that IS, immediately after the dead is raised^ "then we, which are alive and remain, shaU be caught «P together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air : and so shall we ever be with the Lord." Thus the Apostle's meaning IS most palpably evident that the resurrection from the dead shall take place while people are living upon the earth, and that when the dead are raised the living shall be caught up m the a.r to appear at the judgment seat of Christ. But the erroneous character of this pre- millennarian theory of two resurrections will be more fully shown by considering— Secondly, the true and scriptural char- acter of the resurrection from the dead, with respect to the subjects of it, and the time wlien It shall take place. I 286 LECTURES ON THE li . First, that the righteous dead will be par- takers of that privilege, the scriptures are most explicit. The resurrection from the dead was not contained in the first covenant with man m Paradise ; it is one of those gracious provi- sions made to us by the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, and it is reasonable to suppose that whatever might become of the wicked dead, the righteous would be raised again. But we are not left to mere conjecture upon this subject ; the scriptures very clearly teach us that the righteous who have suffered for their Saviour, shall also reign with him, and that the dignity to which they shall be ex- alted will be conferred upon the body raised from the dead and re-united with the soul as well as upon the immortal spirit. ' The prophet Daniel says : " 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." In the epistle to the Colossians, iii. 4 we read : - When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." Again, in the epistle to the Philip- pians. iii. 20, 21 : « For our conversation is SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 287 I in heaven ; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall Jike unto his glorious body, according to the -orbng thereby he is able even toMue ^ *angs unto hiniself." Again, St. John ^ith (1 Ep,s. in. 2) : « Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not Lt alelr what we shall be , but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him ; for we shal see him as he is." These, an'd Xr sTvS'^f.'' °'r'^ «h°^ that those who serve God in their day and generation, in the vineyardofhischi.ch,shallbebroughthome o their Master's house, to be rewarded accord! mg to their works. From our last lecture upon the « little sea son," we were led to expect, that when tht srrnSr'""'' "^ '^''^'^^ -^"A surrounded the camp of the saints, and the beloved city, there would evidently be some faithfiil witnesses for Christ • th.L T numbered by thousands, ortk^^rfl; sands ; but whatever the number may be it i the trump of God may be sounded, and the 288 LECTURES ON THE I! dead immediately raised to life ; and should this be the case, then the living saints would not die, but would at once be transformed, so as to make them like their brethren, who have just risen from the dead ; or more pro- porly like unto Christ in his body, as he came forth from the tomb ; " we shall not all sleep," says St. Paul, (1 Cor. xv. 51-52): "but we shall be changed, in a moment, in the twink- ling of 'an eye, at the last trump : for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." The Apostle then proceeds to describe the pe- culiarities of the resurrection body. " For this corruptible," says he, " must put on in- corruption ; and this mortal must put on im- mortality." In a lew verses preceding this he says, respecting the body, " it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory ; it is sown in . weakness, it is raised in power ; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." The remrrection body, then, will be remarka- ble for these qualities, it will be inccrruptible, immortal, poioerful, glorious, and spirituaL — These qualities will fully fit it for the eternal destinies of heavenly employment and bliss 5> SKCOND ADVENT OP CHRIST. 289 tl'at await it. A paragraph Ifom Watson's Iheological Dictionary, will set this matter more fully before us ; he says, " It is sown an aminal body_a body which previously ex- isted with all the organs, faculties and propen- sities, requisite to procure, receive and appro- priate nutriment ; but it shall be raised a spiritual body, refined from the dregs of mat- ter, freed from the organs and senses required only in its former state, and probably possess- ing the remaining senses in greater perfec- tion together with new and more exquisite facult.es, fitted for the exalted state of exist- ence and enjoyment, to which it is now ris- ing- In the present, state, the organs and senses appointed to transmit the impression of objects to the mind, have a manifest relation to the respective objects ; the eye and seeing tor example, to light; the ear and hearing to' sound. In the refined and glorious state of existence, to which good men are tending, where tlie objects which solicit attention will be infinitely more, numerous, interesting and uelightful, may not the new organs, faculties and senses, be proportionally refined, acute, susceptible or penetrating ? Then the senses 290 LECTURES ON THE S';.'ii will no longer degrade the affections, the imagination no longer corrupt the heart ; the magnificent scenery thrown open to view will animate the attention, give a glow and vigor to the sentiments,— roused attention will never tire J those glowing sentiments will never cloy ; but the man, now constituted of an indestructible body, as well as of an immortal soul, may visit in eternal succession the streets of the celestial city, may drink of the pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God, and of the Lamb ; and dwell for ever in those abodes of harmony and peace, which though * eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man,' yet we are assured they are prepared for them iiiat love God.— 1 Cor. ii. 9." The resurrection of the wicked from the dead is as clearly set forth in the sacred writ- ings, as the resurrection of the just. Hence in Daniel, in the passage already quoted, the prophet tells us " some" shall come forth from their graves "^o shame and everlasting con- tem'ptP And, in our text, Christ informs us, <* all that are in the graves shall liear his SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 291 voice, and shall come forth ; they tliat have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrec- tion of damnation:' But, from the state of the world at the time when the judgment shall begin, we have reason to think that multitudes of wicked persons will be upon the face of the earth at that time ; and, con- sequently, these living wicked, like the righteous, will not die, but will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, when the trumpet shall sound and the dead be raised. - But we proceed, thirdly, to observe that the scriptures clearly teach, that the resurrection from the dead comprehends both classes at once. Those pass3ges already quoted from Daniel and Christ, in our text, most clearly show that the resurrection of the righteous and the wicked will be simultaneous,- -indeedy it is difficult to see how the resurrection of both classes at the same tin-e could be more clearly stated, "all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth, they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of dam- II ttm 292 I.ECTURES ON THE nutiou." (See preceding part of this Lec- ture.) St. Paul, in his defence, Acts xxiv. 15> says : " there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." As it will be a resurrection of the two classes, no person will be exempt or excluded from it. All who have died, shall rise again, in obe- dience to the fiat of the Creator and Re- deemer, irrespective of either character or destiny^ "All that are in the graves shall come forth P The Scriptures, therefore, clearly repre- sent the resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked, as taking plcwe at the same time, in one promiscuous company, when the last trumpet shall sound ; and, unless we suppose that the resurrection of all the dead, will be a simultaneous event, many of the descriptions, would be destitute of pro- priety, nay, they would not appear in accor- dance with revealed truth, in other parts of the Bible. For illustration take the words of Christ, where he says : " when the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all his holy- angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory \ and before him shall be SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 293 gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divid- eth his sheep from the goats=" But if the righteous rise in one company at one time^ and the wicked in another company at another time, there could be no process oj separation, resemblmg that which is here described. The resurrection of the dead, of the just and the unjust, will take place at Christ's se- cond Advent, and immediately before the judg- ment of the great day. The rising of the dead, we are t-^ught to believe, will not be preceded by any circum- stances in the course of nature to lead an unthinking world to expect it. It will take place unawares, and surprise men in the midst of their pursuits, their pleasures, and their crimes. The tide of human affairs will be rolling on as formerly, and the gi-eat mass of mankind, sunk in indifference and sensuality, in that " little season" of apostacy. « For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giv- ing in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away ; so shall also Hi 294. LECTURES ON THE m IS i i the coming of the Son of Man be."-~Matt. xxiv. 38, 39. While these things are proceeding, the appearance of the Son of God in the clouds, clothed in all the grandeur of tho upper world, will produce feelings in the minds of men which no language can adequately express. What consternation and dismay will seize them when they hear the thunders of the last trumpet, when they see the dead arising from their graves, and all nature dissolving around them. Many, whose spirits have just departed, and whose bodies are still stretched upon the couches where they expired, will start up in a moment, before those who min- istered to them during the last struggles of nature ; some, while on the way to the grave, will, like the widow's son, burst from the coffin in which they are enclosed, throw aside their grave cloths, and every vestige of mor- tality, and hasten away to take their place before " the great wh^'te throne." Scarce shall the astonished spectators have witnessed these things when they themselves will be changed ; and called to appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Such will, be the SECOND ADVENT OP CHRIST. 295 Closing scene of time, such the circumstances connected with the rising of the dead. By the righteous, the whole scene will be view- ed with composure and confidence. From the midst of the ruins of creation they will lift up their heads with joy, aud when look- ing to the great Being who shall then be seen descending through the sky in flaming fire, attended by hosts of angels, they will exclaim with holy exultation, << Lo ! this is our God, we have waited for him, he will save us."* But to the wickefl, the scene will be one of trembling and fear : consciences which have long slumbered will in a moment awake, and the polluted heart will palpitate with the greatest rapidity. All this, then, will take place at the second coming of Christ, as is clear from several parts of scripture. St. Paul said unto the Colos- sians (iii. 4) « Wh.en Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." Again, in 1 Thessalonians iv. 16, 17, we read, " for the Lord himself ^\m\\ descend from heaven with a shout , with the voice of the ♦ Christian Prospect, p. »l. 296 LECTURt.. ON THB archangel, and with the trump of God ; and the dead in Christ shall rise first ; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air." SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. i97 LECTURE X. THE SECOND ADVENT ITSELF, Matt. xxv. 31. '[When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the tfirone of his glory." The second Advent of Christ is a subject in which we have the deepest interest. If Christ never will come, then he was the greatest impostor, his disciples the greatest diipes,Chris- tianity the most flagrant system of fraud, and the Bible the most cunningly devised fable. Upon the truthfulness of Christ's second ap- pearing then, every thing depends j but, blessed be God, such is the clearness, and fullness of divine revelation upon this point, that none need falter in his faith, or hesitate to stake his all upon it. Christ will come, Christ will i7iost certainly come. The Bible has thrown its light upon that event for thousands of years now past ; that light, at first, was seen by but few persons, but it was sufficient to teach lit' 298 LECTURES ON THE them the certainty of Messiah's second com- ing ; even Enoch, the seventh from Adam, pro- phesied of these (things) saying, " Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their vmgodly deeds." — .Tude xiv. 15. The Psalm- ist, too, spoke of the s:ime great event, v/here he says, " Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence ; a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him: he shall call the heavens from above, and the earth, that he may judge his people." (Ps. 1. 3, 4.) Daniel, speaking of the particu- lar judgment which is to come upon the " lit- tle horn," the system of Popery, supplies us with a description, the particulars of which strikingly correspond with the New Testa- ment descriptions of the general judgment ; he says, " I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose gar- ment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool , his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued, and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered li'iii SECOxVD ADVENT OF CHRIST. 299 unto him, and ten thousand tifnes ten thou- sand stood before him : the judgment was set, and the books were opened." (Dan. vii. 9, 10.) What a sublime and inimitably grand descrip- tion have we here, mixed with admirable sim- plicity; how plainly docs it appear to have been the effect, not of genius and art, but of a mind, through the inauences of the Divine Spirit, elevated with the gi-andeur, awed with the majesty, and struck with the terror of the subject ! * These ancient prophecies of our Lord's second coming, have the sanction of his own authority, not only as being inspired by him, but as being confirmed by most express de- clarations, delivered by himself while he was upon earth, and after his ascension into Ueaven, and that, both before friends and enemies. I shall produce only two or three of these as specimens of the rest. Thus, when Caiaphas, the elders and scribes, had the boldness to call their Creator and final judge to take his trial at their tribunal ; before these he testified : " Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the Benson's Sermons. 13 ti MKiM^fe. 300 LECTURES ON THE clouds of heavenP To his friends and follow- ers, he often foretold the same event, though with a different view, not merely to convince and alarm, but to comfort and encourage them. Thus, when predicting and describing the destruction of Jerusalem, and the ruin of the Jewish church and polity, he slides (as it were) insensibly into this important subject typified by that, declaring, "after the tribulation of those day^ the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the f .wers of the heavens shall be shaken : and then shall ap- pear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven : and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." And in the next chapter, (Matt. XXV.) which appears to contain the last public discourse our Lord delivered before he was offered up ; he declares, in the words of our text, " When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory ; and before him shall be gathered all nations."* ♦ Brown. SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 301 To tlxese express and particular declarations delivered by our Lord, while he tabernacled upon earth in his state of humiliation, we may subjom his testimony from heaven, after he entered upon his state of exaltation, and was invested with all power in heaven and on earth. « The faithful and true witness" says : " Behold, I come quickly, blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book." And again, « Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give unto every man according as his work shall be." Again, '' He that testifieth these things, saith. Surely I come quickly." To which the church re- plies, "Amen: Even so, come. Lord Jesus." We shall merely add the testimony of an- gels gwen to those who witnessed the ascen- sion of our blessed Lord, when they said, " Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? this same Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." The repeated testimony of the Apostles inspired by the Holy Spirit, gives the closing evidence to this doctrine of the in- spired word: nnd Hn"a ^^r'.A^^^^ -i--„ -^ ^ "■■'■' ^"-"^'^iiv;^/ pmccs liie i3 =1 802 LECTURES ON THE subject upon a foundation so broad, bo firm, and so sicrc, that it leaves no room to doubt, in the mind of him who confides in the in- spiration of Scripture. First : consider some of those events and OCCURRENCES which shall imxaedix^ielY precede and attend the second coming of Christ. For the sake of classification, we shall refer — First, to the state of the human family ^ when that great event takes place. If we remember that there will have been a lo ig time of universal peace and prosperity in the church and the world, during the mil- lennium, perhaps a thousand years, in which the nations shall neither learn nor practice war, when Satan shall be bound, and the cupi- dity and ambition of human nature no where be seen ; considering that long, happy, peace- ful and prosperous state, we think it probable that the earth's population may be greatly increased, perhaps to the extent of its ability to sustain them. But when Satan is loosed from his chain, and let out of his prison, and he goes forth to deceive the nations agfvin, for a " little season ;" about the close of that pe- riod, we find that preparations for a srreat war SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 303 shall be made by Gor, the captain of Satan's forces, who shall finally hem in the camp of the saints and the holy city, to cut them off both root and branch ; but God will suddenly destroy these hosts of his people's enemies : so that myriads of them shall be cold in death. In other parts of the world, men will be engaged in the ordinary avocations of life. To use the words of Boston : Christ's « com- ing will be a mighty surprise to the world, which will be found in deep security ; foolish virgins sleeping, and the wise slumbering. There will then be much luxury and debauch- ery in the world ; little sobriety and watchful- ness ; a great throng of business, but a great scarcity of faith and holiness. The coming of the judge will surprise some at markets, buying and selling; others at table, eating and drinking, and making merry ; others busy with their new plantings ; some build- ing new houses ; nay, the wedding day, with some, will be their judgment day. But the judge Cometh ! the markets are marred ; the buyer throws away what he has bought ; the seller casts down his money ; the vpluptu- x« ■Ill III 30i LECTURES ON THE ous are raised from the table, and their mirtl, IS extinguished in a moment ; the l.ridegroom, bnde and guests, must leave the wedding feast, and appear before the tribunal; for, be- hold he Cometh with clouds, and every eye shall sec him." - ' ^ The author of the « Grand Crisis" thus des- cribes the scene : « Imagine for a moment, that while the inhabitants of earth are absorbed in the various occupations of life, steeping all their Senses in the business enterprises of the passing hour, planting, building, buyin- sell,„g_the farmer at his market ! the plan"- ter with his trees! the tmdesman in his shop - the m,ser counting his gold ; the idler at his tolly; the evil servant smiting his fellow; each m his day dream !-when all upon a sudden, there is discovered in the heavens, as tar as the eye can reach, an undefinable brightness-it grows more resplendant as it approaches, and that which at first excited imie or no concern, now begins to attract the attention of thousands and millions of the human race. As it moves on, the heart of the scoffer yields to misgivings, and begins to relent ; but yet he tries affectedly to lau-h - SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 305 the philosopher endeavors to trace the second cause, but scarcely satisfies himself—the hypo- crite, with his sanctimonious countenance, who < stole the livery of the court of heaven to serve the devil in,' grows pale.— All men of every clime, and in every city, or hamlet, now gaze and wonder at the sight, while guardian angels whisper in the ears of the sanctified and waiting ones— ^^25 is the sign of the Son of Man; when instantly the cloud unfolds itself, and lo ! seated on a throne like the fiery flame, whose wheels now roll in livid fire— appears the Son of Man." These descriptions, you perceive, are based, both in sentiment and expression, upon Scripture statements ; we shall quote a few of the pas- sages to conclude this paragraph. Luke. xvii. 26-30 : '^And as it was in the days of JSfoe, so shall it he also in the days of the Son of Man, They did eat, they drank, they married v.'ives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Like- wise also, as it was in the days of Lot ! they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded. But the same i5 306 lil! Sj LECTURES ON THB day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed mem all. Jivcn thus slmll it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed " ] Thess. V. 2 : « For yourselves know per- fect^ that the day cf the Lord so cometh as a f'^f^'^the nightr that. is unexpectedly. Ver 3 : "For when they shall say, peace and safety ; then sudden destruction cometh upon tliem ;— and they shall not escape ' ' 2Pet.>iii. 10 :" But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night : in the Which the heavens shall pass away with a gi-eat noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." With what consternation will the wicked and the worldly behold the Son of Man as he thus appears. Jesus says, -then shall aJ.l the tnbc-s of the earth mozirn, and )l,ey shall see the Son of Blan coming i„ the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." fMatt xxiv. 30.) Dr. Watt's says, " consider how vain all the refuges and hopes of sinners will be found in that dreadful day of the Lord. They will call on the rocks and mountains to SECOND ADVENT OP CHRIST. 307 fall on them and to cover them. Who shall •call on these stupendous works of God? wicked kings, mighty men, rich men ; they had once the direction of armies ; but now the day of their power is over. Rocks und mountains ! Oh, how vain, to call creatures to screen from the Creator \ Rocks and mountains have ever been obedient to God ! Rocks and mountains, in their cliffs and dens, and caverns, may be occasional refuges to hide men from storms, or from their pursuers ; but he whose eyes are as a flame of fire pene- trates the deepest recesses. Rocks and mountains are often places of defence ; but can these defend against Omnipotence 1 He throws down the mountains and tears the rocks in pieces, (Nahum, i. 2, 6.) Rocks and mountams, indeed, falling on weak and feeble worms, will crush them to atoms. If this is what these great men wish, it is vain. They may seek death, but death will flee from them. The work of death has terminated." Such is an imperfect representation of the inigodly in the day when the Lord shall come the second time ; but how will it be with the righteous, who are then alive ? Judging from J f t liM \ P am w ^^a I '; . 308 LECTURES ON THE those passages which refer to the « little sea- son," we have reason to think they will be greatly 2^ersecuted in those latter days, « hunt- ed as a partridge in the mountain ;" persecuted in one city, they will flee unto another, until they are plundered of their property, driven into exile, and slain as sheep for the slaughter ; they are compelled, for mutual defence, to form the remnant into a camp around the holy city ; there, while they are prayerfully and anxiously waiting the onset of their besieging enemies, these enemies are suddenly and miraculously destroyed. These signs of the times will create an expectation of Christ's speedy coming, for they will not be in dark- ness, that that day should overtake them as a thief, (1 Thess. v. 4) but watching and pray- ing, they will at length recognize him as he approaches, and in hallowed strains they will sing, " Lo, this is our God j we have waited for him, and he will save us : This is the Lord ; we have waited for him ; we will be glad and rejoice in hissalvation."— Isa. xxv. 9. The occurrences that shall take place in the heavenly bodies. To this part of our sub- ject we proceed with considerable trepidation SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 309 and self-distrust; the scenes described in scripture are so transcendently graTid, that if a literal interpretation mitst be given of them, how far the great event of Christ's second coming will disturb our planetary system, or affect other similar systems contiguous to our own, it is impossible to know. If the des- criptions given in the bible are to be under- stood figuratively, then the subject will be stripped of much of that grandeur, but the result will be the same to us ; our earnest prayer to God is, that he will guide us aright, and save us from error, so far as the interests of his church may require it. In Matt. xxiv. 29, our Lord says, " Imme- diately after those days shall the sun be dark- ertedy and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the poivers of the heavens sJiall he shaken; and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man ia heaven." The Adventists find no diffi- culty at all in applying this passage as an immediate precursor of Christ'' s speedy coming, for they tell us that « in May 19th, 17S0, there was a remarkable fulfilment thereof." * • Quoting from others, « they say the darkness H8*l n\ 310 LECTURES ON THE (of that clay) was supernatural, from morning until night, and during most of the night ; although the moon had fulled only the night previous." Another writer they report as saying, " The sun rose clear, and shone for several hours ; at length the sky became over- cast with clouds, and by ten o'clock, a. m., the darkness was such as to occasion the farmers to leave their work in the fields and retire to their dAvellings ; fowls went to their roosts, antl before noon lights became neces- sary to the transaction of business within doors. The darkness continued through the day, and the night, till, near morning, it was as unusually dark as the day." The writer of the « Grand Crisis," after giving the above quotations, adds, " Where shall we look for a more literal and exact fulfilment than the above extracts exhibit of those remarkable signs r ' We answer, on the day ivhen Christ gave np the Ghost, Again, concerning the darkness of the sim, Dr. More says : " Though it may seem a panic fear at first sight, yet if the matter be thoroughly examined, there will appear no contemptible reasons that may induce men to suspect that it may at last fall SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 311 out, there having been at certain times such near offers in nature towards this sad accident ah-eady. The like happened in Justinian's time, as Cedrenus writes j when, fur a whole year together, the sun was of a very dim and duskish hue, as if he had been in a perpetual eclipse ; and, in the time^of Irene the empress, it was so dark for seventeen days together, that the ships lost their way in the sea, and were ready to run one against another, as Theophanes reports." But these dark times do not prove any of them to have been a fulfilment of this sign. Nay, the very fact of the latter taking pl^ce 74 years ago, according to their own statement, is enough to induce us to think that the occur- rence was not an immediate sign that the day of the Lcnxl was at hand ; then again, the limited extent of this darkness is against this application of it, for they make no statement of that extent; so then, f.-r any thing we know to the contrary, the darkness might prevail over a very small tract of country j whereas, the darkening of the sun, in the passage before us, appears to mean not simply the intervention of a dark cloud, but the ex- ]i 312 LECTURES ON THE tinction of the sun's light. If we must give some literal interpretation to this pign of Christ's second coming, are we then to sup- pose that the sun, as the centre of our system, is to be blotted out^ never to emit another ray of light to any planet or satellite now under his influence. We have no sympathy with such an opinion as this ; we think, however paradoxical it may appear, that the sun will give outi as much light as before, even when he is darkened / and that the expression may be explained in another way. The sun is shin- ing, but Christ appears in flaming fire, and the celestial light attending the Son of God may so far exceed the solar light oj the sun, that the sun may be said to be darkened by it> — just as the light which the moon reflects by day is not discernible because of the greater light of the sun at the same time. This idea may be further illustrated by the comparison which the Apostle makes between the law and the gospel ; he speaks of both as being glorious, but the gospel is much more so ; his words are, " for even that which was made gloriouS; /irtrZ no glory in this respect, by reason of the glmy that exailethP — 2 Cor. iii. 10. v/ SECOND ADVENT OF CIIIUST. 313 The glory of the gospel was so transcendently great, that it threw the glory of the law com- pletely into the shade ; and is it not highly probable that the heavenly light of Christ at his second coming may so fully outshine the sun, that the latter cannot be seen on our earth, and thus he may be said to be darkened. But after all this literal interpretation, may not the language be figurative. Dr. Clarke says, « ni the prophetic language, great com- motions upon earth are often represented under the notion of commotions and changes in the heavens. The fall of Bahylofi is represented by the stars and constellations of heaven withdrawing their light, and the sun and moon being darkened. See Isa. xiii. 9, 10: ^Behold the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate : and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof, shall not give their light j the sun shall be darkened in liis going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.' Again, the destruc- tion of Egypt is spoken of by the heavens being covered, the sun enveloped with a cloud, iilv f ,'■ ."fi ' i ;['i ! I ■| i^ |i .■ 1 ' ft y 314» LECTURES ON THE and the moon withholding her light. — Ezek. xxxii. 7, 8. The destruction of Jerusalem is also represented by the prophet Joel, chap. ii. 30, 31, by showing wonders in heaven and in, earth — darlicning the sun and turning the moon into hlood. This general mode of des- cribing these judgments, leaves no room to doubt the^ropriety of it^^ application in the present case." The learned commentator applies tile passage to the destruction of Jeru- salem ; but supposes that its most appropriate application is to those events which shall take place at the second Advent of Christ, they may refer to the overthrow of systems and dominions then prominent in the world. It is said further, " that the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken." Here, again, the Adven- tists find no difficulty, for they can apply these predictions to any occurrence that they can press into their service, to support their theory of Christ's immediate appearance. Hence, the author of the " Grand Crisis" tells us this sign " was literally fulfilled on the night of November 13, 1833," and he quotes from newspapers some extracts which refer to \ SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 315 s the occurrence. And what was the falling of those stars 1 but a shower of meteors seen on this continent ; now, it is probable that meteors^ or falling stars, as they are called, have been seen at intervals ever since the fall of man. I suppose there is not an adult upon earth who is blessed with sight, but who has seen those falling stars j and are we to suppose that these have always been a sign of the speedy coming of Christ ? how frivolous ; what cojisummate trifling is this with the words of the Son cf God? We shall here supply a quotation from Dry- den's translation of Virgil, to show how hea- thens viewed these meteors as omens of evil times : " And oft before tempestuous winds arise The seeming stars fall headlong from the skies, And shooting through the darkness, gild the night With sweeping glories, and long trails of light. The sun reveals the secrets of the sky, And who dares give the source of light the lie ? The change of empires often he declares, Fierce tumults, hidden treasons, open wars. He first the fate of Cossar did foretell, And pitied Rome, when Rome in Caesar fell : In iron clouds concealed tne public light, And impious mortals found eternal night." tjv-m-& 316 Nt)w LECTURES ON THE we do not think. , . setting aside the >r T..n ^^^ l^eathens, and the dreams of the MiUerites, that when Christ's second coming shall take place, that the planetary systems will be disturbed by that grand event. Certauily, the fixed Bt^xs which resemble our .-un, as the centre of their several systems, wiil not be displaced ; nor do we think that tlie planets, in onr own system, which, like this earth, revolve around our sun, will be thrown out^of their orbits. We see no reason why they should be ; if man's guilt is con- fined to this earth, why should Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupif.r, Saturn or Herschel, be' destroyed, or even deranged, on that account ; we find no necessity for it in the laws that govern the heavenly bodies, so far as we know them ; and are ive obliged, by the expression '' the stars shall fall from heaven," to suppose that these planets will be involved in the ruin of our earth. This expression, like the fore- going, is probably figurative, and will be applied to the overthrow of some numerous petty states or systems at the time of the second Advent of Christ. We shall quote a paragraph from a sensible, I , ; K- SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 317 and probably more correct, Advent writer, upon this subject ; he says : " This expression must mean either the agitation of the heavenly bodies, or else commotions on the earth sym- bolically represented. By a reference to Isaiah xiii. 10, 11 ; xxxiv. 4; and xiii. 13 ; Hagai ii. 21, — it will be seen that the dark- ening, shaking, and dissolution of the heavenly bodies are spoken of in connection with the overthrow of kingdoms. The dissolution of the celestial framework cannot be literally interpreted, for the following reasons: 1. By a reference to Jeremiah xxxi. 35, 36 ; Ps. Ixxxix. 36, 37 ; and Ixxii. 7, — it will be seen that the Lord speaks of the heavenly orbs as indestructible; and the continuance of his covenant with the seed of Israel is measured by the duration of the sun and moon. 2. The shaking of the powers is given as a sign of the coming of Christ ; but if the sun, moon and stars were to receive a vibratory or oscil- lating motion, as the Greek word implies, it would be a sign that all v^ould understand. But the word assures us, that as in the days of Noah, flL_^^|^^ffiosej,articulars, men- • Benson's Sermons! ~~ " ~ ' — 324 LECTURES ON THE il t^'oned by the sacred writers, are not points of difieicnce between the Adventists and our- selves, wc need not here enlarge. From tvhence will Christ come? This is easily answered ; when he left our world he ascended up into heaven ; after he purged our sins, he " sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on High."— -Again it is said, « we have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens." When he comes again, it is said, " the Lord himself shall descend from hea- ven." Thus shall the Saviour of the world come from heaven, from the right hand of power, in fulness of majesty, from the high- est heavens, as a demonstration of his sanctity. Where will Christ appear when he comes 1 If we listen exclusively to what the Miller- ites say, we should be led to think his appear- ance must take place on the continent of America ; yes, in the village or neighbourliood of Clarenceville. But where shall Clirisf ap- pear ? if on earth at all, which we doubt, is it not probable that we should look to the country which gave birth to his humanity,— the country which was the scene of his la- SECOND ADVENT OP CHRtST. 325 faors,-to Calvary, where lie bowed his head «nd gave up the ghost ! When he shall finally overthrow his enenues, and save the " camp not tiie finger of inspiration point us to Jeru- salem as that city/and Judea as the ground of encampment ?-Matt. xxiv. 37 : But, does not the Bible give us reason to expect that Christ, at his second coming to judge the world will set his bow in the clouds, and that those who are alive when he comes shall be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air;"-l Thess. iv. 17. Dr. Clark says, "pon that passage, " Jesus, in all the dignity and splendor of his eternal majesty, shall de- scend from heaven, to the mid-region, what the Apostle calls the air, somewhere within the eartWs atmosphere.^'' But who will be his attendants on that grand and deeply solemn occasion ? our text says, " and all the holy angels with him." This circumstance is mentioned in several parts of Scripture, and therefore it must not be overlooked : Daniel says he "beheld thou- sand thousands ministering unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand standing before \ I 32G LECTURES OS THE liim." Wliat a glorious retinue lia\^e we here ! how different from the twelve poor fishermen who attended him in his days of humiliation. But these holy angels will not only accompany him as attendants upon his person, to manifest his divine power and au- thority, and to display his royal grandeur and magnificence, but likewise as ministers of his will, to execute his purposes of love to his peopld, and of wrath to his enemies. These, as harbingers of his glory, shall prepare the way before him, and make ready for the ap- pearance of the universal judge! "I saw," (says the Apostle John) <* a mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow about his head, and his face was as the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire, and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot upon the earth, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth ; and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And he lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by Him that liveth forever and ever, who created heaven and earth and the sea, that there should be time no longer." And now he sends these <^ his angels, with a ..- SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 327 great sound of a trumpet, and they gather to- gether his elect from one end of heaven to the other," " gather them as wheat into his gar- ner." So likewise shall they be the minis- ters of his vengeance to the wicked, whom they shall gather together like tares and " bind them in bundles to burn them." Yes, at the end of the world, « the Son of Man sliall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of liis kingdom all things that offend, and them who do iniquity, and cast them into a furnace of fire, there shall be weeping and wailing arid gnashing of teeth." It IS also stated in a few passages of Scrip- ture, that ^^ saints'' also shall attend the Sa- viour, when he comes the second time ; we shall quote the passages where they are so noticed. 1 Thess. iii. 13 : " To the end he may establish your hearts unblameable in ho- liness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, ivith all his saints:' Now, this passage does not appear to our minds clearly to shew that the saints shall accompany Christ when he comes ; read the words, " at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" as in a parenthesis, then, connecting 1: : I i 328 LECTURES ON THE I I the words " witli all the saints" with the pre- ceding part, and ycii have probably the Apos- tle's meaning, as follows; « to the end he may establish your hearts iinblameable in ho- liness before God, with all the saints." The meaning of which is, the Apostle prayed that the church in Thessalonica might be unblame- able m holiness with all the saints, at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ." The next passage is 1 Thess. iv. 14 : « For if we be- lieve that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God brin»-K.-.. -feuaws^aasPsigSSBi^BiSiSwa^agBli^^ SECOND ADVENT OP CHRIST. 331 ifTering, ith, and ;ver be ?ic that mother '1. i. p. Lind an e inha- day of \ndj a day of IS des- oureth burn- az8 of rends down king- earth ! over- iVhile, And spiry flames shoot through the rolling smoke, • With keen vibrations cut the sullen night, And streak the darkeu'd sky with dreadfu'l light I " Hear, ye deaf, the re-bellowing growl and aggravated roar of hoarse-muttering thunder, the miglity voice of the great archangel, £fnd the all-alarming trump of God ! Feel, ye stout-hearted, the earth quaking and opening, the mountains trembling and removing, the hills reeling and sinking, the valleys heaving and rising! Feel, or be for ever hardened, the shock of conflicting elements, and the dash of ruined worlds. Awake, awake ! ye sleepy sinners ! shake off your fatal slumbers ! Arise from the bed of sloth, and the lap of enchanting plesisures ! Haste, haste, and flee for shelter from this day of wrath and unre- lenting fury. If you delay till this day over- take you, then, alas! whither can yon fieel The earth quakes, trembles, and opens under your feet; the storm of divine vengeance lowers and bursts upon your guilty heads; and ruin and perdition surround you on every hand ! The frowning j udge, w^hose just indig- nation you have provoked,and whose almighty wrath your sins have kindled, fixes his pierc- II i H i ' s . 332 LECTURES. ing eye upon you, and marks you out as the butt at which he will shoot his fiery arrows, and direct the thunderbolts of his everlasting indignation. And now it is vain to cry to the rocks and mountains to fall upon you and hide you ; the rocks and mountains rend and cleave asunder, yea, flee away, and leave you destitute and forsaken, exposed to all the artillery of omnipotent fury, and in the midst of dark and fiery torment. * • * O that mdn would watch and pray always, that they might escape those things which are coming upon the earth, and stand before the Son of Man with joy, and not with grief." i It LECTURE XI. THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 2 Cor. v. 10. ^^For we must all appear be/ore the judgment seat of Christ : that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or badj^ The account we have of the origin and early history of man, shows that he was placed under the government of God ; the laws he was to observe were few and simple, just enough to test his allegiance and fidelity to his sovereign. The punishment threatened was sufficiently ample and severe to deter man from disobedience ; yet, notwithstanding this, man rebelled,— man fell, — man was punish- ed. — This placed him in a different relation to the Divine Being from what he was in when first created ; he was unable to return to his first state, and he must now be dealt with, and provided for, as a fallen creature. God, in the greatness of his mercy, not will- f>. 'I tic' il- i' ,J^_-if^'V^ u n 334 LECTURES ON THE ing that he should perish everlastingly, enter- ed into a new covenant with him. The first was a covenant o£ ivorks^^ he had nothing to do but to obey. But, now that he has fallen, obedience, in all the perfection which the law required, was impossible; the corrupt tree. coLdd only bear corrupt fruit ; hence the se- cond covenant must be one, not of works, but of grace. An atonement was provided for sin, and an that sacrifice, which was promised man must now implicitly confide'^ he is to be saved by grace thxowgh faith, and that not of himself— it is the gift of God ; not of works, lest any man should boast. Yet this cove- nant also required such ofmllcnce to the new law, given to fallen man, as he is enabled to render. He is to love the Saviour and keep his commandments. Now, it must be admitted, that if the first covenant with Adam had its reward or pun- isliment, according as man might act. "hen the new covenant, which is an effort o the part of God to save man, must also have its rewards and retribution. But the prospect of a judgment does not rest upon mere conjecture ; ibr the strongest reasons can be furnished to Ww-w* *■-"' ■ '"^rifTu. SECOND ADVENT OP CHRIST. 335 show that we " must all appear before the judg- ment neat of Christ,'''^ Look to man himself; let him do what he believes is wrong, and conscience not only upbraids him, but fear of punishment, in some way or other, disquiets his soul. Conscience becomes bis accuser ^ not h.\^ judge ; a witness for or against him. Again, if we consider that God has made us, supported us, and redeemed us, we may well infer that he has a right to rui^ us. And if he has a right to rule us, he must, of necessity, have a right to reward the obe- dient and punish the disobedient ; and to dis- tinguish between them must be an investiga- tion, or a judgment of each case. But the certainty of a future judgment is based upon the ivord of God, where it is often mentioned, and used as a great motive to se- cure obedience towards God, " It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judg- ment." — Heb. ix. 27. There is a death to follow life, and a judgment to follow death, and the one is as certain as the i^her. But we suppose that this assembly admits, as an incontrovertible truth, that God " has k2 iK 336 LECTURES ON THE appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness ;" and, therefore, further proofs of its certainty are needless. The judgment of the great day does not take place to each individual immediately after death, as soon as we enter the spirit world ; for, if it did, then that judgment must have' been in progress ever since the death of Abel. The various statements in scripture, which spesk of that great event, point us to the time when the dead shall be raised, and Christ shall come the second time. There is not a particular judgment immediately after death, and anot]«er at the end of the world ; but one general judgment for all. We shall call your attention — First, to the Judge himself. Our text says, "we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ:^ If we consider the multitudes to be judged, the conduct of each which has to be exam- ined, and that many of these things were done thousands of years before the individuals have been called to account,— then we must be convinced that none but God is equal to a work of such magnitude ; besides, none has 11)11- SECOND ADVENT OF CflKlST. a right to judge tlie servants of God but 1 self, — tlie law by which we are to be judged was given by him, and the persons to be tried are his subjects— whether, therefore, we con- sider the ahility required or the mitlimity for it, God only can be the judge. The Father is God,--the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God. And this fulness of the Godhead, which dwelt in Christ, will appear to judge the world in the person of the Saviour. Thus it will be God who judges by Christ the Son ; and this appointment is undoubtedly the best, considering his affinity to our nature, his ex- perience of our infirmities, and his appear- ance to our eyes when he judges. This will be a source of happiness to believers, for in the person of their Judge they will recognise their Redeemer. It will give an additional value to the crown of life, that it will be bestowed by the hand of Christ : that the very Being who died for them, and justified them, and sanc- tified them, and who inspired them with their brightest hopes, has now come to collect them around him, to wipe away all their tears, and thus to fulfil their joy. And if it be right that his enemies should be vanquished, it is k3 .'!t li .1 ! ¥'. ' ': I i i : i i I ij ' "' m 4 33S LECTUFIES ON THE I>roper tliat unbelievers should be coudemueJ, there a])pears a peculiar propriety that, both for their greater conviction, and his greater exaltation, the sentence of condemnation should be pronounced by him. And, Oh! what an enhancement of their doom will this single circumstance produce. When sinners shall draw near, and be compelled to look on him whom they have pierced, the confusion will be complete. When they shall behold him invested in the robe of humanity, that single sight will flash on them the recollect- tion of all that Jesus did, in that nature, to redeem them ;— the incarnation, the bloody sweat, the cross, the pierced side— all will appear to view, and penetrate them with an agonizing sense of their ingratitude and guilt.* But, while we think of Christ as the judge, let us look at some of those qualities which he possesses for that all important office. First, his supreme maje&tAj, The office and dignity of the Son of Man is often declared by figurative and parabolical descriptions. Speaking of his coming to judge the world, • John V. 22, Matt. xvi. 27 ; Acts. x. 42. lii i !:^^i« a i SKCO.VU ADVENT OF CHRIST. 339 It is said : " His fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."— Matt, ni. 12. He has further six)ken of himself as a husbandman, who will say to his reapers in the time of harvest, « Gather ye together first the t^res, and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn." He represented himself under the notion of a fisherman, " casting a net into the sea, and gathering of every kind ; which, when it was full, he drew to the shore, and sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away."— Matt. xiii. 47, 48. He speaks of himself as a shepherd separating the sheep from the goats, and setting the sheep on hi 3 right hand, but the goats on his left. These representations, it is true, are borrowed from the lowly walks of human life ; but we must remember it was Christ tvho spake thus of himself and his ofiice, as the great judge and final disposer of all ; and it was in perfect keeping with the character of him who made himself of no reputation, but took upon him- self the form of a servant. But let others— k4^ 340 LK(:rLKi:.s o,\ the men iiisjjired uf God— leler to his closing work with the inhabitants oi' this earth, and with what lofly language and royal dignity do they represent him : '' We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ;" (text) "The Lord himself shall descend from hea- ven with a shout, with the voice of the arch- angel, and with the trump of God"— 1 Tliess. iv. 16. " The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flam- ing fire"— 2 Thess. i. 7. <' Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ" —Titus ii. 13; 2 Tim. 1, 10. "Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints" — Jude 14. « And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened, and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books" — Rev. xx. 11, 12. Thus, you see, the returning Saviour will occupy a throne, a great white throne, a throne before which kings and emperors themselves & SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 34.1 must bow, and acknowledge Christ ^^ King of kings, and Lord of lords." Secondly, consider the authority of Christ to judge the world. Even the meek and lowly Jesus could not forbear saying to his disciples, " All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth" — Matt, xxviii. 18. " The Father judgetli no man, but hath com- mitted all judgment unto the Son ; that all mtn should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father"— John v. 22, 23. The authority of Christ to judge is given to him by the divine and eternal Being ; and that authority is manifest in his summoning all creatures to appear before him, and in the honor which the accompanying angels pay him, by their perfect obedience to his com- mands. His ahility for this great work is also strik- ingly manifest, whether we consider his deity, or review his life. While a man of sorrows with what consummate skill did he detect and expose the hypocrisies of the Pharisees and Sadducees when they tempted him, or thouglit to entangle him in his words. With what acouraey did he direct Peter to the Hi P ^iJ k5 mm- 342 ■i, -k. LECTURES ON THE fish With the money in its mouth, while it was yet free in its watery element ! With what circumstantial correctness did he fore- tell the seige and destruction of Jerusalem, while h]s disciples admired the size of the stones and the strength of the buildings, as if tliey could never be destroyed. But when we remember that he is God, bod in the highest sense of the term, possessing infinite laiow- iedgfe— that he knows every person that^Jias at any time occupied a place on this earth,- that he is acquainted with their whole char- acter, circumstances, and prGceedings,-in short, that he scarcheth the reins and hearts • and " known unto him are all things from the beginning." That he never has erred, and never can err. That his judgment or opinion of every one is inflexible-that it cannot be deceived by professions or appeamnces, but It is correct in every case, and. in every particular. ^ mspourr to execute Ids sentence is another feature m Christ as the judge. Christ is represented as^'king as well as judge : « then shall the king say unto them, come, ye blessed of. my father." ikc. As' SECOND ADVENT OP CHRIST. 343 king, then, iie holds in his hands the power of life or death ; but if we remember his vast resources, which he can command in such a way that every creature will then be under perfect subjection to him-none can resist his will; and all the agencies and elements in existence are but so many instruments in carrying out his purposes. Such, then, are a few of the qualifications of Christ ns supreme judge ; and even this imperfect glance may well lead us to exclaim, " shall not the judge of all the earth do right !" We shall now refer you to the perso-ts to be judged. " We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ," says the Apostie. When St. raul says '^ tver he does not mean simply Apostles, or believers in Christ, as he sometimes does elsewhere in Scripture,' but he means all classes and conditions of men, righteous and wicked, the dead and the living. When we consider that our earth is a sphere, and that man is found in every latitude and longitude, we perceive, that when Christ comes to judge, there must be a gathering of the people together. For this purpo.-e, ""the 3'U LECTURES ON THE sound of a trumpet is heard : it is the voice of the Judge calling for the sleeping dead,— calling with a voice which is instantly heard, understood and obeyed : they that are in their graves come forth. Again it sounds ; and unnumbered angels, true to the signal, dis- perse over the four quarters of the earth, and collect the whole human family into the area of the great tribunal."* The Scriptures, speaking of those who are to be judged, sometimes mention them collect- wely, we must " «//" appear j before him shall be gathered " all nations^ " The hour is coming, in the which all that ore in the graves, shall hear his voice, and shall come forth." " He hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the worhV' Sometimes the Scriptures speak of them distnbutively : « he shall reward every man according to his works." " So then, every one of us shall give account of himself to God." " We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that eve?-y one may receive the things done i^i his body." But the Scriptures also cla^dfu tji^persons to bejiidged, the bad and the . • Great Teache r. ~ ~~ ~^ SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 345 good,~t\ie quick and tlie dead. One classifi- cation refers to the mere circumstance of their being dead or alive, when Christ comes ; an- other refers to their moral character, righteous and wicked. We shall dwell briefly upon these two classes : — First, then, the class to whom the circum- stance of life or death is applied : St. Paul said unto Timothy: "I charge thee, there- fore, before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom."— 2 Tim. iv. 1. This passage not only mentions the classes to be judged, of which we shall speak below, but also of the time -whew the judgment shall take place, viz. : at the " appearing'''^ of our Lord Jesus Christ, when he shall come to take his people home to '' inherit the king- dom prepared for them." Again, St. Peter says : " who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the deadP As the Scriptures make use of the words quick and dead, in different ways, it may here be desirable to state their meaning, as used by these Apostles in the pussages quoted. Bishop Pearson says: "because after death i I 1 X" i 4 346 LECTURES ON THE the soul doth live, and the body only remain- eth dead ; therefore, some have understood the souls of luen by the quick, and tlieir bo- dies by the dead: and then the meaning will be this, that Christ shall come to judge im- mediately upon the resurrection, when the souls which were preserved alive, shall be joined to the bodies which were once dead ; and so men shall be judged entirely, both in' body and soul, for oil those actions which the soul committed in the body. * * * » ]\Tq^^, though this be a truth. * * *^ Yet this is not to be acknowledged as the interpretation of this Article." The distinction in the passages is not one of the parts of man, but of the persons of men. " Again, because the Scripture often men- tioneth a death in trespasses and sin, and a living unto righteousness, others have con- ceived by the quick to be understood the^^^s^, and by the dead the unjust : so that Christ shall judge the quick, that is, the just, by a sentence of absolution ; and the dead, that is, the unjust, by a sentence of condemnation.-^' Though it be true, that Christ shall judge them both, yet it is not probable, that in this SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 347 particular, they should be taken in a figura- tive or metaphorical sense, • * • because the literal sense allordeth a fiiir explication. " By the chad, are understood all those who ever died before the time of Christ's coming to judgment ; and by the cfiick such as shuil be then alive : so that the quick and the dead, literally taken, are considered in relation to the time of Christ's coming ; at which time there shall be a generation living upon the face of the earth, and before which time all the generations passed since the creation of the world shall be numbered among the dead. * * * That Christ shall come to judge, not only those which shall be alive upon the earth at his appearing, but also all such as have lived and died before. M one shall be judged while they are dead ; whosoever standeth before the judgment seat shall appear alive ; but those which never died shall be judged as they were alive. He shall judge, therefore, the quick, that IS, those which shall be then alive when he cometh ; and he shall judge the dead, that IS, those which at the same time shall be raised from the dead."* !i,i '»'. * Exposition of the Creed. 54.8 I s : I LECTURES ON THE The second classification has respect to their «W chiraaer. It is said, « When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit npon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations ; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth US sheep from the goats; and he shall set he sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the lefa" Thus " they that have done good and they that have done evil," will be the distinction observable at that time. Among the wicked, there is a great diver- sity m the sais that most easily beset them, and, in the extent to which they have gone some are only "slothful servants," who have' buned their talents ; and others who have s"d, "this is the heir, come let us kill him and the inheritance shall be ours." But what- ever gradations there may be in 'he wicked they must all appear before the judgment seat oi Christ. The secresy of some sins, and the revolting character of others, will be no reason why, m the one case, the hidden thino-s of darkness should not be brought to light, and in the other the shocking scenes fully developed. SrcOND ADVENT OK (IIHI.ST. 349 The righteous, t„o, will be there, with all he. aihngs and faults; with all then- errors Zt It '"""i^' ^"'^ '^^ *^^« t° hear Christ say, Corne, ye blessed of my Father ;" yes «^ey will hear it, ia despite of their former doubts and fears, their misgivings and apn e hensions ; they will occupy the mansionXea, the crown sway the sceptre, range the swe t plains and ascribe their salvation unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto th^ ■Lamb for ever and ever. t«k?'/"' w"* °^ ^'^^ "Shteous will not take p ace before the wicked are raised as «ome theorists would have us believe , there will be no long lapse of time between he rl! surrection of the just and of the unj„st,-!„or throtr *'^^Jf Sment of the one c/ass Ind o the other. The resurrection will be simulta- neous and the judgment will proceed with both characters at the same time ; and as one « proved to be a " sheep," he will be placed at the right, and as another is found to be a goat," he will be landed to the left,-until the entire flock of the human race is separated, i hus he judgment will be universal ; every one of the human race will be there, without n k ■ ired word, already quoted, and others, are quite clear upon this point ; they refer to the presence of incalculable numbers. The triune Gody the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, —countless myriads of angels, as attendants, messengers, and agents, to execute his will,— . the human family, a vast concourse of every age since the creation of the world, and of every nation under heaven. Yea, " and the sea will give up her dead which are in it j and death and hell deliver up the dead which are in them ; that they may be judged every * Great Teacher. II 352 LECTURES ON THE man according to his works."— .Rev. xx 13 Probably Satan and all the angels who kept not their first estate, whom *' he hath reserved 111 everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day."— Jude 6. Thus a multitude which no man can number, ga- thered out of every nation, kindred, and peo- ple, of this globe, with all that are in heaven, and all that are in hell ; such a number of beings as probably never assembled before ^ and may never assemble again. And before ' this immense concourse, the judgment will take place, the books will be opened, and the dead will be judged out of those things which were written in the books, according t . their works-Rev. XX. 12. By this publicity, "piety will be most honored, sin most abashed, and the government of God vindicated and glori- fied on the largest scale. What a profound impression will it produce of the holy char- acter of God, and of the infinite enormity of sin. When his people are crowned, he would not have one of their enemies absent j and when the ungodly are doomed, he would not have one of the righteous absent. He would have them depart to their respective allot- w^^^j^ SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 353 ga- ments, bearing, away with them impressions of the hatefulness of sin, and the beauty of holiness, which shall remain imeifaced through all the scenes of eternity." * The judgment will be minute and exact m all its investigations. " For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil."— Eccle. xii. 14. Christ, in his own prerogative, informs us " that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment."— Matt. xii. 36. Here is information enough for us — the wise man and the Saviour both asserting, the one by inspiration, the other by his own autho- rity, that whatever we think, feel, desire, purpose, speak or do, will furnish subject matter for investigation in the great day of accounts. The great assize " will not be for sins of recent commission merely ; sins com- mitted thousands of years before will be reproduced and examined, with all their cir- cumstances of aggravation, as if they had been only just committed. Let a single deed, let a single thought, the most inconsequent * Great Teacher. r I f irl 354 LECTURES ON THE i ffii^l: and unproductive that ever passed through the mind, be omitted, and, if that thought pos- sessed a moral quality, the universe would be justified m protesting against the omission. Bnt nothing shall be overlooked, nothing made light of; the slightest voluntary exercise of the soul, the very dust of the balances shall be taken into the account. The two mites— the cup of cold water— the jirison visit— the pious wish, on the one hand, and the omitted kindness, the idle word, the unchaste look, the thought of evil, the deed of darkness, on the other,— shall all be brought into the opeh court. * * * Nothing is insignificant on which Sin has breathed the breath of hell f every thing is important on which holiness has impressed itself in the faintest characters. And, accordingly, < there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed ; and hid^ that shall not be known.'" * But there is reason to believe that we shall be judged, not only for what we are, and for what we have done, but also for what we might have become, and for tvhat we might have done, if we had used and i mproved the of)por- * Great Teacher. ;h rough ^ht pos- oiild be lission. g' made cise of s shall iiites — it— the mitted 3 look, 3SS, on 3 opeh lilt on : hell f Dliness meters, vered, t shall ! shall id for it we t have )f)por- SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 355 tunities and abilities with which we ^vero favored; the slothful servant, who hid his lord\s money, was not pniiished for dcstroyino- or even injm-ing the talent-nay, he had taken care of it, wrapt in a napkin, and hidden it for security against thieves,- ;at ho was pun- ished for slothfulness, for not improving the talent, for not increasing the sum committed to him. Again, Christ says, « he that believeth not IS condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light IS come into the world, and men loved darknes J rather than light, because their deeds were evil."— John iii. 18, 19. By neglecting to believe on the Son of God, hearers of the gospel become guilty of the' grossest insult to the divine majesty, in ne- glectmg, slighting, and despising, the salvation which the infinite mercy of God had provided for them. Thus men will be judged for neglecting this great salvation, and condemned for not having it, as well as for their other sins. Thirdly: The judgment will h^impartiaL Men will be judged according to those laws ? 356 LECTURES ON THE of God, with which they were acquainted; for GocFs laws by which he would .govern man- kind, are not equally known to all, the wull of God was gradually revealed to our race, the light shining more and more in each succeed- ing dispensation, till the perfect day of Chris- tianity arrived ; and even under this dispen- sation, multitudes of our fellow men have never heard of Christ as the Saviour, nor the Bible as the rule of faith and practice ; but those who have had nothing more than the law faithfully written on their hearts, and very imperfectly transmitted from one gene- ration to another, w^U only be judged accord- ing to the talent entrusted to them ; while those of us who have lived in heaven's bright- est sunshine of Gospel light, will be judged according to the law of God's revealed will in the Bible. This we have had, and by it we shall be judged ; and it will be no mitigatio:: of our state, that we did not understand our Bible better, or the way of salvation more clearly ; for we might have learnt them more perfect- ly, if we had applied ourselves to them.— ** That servant w^hich knew his lord's will, ted ; for n man- will of ice, the icceed- ^ Chris- Jispen- L have lor the e ; but an the s, and gene- Lccord- while jright- judged ;d will all be of our Bible early ; ?rfect- 5m. — will, SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 357 and prepared not himself, neither did accord- ing to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes: But he that knew not, and did com- nut things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten Witn few stripes : For unto whomsoever much IS given, of him shall much be required "— . Luke xii. 47-48. Faith, love, and obedience, are the thmgs particularly required of us • and If any oi these are wanting, whatever may have been our professions, the vessel will be marred, the serviint will be unprofitable, and he will justly be cast into outer darkness The Lord will judge the world in righteous^ ness. « He will render to every man accord mg to his deeds. To them, who, by patient continuance in well doing * * * eternal lije. But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth » * * indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first and also of the Gentile. But glory, honour^ and peace to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile : For there is no respect of persons with God. For OS many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law : and as many as have 358 LECTURES ON THE sinned in the law, shall be judged by the ]aw.*'--Rom. ii. 6-12. The senteijce of the Judge will be final and irreversible, for it takes place at the end of the world, and it is also the decision ^i a jimge who is king, the highest authority, so that when he says, - Come, ye blessed of my leather, inherit the kmgdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world ;" or, ^' De- part from me, ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his an gels," —then these sentences shall be immediately carried into execution, for the wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment j but the right- eous into life eternal."— Matt. xxv. 34, 41^46. In conclusion, we observe that there 'are yet persons who are unwilling to believe in a day of judgment, and they are ready to say, where is the promise of his coming ? and be- cause of their disbelief, or affected disbelief, they rush into sin, and thereby fulfil the words of Solomon, " Because sentence against an evil w^ork is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil."— Eccle. viii. 11. We will conclude this lecture with a quotation from SECOND ADVfiNT OF CHRIST. 359 Boston : " Be exhorted to believe this great truth ; and believe it so, that you may pre- pare for the judgment betimes. Set up a secret tribunal in your own breasts, and often call yourselves to au account there. Make the judge your friend in time, by closing with him in the offer of the Gospel ; and s:\ve all diligence, that you may be found in Christ at that day. Cast off the ivorks of darkness ; and live, as believing you are, at all times, and mull places^ under the eye of your judge, who will bring every work into judgment! with every secret thing ! Be fruitful in good works, knowing, that as you sow, you shall reap. Study piety towards God, righteous- ness and charity towards men. Lay up iti store plenty of works of charity and mercy towards those who are in distress, espe- cially such as are of the household of faith ; that they may be produced, in that dav, as evidences that you belong to Christ. Shut not up your bowels of mercy now towards the needy, lest you then find no mercy.— Take heed, that in all your works you be single and sincere ; aiming, in them all, at the glory of your Lord, a testimony of I i If !-' J 360 LECTURES ON THE your love to him, and in obedience to his command. Leave it to hypocrites, who have their reward, to proclaim every man his own goodness ; and to sound a trumpet wiien they do their alms. It is a bnse and unchristian spirit wiiich cannot have satisfaction in « good work unless it be exposed to tlie view of oth- ers : it is utterly unworthy of one who believes that the last trumpet shall call together the whole world, before whom the judge himself shall publish works truly good, how secretly soever they wore done. Live in a believing expectation of the coming of the Lord. Let your loins be always girt, and your lamps burning; so when he comes, whether in the last day of your life, or in the last day of the world, ye shall be able to say with joy, < Lo, this is our God, w^e have w^aited fur him.'" * •Fourfold State. SttCONU ADVENT ul' ClllUVr. 3Gt LECTURE XII. THE CONFLAGRATIOxV. 2 Pet. ili. 10. '''But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up." Those parts of the scripture which refer to the burning of our world, are so explicit, that we might suppose they could not be misun- derstood, or misapplied, but such is the obli- quity of the human mind, that every object appears to be of the same color as the me- dium is through which we look at it; for instance, if we look at the sun through a piece of gi-een glass, the sun appears green ; if we look at a piece of white cloth through a red glass, the white cloth appears red . And in this way a flilse color and wrong application has been given to the passages alluded to, I f-l 3G\l M:CTLKE Ll!:CTUREs o\ riiE fill sight, as it is represented in Scripture, and understood by us. First: As it appears in the heavens ; they " shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat."— - Again the Apostle says, (ver. 12,) "the hea- vens being on fire shall be dissolved." What are we to understand by the word " HEAVENS" in these passages ? In the Scrip- tures, we discover that this word has several different applications, and unless we can defi- nitely fix its meaning as the Apostle used it, we are not likely to understand the passages correctly. Heaven, then, is sometimes put, for what St. Paul calls the " third" heaven, and what Solomon calls " the heaven of hea- vens," the place where God is represented as residing and exercising his authority and power in the government of the universe.— It is the temple of the divine Majesty, where his excellent glory is revealed in the most conspicuous manner. But we cannot think the Apostle refers to that place, when he says, '' the heavens being on fire shall he cUs- solved.^^ Again, the word heaven is applied to that region of space occupied by the sim^ SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 365 and the stars, and is called in Scripture, " the firmame7itP (Gen. i. 17.) Now, we do not conceive the possibility of destroying that space, or the probability of those heavenly bodies passing away with a great noise, when Christ shall come to judge the world. But the word heaven, is also applied to the atmosphere, which envelopes our earth, and and hence we read of the " foivls of heaven," (Job. XXXV. 11,) the 'Uleiv of heaven," the " clouds of heaven," and the 'Hvmds of hea- ven." Now, the application of the word in our text, to the atmosphere is easy, natiual, and even certain ; in short, we do not see the possibility of the Apostle using it in any other sense. Besides, we have the concurrent tes- timony of commentators to the same effect. Br. Clarke says : " As the heavens mean here, and ill the passages above, the whole «t??^05- phere, m which all the terrestrial vapours are lodged." This opinion wil! fr^ce for a spe- cimen. Consider the composition of this atmosphere, and see whether there 1^ a possibility of such an occurrence as Peter speaks of— The immense mass of permanently elastic fW^I i > 366 LECTURES ON THE fluid, says Dr. Ure, which surrounds the globe we inhabit, must consist of a general assem- blage of every kind of air, which can be formed by the various bodies which compose its sur- face. Most of these, however, are absorbed by waters ; a number of them are decomposed by- combination with each other, and some of them are scidom disengaged in considerable quantities by the processes of nature. He?ice it 2s that the loioer atmosphere consists chief y of oxygen and nitrogen, together with moisture, and the occasional vapours or exhalations of bodies. TJie upper atmosphere seems to be composed of a large proportion of hydrogen, a fluid of so much less specific gravity than any other, that it must naturally ascend to the highest places. Oxygen gas is a iwiverful siqyporter of com- bnstion, or hur?ii7ig. Hydrogen gas is most highly inflamable. Now, when we consider that the lower part of the atmosphere con- tains about one fifth of oxygen and the upper part of the atmosphere a much greater pro- portion of hydrogen, we see how much com- bustible material there is in the atmosjhere itself When five measures of atmospheric SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 367 air are mixed with two of hvdrog-en, and a lighted taper, or an electee si.ark^is applied to the mixture, ex^ilodoiv takes x>hice ; such tin experiment give^ • , on a small scale, instan- ces of tku7ider and lightning, ^"^ * But the atmosphere contains an immense quantity of tvater fluid raised by evaporation, and carried about in the form of clouds ; now, at first thought, we might sup])ose that this floating watery element would be a sufficient guard against the atmosphere being burnt up ; but the very contrary of this is the case, for these very watery particles can be acted upon so as to produce thunder and lightning of the most terrific kind. A quotation from Dr. Clarke's commentary will set this clearly before us 5 he says : " As the heavens mean here, and in the passage above, the whole atmosphere, in which all the terrestrial vapors are lodged ; and as %vater itself is composed of. two gases, eighty-five parts in iveight of oxygen and fifteen ol hydrogen, and as the chclric,OY ethereal fire, is that which, in all likelihood, God will use in the general con- flagration ; the noise occasioned by tlie appli- * Loudon Ency. f 368 LECTURES ON TH£ cation of this fire to such an immense co?ige- ries of aqueous particles as flood in the atmos- phere, must be terrible in the extreme. Put a drop of water on an anvil, place over it a piece of iron red hot, strike the iron with a hammer on the part above the drop of water, and the report will be as loud as a musket ; when, then, the whole strength of those oppo- site agents is brought together into a state of conflict, the noise, the thunderings, the innw merahle explosiom, will be frequent, loud, con-- founding and terrijk beyond every compre- hension but that of God himself." We have all been spectators of thunder storms, in w^hich the noise has been very loud, and the fire sometimes awfally grand j sometimes the light has been zigzag, at other times balls of fire connected with a chain of fire,— and these have produced fear and awe in our minds more than any thing else could do. But on how small a scale was that storm, perhaps uot over a mile or two in length and width, and half a mile in height; but what is this to the vast extent of onr atmosphere which, at the conflagration, will be a terrific thunder storm upon a most extensive scale, and of a SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 369 most divinely magnificent character, extend- ing from our earth to the highest regions, say about sixty milts upward, and from every part of the equator to the poles ; then, indeed, " the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fer- vent heat." Thirdly, it is said in our text, « the elements shall melt with fervent heatP The word, translated elements, signifies the first princi- ples or constituent parts of any thing. Hence, it signifies the letters of the alphabet, v/hicli are the constituent parts or eJeinents of writ- ing ; in the text, we understand the word elements to mean those gases of which the atmosphere is composed ; hence, Dr. Clai'ke says, " when the fire has conquered and de- composed the water, the elements, the hydro^ gen and oxygen airs, or gases, (the former of w^hich is most inflamable, and the latter an eminent supporter of all combustion,) will occupy distinct regions of the atmosphere, the hydrogen, by its very great levity, ascending to the top, while the oxygen, from its superior specific gravity, will keep upon, or near the surface of the earth : and thus, if these dif- I ;i! e :i i^'i; 370 LECTURES ON THE ferent substances be once ignited, the fire, which is supported in this case, not only by the oxygen, which is one of the constituents of atmospheric air, but also by a great addi. tional quantity of oxygen, obtained from the decomposition of all aqueous vapours, will ra- pidly seize on all other substances, on all ter- restrial particles, and the whole frame of na- turje will be necessarily torn in pieces ; and thus the earth and its works be burnt %i])P Thus, you perceive, by the chemical composi- tion of the atmosphere, that it contains the very elements which fit it for such a confla- gration, as St. Peter here foretells ; so that sound philosophy gives its assent to divine revelation, and both agree that " the liBavens being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the ele- ments shall melt with fervent heat." — ver. 12 But let us now proceed to consider, secondly^ the conJlagratio7i of the earth. The Apostle says, " the earth also, and the ivorhs that are therein, shall be burnt itp^ The " earth" here doubtless means the body of the globe, and the " u rks," all things upon its surface. Let us proceed to consider the composition. of the earth, so far as we are capable of doing t e i SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 371 )> SO. You will not expect us, in a short lecture, to draw largely from the science of geology, and to speak of all the materials of which the crust of this earth is made. The surface gen- erally consists of a cooftisod mixture of de- cayed animal and veget;ib]e substances, and earths rudely united together; but, below the surface, the materials are found arranged in a more regular manner. The origin and formation of the different strata is ascribed to the deluge, when it is supposed all sorts of terrestrial bodies were dissolved and mixed with the waters, — and that the heaviest sank first, and the lightest afterwards; and thus were formed the strata of which the earth consists, and that these strata gradually attain- ed their hardness and solidity, and have since continued distinct. But a large portion of the earth's surface consists of tvaters, and the sea itself is extended over about six tenths of the whole ; but what proportion the water upon the surface may bear to the solid part of the earth's crust, we have no means of ascertain- ing, for the bottom of the sea probably resem- bles the surface of the dry land in its inequa- lities, and has eminences and depressions as l2 i ■? •I i\ I 1 I' ', P 1" 372 LECTURES ON THE Strongly marked as our mountains and val- leys. But this immense body of water will form no impediment to the general conflagration* for when cavities are formed by earthquakes in the crust of the earth, the sea will flow mto the flaming liquid of the earth's bowels, from which it will be thrown off with incre- dible impetuosity, and thus break down every barrier that would stop its motion or expansion, and thus the water itself will contribute to the terrible confusion by sinking mountains, rending rocks, and bursting open a thou- sand places of this earth's crust, and pouring out immense eruptions from the mighty caul- dron of our globe. The thickness of mir earth's crust, cannot, of course, be ascertained with any precision ; but, we presume, no informed person will suppose that it is one solid mass of substances from its circumference to its centre ; various conjec- tures have been formed upon the subject, but the most general, and probable theory, is, that the bowels of the earth are an immense mass of intense fire, surrounded by a suflicient crust of various materials. At present, how- SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 373 ever, we shall confine ourselves to the proba- ble thickness of this shell, which encloses the central fire. We find, then, means have been used for penetrating this crust, by mines ; the deepest of those mines is one in Hungary, yet it is not over 1000 yards deep,— a little more than half a mile down from the surface. Again, attempts have lieen made to fathom the depths of the sea. The grea. jst depth that has been sounded, so far as we know, was by Mr. Scoresby (in June, 1817,) who sounded to the depth of 7200 feet, a little over four miles ; but this was only about a thousandth part of the earth's semi-diameter. Bishop Bur- nett says : " The central fire must be inclosed in a shell of great strength and firmne^; for fire being of itself the lightest, and most active of all bodies, it would not be detained in that lowest prison without a stron"*g guard upon it. It is true, we can make no certain 3 udgment, of what thickness this shell is ; but if we suppose this fire to have a twentieth part of the semi-diameter of the earth, (viz., about 200 miles) on either side the centre, for its sphere, which seems to be a fair allowance, there would still remain nineteen parts for l3 HiJi r . i : , I I IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (iV^T-3) 1.0 LI |£0 ™^^ u m ^ US. 2.5 L8 1.25 1.4 1.6 ^ 6" ► vQ . iP.r i/.x % 374 LECTURES ON THE our safeguard and security : and these nine- teen parts of the semi-diameter of the earth* will make 3268 miles * for a partition wall betwixt us and this central fire."t But, you perceive, the learned bishop only supposes the central fire to be one-twentieth of the half diameter of our globe, without giving any calculations or data that would lead to such a conclusion; and we are inclined to think, (set^mg aside the misprint or miscalculation,) that his supj)osition is rather extravagant, for we can see no reason to think the shell of the earth is • 3800 miles thick, while the central fire is only 400 miles diameter. Professor Stillman says: "A fact of general interest has been proved by the boring of the Artesian wells in the suburbs of Paris, namely, as we go towards the centre of the earth, the tem- perature increases at the rate of about one degree for every fifty feetP % Now, if this ratio j^hould coulinue to the burning liquid of ^he interior, it will serve as a general rule by * Reckoning 8000 miles for the diameter, the 3268 ought to be 3800 miles. t Theory of the world. J Wes. Mag, 1851, p. 760. SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 375 which to make some important calculations, Viz., if the heart, or liquid part of our earth, was originally made of tin, that metal melts at a heat of 4420 farenheit, consequently the mcreasing heat towards the bowels of the earth, would melt it at a depth of about 1 1 miles, which would then be the thickness of the earth's crust. But if the interior were made of lead, then the crust would be 16 miles. If the interior were made of silver the crust would be 52 miles. If it were made of gold, the crust would be 56 miles. If it were made of cast-iron, the crust would be 78 miles. If it were made of Platina, Vi mei^l which melts at a heat so intense that no in- strument now in use can measure it, but if we suppose it to melt at 3060" heat, then the crust of the earth would be 84 miles. The above calculations are made upon the supposition that the temperature of the earth increases regularly at the rate of one degree for every 50 feet, until we come to the cen- tral fire. But the probability is, that the tem- pemture increases as we approach the state of fusion, according to a well known law in na- ture. If, for illustration, you insert one end of l4 5 1 I %. K ■' P- . 1 376 LECTURES ON THE a bar of iron in a fire, and hold the other end in your hand, when the part of the rod which is in the fire is red hot, the other end in your hand is but slightly warm, but the heat is great- er then 1" to every 50 feet, as you move your hand towards the fire ; so it probably is in the crust of the earth, and the heat which increases 1 ^ to every fifty feet, near the surface, may increase much more rapidly as you approach the central heat. Bishop Burnet says : « consider the hidden invisible materials within the veins of the earth ; such are all minerals, or mineral juices and concretions that are igniferous,or capabla of inflammation ; and these cannot easily be reckoned up, or estimated ; some of the most common are sulphur, and sulphureous bodies, and earth's impregnated with sulphur, bitu- men, and bitumenous concretions ; inflamable salts, coal, and other fossils that are ardent; with innumerable mixtures and compositions of these kinds, * * * which, by attrition, dis- cover the latent seeds of fire. By the above calculations, you perceive that if the heart of our earth were made of a metal which requires the greatest heat to melt SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 377 it, the crust of the earth might only be about 84 miles thick. And if that heart of the earth were made of Hn, the crust might not be more than 11 miles thick. Now, if these calcula- tions be correct, and we even suppose this shell of the earth to be 100 miles in thickness, yet there is in its bowels a burning fire of 7800 miles diameter, leaving only about one- fortieth part for its crust ; thus the thickness of the earth's crust, according to these calcula- tions, is but little more, in proportion to its size, than the thickness of an eg- shell is to its inner parts. / The conclusion, then, is, that our earth, in its composition, offers no effectual hindrance to its final conflagration ; and from what we might term the merest accident, such as a col- lision with a comet, the shell might be broken in a moment. Pliny, the naturalist, said, « it was one of the greatest wonders of the world, that the world was not every day set on fire." Let us now proceed to consider by what means the conflagration may be started. Mr. Wesley says : "how soon may a comet, commis- sioned by the Lord, travel down from the most distant parts of the universe ! and were 1 378 LECTURES ON THE It to fix upon the earth, in its return from the sun, when at is some thousand times hotter than a red hot cannon-ball, who does not see what must be the immediate consequence ?"• Here Mr. Wesley appears to refer to the comet setting fire to our earth ; but we have, in a preceding paragraph, spoken also of a comet crushing in the shell of our earth if we were to come in collision with it ; and suqh a collision is quite possible, as several comets, known to Astronomers, cross the earth s orbit, as they perform their revolutions round the sun. And, I have autlwity for saymg, that if our earth had been a month's journey more forward in its orbit in the year I«32, It would have come into collision with the comet of Bicla ; and as tl:ere are hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of those wandering stars, who does not see the danger to whiel our earth is exposed ? Cut some have supposed, that ^vhen the atmosphere is on fire and the elements melt with fervent heat, that the burning atmosphere may set fire to this terraqueous globe. Dr. Cj^]*^^speaking_of^^ elements in • Wes. Works, rol. 5. p, 180. ~ ' SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 379 the atmosphere, says, it " will rapidly seize on all other substances, on all terrestrial particles, and the whole frame of nature will be neces- sarily torn in pieces ; and thus the earth and its works be burnt upP Again, the sun and central fire of the earth have been thought probable means of accom- plishing it. Bishop Burnet, in referring to some writers, says, "there are two grand Capital causes which some authors make use of as the chief agents in this work — the sun and the central fire. These two great incen- diaries, they say, will be let loose upon us at the conflagration : the one drawing nearer to the earth, and the other breaking out of its bowels into these upper regions." * Dr. Gumming says : " It has been ascer- tained by geologists, in the course of the last few years, that the interior portions of that very globe, on the crust of which our houses are built, is one vast mass of liquid or molten fire ; and that earthquakes, the vibrations of which we feel, are but the shocks of thoso fiery waves lashing those desolate subterra- nean shores, and that those volcanoes are but ♦ Theory of the Earth. 380 LECTURES ON THE the safety-valves that allow the excess of its action to escape, lest the crust of the earth should be riven in pieces, and all its popula- tion perish." Speaking of the last day, he says: "Then the fire that is treasured up shall burst forth at ten thousand crevices-- * the elements shall melt as with fervent heat' —the solid rocks shall blaze as if they were wax, and the rivers as if they were oil. and th^ weary old earth, having undergone the ordeal of the last fire, shall regain its pristine purity, and become fit for the immediate pre- sence of the descending Saviour and his risen saints." * Eruptions from burning mmntains supply us with evidence sufficient to show, that if their number were multiplied, streams of lava might flow from the equator to the poles, and having communication with the internal fire, th J destruction could easily be effected. Tlien earthquakes are spoken of as being uncommonly numerous at that time. Mat- thew, Mark and Luke, all report Christ as statmg that there will be « great earthquakes in divers places f the effect of these upon t he * Lee. on Apoc. " " "" ;ii SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 381 shell of our^ earth may be like taking the key-stone from the arch, when the whole will fall to pieces ; so our earth, by these numerous earthquakes, may be so rent in pieces that the whole shall be broken, up, and fall towards its centre, where a short time will be suffi- cient to consume the whole. Angels, as God's messengers and execu- tioners, have also been thought of as the agents in producing the conflagration ; *• they have often been employed to execute God's judgments upon a nation, or a people, that it cannot seem strange that in this last judg- ment, which is represented as the day of his wrath, angels shall bear their part and con- clude the last scene of that tragedy ; hence we read of the destroying angel in Egypt, (Gen. xii. 23) and of the angels thao presided at the destruction of Sodom, (Gen. xix. 13) and that angels will accompany the Judge when he comes in flames of fire to call the nations to his bar. The extent of this conflagration of our earth is a point upon which we shall briefly dwell. When we consider the vast quantity of in- ♦ Bishop Burnett. < 11 LECTURES ON THE ternal fire there is in the bowels of the earth, and the latent fire there is in every substance, so that a blow with a horse's shoe against a stone, or a little friction between two sticks, or almost any other materials, will bring out that fire, till it is sensible to the sight or the touch, besides the immense quantity of elec- trical fire that can be produced from the atmosphere at any time ; from all these con- sideptions, some eminent men have supposed that this globe will be entirely annihiU ated'* but we are inclined to think, consi- denng and comparing the Scriptures with themselves, that the fire will dissolve, but not destroy our e^xVa.^change, but not annihilate It ; in short, fire cannot annihilate any thing It produces changes in matter, it evaporates' liquids, separates the particles of solids, and It may Hqidfy the v/hole earth, melt it down into a fluid ; but it cannot really destroy any part of it, so that it shall not exist any more ; so far as the conflagration goes, then, the earth,' will undergo a universal change, in its proper- ties, and appearance, from its centre to its •Bishop Burnett's Theory. SECOND ADVENT OP CHRIST. 383 circumference. The words of Scripture sug- gest the idea thus stated, where we read « His lightnings enlightened the world j the earth saw and trembled. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the LarcV—Fs. xcvii. 4, 5 ; also Nah. i, 5 ; Rev. xviii. 2. " Tlie elements shall melt with fervent heat," " all these things shall be dissolved ;" (2 Pet. iii. 10, 11) these terms of liquifaction and disso- lution cannot be restrained to simple devasta- tion, and superficial scorching; they must mean a universal melting of all the ingredients of the earth. What shall become of the occupants of this earth when it is burnt up] This is a question which arises from many considerations, and we sliall endeavor to answer it according to analogy and Scripture. The Apostle, in this chapter, has just been speaking of the delnge and its desolations, (ver. 5, 6) and then, by analogy, refers to the coming dissolution by fire, (ver. 7.) Now, this comparison, as well as the nature of the conflagration, shows us, that if some special provision is not made, all those occupants then living must necessarily perish by the fire, or the earthquakes ; and, ^3 f'K N ft -.r. IHI f^ i 384 LECTURES ON THE SO far as the inferior orders of creation are concerned, we have reason to think they will all perish, as the scriptures do not appear to us to make any such provision for their escape as was made in tlie ark. But with regard to the human race, the dead shall be raised, and the living changed, and both caught up to meet the Lord, when he shall come to judge the people, and as this tribunal will probably be^held considerably above our atmosphere, they ^vill be safe from the devouring element. When may we expect this conflagration to take place ? St. Peter, in this chapter, pre- diets « that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things con- tmue as they were from the beginning of the creation," (ver. 3, 4.) I am not disposed to attach much importance to those scoffers, nor even to their opinions respecting the state of the earth when the conhagration is near ; but there are other passages which run thus: « of old thou hast laid the foundations of the earth ; and the heavens are the work of thy hands! They sh^U perish, but thou shalt endure ; yea SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 385 all of them i^hall wax old like a garment."— Ps cii. 25,26. »* Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath j for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment.'^'' Isa. li. 6. St. Paul has endorsed the same sentiment in the same words, (Heb. i. 11.) Dr. Clarke says upon these words : « As a garment, by long using, becomes unfit to be longer used, so shall all visible things ; they shall wear old, and wear out : and hence the necessity of their being renewed." ^ I am not prepared to say in what the wax- ing old and wearing out appearance of our earth may consist ; whether these indications of its age and approaching end may be on the surface, by the soil being less productive, or in the air, by its becoming less capable of sus- taining animal and vegetable life. But we are inclined to think that these evidences of the age of our earth will not be very marked to its inhabitants at the time, for they will be of opinion that all things continue much the same ; and, not seeing any marked change, they will not expect Christ, till he come upon them « as a thief in the night."— 2 Pet. iii. 10. See also Matt. xxiv. 36-39, 44. I if i m n 38e t-KCTURlES ON THE Now, the scriptures abound in rassages Which clearly show that the conflagration, the second Advent of Christ, and the judg- ment day, are cotemporary; hence we read, JL,ooking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved."— 2 Pet. iii 12 "■When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit u>-on the throne of his glory ; and befbre him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another."— Matt. XXV. 31. The more fully we should pursue this subject, the more clearly we should be satisfied that those three great events will occur at the same time. In conclusion, then, let us look upon our- selves as deeply interested in these matters ; we may now be grasping the sordid dust of the earth, heaping up riches by adding house to house and field to field, carrying out ava- ricious purposes and projects, as if this earth were our perpetual home ; but, oh ! let us remember that the earth, to which we cling the earth which we so highly value, will be burnt up with all its works ; and you and I SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 387 long before that time, will be still in death. But let us bear in mind, that when these things shall take place, we shall have to render an account to the Omniscient Judge. Life, with all its advantages, opportunities, and occupations, will pass under review,* and the eternal destiny of every one irrevocably set- tled. In prospect of that great day let us "apply our hearts unto wisdom." LECTURE XIII. THE NEW CREATION.' 2 Pet. iii. 13. " Nevertheless we, aWording to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleih righteous- ness." When God created our earth and atmosphere, everything therein was " very good ;" it was an Eden, a habitation of delight for every living creature, in which there was nothing to hurt or destroy ; there was neither grief, pain,sickness, nor death amongst all the tribes, from man the noblest of all, to the smallest creature, in the scale of gradation ; in short, our earth was a province of heaven, over which the "only wise Cod" was its most gracious sovereign. Under the divine Being, man was placed in a subordinate, but yet exalted position, as the vicegerent of God, exercising " dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the foul of the air, and over the cat- !• it ?. ; '. P! 390 LECTURES ON THB tie, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth,.--Gen. i, 26. The law to which Adam was himself subject, was of so mode- rate a character, that we might have sup- posed him incapable of offence to his supreme master ; but the history of his career, as you well know, clearly relates his shame- ful transgression, his banishment from the garden, and the curse that fell upon our earth, in consequence of his sin. This curse extend- ed, as we think, to the finney tribes of the deep, the sweet songsters of the atmosphere, the rambling insects around us, the roving beast of the forests, and all the vegetable world; nay, the very atmosphere around our globe, became impregnated with poisonous vapors, and has ever since been the scene of terrible thunder-storms- and devastating hur- ricanes. But he that « sitteth upon the flood," says unto the winds and waves, « peace be still, and there is a great calm." « The Lord sitteth King fur ever.."— Ps. xxix.lO But there is a time to come in which the warring elements of our earth, shall be not only calmed and restrained, but regenerated, SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 591 made over again. For God hath said, « Be- hold, I create new heavens and a new earth." Isa. Ixv. 17. And to this it is probable the Apostle alludes when he says : " We, accor- ding to his promise, look for new heavens, and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteous- ness." It is true, the promise in Isaiah may- be applied to the glory of the gospel dispen- sation ; yet St. Peter carries our ideas of a new creation beyond the judgment day and the conflagration, speakijig of it as taking place after " the heavens being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat." Our present effort, then, must be to ascer- tain, as correctly as we can, what is to be un- derstood by the new creation. Following the order the Apostle has observed, let us consider, The NEW HEAVENS. " We, according to his promise, look for new heavens." We observed in our last lecture, that the conflagration of our earth and its atmos- phere would not produce annihilationy that is, reduce it to nothing ; so that when the fire is burnt out, the ashes, or melted materials thereof, will still remain. I i ! L L 392 LECTURES ON THE We also stated that the words, « the hea- vens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat," are to be nndexstood of our atmosphere, and the different gases of which it is composed, which will become one universal and terrific thunder storm, by which the atmosphere that now is, will pass away with a great noise. But what does the Apostle mean by " new heavens?" Is this ^figurative expression with which he represents one thing by another? we think not ; unless the deluge was figura- tive, and not real, and unless the conflagration will be figurative, and not real, for he speaks of them all in succession, and in a similar style. To use the words of Bishop Burnett upon this passage : " Here is no room for alle- gories, or allegorical expositions, unless you will make the conflagration of the world an allegory, for, as heavens and earth were des- troyed, so heavens and earth are restored ; and if, in the first place, you understand the natural material world, you must also under- stand it in the second place ; they are both allegories, or neither." Again, by the new heavens we cannot ^^CkP^^^p^S* "'^ SECOND ADVENT OF CHUIST. 393 suppose the apostle meant a new planetary system of suns, moons, and stars, such bright orbs as we now behold above us ; for, as we have shown before, these are not comprehend- ed in the catastrophe of a burning world; and, therefore, they cannot be succeeded by a new production of similar bodies. We may answer the question, what are the new heavens, by asking what were the old which shall then have passed away 1 Is it not the atmosphere which envelopes our earth ? we think it is, and the new heavens will be a new atTnosphere. But of what that new atmosphere will consist, or what will be its peculiar properties, we are not informed ; thg Bible speaks of its creation as a fact ; but it supplies no details ; we are, therefore left to mere conjecture founded upon the circum- stances of the case. The following opinions are left to the church by the late Rev. John Wesley, who says : « We may more easily conceive the chan- ges which will be wrought in the lower heaven, in the region of the air. It will be no more torn by hurricanes, or agitated by furious storms, or destructive tempests. Per- \ i. II 3H LECTURES ON THE nicious or terrifying meteors will have noplace therein. We shall have no more occasion to say, There, like a trumpet loud and strong, Thy thunder shakes our coast ; While the red lightnings wave along The banners of thy host I No : All will then be light, fair, serene ; a hvely picture of the eternal day. ^" All the elements (taking that word ia the common sense, for the principles of which all natural beings are compounded) will be new indeed : entirely changed as to their quahties,' although not as to their nature. Fire is at present, the general destroyer of all things under the sun ; dissolving all things that come within the sphere of its action, and reducing them to their primitive atoms. But no sooner will it have performed its last great office of destroying the heavens and the earth" (than its) " destructions will come to a perpetual end. It will destroy no more ; It will consume no more : It will forget its power to burn,— which it possesses only during the present state of things,— and be as harm- less in the new heavens and earth as it is now SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 395 at in the bodies of men and other animals, and the substance of trees and flowers, in all which large quaiitities of ethereal fire are lodged j if it be not rather an essential component part of every material being imder the sun. But it will probably retain its vivifying power, though divested of its power to destroy. " It has been already observed, that the calm, placid air, will be no more disturbed by storms and tempests. 1 here will be no more meteors, with their horrid glare May we not add, (though at first it sounds like a paradox) that there will be no more rain. It is observable that there was none in paradise, a circumstance which Moses particularly men- tions : Gen. ii. 5, 6—' The Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth.— But there went up a mist from the earth,' which then co\; ered up the abyss of waters, < and watered the whole face of the ground' with moisture sufficient for all the purposes of vegetation. We have reason to believe that the case will be the same when paradise is restored. Consequently there will be no clouds or fogs, but one bright refulgent day. Much less will there be any poisonous damps, or pestilential 4 I Ml ^ ft is r " 398 LECTURES ON THE blasts. There will be no Sirocco in Italy ; no parching or suffocating winds in Arabia ; no keen north-east winds in our own country. * " Shattering tha graceful locks of yon fair trees ; but only pleasing, healthful breezes, " Fanning the earth with oderiferous wings." f Such, then, are the views upon the new heavens, entertained by an eminent minister of Christ. Let us now consider — \ Secondly, the new earth. Let us look at some of those terms which are applied in scripture to the new creation ; one of these is in the gospel by St. Matthew, xix. 28 : " And Jesus said nnto them, verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me, in the regeneration^ when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. The word regenera- tion, here used, refers to the time when Jesus shall sit on the throne of his glory, and not to the time of following him. Some com- mentators consider that the word refers to the new creation of the earth. Mr. Wesley, both ' '■■■■ II 1 1 I — ■- ■ I II I I HU M,! I ■— 1^^— ^^^^^ * England. t Wesley's Works, vol. vi.. nn. 291, 292. SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. no fair 397 ill the punctuation of tlie text, and in the note, applies the word to « the final renova- tion of all things." Bishop Burnett, too, says, « this regeneration seems to belong to his second coming, when the world shall be renewed or regenerated, and the righteous shall possess the earth." The next passage is Acts iii. 20, 21: « And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached Unto you : whom the heavens must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began." These words were spoken by St. Peter, and Bishop Burnett thinks they are to be applied to the same thing, viz., a new creation ; the Bishop's words are : « If we compare this passage of St. Peter's with that which we alleged before, out of his second epistle, it can scarce be doubted but that he refers to the same pro- mises in both places ; and what he there calls a new heaven and a new earth, he calls here a restitution of all things : for the heavens and the earth comprehend all, and both these are but different phrases for the renovation of t he wor ld." * ♦ Theory of the World 7 I II 398 LECTUREl ON Till Wo are,however, inclined to tliink that the -Apostle refers not only to the new creation of the heavens and the earth, but also to " the whole reign of grace, from the ascension of our Lord till his coming again," and thereby effecting a moral renovation in man, as well as a physical one in the earth. The word ^^ changed'*'* is also applied to the new creation. " Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth : and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure ; yea all of them shall wax old like a garment ; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed." — Ps. cii. 26. See also 1 Cor. vii. 31 ; Rom. viii. 21-24 ; Heb. i. 10-12. These, and other passages, represent this earth, afTer the con- flagration, as being changed in its form or fashion ; the disposition of its parts being altered or arranged differently, like a material that is melted down ; the form is altered, but the material is not destroyed. Now, we are inclined to think, that tl r^ " new earth" will be formed out of the old one ; the materials which are in this, will also be in that, although they will probably be SECOND ADVENT 01' CIIRIST. 399 differently arranged in ov( ry part from what they now are. "We tnke it for granted," says Durham, a Scottish Divine, (on Rev. xxi. 1) " that there is not to be a full annihilation of this universe by this change yea, this exception, that ' there shall he no more sea; c< nfirmeth it ; fur it supposeth somewhat more to befall it than the heavens and the earth, which could not be if the annihilation of all were iibsnhite. The question, therefore, lieth mainly in this, whether that change be stib- stantial, so that those heavens and this earth being removed, there are new heavens and new earth again created ; or whether that change be but in respect of qualities, as it is with respect to the body of man, which is raised the same as to its substance ; yet so as to its qualities it may be called another, for its spirituality, purity, glory, incorruptibleness, &c We conceive this last to be truth — that as the heavens and earth are not sub- stantially changed or annihilated, so the new earth and heaven succeeding are the same for substance, but for nature more stable, for beauty more glorious, for use free from the abuses sinful men put them unto, and from Li gf 400 LECTURE! ON THK the efiects of the curse put upon them for man's sin— they are altogether freed and set at liberty from these. Therefore it is called * the time of the restitution of all things." * The following lines from Wesley are very expressive upon this point : " These eyes shall see them fall, Mountains, and stars and skies I These eyes shall see them all Out of their ashes rise I I These lips his praises shall rehearse, Whose nod restores the universe. According to his word, H! 5 oath to sinners given, We look to see restored The ruin'd earth and heaven ; In a new world his truth to prove, A world of righteousness and love." Bishop Burnett, in speaking of the arrange- ment of materials in the new earth, says: " Now, as to the lower of these two regions, the region of melted matter," (which he sup- poses will then be in the heart of the earth) " we shall have little occasion to take notice of it ; but the upper region, or all above that orb of fire, is the true draught of a chaos ; or • Brown. SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 401 a mixture and confusion of all the elements, without order and distinction. Here are par- ticles of earth, and of air, and of water, all promiscuously jumbled together, by the force and agitation of the fire. But when that force ceases, and every one is left to its own inclination, they will, according to their different degrees of gravity, separate and sort themselves after this manner : first, the heaviest and grossest parts of the earth will subside, then the watery parts will follow; then a lighter sort of earth, which will stop, and rest upon the surface of the water, and compose there a thin film or membrane. This membrane, or tender orb, is the first rudiment or foundation of a new habitable earth! and having in itself, all the principles of a fruitful soil, whether for the production of plants, or of animals, it will want no property or character of a habitable earth. And, particularly, will become such an earth, and of such a form, as the first par- adisaical earth was."* Having thus stated our views of the creation of the new earth, Theory of the earth. lii:,.= 402 m LECTURES ON THE let US now proceed to look at its surface some- what in detail. Its wafers, which now occupy so lar<'-e a portion of the earth, appears to be destined to a great change in the new earth, for St. John, in his prospective vision of it, said, ''there was no more sea.'^'^ A difference of opinion upon ihis passage exists among writers upon the subject, some supposing that the sea will still occupy a place upon the earth's surface, although differently distributed from what the old sea was.f But the Apostle is stating the appearance of the new earth after its renova- tion, and the absence of the sea is so particu- larly noticed, that we are inclined to accept his statement literally ; besides, we find other writers, to whose opinions we attach great importance, take this view of it; Wesley says : « we have reason to believe, that at the beginning of the world, when God said, ' let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear,' (Gen. i. 9,) the dry land spread over the face of the water, and covered it on every • Rev. xxi L t Dr. Clarke, on Rev. xxi. 1. SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 403 side. And so it seems to have done, till, in order to the general deluge, which God had determined to bring upon the earth at once, < the windows of heaven were opened, and the fountains of the great deep broken up." But the sea will then (at the new creation) retire within its primitive bounds, and appear on the surface of the earth no more. Neither, indeed, will there be any more need of the sea ; cfor every part of the earth will naturally produce whatever its inhabitants want, — or all mankind will procure what the whole earth affords, by a much easier and readier conveyance."* If the water of the sea is shut up in the bowels of the earth, even there it will exist as the fountains of the great deep, to supply the rivers and feed the springs. " It will be in every part of the world clear and limped, pure from all unpleasing or un- healthful mixtures ; rising here and there in crystal fountains, to refresh and adorn the earth, ' with liquid lapse of murmuring stream.' For, undoubtedly, as there were in Paradise, there will be various rivers gently lU - ♦ Wesleys Works, vol. vi. p. 292. 404 LECTURES ON THB I gliding along for the use and pleasure of both man and beast."t Let us now proceed to view the dry land, as it will probably appear in the new earth. We have before spoken of the conflagration liquifying all the materials of the earth, so that its surface will be even, uniform and regular, without mountains and without val- leys; " there will be no more horrid rocks, or frightful precipices ; no wild deserts, or bar- ren sands ; no impassable morasses, or un- fruitful bogs. It will be no more shaken or torn asunder by the impetuous force of earthquakes, and will, therefore, need neither Vesuvius, nor Etna, nor any burning moun- tains to prevent them." " And what will the general produce of the earth be ? Not thorns, briers, or thistles ; not any useless or foBtid weed ; not any poison- ous, hurtful or unpleasant plant ; but every one that can be conducive, in any wise, either to our use or pleasure. How far beyond all that the most lively imagination is now able to conceive ! We shall no more regret the loss of the terrestr ial Paradise, or sigh at that t Wesley's Works, vol. ri., p. 292. i!P i SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 405 well devised description of our great Poet — Then shall this mount Of Paradise, by might of waves, be moved Out of his place, pushed by the horned flood, With all its verdure spoil'd, and trees adrift, Down the great river to the opening gulf, And there take root, an island salt and bare ! For all the earth shall be a more beautiful Paradise than Adam ever saw." * Dr. Gumming, speaking of the new earth, says : " the Creator is to come forth again, as its regenerator. Deity will, as Deity alone can, re-make all. He will harmonise all its discords — allay its fever — and expunge the foul blot of sin which was dropped upon Eden of Satan, and has radiated to its circumference. Then his autograph shall be written and made legible on all — the weakest thing shall express his power, and the most defective thing his excellency The dew drops on every acre of grass shall sparkle with his love, and earth itself shall be the bright jewel on which his name shall be visibly engraven ; and tree, and plant, and flower — oak and hyssop, and moun- tain daisy, shall show whatever beauty they * Wesley's Works, vol. vi., p. 294. M ■' js mtHmmm m nun wi 406 . LECTURES ON THE wear is borrowed from his smile, and what- ever fragrance they exhale is derived from his breath ; and they shall rentier to him their thanksgiving, l»y consecrating all they are to beautify the place of his feet; and these new heavens and new earth shall be one grand Eolian harp, over whose strings the Spirit of God shell sweep, and draw out inexhaustible harmonies. Thus, creation shall become a meet supp'ement to Revelation, and providence aicommeiilary on both. The temple shall be opened day and night, and animate and in- animate nature shall lift up ceaseless incense* and unite its thousand- voiced psalm of praise. Time shall be a perpetual Sabbath, and all things shall be worship. The sun shall have no spot, the sky no cloud, the year no au- tumn, earth no graves.* The inhabitants of the new earth will pro- bably present to us one of the mo^t interest- ing objects in our present researches, and therefore we shall dwell a liltle more upon this branch of our present lecture. We presume that all who allow that there will be a " new earthy'^ are prepared to admit • Lect, on Apoc. SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 407 that it will be occupied by some living crea- tures, and, happily for us, our text adverts to them, whore St. Peter snys "we, according to his promise, look f r new h'^avens and a new earth, wherein dwel!eth rigliteonsnrss," that is, -yiiihtecu^ persons. So far as I know, all commentators agree, that persons are h^e mi ant by the Apostle. Dr. Clarke says of this new earih, it will be "made the endless abode of blis^ed spiri's." Wesley has it, "only rghteoiis persons." Matthew Henry says of it : " this is to be the habilation of such righteous persons as do righteousness, and are free from the power and pollution of sin." The first question to be settled then, is, from iolievcpA\o these inhabitants come ? and in answering this question, we are as'ain obi g^A to enter ihe fie'd of controversy ; but we shall supp'y different views as they ar? tak n by the respH-rive parties, and came to such con- clusions OS io us seem most prob ble from those Scr ptnres which re'ate to the subject. Bi>;hop Burnett stiys : " we net d before, that there was no rt mnant of nitinkind left at the conflag'ation, as there was at the deluge ; nor any hopeb of a restoration in that way. Shall m2 \ I '111 U" 408 LECTURES ON THE we then imagine that these new inhabitants are a colony wafted over from some neigh- boring woild ; as from the Moon, or Mercury, or some of the higher planets'? You may imagine what you pbase, but that seems to me not imaginary only, but impracticable the inhab tants are those which inhabited this earth before. We look for new heavens and new earth, says the Apostle ; surely to have some share and interest in them, other- Vise there would be no comfort in that expec- tation The truth is, none can have so good pretensions to this spot of ground we call the earth, as the sons of men, seeing they once possessed it: and if it be restored again, it is their property and inheritance. But it is not mankind in general that must possess this new world, but the Israel of God espe- cially those that have suffered for the sake of their religion j as our Saviour says, " those that suffer loss for his sake, shall be recompensed." — Matt. xix. 28, 29. "But they must be then raised from the dead ; for all mankind was destroyed at the conflagration. * Now, if there be truly * This is a slip of the pen, for " the living shall be SECOND ADVENT OF CHKIST. 409 and really a two-fold resurrection, as St. John tells us, and that a thousand years distance from one another, it may be very rationally presumed, that those that are raised in the first resurrection, are those just that will inha- bit the new heavens and new earlli for otherwise, who are those just that shall inhabit the new earth, and whence do they come 1 St. John says, the martyrs, at this first resurrection, shall live again and reign with Christ : which seems to be the reward promised by our Saviour to those that suffered for his sake, and the same persons in both places. * < And I saw the souls of them (says St. John) that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God ; and which had not worshipped the beast, &c., and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.' — Rev. xx. 6.""|- This writer, you perceive, considers the changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, and caught up to meet the Lord in the air." — 1 Cor. xv. 62 ; 1 Thess. iv. 17. * See this error corrected in the Lecture on the Resur- rection. t Pp. 633-535. m3 41U I.KCfURES UN TH« inhabitants of the new earth to be the rjghteous dead, especially those who have sullered martyrdom, who are to be raised to life again, and thus occupy the earth as a reward for their past fidelity and sufferings. 'i he Adveti lists have adopted s^ome of the pre-millt^nnial views upon these subjects,onIy they appear 1o think that the confJairratioii and new creation will take place before the dpy of judgment, and that the righteous w^ill occnpy the new earth a thousand years before the wicked are rais-d from the dead. But we shall cillow them to sp3ak fjr themselves. The writrr of ihe " A| proachini^ Cris's'' says, "The earth beinOMs; who, havini? * put on incorrupt on,' ;ind been *caii2:ht up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air,' wiiere, coiistitutini? ' the bride,' ' the Lamb's wife,' they were 'cilled unto the marri: ge supper of the Lamb;— will descend from heaven to tike p>ssession. Thus John writes, tliat one of the angels said to him : < Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me •;i: i ill SECOND ADVEIST OF CHRIST. 411 away in the spirit to a great and high moun- tain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.' ^ Thrones' are symbols of power. As the saints are to reign with Christ on the renewed earth, in obedience to the invitation : * Come, ye bless?d of my Father, inherit the' kingdom prepared for you from the foun- dation ol the world.' All the saints beuig thus exalted to kingly nnd priestly dignity, symbolizes the exalted rank they are to hold in the new creation As the rest of the dead live not till the end of the thousand years, they coirie forth at the ' resur- rection of damnation,' at the end of a thou- sand years of the reign of the saints on the earth, and at the epoch when Satan was to be loosed from his prison." Although we discard the idea of two resur- rections from the dead, yet we think that the inhabitants of the new earth will be the righteous who are placed at the right hand of the judge, when he shall separate the precious from the vile ; * we think so, not only from several portions of scripture, the meaning of •See Macknight j 2 Pet. iii. 13. m4 412 •'. { LECTURES ON THE which is best understood in that way, but also from the order observed by St. John given in the book of the Revelations. But we shall quote some of those passages which appear to lis as referring to the inhabitants of the new earth : " For evil doers shall be cut off ; but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be ; yea, thou shalt dili- gently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth ; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace."— Ps. xxxvii. 9-1 1 . " Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." « For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteous- ness of faith." « For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come." —Matt. V. 5; Rom. iv. 13; Rev. v. 9, 10. These last words, <* the world to come^'' critics are agreed should be " the habitable world to come," and they are applied, by Bishop Bur- nett, to the new earth and its inhabitants. The song which St. John heard the recovered church singing is as follows : " Thou art wor- SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 413 thy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth." The order of events which St. John has observed in the Book of Revelations, leads us to the same conclusion: he foretold the millennium, or maturity of the Christian church — the little season of apostacy — the resurrection of the dead — the final judgment — the new creation — and the re-settling of this earth by the people of God, and the Divine Being dwelling in their midst. * The character of those new inhabitants will materially affect their happiness upon the new earth, and we rejoice to find such intimation of its purity as to insure to them unmingled felicity. They are " righteous," they have " washed their robes and made them white in the blgod of the Lamb." Those righteous persons are eminently righteous, having no admixture of evil ; sin is not in their society, nor in their hearts ; they are « a chosen gene- • Rev. chap, xx., xxi. m5 'i 4U LECTURES ON THE ration, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people." The absence of sin will secure to them that degree of happiness, of which they may be then susceptible, as Ihey will not be subject to sorrow, suffering, pain or death, for God will wipe away all tears from their eyes. But Uie chief source of their happiness will be the conscious presence and gracious mani- festations of the Divine Being to those inha- bitants ; it is stated by St. John, " I.lohn saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bridle adorned for her husband. And I heard a great noise out of heaven saying, Lehold, the tabernac/e rf God is ivith men, and he icill dwell with Ihcm, and tjiey shall be his people, and God himself shall be wiih them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; and thtre shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain ; for the firmer things are passed away." * The Apostle also sup- plies a great many particulars respecting the New Jerusalem, whi ch are hard to be under- * Rev. xxi. 2-4. TMtarjMv'r SECOND ADVENT OP CHRIST. 415 Stood, as some of them seem suitable enough for a holy city in the new e irth ;— but other particulars appear incompatible with a resi- dence upon the globe, as it revolves upon its own axis. Some parts of this descrip- tion do not accord with our ideas of heaven besides the Apostle spaaks of this new Jeru- salem as cotempoMry with the new earth. We are disposed to say, with a certain writer, « these are great mysteries, which we cannot perfectly understand yet, especially what St. John says about the new Jerusalem coining down from heaven, to take up its seat and habitation on this new earth, that there is the throne of God, and of the Lamb, where God dwells, and which he enlightens with his presence, and from whence he drives away death, and sorrow, and pain, which seem to signify that as the old heavens and old earth are destroyed by fire, in vengeance on its wicked inhabitants, so this new heaven and new 6 rth, which God makes after the des- truction of the old, is the seat of the blessed, after their resurrection from the dead ; which, I confess, I know not how to understand."* *^i3bop Boraett, p. 394, i it It '4 ; f p. HI 41(r LXCTlDHES OiN TtlE The best description of this new Jerusalem, with which I am acquainted, is from the pen of Dr. Gumming, where he says : " When this overflowing fire shall have wrapped the world, and consumed all that is in it, and, having done its mission, has passed away, Christ and his risen saints shall descend from their serial glory upon the purified earth, called in verse 13 < the new heavens and the new ekrth ;' and this descended company is here described as ' The Holy City, the New Jeru- salem, ^oming dowm from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.' This new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, is jnst the sealed ones out of every kindred and tribe and tongue, that is, the 144,000, — those who had * washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, ' — the sackcloth -wearing witnesses, once all but extirpated from the earth — ^ a woman,' once concealed in the wilderness, — now coming down in their resurrection and holy bodies, like a cloud of glory, to reign on that earth on which they suffered so much and so long." There is one point more upon which a tew r^-. SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 417 remarks ought, perhayjs, to be made, viz., what becomes of the " inferiw creatures ?" shall they have a place in the new earth *? In answer to these questions, we shall first fur- nish a few quotations from writers upon the subject. The famous passage upon which the idea of restoration to the lower orders of crea- tion is founded, is contained, in the epistle to the Romans, chap, viii., ver. 19-23 : " For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the crea- ture itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adopt! )n, to wit, the redemption of our body." Dr. Clarke, under this passage, says, " there is considerable dif- ficulty in this and the four following verses : and the difficulty lies chiefly in the meaning 418 LECTURES ON THE of the word which we translate the creature, and crenlion. Some think, that liy it the bruu creation is meant, others applv it to the Jewish prople, others to the ^-.^V, others to the (rentilcs, and others to the fa'/en spirits, both angelic and human:' One writer applies the passaae to the tcMe creatvm, saying : " For- so indeed the scripture represents it, not that this world shall be destroyed, but that it shall bei new made; that as the whole creation is made subject to vanity by Adam's ci,rse, so It shall be redeemed from vanity and corrup- tion too, when mail is : It shall be |.ur-ed by fire, and a new incorruptible world shall sprmg out of its ashes. 'For the earnest expeclation of the creature (which must sig- nify this visible crention) waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.' "* Dur- ham f says, concerning this passage, "the scope purposely is to prove the glorious con- dition the saints have to expect after this, and that such OS even the senseless creatures wait and long for, as being to be made jiartakers ^Lii^'^^fent-riiUno^^ of the sons * Bishop Burnett, p. 394. ' " tBrowD, p. 302, 303. ■wsa** SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 419 of God ; where observe, that by ' creature; in the singular number, is understood the universe ascontradisliiigiiishecl from the ek^ct, and such a creature as by the siii^of man is made sub- ject to vanity ; and so is not to be understood of the whole creation simply, as certainly neither of angels, nor of the seal of the blessed. That the creature here mentioned is to be fully delivered from the effects of sin and the curse." Another writer says : « They inquire whether the vegetables and creatures endued with sense, shall all he restored , or some only ? '^'o ^'1 this, I answer, that not only all animals, but all vegetab'es too, yea, and their seeds also, will doubtless be mortified and des- troyed by the violence of the conflaoration ; but that the same should be restored, and endued with eternal life, I htoiv no reason we have to believe ; but r;ither that ihrre shall he neiv ones produced, either of the same with the former, or of diff^erent kinds, at the will, and by the power of the Almighty Creator' and for those ends and uses for which he shall design them." * A nother writer, whose praise ^ " " " ' ' " I ■ * Bishop Burnett's Notes, p. 384. i' k^ ''^'- i • *- ■''^- ' *-'^ %.mm m iJU^ms!mmvm. \ 4*20 LECTURES ON THE is in all the churches, says : " But will < the creature,' will even the brute creation always remain in this deplorable condition ? God for- bid that we should affirm this; yea, or even entertain such a thought. While ' the whole creation groaneth together,' ....... their groans are not dispersed in idle air, but enter into the e?5rs of Him that made them they themselves also shall be delivered from the present < bondage of corruption,' into a measure of < the glorious liberty of the chil- dren of God.' Nothing can be more express, Away with vulgar prejudices, and let the plain word of God take place. They < shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into glorious liberty,' even a measure, accord- ing as they are capable, of the liberty of the children of God. The whole brute creation will, then, undoubtedly, be restored, not only to the vigor, strength and swiftness, which they had at their creation, but to a far higher degree of each than they ever enjoyed. They will be restored, not only to that measure of understanding which they had in paradise, but to a degree of it, as much higher than that, as the understanding of an elephant is the SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 421 beyond that of a worm. And whatever affections they had in the garden of God, will be restored with vast increase ; being exalted and refined in a manner which we ourselves are not now able to comprehend No rage will be found in any creature, no fierce- ness, no cruelty, or thirst for blood. So far from it, that « the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the young lion together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall feed together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain.' — Isa. xi. 6, ifec." * With regard to this subject, we have to remark, that all these orders of creation existed before the fall of man ; and we have no reason to think if man had not sinned, that these creatures would have suffered or died, for death entered Iry sin ; this view encourages the supposition that if our earth has to be created anew, and man is to occupy it in a paradisaical state, why should not the creatures also be restored 1 Parad ise restored would scarcely * Wesley's Works, vol. vi., p. 248, 2*9. 422 LECTURES ON THE be equal to the Paradise which was lost, if these were wanting. Yet, after all, it appears very evident that the inferior creatures which maybe Jiving when the conflagration begins, must perish before that catastrophe is con- cluded , and as we have no plain intimation of their resurrection, and the resurrection of those countless myriads which died before them, the much controverted passige scureelyseems to be sufficiently plain to lead us to the con- clusion, that every animal, every fish, every fowl, every reptile, and every insect, that has ever existed on this globe, shall occupy a place in the new earth. We shall conclude this lecture with two quotations. Bishop Burnett says : "The revolutions which our nature, and the world above us, have hitherto undergone, are pretty well agreed upon: these are "facts' which have been established upon the credit of the sacred history, and confirmed by the experience of men in all ages. What is future is not so certain, for this very reason, because it is future. Scripture, indeed, treats no less of this, but then as it necessarily treats of It in the way of prophecy, and as all pro- WECOND ADVEi^T OF CHRIST. 423 phecy is dark and more difficult to be under- stood before the completion, so no wonder that those prophecies which relate to the future renovation and redintegration of man and nature are no better apprehended." Our last quotatit)n is from the able pen of Dr. Gumming: "Oh, let it not be forgotten that our preparntion for this glorious city, is not nn acquaintance with its mineralogical or geologic;* 1 characteristics, nor a poeiic sym- pathy with its glory and pure splendor. We may be poets able to sing all sweet songs, and painters able to tronsfer to the canvas all bright scenes; we may be able to group and catalogue the stars, describe a d classify the flowers, and yet not be Christians. It is the pure in henrt who shall see God. It is they who are like Ghrist, who shall live eternally with him. It is holy character that abides for ever. The New Jerusalem is being pre- prired for those who have new hearts, new affinities, new affections, and new natures. Gorruptinn cannot inherit its incorrupt ion. Unsanctifled feet may not tread its golden streets, nor impure eyes rest upon its beauty, nor one unregenerate heart beat amid its 424 li^ LECTURES ON THE J eUness. There is but one essential frun- neaven. No qnalification will be acceuted as a substitute for this. accepted "Make sure of a new heart, and you mav Thtirth^'^i " r- ^''*^^"- -*° ^^^ It „LT 7 '"dispensable qualification-. It matters not how obscure, desjised or for- gotten you may now be ; you may be renewed " and sanctified, and made meet for this < in hentance of the saints in light,' by that Holy bpmt who IS promised to all that ask." SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 425 fran- m be )m of epted may city, tion. for- wed * in loly LECTURE XIV. CONCLUDING ADDRESS. 2 Pbt. III. 11-14. " Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved^ what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conver- sation and godliness Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless." The scene of the earth's conflagration, as it is described in the holy scriptures, is of so im- posing a character, that we may naturally suppose no one can be a spectator of it, or even view it in prospect, without feelings of the deepest interest ; the man of the world, whose only treasure consists in his present pos- sessions, of friends, houses, lands, or other perishable materials, may view the picture of a burning world, as a most destructive cala- mity, and he may deplore the loss of property which such an occurrence will cause. The Christian man, whose treasure is in heaven, i i I ^ LECTURES ON THE »ng element ,s but a refining fire .„h ,uL God wjl create a new earth, wh.reiu^d.fe ,!' eth rigliieoiisness. '"t"re, between man on this earth anH man on the new eai-ih ;= „ • \ ''"''• ^^^ »i. ■ Larin, is very iiitimntp T„ fL , f ^ """' ""'' '^>e uses to which e.r talents are applied; some are fouIdS the very lowest snale of human nature whose Foj.ns.,es and habits are of so ^'Vei^^^^^ and viczuus a character, that they 2yl pronounced .ng man! This pro! gression will continue no donl,t in the life to come, and will preserve the same essential burnt Bstroy- d that ashes, iwell- t and 1, and . In, iriety Hiich id in iiose lUng y be ish." s in orth, '■ our our ords nify the pro- 3 to tiaJ SECOND ADVENT OP CHRIST. 427 relations. In other words, the progress which we shdl mnke here in knowledge, and in vir- tue, will determine the point fVom whence we shall begin our proi^ress in the other life..,. All tht^ moments of our individual existence are mdissolubly connected one with another. ; ^e^th is not a break in the chain ; r; is the link which connects the two lines, or the two parts of tho chain together.'^* Our final sentence will b3 founded upon the im- provement we have made in knowledge and piety, '-of him to whom much has'' been given, much shall be reqnired ; and to h.'m that hath," that is, has improved what hj hath, *' much shall be given." God will " render to every man according to his deeds ;" "see- ing then that ye look (or such things, be dili- gent that ye may be f.und of him in peace, without spot and bl:imel ss." Let us now proc-etl to consider the dnti-s to which our attention is called in the words of our text : The Apostle first refers to our conduct AMONG MEN—" zt'hcU manner of persons ous^ht yp. to be in all holy conversation .?" The word rendered ^'' convcrmlion^' m this verse, means Bp. Buruett, p. 411. »„ p 428 LECTURES ON THE as It does elsewhere in scripture, conduct, or behavwur. The distinction between the church and the world, between him that feareth God, and him that feareth him not, is a wide dis- tmction ; particularly so, in the principles by which they are actuated ,• « ye are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you." But so long as the disciples of Christ are in the world, they have to do with the world, and at is of the utmost importance, that we should not only guard against imbibing the spirit of the world which would be so injurious to our piety, but we should exert an influence upcMi others, which would convince the that we belong to Christ, that we are men of God that there is something in religion which they do not possess 5 as the Apostle expresses it, our conversation should be holy. It may be well to mention a few particulars as illustrative of all. First : our expectations of the world should not be too great. Human natu \% degenerate^ "the heart in man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked," we ought not then to expect the waters which flow from such a fountain, to be better than the fountain SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 429 ductf or church th God, ide dis- ples by of the " But in the Id, and should pirit of to our e upctti lat we i God, hthey it, our B well rative hould leratCf TQ all ought from ntaiii itself, or to rise above their own level. We should not look for such high moral integrity, for such care in the use of language so as neither to undervalue or overrate the quality of an article ; we must not expect their words to be always instructive and chaste ; although all these excellencies are often met with in men of noble spirit, whose moral training has given them a high sense of propriety ; but to expect these virtues in the world generally, would only result in disappointment and grief. Christ said unto the Jews, " how can ye, being evil, speak good things, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." In our conversation with them, there is spe- cial need of caution that we sin not with our tongue. The tongue needs to be restrained in a professing Christian, as much as in any other, for it was of such the Apostle spoke, when he said, « if any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's re- ligion is vain." — James i. 26. Moses spoke <* unadvisedly with his lips," and for that of- fence he was not permitted to enter the 4.30 lECTURES ON THB Prom:sed and of Canaan, but l,e had to die the .-.Iderness. Many „,e,nb.,s of Chrt tmn churches are accustomed to give such hWty to this unruly naember, that^Iey ^p he foundation of their own piety, gr.eve'a.^' injure their o^vn b^st friends; and not un ing u " Ih. 7- ''""^^''°^ ■^''"'*"-« bear- US fun' ' 'J'°'' '* '^ ''°P^d may be *d^!i h -T'''^ "^'^ '^^' I'ideth hat. r*d vith lying Up,, no,, h3 „ „, J^' slander, is a foo!."_P,.ov. x 18 < r^ , thy words thou Shalt be j„s,Ld;„dbr,^ worJs ,ho„ shaU be condemned "^Ma,^ L'f 3^. On the other hand, l,ow for^iM. right words • " n ,^ft '"r^iWe are wrath • hf ' ■ ^"''''^' *""^eth away wrath , but grievous words stir „p an^er " P-^ov. XV. 1. Let as then f.Ho v ti^'' 1 exan^ple of Dnvid : " Isai.l, I w II t.k L° if -yways,thatlsi„ not with ™Vtn!:'*i W.11 keep n,y month with a bridle, whiie the picked IS before „,e."_rs. xxx,; b'! but If we behevo that a tiuie is comin.^ when the wicked shall go away into .< eve: a ," fire, then, as we believe, so should we spei^ 9J SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 431 " reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffer- ing and doctrine," that if by any means we may save some. We are inclined to think, that the members of the church exert greater influence over the community than the min- isters do; they are fir more numerous, they are much more among worldly people, and sinners put less restraint upon themselves in the presence of church members, than in the presence of christian ministers. In conse- quence of this, the labors of the pulpit are often destroyed by the improper conversation of incautious members; and when ministers address their people, saying, " ye are our epistle known and read by all men," it is to be feared that this truth is not always benefioiul ; and "all men" who know and read these living epistles, do not always learn the ^reat principles of the Gospel, do not invariably obtain a correct idea of what « pure and un- defiled religion" is, as they read it in the con- versation of professors. Tf the conversation of Christians had been holy, as becometh saints, how much further the little leaven might have succeeded in leavening the whole lump ; but it is to be feared, that sinners who are *»-!.. ' trt 432 LECTURES ON THE now cursing, might have been blessing ; souls that are now begging for a drop of water to cool their tongues, might have had in them a well of living water, springing up unto eter- nal life ; and this the result of professors not attending to such considerations as the Apos- tle gives in our text. « Seeing then, that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conver- sation and godliness." « In our budness transactions, what manner of persons ought we to be ? That Christian men may " buy and sell and get gain" with- out sinning against God, cannot be doubted ; nay, it is said, « if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel."-! Timothy v. 8. So that men should be "not slothful in business;" but while becoming attention is paid to the world, we ought to beware of worldlyminded- ness, for if Christian people are as grasping after this perishable world, as those persons are, whose only treasure is in this earth, thev will not only become earthly in their own propensities, but they will throw a dark sha- « SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 433 ; souls '^ater to 1 them ;o eter- ors not ! Apos- hat all lanner onver- lanner ristian with- ibted ; or his house, i than : men " but 3 the ncled- sping arsons thev own : sha- dow over the Gospel itself, by which its light will be so obscured, that half-awakened sin- ners looking at such professors, will naturally miss their way in forming their future char- acter, by the imperfect models of worldly professors. While the Christian man is a pat- tern m honesty, integrity, fidelity, punctuality, beneficence, sobriety, and spirituality, he will not only secure to himself a good reward, but he will put to silence the gainsayers; the force of his pure character will put down op- position, and win erring men over to Christ ; " having your conversation honest among the Gentiles j that as they speak against you as evil-doers, they may, by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation."—! Pet. ii. 12. « What manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness." This passage reminds us also of our duty TO God ; " what manner of persons ought we to be in godliness:' We are fallen creatures, and much of the derangement caused by our depravity, consists in the ascendancy of the animal nature over the rational, of the sensual over the intellectual and moral j and our duty 434 LKCTlTRfiS ON THE to God, requires that due attention be paid to our dispositions and affections; hence God requires of us that we set our " affection on things above, not on things on the earth," that we « put off anger, wrath, and ma- lice." Nay, it is even commanded, « thou Shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mmd." ^^This is the first and great com- mandment."— Matt. xxii. 37-38. This im- 5)erative duty is most reasonable, when we think of God as a Being who is, in himself, every way wortliy of our affection, and that we are indebted to him for life and health and all things, especially for the gift of his Son Jesus Christ, who has redeemed us with his most precious blood ; and for that state of felicity which awaits the righteous dead. But love to God must be viewed as a privi- lege we may enjoy, as well as a duty we nnist perform, for the original command to love God supremely, is attended with the pro- mise of a work which God would do within us, " I will circumcise thine heart, and thou Shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy mmd," &c., thus, to use the words of Bichard SECOND ADVENT OF CURIST. 435 Watson,* " it brings the sotil into fellowship with God, real and sensible, because vital ; it moulds the other affections into conformity with what God himself wills or prohibits, loves or hates ; it produces an unbounth^d de- sire to please him, aud to be accepted of him in all things ; it is jealous of his honor, un- wearied in his service, quick to prompt to every sacrifice in the cause of his truth and his church ; and it renders all such sacrifices, even when carried to the extent of suffer- ing and death, unreluetant and cheerful. It chooses God ns the chief good of the soul, the enjnyment of which nssiu'cs its perfect and etcrnnl interest and happiness. " Whom have I in heaven but thee 1 and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee," is the lan- guage of every heart, when its love of God is true in principle, and supreme in degree." But our duty to Gol comprehends, also, unwavering faith in thc^se great trutiis which he has revea'ed to us in his holy word ; some of those truths are so plain and palpable to our perceptions, that reason at once assents to them ; but oth-^rs are fir above the compre- * Institutes, vol. iii., p. 294. 43G LECTURES ON THE hension of man's limited capacity, so that he IS required to believe what he cannot com- prehend, but he is not required to believe what IS contrary to reason. The vital doctrine of a Trinity in Unity is far beyond our present understanding as to how it can be, but it is not beyond om faith, as God has revealed it m his word. But faith, a firm conviction, that God, in all his dispensations with us, is actuated by the purest and noblest principles, a«id that m his hands "all things work together for good to them that love God," is also necessary to the peace and comfort of the Christian mind ; it saves us from needless fears and alarms, and leads us to repose in Orod with all the composure of which the mind IS susceptible, and has called forth such expressions as the following, « the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord - "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." " The Lord is my light and my salvation ; whom shall I fear i The Lord is the strength of my life ; of whom shall I be afraid f '— Ps. xxvii. 1 . This faith, then, " respects the supply of all our need, temporal and eternal j the wise and -it-' SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 437 gracious ordering of all our concerns ; the warding off, or the mitigation of calamities and afflictions ; our preservation from all that can, upon the whole, be injurious to us ; our guid- ance through life ; our hope in death, and our future felicity in another world." - Another habitual state of mind which be- longs to the truly pious, is reverence ; in Scrip- ture language, it is the " fear of the Lord ;" not, however, that slavish dread of him, which belongs to the awakened and unpardoned transgressor ; nor the fear of distrust, as if God would desert us in a trying hour, for these are contrary to the filial affection and abiding faith of the children of God. This reverence comprehends a due and solemn regard for the sacredness of his name, so as not to use it in a trifling manner ; also, a high and most res- pectful esteem for his holy word, and never to quote it for trivial purposes. And also, an abiding conviction, that we are liable to his displeasure. This reverence restrains our faith from degenerating into presumption ; our love into familiarity, our joy into careless- ness. It nurtures hu rnility, watchfulness, and the spirit of prayer. It induces a reverent ii i 438 LECTURES OH THK habit of think-ng and speaking of God. and gives solemnity to the cxerci.es of devotion It r^resenls «„ to us nnder its true aspect, as' dangerous, and c..rr„pti„g to ,he s. „1 ; as darkening our i.respecs of a future life, a„d injurious to o..r peace in the present But the tern, " g, dlines.," in our text refers to our m„u.,rd acU; as well as our' nward depositions; and as these are essen .ally necessary to our being rewarded as t'good and fafthfnl" .ervunts, they rrnui e o.. attentt-on at this ti,.e. The lo^J^Z God, ,s a duty so clearly set forth, and ^o strongly etyoiued, in the sacred writ,;g?th;t man cannot nenhct -t inrl h„ 1 1 ■ sin-ht nf r„ I ® I'lamele^s in the sight of God ; „ay,o„r own spiritnahty ismade to depenu «o nu.eh upon it, that „eoi„et o^ wo>-sh,p IS ttntnediately followed by rehVil^ declension, and, on the other hand,'^ dilC and d,,o„t tt,„,. ,„ ,^ ^.^.^^^ J . n foster a s,„r,t of piety, and the spiritual lis Will sonieiimes or-nr ].», i J'"e"non finnt .1 ' " ''® ^^''11 '-'k'- heed that they are not excuses. And as he would n ova and serve the creature niore than the Creator, he will see that the hinderances are SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 439 text. such as would keep him from other engagements, on week-days ;" and if tliat of which we complain would not ba sufficient to keep us from bus'ness on the week-days, it should not be sufficient to keep us from worship on the Lord's day ; nor prevent us from attending to our usual relii^ioas exercises on any day. Mr. Jay says: "Nothing can be mor;3 piinful to the feelings of a Minister, when he comrs to water his flock, than to find many of them are not at the well." Prayer, to the Giver of all good, is one mode of worship peculiarly adopted to us in our present condition, and upon the neg'ect or proper performance of it, almost everything depends. " Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Be careful for nothing, but in every thing, by prnyer and supplica- tion, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God."* And as it is our privilege thus to bring all our affliirs before God, whether they are temporal or spiritual, habitual or occis'onal,and circumstintial ; to restrain prayer bef ore God, is but too clear an • Matt. vii. t; Luke xxi. 36; 1 Thess. v. 17. 440 LICTURIS ON THE evidence that all is not right within, and that those persons who are now praying less than formerly, ought in reality to pray more, that they may recover their strength before they go hence. Again, if we consider what manner of per- sons we ought to be in all « godliness," we must not loose sight of another class of duties God has enjoined upon us, viz. : to sustain and extend the institutions of the church. The teanctification of the Christian Sabbath is a duty fearfully disregarded by multitudes who bear the Christian name ; yea, its high and sacred claims are but seldom sufficiently con- sidered by members of our churches ; and hence worldly conversation is with many the only way in which they spend much of the hallowed time of the consecrated day j again, the least excuse, and often a mere disinclina- tion to attend the house of prayer, is the rea- son why their seat in the sanctuary is vacant, or occupied by another. The efficient maintenance of the Christian Ministry, both at home and abroad, is a duty palpably plain to every attentive reader of the Bible. The divine law, which made provision SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 441 for the priesthood in the Jewish Church, is, in its principle, no less applicable to the Chris- tian community ; and yet, who of our church members gives to the cause as the Lord has prospered him ; what owner of an estate, what man of business, what daily laborer, consecrates to God one-tenth of bis income'? And yet God has appointed and required this as an equitable proportion of every man's means. Mr. Jay says: "A Minister must be very mean-spirited if he regards his salary as alms or benefactions from his peo- ple. What they give, they more than have out in services ; and " the laborer is worthy of his hire." Has not God ordained, that they who preach the gospel, should live of the gos- pel % And is this law not founded in equity and justice 1 Would not the same talents the man devotes to the service of the sanctuary, provide for himself and his family, if employed in secular concerns % This is a delicate point for a minister to handle ; and he would never bring it forward, if there was not a cause. Let church-members compare their contribu- tions with the law of God, and let those espe- cially wha pay more annually to the most N ill 442 LECTURES ON THE 'i menial of their attendants, than to the shep- herd of their souls ; while others with all their commendation, never confer iq^on him one token of respect in their lives.* The prosperity oi the church of Christ, both in piety ^nd numbers, is what greatly concerns every Christian man. The Apostles were to preach the gospel to ^< every creature," but the private members are not to be inopera- tive ; they, in conjunction with their ministers, kre God's witnesses, the salt of the earth, the light of the ivorld, and they must let their light so shine before men, that others may see their good works, and glory our Father which is in heaven. The growth of grace in the individual members of the church, is what concerns the whole community of believers, for they are one body in Christ, and we are all members one of another, so that if disease begins in • We would add to the above that there are members in our churches, whose circumstances are comfortable, who do not give for a minister's services, year after year^ what they would pay for the labour of an ox or a horse, even for one day. Are these persons guiltless before God? SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 443 one part, it affects, more or less, th3 whole frame, and each member is exposed to the infection ; we ought therefore to feel as much interest in the spiritual health and prosperity of every member of the cluirch, as we feel in the safety and well-being of every member of our body. But our sense of duty should carry us beyoixd the present number of church-members, and a constant aim at accessions sho^^M be kept before the mind. Our efforts should be to make converts to Christ, to turn men from darkness to light, and frojai the power of Sa- tan unto God; and this duty we consider belongs to all believers, male and female. But of how many professors may it be truth- fully said, " Israel is an empty vine, he bring- eth forth fruit unto himself." (Hosea x. 1.) Thirdly, — our text admonishes us to live IN SUCK A STATE as wc should desirc to be in when Christ comes. " Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may he found of Mm in peace, tvitJiout spot, and blameless?'* The first particular here mentioned by the Apostle, is <' peace." The carnal mind is •."■Sj^V!.%=-*^^,i,- 444 IKCTURES ON THE eumity against God, it is not subject to his aw neither can be." This is the state of the human soul by nature, and it sliows itself m the conduct of the sinner, as he transgresses the divnie law, and thus, by open hostility, proves himself to be an enemy to God by Wicked works.-Our merciful Creator has, I'owever, made provision for our reconcilia- tion, by the death of our Lord Jesus Christ wlio « ?s our peace," that is, the procurer of «, and he has reconciled both Jews and Gen- t.les « unto God in one body by the cross, having slam the enmity thereby.''_Eph. ii 16. Yet, notwithstanding this most gracious provision made for sinful man, there are mul- titudes of our feUow men, who, instead of seeking " to be found of God in peace, are treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. -Rom. ii. 5. And how many wlio profess to be tho disciples of Christ, are neglecting this inestimable blessing of peace 'with God ; their deficiency in personal piety their want of punctuality in attending to the duties of religion, nay, the utter inattentimi to some positive duties, clearly show that rii SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. 445 they are not diligent to be found of God in peace, for the Divine Being can scarcely be reconciled to the conduct of stewards who have wasted his goods, to servants who have ])een slothful in his employment. We ear- nestly beseech you, dear brethren, not to look at a religious life as consisting in the enjoy- ments of our own heart alone ; you are called upon to labor, and sometimes to suffer, for Christ's sake ; and, upon your diligent perfor- mance of your d lilies, will depend the appro- val of your Lord and Master in the great day of accounts. "Be diligent," then, "to be found of God in peace." But the Apostle also nrges upon us the duty of being found of God " without spot.^^ The note of Henry on this passage is very forcible for a man of his creed ; he says : " that ye be found of Christ ivithout S2)ot, and blameless, fol- lotv after holiness as well as peace ; and even spotless and perfect we must be pressing towards spotless purity, absolute perfec- tion. Christians must h^ perfecting holiness, that they may be not only blamelesss before men, but also in the sight of God. And all this deserves and needs the greatest diligence \ k2 ^1 »wi»°BM»*>«'^a»Jii,Ntfe, 446 LECTURES ON THE he who does this work negligently, can never do it successfully." The purity of the church, HI tlie sanctiiication of its members from all «in, is a subject largely dwelt uix)n by the sacred writers ; it has been the design of God, iu all his dealhigs with the children of men, ever since the promise that th^ seed of tlie woman should bruise the serpent's head ;.and It is the happy state in which all the recovered , from the human flimily will eventually be found in heaven. But this slate of Christian lioliness is not attained without the use of the a})pointed means, for we must " work out our own salvation," while " God works in us to will and to do of his god pleasure." God does not perform this worl in us absohitely, or irrespectively of man's co-operation ; it is only while man works outwardly, that God works inwardly, for the accomplishment of this object ; we see, from this point of view, the force and importance of the Apostle's exhortation, that we " be diligent to be found of God without spot." The Apostle concludes this address by fur- ther urging the people of God to be fo- nd of him " blameless," which word we apply to SECOND ADVENT OF CHRIST. Ul never hurcli, 3m all )y the f God, : men, of Uic L j.aiid 3vcred lly be ristian use of rk out 3 in us God iitoly, ; it is t Go(] 3nt of view, ostle's found y fur- nd of ply to their whole character and conduct. The importance to be attached to our present course, can only ba duly estimated by the effect it will have upon our final state in the world to come, when " all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth ; they tliat have done tzood, un