on the correctness of the translation.* The meaning of the expression, obviously, is that the people-or at least some of the people-who lived contemporarily with Christ, should not die before the predictions which he had uttered-and which we have seen to be those regarding the End of the World and the Final Judgment-should be accomplished. In other words —that these events would take place before all the men then living should die. That Christ positively meant this is fully borne out by other passages. Throughout the whole of this chain of prophecies, indeed, he speaks to his disciples in a manner that warrants the inference that they, personally, were to witness the End of the World and the Last Judgment; such as"Ye shall hear of wars,"-" They shall deliver you up to be afflicted,”"When ye shall see the abomination, let them that be in Judea flee,”"Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter,"-" When ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors,"—" Watch, therefore, for ye know not the hour your Lord doth come,"-" When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh,"-" When ye see these things come to pass know ye that the kingdom of God is at hand."† But let Christ explain his own words in the following passages, where he evidently treats on the same subject." The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom."‡ Here Christ positively declares that he would come to judge the world and reward every man according to his desert, and that there were some (of his disciples) then present who should not die till this would take place. The same expression is also recorded by Mark § and by Luke.||

Again besides the evidence furnished by the parallel sentences just adduced, and the obvious meaning of the very words of Christ in the prophetic passage under consideration, touching the near approach of the time the End of the World was to take place; the context also-further than has already been pointed out-proves that he meant to convey to his hearers that they were to expect this to take place during their lifetime. Immediately after stating that the heavenly bodies should darken and fall— that the Son of man should come in the clouds of heaven-and that his angels, with a great sound of trumpet, should be sent to gather together the elect, he tells his disciples, by way of a parable, that just as when they saw a fig-tree, puting forth leaves, they knew the summer was near, so when they should see the signs he had enumerated, they would be able to know that the events he had predicted to succeed them were "near, even at the doors." And then he adds the remarkable words,-" Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." He, however, excuses himself for not predicting the very "day and hour,"

In this sense the word γενεα is employed by Herodotus;-Αρξαντες επι δυο Kaι ELXOOL YEVɛas-" Governing for two and twenty generations."-Lib. i. c. 7. See also c. 3, and Homer's Il. i. lin. 250. In the same sense the word is used in the New Test. See Matth. xi. 16, and other places cited in Parkh. Greek Lex. † Carefully read Matth. xxiv. Mark xiii. and Luke xxi. Matth. xvi. 27, 28. || ix. 26, 27.

§ viii. 38; ix. 1.

on which "all these things" should be fulfilled, by assuring his disciples that this was not known even to the Son, nor to the angels in heaven,-in short, was known to none but to the Father alone.* But, at the same time, he tells them that this day and this hour would come suddenly→ would come as a snare on all that dwelt on the face of the whole earth.† If any more evidence be required corroborative of the fact that Christ predicted the End of the World and the Last Judgment, as being then just at hand, it is to be found in almost all the Epistles, as well as the Acts of the Apostles, and the Book of Revelation, the writers of which inculcate the very same doctrine. Paul, in treating of the resurrection, writes to the Corinthians ;-" We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." In writing to the Philippians this Apostle teaches the same doctrine-" Christ who shall change our vile body."§ And in writing to the Thessalonians, he holds forth the same views most promin ently: :-" For this we say unto you, by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the 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." In the first and last of these passages, Paul not only makes a clear distinction between the dead who should be raised, and the living who should be on earth at the coming of Christ in Judgment, but he classes himself with the survivors :-" We which are alive and remain." The language is here clear and explicit, affording no room whatever for cavil; and is in striking accordance with that of Christ on the same subject. Both Paul and Christ's language forcibly proves that they regarded the End of the World and the Final Judgment as occurrences which were to take place during the lifetime of their contemporaries. It is trusted, therefore, that -irrespectively of what shall be advanced hereafter-the proofs furnished in this section alone, will, by any impartial reader, be deemed irrefragable evidence that Christ predicted the Last Day of Judgment, and the Destruction of the World, as events inevitable during the then existent generation

Christ himself here denies his Divinity, by denying that he possessed one of the essential attributes of Deity-Omniscience. He makes his prescience limited by saying that he did not know "the day and hour" the events he had predicted would occur. Some commentators, seeing the awkward position in which Jesus here places himself, try to help him out of it, by imagining a distinction between his predictive power as God, and his mere foresight as man; but it is difficult to conceive how Jesus could positively and emphatically predict his final advent, during the then existent generation of men, and still could not predict the day or hour he should come. Divine omniscience and prescience, as hitherto represented in all Christian Creeds, do not countenance this finely spun distinction, evidently made to meet a difficulty.

Matth. xxiv. 26, 27, 36-51. Luke xxi. 35. 1 Cor. xv. 51, 52. § Phil. iii. 21.

1 Thess. iv. 15-17. Read to the end of ver. 9th in chapter 5th. The writer makes no apology for transcribing some of these passages twice, for they are very remarkable and prove several points of his subject. See p. 66. There is a great number of such passages-more or less pointed-in the Epistles, which will hereafter be cited. present the foregoing must suffice.

At

of men.* Several predictions of things which were to attend these events, to take place simultaneously with them, and resulting therefrom, remain to be noticed.

According to Christ's predictions, he was to make his first appearance, as a judge of the world, and a dispenser of rewards and punishments to mankind" in the clouds," or the air. This was to be the only foundation -the solus fundamentum-upon which he was to stand or sit, while he caused the destruction of universal nature, and while his angels gathered, from one end of the heaven to the other, all the elect, who were to meet him in the air, prior to their being received to his kingdom; and also gathered the wicked, and "cast them into a furnace of fire." Thus, it would appear, that these are the first things which Christ at his coming would do; by which he would-as a judge of the world- separate the whole of mankind, both living and dead, into two distinct multitudes. In proof of this construction put upon his predictions, no evidence can be so unobjectionable and conclusive as the words of the predictions themselves, explained, where they are obscure, by the inspired words of Christ's Apostles, which, as such, must be correct, and to which all Christians must be so far from having any objection, that they will feel themselves in duty bound to obey, and implicitly believe them. In the expressions cited in the preceding section, Christ says," They shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven." And again,-" Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven," The former of these citations he uttered in immediate connection with his prediction of the disruption of the heavenly bodies.† The latter forms part of his answer to the Jewish high-priest, who, after Christ's apprehension, interrogated him regarding his arrogation of Deity, and pronounced these words blasphemy. But be their blasphemy-with which we have now nothing to do-what it may, the expression-" sitting on the right hand of power," would seem to indicate that Christ was to appear in the clouds in a sitting posture, as if it were in a kind of locomotive throne.§ "Behold he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him," says the Apocalypse." In the clouds were the saints, or the elect, to meet him; and here, apparently, they were to be preserved, while the earth was being burnt, and a new heaven and earth created for them :"We which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them," (the elect that had before died, and were now to be raised from the dead,) "in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord." While this passage does not warrant the conclusion that the saints were to be for ever with the Lord in the air,—but simply that they were to be always with the Lord, wherever he might be-it throws

*The xxvth chapter of Matthew furnishes several proofs, not mentioned, that Christ continues his predictions of the Day of Judgment throughout that chapter. These shall be noticed hereafter.

To make their appearance in the air, gliding with the clouds, which they used as a kind of ærial chariot, or balloon, is a very common description of the heathen deities also. The God Mercury is frequently described as thus moving.-Volat ille per aera magnum remigio alarum.-Virg. Æn. i. lin. 300. The God Prometheus could climb the heavens, and steal fire from the chariot of the sun.-Hesiod. Theog. 510, 550.

considerable light on Christ's prediction, touching his appearance" in the clouds of heaven," and shows that the saints were to be caught up to their Lord into the air. This-as well as the work of driving the wicked into a furnace of fire-was to be done by the ministration of angels; for we read, in reference to the one, that they were to" gather together his elect from the four winds," and with regard to the other, that the Son of man should send forth his angels, and that they should gather out of his kingdom all things that offended, and them that did iniquity, and should cast them into a furnace of fire.*

It would, however, appear from Christs words that all men-both good and bad—were to be brought formally before him as a judge, in order to have their fate decided, and to be classed, either with those who were to suffer eternal punishment, or with those who were to enjoy eternal life, in the universal kingdom which he was now about to establish; and that after the wicked had their doom pronounced, the angels were to cast them into a fiery furnace-perhaps hurl them from before the seat of judgment, in some of the upper regions of the skies, down to the earth, which was then to be one mass of flames! For we have, from Christ himself, the following description of the manner in which he, as judge of the world, should discharge the functions of his office :-" When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon 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 his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand; but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on the right hand, -Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." After stating his reasons for this favourable reception of the "blessed," he addresses those on his left hand thus "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Having shown the grounds of this doom, he adds," These shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into eternal life." There is here clearly described a separation of those judged into two distinct classes-the one to be the subjects of Christ's kingdom, and to live eternally-the other to be eternally punished in an everlasting fire,—the fire, probably, which would be kindled by the burning of the earth,-a process supposed to last for ever, (or literally, for ages of ages) while the new earth and the new heaven to be created for Christ's kingdom were to be above it, or at least far apart from it.‡ The same doctrine of the two classes-the one admitted into, and the other excluded from the kingdom, -is inculcated throughout the former

This would appear to be most in accordance with Christ's view of hell. See his notion in Luke xvi. 23-26. John the Baptist also preached the doctrine of unquenchable fire which was to burn the chaff; (Matth. iii. 12. Luke iii. 17) and Christ speaks of fire which shall never be quenched, and which he calls hell-fire. (Matth. v. 22; xx. 43-48. He appears to allude to this fire which was to burn the earth when he says, "I am come to send fire on earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled ?" (Luke xii. 49.) For throughout the chapter in which this passage occurs, there are evident allusions to the end of the world. Paul alludes to the same fire which should try every man's work. (1 Cor. iii. 12-15.) Christ also in describing the last judgment, uses the term 44 everlasting fire."--Matth. xxv. 41.

part of the chapter from which the above citations are made. In the parable of the ten virgins-referrible as it is to ancient Eastern customs*the five wise go in with the bridegroom, while the five foolish are shut out. In the parable which follows of a man going abroad, and entrusting his property to his servants, the faithful servant is invited to the joy of his lord on his return, but the unprofitable servant is cast into outer darkness to weep, wail, and gnash his teeth. The moral, after the former of these parables, is," Watch, therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh." And the instruction, drawn from the latter, is that already noticed,—that "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." Again: the words in which both parables are introduced are" Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened" &c.; and "The kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling" &c. These are facts which, not only show that Christ was to divide the population of the world into two classes-the point now under immediate consideration-but also indubitably prove that the contents of this chapter are a continuation of the prophetical discourse of the foregoing, in which it has been demonstrated that Christ predicts the End of the World and the Last Day of Judgment, as events inevitable during the then existent generation of men.

SECTION III.-CHRIST TAUGHT THAT, AT THE END OF THE WORLD, HE WOULD SET UP THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, WHICH WAS TO BE OF A SECULAR NATURE, AND, BY NO MEANS, WHAT IS NOW CALLED THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION.

Christ prophesied that at the end of the world he should establish a universal kingdom, in which he should reign eternally over what he calls "the elect." Indeed, he represents this as the chief object of his coming on the clouds of heaven. For this purpose the world was to be destroyed, and a new one created. These facts, as already intimated, are evident from the words of Christ himself on a great number of occasions. Nor is it less clear, from the Acts and the Epistles, that, after his death, the Christians, in the Apostolic age, lived in daily expectation of his coming to destroy the world, and establish this kingdom, into which they were to be received, and thus saved from the catastrophe that would befall mankind generally, when the earth would be in flames. Before this event, however, they were, as we have seen, to be " caught up into the air to meet the Lord." In order to demonstrate the fact that Christ foretold that, when he should come to destroy the world, he should also establish a kingdom of this kind, no better or fairer mode can be pursued than to lay before the reader all the principal passages in the Gospels, wherein Christ is represented to have used the expressions "kingdom of heaven," "kingdom of

See Ward's View of the Hindoos, vol. ii. pp. 171, 173. Forbes's Oriental Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 53. Clarke's Travels, vol. iii. p. 200. Agreement of Customs between East Indians and Jews, Art. xvii. p. 78. Matth. xxv. 1—30.