that themes which wakened every holy harp, and prospects which were held out to the faith of believers from earliest time, as the consolation of a suffering church, should have been either unprized or unnecessary at a period so much nearer its commencement. There is no room to question, no reason to doubt, that they both saw and rejoiced in the coming glory. With the Return of that Master for whom they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, and in testimony to whose Messiahship they cheerfully laid down their lives, they beheld the realization of the Church's hopes, and the establishment of the predicted “kingdom.” They knew that the heavens had received their Lord only “until the times of the restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began ;” for unto them was “made known the mystery of God's will according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fulness of the times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth.” Acts iii. 21. Eph. i. 9, 10. To his Return, then, was their faith continually directed, and for this they vehemently longed. The bright visions of futurity had neither been withdrawn, nor had they lost their interest, but were all to be realized in the glorious day of their returning Lord. This view may be shown to be in perfect accordance with the declarations of the Saviour and his apostles. It has been already seen that the prophets hold out the prospect of One who shall redeem Israel from all the evils to which they have been exposed—from bondage as well as from sin. They expatiate with delight, and in the loftiest language, on the dignity of his person, the power he shall possess, the homage he shall receive, and the extent and happiness of his kingdom. And whatever interpretation we may choose to put upon such predictions, it is known to all, that at the period of our Lord's incarnation, the Jews were in expectation of a glorious Deliverer, who should then restore them to independence, and reign over them in Zion. With the great majority, this mistake had a twofold origin.

They were unwilling to receive a suffering Messiah— and they applied to their times predictions which had no reference unto them. They were ignorant of their need of a mediator, and they desired an immediate fulfilment of prophecies which related, as we have seen, to a period after they should have been dispersed " into all nations." This last mistake, however, was not peculiar to those by whom he was rejected, but was entertained by His disciples,"and even by His apostles, tilt the very last hour of his abode among them. Their receiving Him in his humility, as the promised Messiah, did not lead them to a renunciation of their hopes that he would yet take to him his great power and reign. The angel who had been sent to the blessed virgin with the glad tidings of his birth, assured her that "the Lord God shall give unto Mm the throne of Ids father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end." Luke i. 32. Notwithstanding, therefore, of his present humility, they still looked for the establishment of his kingdom; and when, on one occasion, He was nigh to Jerusalem, and! "they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear," the Saviour spake a parable to correct their mistake. Luke xix. 11. This parable of "a certain Nobleman who went into a far country to receive a kingdom and to return," while it proves their error with respect to the time of Christ's establishing his kingdom of glory, left them every reason to conclude that they were perfectly right in the substance of their expectations—the fulfilment of all the promises made in their favour by the prophets, when unto them "shall it come, even the first dominion: the Kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem;" and when "the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously." The establishment of that kingdom which they thought "should immediately appear" the Saviour gave them reason to expect when he shall "return," having obtained the kingdom he has gone to receive. It deserves to be noticed, also> that the case of a nobleman, going into a far country, intrusting his servants with money, that they may testify their

love by a right occupation of his property in the interval, and returning after he has received a kingdom, suggests an idea of subsequent continued residence, which ill comports with the views generally entertained of Christ's coming merely for the purpose of pronouncing sentence upon all. The parable distinctly intimates, that, after a certain time, the Saviour will return to the possession of that Millennial kingdom which the circumstances show believers at that timt; expected. Nor did the crucifixion of our blessed Lord destroy the hopes of his disciples, founded, as they were on that "sure word of Prophecy" to which the Church now gives so little heed. While he lay in the sealed tomb, indeed, these hopes might seem almost annihilated; and, uncertain whether He were not still within Death's dark domain, the two who journeyed towards Emmaus, in the sorrow of their hearts could only say, "We trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel." (Luke xxvi. 21.) But no sooner were thenagitated bosoms calmed by the assurance of their Lord s resurrection, than the divine promises concerning tne erection of his Kingdom recurred to their recollectionThe tidings that He lived again at once testified the ceptance of His sacrifice, and proved beyond a. of that, in Him, Heaven's most glorious prophecves' yet be accomplished. Their faith in the truth- oV word now remained unshaken; and again dently trusted that the Messiah should fulfi prophets had foretold concerning Him. They ed not the certainty of the divine predictions, ^_ they were ignorant of the period of their a.<^ ment. Thus, immediately before Christ's a' heaven, and after he had been witH them fot" "speaking of the things pertaining to the *J God"—their last question to him xva.s, "L.oi:*' \ at this time restore again the kingdom to ist>o<i. 3, 6. Nor did the Saviour reprove t\vetn ^- ~i ing expectations of a nature inconsistent v sign, as he did on occasions xvhen tVus via 0 case,—and as might certainly Have beeue^,^ their views been as erroneous as i"- j

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 he gave them no information of the time of their accomplishment.

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 trmt 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 plactf 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