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your treasure is. Be ready also to resign the world whenever you are bidden to do so? Do not bury your hearts in it; do not let it absorb them; do not think that this world is all; discharge, as I have told you, every obligation; no man is to leave his trade; no man is to be less loyal, to be less dutiful, to be less diligent in business; but every man is to be more "fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." Standing, then, upon the right ground, having thus the right character, let us lift up our heads, and know that the noise we hear from afar is only the rush of the chariot-wheels of Him, who comes armed with destruction, indeed, for a world that rejects him, but full of mercy and peace and welcome to them who wait for his coming.

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LECTURE XXXI.

THE MAN OF SIN.

"He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus."-Revelation xxii. 20. (Connected with which you will also read 2 Thess. ii. 1-17.)

JUST before I enter on the more immediate subject of discourse, I am anxious to refer to a slight misapprehension-originating, I believe, from a mistranslation-which occurred to the minds of some in the course of my exposition of Matt. xxiv., last Lord's-day evening. You remember that I tried to solve what seemed an almost insurmountable difficulty-the distinguishing what portion of Matt. xxiv. relates to the downfall of Jerusalem, and what to the end of the world. As Jesus sat on the Mount of Olives, his disciples asked him these three questions: "Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" I said that I conceived the disciples asked three definite questions, and that our blessed Lord gave in the chapter three distinct and appropriate replies. The first question is, "When shall these things be?" viz.: the downfall of Jerusalem: I said that I conceived the answer to this question was finished at the close of verse 22. I then said that our Lord, in verses 23, 24, enters upon his own personal coming, and he tells them that "You are not to suppose yet that I am come for judgment; for if any man shall say unto you, 'Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not,' for my personal coming will not be so mistakable a thing that men will have any doubts about it; but, on the contrary, it shall be as the lightning that cometh out of the east and shineth even to the west,' that all eyes may see it, and no man shall be able to dispute it." Then he gives the signs of it. "Immediately after the tribulation shall the sun be darkened, and the moon

shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven." The next question was, "What shall be the sign of the end of the world?" Several who listened to the explanation I endeavoured to give, were puzzled by the occurrence of the word "end," in verses 6, 13, 14. For instance, they saw that the first twenty-three verses cannot refer to the destruction of Jerusalem exclusively, because our Lord says in verse 6, "The end is not yet:" therefore, they argue, he is speaking of the end of the world. Again, in verse 13, "He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved:" therefore, it is urged by those who make this objection, Christ is speaking not merely of the destruction of Jerusalem, but of the end of the world: and again, in verse 14, "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come." It is argued by those who doubt my interpretation of the first twenty-three verses as descriptive of the downfall of Jerusalem exclusively, that the occurrence of these three expressions shows that our Lord in the very beginning of the chapter begins to answer the question, which I contend was only answered at the end, "What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" Now, on looking at the whole chapter on Monday, after I had preached the sermon, and reading it in the original, I discovered this fact, which I had not noticed before, that totally different words are used; for instance, in verse 3, the question asked by the disciples is, "What shall be the sign" ovvteleias toð alõvos? (“of the end”—ouvreλsía.) But the words used in verses 6, 13, 14, is not συντελεία, but τελος, a different one. If the word had been the same, then those who object to my interpretation would have. done so with greater plausibility. The word used in verses 6, 13, 14, is the word 76205, a minor and generally far less expressive word. The question of the disciples is, What shall be the sign of the autista of the world? The statement in these verses is, "Then shall the Télos come;" "he that shall endure unto the Télos shall be saved." The question is important, Is there any difference between the words in point of signification? The fact that the same word is employed in verses 6, 13, 14, is strong

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ground for the presumption that these verses do not refer to the same event as that referred to in verse 3, and described by another word. The word outtheta is derived from the preposition aov, together, and the verb reλéw, to finish, and means the confluent termination, not only of two or three, but of all the events and prophecies, and things that were spoken of from the foundation of the world: in short, the consummation. For instance, it occurs in Matt. xiii. 39: now no one doubts that the event there referred to is the end of the world, for our Lord says, "The harvest is the Guéheta of the world." But the word télos is applied to definite periods, to the termination of single events. I admit it is sometimes used in a more extensive sense, but I say that is its primary meaning: for instance, it occurs here, "Christ is the rios (the end) of the law;" again, "Whose end (réλos) is destruction;" Télos signifies also the end of life; and it is very remarkable that the same word is used by the apostle when he says, "destruction is come unto the Jews, els tò télos, unto the end, or to the uttermost." You see then that the question of the disciples relates to the ouvréλeta (finishing) of the aid or dispensation; and the vélos that our Lord uses in verses 6, 13, 14, relates only to the downfall of Jerusalem: and the objection therefore of those who doubt my interpretation, instead of proving their point, proves more strongly the position I attempted to lay down. I conceive, the end, as, vélos, our Lord refers to, is explained by himself, as when it is stated in Mark xiii. 7, "The end is not yet;" for our Lord says, "These are only the beginning of sorrows.' It is plain, therefore, to my mind, that the first twenty-three verses contain no reply to the question relating to the end of the world, but merely a full exposition of what should precede the downfall or destruction of Jerusalem. And, next, we have the declaration that Jerusalem is to be trodden under foot of the Gentiles, and to be desolate and in ruins— no Millennium to intervene; and the first great event immediately before its restoration will be the appearance, like the lightning in the sky, of the Son of Man; all those that have rejected and despised him mourning because of him.

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I now come to another prediction of great significance. I showed you, from the chapter on which I have been making

these preliminary remarks, that nothing like a Millennium intervenes between Christ's first advent and his second advent; but, on the contrary, that he is to come suddenly, as in the days of Noah, when no man expects him, and most men deny and reject him. I now proceed to show you this evening, that there intervenes between Christ's first and second advents, not millennial purity or millennial bliss, but the dark apostasy of the Man of Sin, who, we are told in the passage I have read, shall be destroyed by nothing before the brightness of Christ's coming. Now I wish you to look at this Second Epistle to the Thessalonians attentively; as, if I can identify the person spoken of in 2 Thess. ii. 3-8 with the popedom, then I have proved that this apostasy is to stretch from Christ's first advent even to his last; and that therefore a Millennium cannot precede, but must succeed, Christ's second advent; for the 8th verse expressly declares, "Then shall that wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his coming." If this be the Man of Sin, he is to be first of all gradually consumed by God's providence-by the spread of the Bible, by the testimony of faithful men, by the preaching of the gospel, by the circulation of tracts-and he is, lastly, and only then, to be utterly destroyed, by what? By the brightness of Christ's personal coming, (napovía.) Then, if Christ is to come to this world and destroy Babylon, it is quite plain that the Millennium will not precede his advent, for Babylon shall be in existence, and when he comes he shall destroy it. Do you not see the consumption fulfilling? I mean to show you by-and-by how completely the evidence has come out, since I last addressed you on the seventh vial, that we are now under its influence. The evidence is complete at this moment that the popedom is being consumed, but the evidence is not yet come of his destruction, for that will only be by Christ's personal coming. What can be a stronger proof of this consuming, than that the head of the Holy Roman Empire (which is the title of the emperor of Austria) is obliged, after the most terrible convulsions in his kingdom, to abdicate his throne? and so cheap is that throne, that the heir will not accept of it, and it is sent over to a remoter heir to take possession of it. Here is the Romish laity smitten in the head of the

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