having suffered martyrdom) had not been privileged to partake of the first resurrection, will forthwith occur, agreeably to the declaration of the apocalyp tic prophet and Christ, having judicially absolved the righteous and having judicially condemned the unrighteous, will finally, with all his glorified saints, ascend to heaven, there to remain throughout the countless ages of a blessed eternity'. Hence it appears, that, although, in common familiar par lance, and indeed according to the generally preva→ lent vulgar notion, we are apt to speak of the day of judgment, as if it were comparatively a single point of time at the absolute end of the present mundane system, whether millennian or premillennian yet, in truth, it comprehends the space of at least a thousand years. For the second advent of Christ occurs, immediately before the commencement of the Millennium; when the first resurrection of the martyrs, and the corporeal change of those who are alive at his coming, take place. But Christ himself (for, otherwise, the theological solecism of THREE literal advents will be produced) remains personally, upon the renovated earth, to the very end of the Millennium: when the second or general resurrection is effected, and when sentence will be passed generally both upon the righ teous and the unrighteous.. 1 Rev. XX. 5, 11-15. * Med. Comment. Apoc. de mill. ann. Oper. lib. iii. p. 530-532. Comm. Apoc. de magn. die judic. p. 535–537. De resurr. prim. et millen, apoc. Oper. lib. iii. Oper. lib. iii. 3. It is obvious, that the whole of this speculation, which certainly (as Mr. Mede has fully shewn) may be traced, at least in its principal points, to very high ecclesiastical antiquity, when distinctly drawn out and when severely compressed, reposes ultimately upon the principle: that ALL the texts, which announce a future coming of Christ in glory, relate to one and the same event, namely the literal second advent of the Lord; and, consequently, that ALL texts, which contain any such annunciation, cannot be interpreted figuratively, but must of very necessity be interpreted literally. Hence, unless such a principle can be established by sufficient testimony or by invincible argument; it is obvious, that the entire system, built upon the principle, forthwith vanishes into empty air: and hence we might reasonably expect, that the principle itself, being thus even vitally essential to the system, would have been demonstrated and guarded by a full exertion of that mighty faculty of comparative combination, which so eminently distinguishes the venerable author of the Clavis Apocalyptica. Oper. lib. iii. p. 571-573. De regn, έπιφαν. Christ. Oper. lib. iii. p. 577-579. Rem. on Apoc. c. xi. xii. p. 602-605. Paraph. and Expos. of 2 Pet. iii. Oper. lib. iv. epist. 20. p. 770-772. epist. 22. Anonymous Dialogues on Proph. convers. v. p. 149-193. Thoughts on the scriptural expect. of the Christ. Church, by Basilicus. lett. i-vi. p. 5–80. p. 609-619. p. 775-777. Yet, though I have carefully perused the various scattered statements of Mr. Mede, relative to the topic now before us; with surprise and disappointment, I am constrained to confess, that not even a vestige of demonstration have I been able to discover. In the abstract, ALL the texts in question may relate to one and the same event, namely the literal second advent of Christ: but, assuredly, in the concrete, Mr. Mede has given us no demonstration, that such is actually the case; and, if that great writer, quite dissimilarly from his ordinary practice, has produced nothing that wears so much as the mere semblance of demonstration, we shall not wonder equally to note the perfect absence of all proof from the far less elaborate essays of his modern followers. In the want of this necessary demonstration, we are naturally led to ask: Since the imagery of the day of judgment and of the Lord's advent is perpetually used by the prophets, and among them by Christ himself, as involving nothing more than the mere conventional symbols of the temporal visitation of any wicked nation or community, such as Babylon or Assyria or Egypt or Edom or Jerusalem, through the simple agency of second causes; why are we compelled, when we find the selfsame imagery employed to describe some visitation of the apostatic Roman Empire, at the close of the latter 1260 years and immediately before the commencement of the Millennium, to interpret that imagery literally? To such a question, as the matter now stands in point of argument, the sole answer, which can be given, is the dogmatical but unsupported assertion: that the predicted advent of Christ to judge the Roman Empire is identical with his confessedly literal second advent to judge the quick and the dead; and, therefore, that it must be understood literally and not figuratively. Doubtless, the conclusion will be most logically valid, when once the alleged fact of identicality shall have been established. But precisely here it is, that the argument halts. The fact of identicality is gratuitously assumed, not evidentially demonstrated. Let the alleged fact be proved: and the discussion is forthwith terminated. 4. But, though no demonstration of this vital point has been attempted, so far as I know, either by Mr. Mede or by any one of his modern followers: yet, that the question may be argued with perfect fairness, I shall myself first adduce, and then consider, the sole apparent evidence, which, after long thought on the subject, I have been able to dis cover. (1.) The sole apparent evidence to the alleged fact of identicality I state in manner following. St. Paul, in his first Epistle to the Thessalonians, foretells and describes an advent of Christ from heaven, which, as all must allow, is indisputably his literal second advent to judge both the quick and the dead! 1 1 Thess. iv. 13-18. Now, to this already mentioned advent he avowedly refers in his second Epistle to the Thessalonians and there he connects it with the destruction of the man of sin; who is confessedly the same, as the little horn of Daniel's fourth beast, and as the false wonder-working prophet of the Apocalypse'. But the man of sin, or the little horn, or the false prophet, is destroyed at the advent, which occurs at the close of the latter three times and a half and immediately before the commencement of the Millennium: and he is likewise destroyed at the advent, to which St. Paul refers as already mentioned in his first Epistle to the Thessalonians, and which assuredly is the literal second advent of the Lord. : Therefore, since the man of sin is alike destroyed at each of these predicted advents, the advents themselves must be identical. Whence, of plain necessity, it will follow, that the literal second advent of Christ takes place, after the close of the latter three times and a half, and immediately before the commencement of the Millennium. (2.) As I have now very fairly given the sole apparent evidence to the alleged fact of identicality which I have been able to discover, I shall next proceed to consider its sufficiency. Now, in the general context of neither of the two Epistles to the Thessalonians, is there any 1 2 Thess. ii. 1, 2, 3, 8. |