CHRIST'S SECOND COMING, &c.

INTRODUCTION.

THE subject handled in this volume seems periodically to agitate the Church. It has its law of recurrence. In times of general excitement, of extensive change, of pervading uneasiness and trial, of mingled hope and fear-it invariably rises to the surface. The struggles of the primitive Church forced it up, and kept it alive; with the battles of the Reformation it revived; in the exciting times of the English commonwealth it took a pretty prominent place among the multitudinous questions which distracted the Church; and the first French Revolution-startling Europe, intellectually as well as politically, from the sepulchral repose of the last century, shaking the old continent to its centre, and impregnating the entire social system with new elements both of good and of evil— woke it up, and set inquiring minds to work upon it, to an extent unknown before. While some, carried away by the unparalleled success of modern missions, hastily anticipated the peaceful subjugation of the world to Christ, others were hurried into the opposite extreme, of pronouncing all missionary exertions next to hopeless, without the personal appearing, and the immediate agency of Christ. Since then, the changes in public affairs, both political and ecclesiastical,

have been too organic and exciting to allow of this question going to rest for any length of time; and if the prophet's inquiry, "O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?” is likely to rise from many an anxious heart, in the progress of events, and to give birth to speculation, as heretofore, on the prospects of the Church, assuredly Iwe do well to take heed to the sure word of prophecy, as to a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day-star arise in our hearts."

But all the more does it behove us to see that the light that is in us be not darkness. Great mistakes have undeniably been committed by the students of prophecy from age to age,―mistakes which time, that infallible expounder of the Divine counsels, has in every case ultimately detected, but not till in many instances they had wrought confusion and every evil work. Certainly, the Thessalonians, "shaken and troubled in mind," by parties who persuaded them that "the day of Christ was at hand, even at the doors," were under a delusion; nor was it dealt with, in the exercise of apostolic fidelity, as a perfectly harmless delusion. It is notorious, too, that a large number of the primitive Christians, for three centuries, fell into the same mistake, expecting the struggles in which they were engaged to issue in the Personal appearing of their Lord, and "the first resurrection" of his martyred witnesses. The militant did, indeed, become a triumphant Church, but in a very different sense from what was expected. The martyred testimony of Jesus "lived and reigned,” but the martyrs themselves lived not. The Gospel slew the great red dragon-Paganism was defeated in the high places of the field-Christianity ascended the throne of the Cæsars: that was the predicted reality which the enthusiasm of so many had led them to misinterpret. The same mistake, nevertheless, has been again and again committed—never with perfect impunity, and sometimes with consequences truly deplorable.

One day, however, the Redeemer will assuredly come in Person. Is that day, then, now "at hand, even at the doors?” or, "shall that day not come until" certain events, yet far in the future, have prepared the way for it? A momentous question truly; yet not precisely the question which I am to discuss. What I have to investigate is not when, but for what purposes, the Redeemer will come.

Some appear to think that all the difference of opinion on the second advent is about its nearness or distance. The sooner they undeceive themselves on this, the better. For my own part, if that were all, I should let the subject alone. To me, the coming of the Lord should be as dear as to any whose views about his coming I am to examine. To "love his appearing" is not the monopoly of a section of his friends. To enter the lists, therefore, with those who think he is at the doors, with the mere view of showing that he is not, though it may at times become a necessary duty, to prevent disappointment, is not the most agreeable of tasks. But mine is very different. So far, indeed, the question of time is involved; but quite indirectly and subordinately. What we have mainly to do with is the events. According as these are expected before or after the coming of Christ, will be the character and complexion they assume in our eyes. Is Christ coming, not to terminate, but to reconstitute the mortal state-to establish a terrestrial kingdom, illuminated by the beams of his glory, and pervaded by the sense of his

*

* "Sed et illi quibus dicebat apostolus, Non cito moveamini mente, quasi instet dies Domini, diligebant utique adventum Domini; nec eos hoc dicens doctor gentium ab illa dilectione frangebat, qua ut inflammarentur volebat; et ideo nolebat ut crederent eis, a quibis audiebant instare diem Domini, ne forte cum transisset tempus quo eum crediderant esse venturum, et venisse non cernerent, etiam cetera fallaciter sibi promitti arbitrantes, et de mercede fidei desperarent. Non ergo ille diligit adventum Domini qui eum asserit propinquare, aut ille qui asserit non propinquare; sed ille potius, qui eum sive prope sive longe sit sinceritate fidei, firmitate spei, ardore caritatis exspectat."—AUGUST. Epist. cxcix. 15.

visible presence? The system, in short, which I am to bring to the test of Scripture is briefly this:

THAT THE FLESHLY AND SUBLUNARY STATE IS NOT TO TERMINATE WITH THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST, BUT TO BE THEN SET UP IN A NEW FORM; WHEN, WITH HIS GLORIFIED SAINTS, THE REDEEMER WILL REIGN IN PERSON ON THE THRONE OF DAVID AT JERUSALEM FOR A THOUSAND YEARS, OVER A WORLD OF MEN YET IN THE FLESH, EATING AND DRINKING, PLANTING AND BUILDING, MARRYING AND GIVING IN MARRIAGE, UNDER THIS MYSTERIOUS SWAY.

*

This is Premillennialism, or—as the early fathers, and after them the Reformers and our elder divines, termed it— Chiliasm; that is, the expectation of a thousand years' reign upon earth after the second coming of Christ. † In the above statement I have expressed only the fundamental principle of the system, to which nearly all the expectants of the premillennial advent would subscribe, keeping clear of the points on which they are divided. I have said, for example, that they expect the saints, in glorified bodies, to be associated with Christ in his millennial reign; but what saints, is not agreed. The early chiliasts-so far as I have been able to gather their views-thought that those whom Christ will find alive at his coming would be left below during the thousand years, and only such as had died before his coming. would appear with him in glory. A few in modern times are of the same opinion, postponing the change of the living saints till the end of the millennium. But the great majority

*My sole reason for placing these features of the system rather more in the foreground than in the first edition, of which Mr Wood complains, ("Last Things," p. 7), is to bring out more emphatically what it is which I wish to investigate.

Hi autem qui spiritales sunt, istos ita credentes xiiarràs appellant Græco vocabulo; quos, verbum e verbo experimentes, nos possumus Milliarios nuncupare."-AUGUST. De Civit. Dei, lib. xx. cap. vii. 1. "Xiλinorai, quos nos dicere possumus Milliarios."-HIERON. in Esa. lxv. 22, 23.

of modern premillennialists hold that the saints of both classes -the dead by resurrection, and the living by instantaneous transformation—will appear with Christ in glory at the beginning of the millennium.* Again, I have said they look for a reign over a world of men in flesh and blood; but what men, is not agreed. The moderns, for the most part, expect the restoration of the Jews to Palestine, and their supremacy over the nations of the earth; † while the early chiliasts appear to have agreed with their opponents, that Christianity had for ever abolished Jewish peculiarities; and though they were termed Judaizers, this was not, so far as I can observe, because they contended for any millennial supremacy of Jews over Gentiles, but because their system Judaized Christianity itself. In a word, I have said they expect a reign upon earth of Christ and his glorified saints; but whether actually upon the earth, or only over and hovering above it, in the air, and whether visibly or invisibly—whether the ruled will see their rulers, and, if so, to what extent, whether fully or but partially, whether always or only at times-is by no means agreed.

These and other points of difference I have purposely avoided in my statement of their doctrine. Even in the sequel, they will be noticed only in so far as they affect the common element-the essence of the system; I mean, the expectation of a mortal and sublunary state after the second advent of a GLORIFIED and FLESHLY state of humanity, as constituting the UPPER and LOWER departments of one and the same millennial kingdom.

This is the doctrine which, by the light of God's Word, I

* Mr Burgh limits the saints of the first resurrection to sufferers for Christ, in contradistinction from believers at large.-Lectures on the Second Advent, and Exposition of the Book of Revelation.

† Certain American writers have lately revived the old opinion, that the millennial earth will be wholly in possession of the glorified saints. Mr Burchell, in his "Midnight Cry," takes the same view.