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objection that might arise from the death of Christ in reference to the kingdom, he brings forward very prominently and distinctly: "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. In allusion to this, Peter said in his first sermon, Acts ii. 31, "He seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption." And again: "For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption; but he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption."+

As death, therefore, had no power over his body, and as he still lives in that same incorruptible body in which he purchased our redemption, he consequently remains in his own person still the legitimate heir of the throne of David. Whenever that throne shall be re-established-and according to the anticipations of the elegant and accomplished Heber,

"E'en now perhaps wide waving o'er the land,
The mighty angel lifts his golden wand;
Courts the bright vision of descending power,
Tells every gate, and measures every tower;
And chides the tardy seals that yet detain
Thy Lion, Judah, from his destin'd reign."

-whenever this consummation arrives, and God has pleaded with them, and placed them in a secure, settled, and happy state; then, who-besides the true

* Psalm xvi. 10.

Acts xiii. 36, 37.

and legitimate heir of David, to whose posterity in perpetuity the throne is confirmed by the oath and and promise of God-who besides Christ can reign over them whose right it is?"

When the disciples beheld the Saviour risen from the grave, and thus saw him triumph over death, their expectations revived that he was going to take possession of the kingdom; and hence they asked, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" He did not blame them for the question, nor did he contradict their hopes; his answer rather seemed to confirm them. "He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times and the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight." And the Psalmist tells how he was received and welcomed. Angels are represented as calling out and saying, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King

*Acts i. 7-9.

of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory.'

After Jesus had thus disappeared from the sight of his disciples, "while they looked stedfastly towards heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so COME IN LIKE MANNER as ye have seen him go into heaven."† Here it is plainly asserted by special messengers from God, immediately after Christ had ascended into heaven, and while those who saw this wonderful event were still looking up, that He should come again in like manner as they had seen him go—that is, in a cloud; and this is confirmed in several other places in the Scrip

tures.

In a subsequent chapter, Acts iii. 21, Peter says, alluding to this subject, that he will remain in heaven "until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began:" which implies that after this restitution of all things, he WILL NOT remain in Heaven. It is a striking reservation, and, in connection with our Lord's second coming to reign, deserves the deepest consideration. As it regards this time of general restitution, it can be no other than that so eloquently spoken of by Isaiah and the prophets; and that season of blessedness before

*Ps. xxiv. 7-10.

Acts i. 10, 11.

noticed, which is prophesied of in Daniel (chap. xii. 12), and which will be proved to take place at the same time as the termination of this present period. It is that happy time so beautifully described by Cowper in his "Winter's Walk at Noon," where he

says:

"The Time of rest, the promised sabbath, comes:
Six thousand years of sorrow have well nigh
Fulfill'd their tardy and disastrous course
Over a sinful world; and what remains
Of this tempestuous state of human things
Is merely as the working of a sea
Before a calm, that rocks itself to rest :
For he-

Shall visit earth in mercy; shall descend
Propitious in his chariot pav'd with love;
And what his storms have blasted and defac'd
For man's revolt, shall with a smile repair."

The Saviour himself, speaking of the manner of his second coming, says, "Then shall they see the Son of man coming IN A CLOUD, with power and great glory."

At his first coming, which was to satisfy Divine justice, to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to work out a righteousness in which guilty sinners might be saved, he came to suffer. He was a root of a dry ground-a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief: there was no form nor comeliness in him; and his poverty was so great, that he could say, "the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head." The royal house of David had thus been suffered to pass into obscurity and poverty, that He, in these

his days of humiliation, might "in all things be made like unto his brethren; for it became him for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through suffering."

But at his second coming the scene will be changed; he will then not come to suffer, but to triumph; he will come as he went-" in a cloud, with power and great glory." What is meant by these words we must wait to see. The magnificent scene is thus described in the Revelation: "And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS."*

The rule which he shall then exercise over the "house of Jacob," as an united, no longer a divided

* Rev. xix, 11-16.

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