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the contrary, he gave them every reason to believe, (had the slightest doubt rested on their minds,) that their hopes were indeed well-founded, but that it was not for them "to know the times and the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power." The passage clearly proves, that at the period of the Saviour's ascension, his apostles did expect that he should personally restore the kingdom to Israel,-and it also proves, (which is of more consequence,) that our Lord fully sanctioned these expectations, although on this occasion gave them no information of the time of their ac complishment.

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SECTION XVIII.

NEW TESTAMENT PREDICTIONS OF CHRIST'S RETURN AT THE RESTORATION OF ISRAEL.

ALTHOUGH in Scripture no express date is given at which the Saviour shall return, and although of that day and hour knoweth no man, yet both He and his apostles have furnished us with certain intimations of a general nature, and of its connection with certain events which prove it to be at the commencement of the Millennium. This is evident from His own declarations, as recorded, Matt. xxiii. xxiv. xxv. and corresponding passages of other gospels, which, being the most direct intimations the Saviour himself has left of the time of his coming, merit our especial notice. Any consistent explanation of these chapters seems altogether incompatible with those systems which place, the personal return of Christ subsequent to the Millennium. Much ingenuity has been exercised, and the most incongruous theories of explication have been formed to bring them into subjection to the current theology on the subject of the glorious advent. With a most culpable negligence of, or recklessness to, the Saviour's statements, these predictions have been tortured into many a meaning, and moulded into many a shape, by

those professing reverence for his character and obedience to his laws. One has not scrupled to assert, that our blessed Lord used a pious fraud in deceiving his disciples; while others have sinfully imposed upon his language meanings it can never bear. Some have represented the glorious Coming of which he here speaks, as having taken place in the destruction of Jerusalem: others have, with no less inconsistency, supposed His coming to have been in the after extension of the Roman arms; and although it is to be "with the clouds of heaven," it has even been interpreted to mean "the successful preaching of the gospel." Some again have represented the whole as referring to the consummation of all things; while others jumble together what is said of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple with a supposed reference to the consummation of all things, as spoken of indiscriminately! All this inconsistency and confusion appears to arise from a determination to bring the predictions into accordance with preconceived ideas of the time of the Saviour's second coming. * Attention to them will at once demonstrate the fallacy of all these opinions, and prove that our Lord's return is at the pe

* When Dr. Hamilton occupied so large a portion of his book with the real and supposed discrepancies of Millenarian writers, respecting unrevealed or little known details, he could not be ignorant, that, with half the zeal and industry he has displayed in this, he might easily have formed a volume of such comments upon the palpable inconsistencies of the most approved Antimillenarian authors, with respect to the Scripture declarations concerning the Coming itself. But if, instead of referring directly to the divine standard as the test of our opinions, such a mode of reasoning were adopted in other cases, every truth revealed might be easily overthrown, by simply arraying against it the conflicting opinions of men. Conclusions unfavourable to the doctrine of our Lord's Millennial reign, drawn from such premises, are not more admissible than would be the attempt to disprove the reality of His resurrection or ascension, by adducing the fact that his disciples afterwards disputed about the necessity of circumcising Gentile converts. But it may be proper still to remind the Rev. Doctor, that, if the inconsistencies of its friends can be received as evidence against the truth of any doctrine, they must bear with much greater force against that system which has long been openly espoused, and concerning which full opportunity has been thus afforded to its advocates, of maturing, comparing, and correcting their opinions; than against that which has only recently been rescued from the oblivion to which for ages it has been consigned, and with the details of which Christians are yet but imperfectly acquainted.

riod of the restoration of his ancient people, before the Millennium, as recorded of the Messiah by the Prophets.

For the last time Jesus was now in the Temple, and exposed with unsparing severity the hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees. He reproves them for their hardness of heart, in persecuting the prophets and rejecting Himself, and denounces upon them coming judgments. He then utters the tender expostulation and lamentation, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not! [Observe what follows.] Behold your house is left unto you desolate; FOR I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord." Matt. xxiii. 37-39. He shall not be seen of them "henceforth" till a certain time. As they then saw Him personally, so their not seeing Him "henceforth," for a specific period, must be in the same sense, and therefore implies His personal absence in the interim. But the duration of this his absence is coeval with that of the Temple's desolation: "Behold your House is left unto you desolate, FOR, [the reason or ground of its being so, "for"] I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth." Still, however, this desolation of their House occasioned by the Saviour's absence is only for a limited time," TILL" they shall call Him Blessed. This clearly refers not directly to the individuals addressed. These were the Scribes and Pharisees, on whom He had just denounced a "woe" of condemnation, as men who could not "escape the damnation of hell." ver. 33. Never, therefore, will such call Him" blessed." They would not do so at the overthrow of their city; they will not do so when raised to punishment. But they were the rulers, and therefore the representatives of the Jewish nation, who, at their conversion, will, indeed, bless that Saviour they have so long execrated: "ye shall not see me, henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord." This exclamation, taken from the 118th Psalm, had shortly before been shouted by the

multitude as He entered Jerusalem; (Matt. xxi. 9.) and was, on this occasion, repeated by the children in the Temple. (xxi. 15.) Jesus now declares that He shall thus be welcomed by them at his Return-for they shall say "Blessed is He that cometh." Their conversion will not, therefore, take place till the time of His Coming,-till willing cordially to hail Him as their long-expected Messiah. He would not "henceforth" be seen by them till then; but at the eommencement of the Millennium, when this moral change is effected on their hearts, and when the desolation of the Temple, (which was to be coeval with His absence,) shall cease -being rebuilt as we have already shown after their restoration-then He shall Return,-personally return, and shall be again seen by His ancient people, who, acknowledging Him as the "sent" of the Lord, will now joyfully exclaim, "Blessed is He that cOMETU in the name of the Lord."

Having delivered this important prediction, the Saviour now departed from the Temple; and, followed by his disciples, (ruminating on the import of the denunciation just uttered,) He retired to the Mount of Olives, the place of his frequent_resort; "And Jesus went out, and departed from the Temple; and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the Templc." (xxiv. 1.) It was indeed a magnificent structure; and, as they contemplated its threatened desolation, they were ready to exclaim, in the pathetic language perhaps, as also in the spirit, of prophetic lamentation, "Our holy and beautiful House, where our fathers praised thee!" They point to its superlative grandeur, as if imploring its preservation from the impending destruction, saying, " Master, see what manner of stones, and what buildings are here." (Mark xiii. 1.) This, however, only calls forth a repetition of the afflicting prediction: "And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down." ver. 2. This solemn asseveration of their Master at once negatived their hopes, and prevented further importunity for the preservation of the

Temple. Assured with certainty of its fate, and remembering the prediction He had so recently delivered within its walls, they now inquired concerning both the commencement and termination of the predicted desolation: "And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy Coming, and of the end of the world?" By recalling to our remembrance what Jesus had foretold before leaving the Temple-a prediction which would make no transient impression on the minds of His Jewish disciples-we shall be better prepared to understand the important questions now addressed to Him, and the grounds which suggested their combination. Unconnected as these questions must at first sight appear, they are, we humbly apprehend, both naturally and intimately connected. The Saviour had just assured them of the destruction of the Temple: and, as we have already shown, had shortly before predicted its continued desolation till the time of His coming. The disciples, therefore, here first ask, "when" its destruction will take place: "when shall these things be?"--the temple's being utterly" thrown down ;" and they next inquire concerning the termination of this desolation, inquiring for the sign of the Saviour's "coming." which from his prediction in the Temple, they had been taught to connect with the close of that desolation: "Behold your House is left unto you desolate, FOR, I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh." But, in their second question, they also connect the time of his "coming" with "the end of the world"-or age. * Nothing had previously been said

*The greatest respect is unquestionably due to the Authorized English Translation; but the Original must ever remain the standard of doctrine and interpretation to persons in any degree qualified by education to search after the mind of the Spirit through the medium of that language in which it is primarily expressed. The indiscriminate usage of the term world, as a common rendering of cosmos, oikoumene and aion, each of which appears to have a distinct signification, must necessarily occasion some ambiguity in those passages wherein any two of them are used in connection; and if this ambiguity should, in any degree, be removed by the simple substitution of

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