ESSAYS

ON THE

ADVENT AND KINGDOM OF CHRIST,

AND THE

EVENTS CONNECTED THEREWITH.

ESSAY I.

Introductory.

I ENTER on the present discussion with somewhat mingled feelings. Looking at my subject, I have a pleasing confidence, that my heart is inditing a good matter; since I am about to write of the things that are made touching THE KING: but when I consider, on the other hand, (what it were disingenuous to conceal,) that there are excellent and learned men, followers of the Lord Jesus, who are decidedly opposed to the views which I have adopted, I cannot but be diffident in myself; and am led, with increased conviction of its need, to seek the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Not however that I would for a moment give place to the notion, entertained by some, that because there are eminent ministers of the Gospel, who have not cordially embraced these views, therefore they cannot be important, nor even true: the case of Peter and Barnabas in respect to the circumcision of the Gentiles,a in which was involved the vital doctrine of justification by faith, plainly shews, that men of the highest attainments in piety, who have been pillars in the Church, and ordinarily under the influence of inspiration, have nevertheless been slow of heart in regard to truths of infinite moment.

1

a Gal. ii. 10-16.

These circumstances however move me to commence this series of essays, with the notice of two or three serious objections, directed against the subject in general. Other objections, which affect particular points only, I shall endeavour to meet as those points come to be considered; but these, I repeat, affect the whole subject, and are of that character, that, if the mind be under their influence, it will be predisposed against the clearest and most scriptural statements, and thus prevented from properly weighing any thing which may be advanced.

1. The questionable propriety of studying and of discussing prophecy, especially unfulfilled prophecy, is one of those objections, which must be met in the outset. It chiefly consists in the alleged impossibility of understanding or judging of a prophecy, until the event has proved its meaning. But how contrary is this to the experience of the Church! Promise, the greater portion of which is unfulfilled prophecy, is declared in the New Testament to be a principal means whereby we are made partakers of the Divine Nature; which could not be, were it entirely vague and indefinable: and under the Old Testament dispensation, the Church was chiefly sustained and nourished by prophecy; most of the burning and shining lights raised up in it being prophets. The very first promise, that the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the serpent, was an unfulfilled prophecy, to which the Church took heed for 4000 years. Noah prepared his ark, moved by the fear of an unfulfilled prophecy or promise; and Abraham saw afar off and rejoiced in the day of Christ by means of another. Joseph would not have directed his bones to be removed, had he not depended on prophecy for the going out of his people; to which prophecy the Lord afterwards referred Moses and Aaron, as the pledge, that he would redeem them. The Israelites were encouraged to labour for their deliverance from captivity, by the prophecy concerning it: for as Jeremiah had prayed for and obtained an understanding of the restoration of his people, when they were about to be led into captivity; so Daniel understood the times from the study of the writings of Jeremiah; just as the faithful were afterwards waiting for the Consolation of Israel from the study (as is presumed) of the book of Daniel. It was through attention to unfulfilled prophecy, that the christians left Jerusalem and escaped to the mountain, when the city was besieged by the Romans: and the Lord hath, equally for our admonition, foretold the signs of that greater destruction, of which the overthrow of Jerusalem was but a type.

b2 Pet. i. 4.

Jer. xxxii. 16-25, 36-44.

d Dan. ix. 2.