mistake our Saviour was to come, whilst the second temple stood, and Judaism was to give place to Christianity; all which exactly happened. "Supposing it then to bear this meaning without denying its application to other events, we learn from our Saviour's prophecy on the Mount of Olives, that one advent had already been witnessed by St. John. Christ was present in the Romans who destroyed Jerusalem, and at the same time in his apostles who set up the Christian religion instead of the Jewish, which it fulfilled. The other apostles had been removed by the hand of the persecutor, after they had gathered together God's elect from the four quarters of the world, and formed them into communities or churches, as oases in the desert. But St. Paul very early forewarned the Gentile church of another more distant coming, which would be occasioned by a general departure from the faith and spirit a Matt. xxiv. 31. a of the gospel; "that day shall not come till there be a falling away first." He could not intend a departure from the faith previous to the destruction of Jerusalem, and as the cause of that event. The Jews as a nation never received either the Baptist, or Christ and his apostles, and were punished for rejecting their mission; and in the new Géntile church no prevailing error took place before that catastrophe, or very long after it. St. Paul therefore prophesies of another advent, even while one is impending over the Jewish Church, which regarded chiefly, perhaps altogether, an apostacy from the Christian or new dispensation. But the revelation of St. John took place twentyfive years subsequent to the fall of Jerusalem, and more than fifty years after the calling of the Gentiles; during which time the first converts being Jews had died, or were put to death, and the church, no longer connected с a 2 Thess. ii. 3, 4. b Matt. xxi. 23-32. d A. D. 40. with Judea, would imbibe a Gentile rather than a Jewish spirit: though formed perhaps on the principle of the synagogue, it would gradually acquire the centralisation of Greece and Rome; hence we read very early of general or extensive councils." There had been four district councils prior to that held at Nice, A. D. 325. 7 CHAPTERS I. II. III. St. John's prediction. — Vision of Christ; as a Priest clothed with Divine authority. Every Christian communes with Christ. No general error then in the Devotedness of the true Christian. — The church. vision chronological. The destruction of Ephesus, Sardis, and Laodicea in part fulfilled the prophecy. HAVING thus shown that the New Testament foretells a departure from the faith. after the destruction of the temple and the formation of the Gentile church, let us now see if the revelation of St. John gives us reason to expect such an event. We read of it in the preface, which makes the subject of the book, "the revelation of things which must shortly come to pass, whose time is at hand," and the coming of Christ to the grief of all nations who have pierced him; an allusion to his sufferings on the cross, which were inflicted by his professed friends. a Rev. i. 1-3, a "Behold He cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him." These expressions imply the near approach of a general departure from the faith; there will be those who crucify him afresh in every land; and the advent, consequent to it, will be on a very extensive scale. This revelation was introduced by Christ himself, who appeared to his servant John, arrayed in great glory. And oh, how different this from his first advent! he was then without form and comeliness, he is now clothed in the splendour of the future world. The vision on the holy mount inspired the disciple with the highest anticipations; but now the apostle sinks within himself, when he hears a voice, like the sound of many waters, saying I am Alpha and Omega, and have the keys of death and hell. We here behold the Saviour, clothed in a Rev. i. 7.; Isaiah, xix. 1.; Dan. vii. 13.; Nahum, i. 3. |