CHAP. VI.

THE ARGUMENT OF MR FABER FOUNDED ON ACTS III. 21, EXAMINED AND ANSWERED, AND HIS REASONING AGAINST THE LITERAL ADVENT FROM THE SUPPOSED SYMBOLICAL SIGNIFICATION OF THE WHITE HORSES EXHIBITED TO VIEW IN REV. XIX. 11, 14, AS RIDDEN BY MESSIAH AND HIS SAINTS.

MR Faber having, as he supposes, proved that the account of the conflagration given in the second Epistle of Peter, entirely opposes itself to the doctrine of the literalists; proceeds forthwith to complete the work of its destruction by showing to his own satisfaction in a triumphant manner, that this doctrine is directly contradicted by the express testimony of Holy Scripture-and the way in which the learned author effects this is, by a forcible entry into our very citadel, and, as he supposes, triumphantly bearing off our arms and turning them against us. Now here it must be observed, that we fare rather hardly. If the letter of the Scriptures be for us, as it confessedly is in Dan. vii. 13, and Matth. xxiv. 30, and another passage which shall be noticed below, why, says Mr Faber, you are gross literalists in believing this letter, which is opposed to the whole system of symbolization.* On the other hand, if the authorized version of the Scriptures favour us, then if Mr

Sacr. Cal. vol. I. p. 229.

us.

Faber can by the help of lexicons or versions get hold of another meaning of a word, he not only adopts it in a sense grossly literal, but he strains it beyond the sense of the versions, and in the extreme signification of the lexicons to make it bear against After what has been offered by the able author of the Defence of the Students of Prophecy, in answer to Mr Faber's view of Acts iii. 21, it may seem. almost superfluous for me to take up the subject, but as it is by no means exhausted by his arguments, I shall follow Mr Faber step by step through his reasoning, and I am not without hopes of being able to recover from the hands of the strong man our stolen, or to speak more politely, our borrowed

armour.

Mr Faber charges our authorized version with mistranslation of the 21st verse, Whom the heavens must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. Instead of restitution he chooses the word accomplishment, and argues, that since the heavens must receive Christ until the times of the accomplishment of all things, which God hath spoken by the prophets, therefore, Christ will not come till all these things shall have been fully accomplished, i. e. till after the Millennium.*

I shall first examine the authorities which he produces for this improved or altered rendering. "The clause is rendered," says Mr Faber, " by the Syriac, until the fulness of the TIME of all things." Now

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there is a mistake here on the part of the learned author. On referring to my edition of the Syriac, which is that of Leusden and Schaaf, with a lexicon by Schaaf, I find the word * to be the plural emphatic. The correct rendering is therefore until the fulness of the TIMES of all things. Nor is this circumstance unimportant, as I shall afterwards show. The word here used by the Syriac, which Mr Faber properly renders fulness, is, and it is employed by them in translating the Greek ang in sundry passages, as for example, Rom. xi. 25, The FULNESS of the Gentiles, xv. 29, The FULNESS of the blessing-Ephes. iii. 19, With all the FULNESS of God-Coloss. i. 19, That in him all FULNESS should dwell. And above all, in Ephes. i. 10, That in the dispensation of THE FULNESS of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ. The whole clause being exactly given from the Syriac is as follows, Whom the heavens must receive until THE FULNESS OF THE TIMES OF ALL THOSE THINGS spoken by the holy prophets. There is in this rendering an evident transposition, or as it is called, a figure of metathesis, FULNESS OF TIMES being put for TIMES OF FULNESS, and the phrase, times of fulness, is evidently equivalent TO TIMES OF FULFILLING-and I believe its meaning will be better explained by a quotation or two from the Scriptures than by any illustration of an argumentative nature. Behold, THE DAYS come, saith the Lord, that I will perform that GOOD THING which I have promised unto the house of Israel, and to the house of Judah. IN THOSE days, AND AT THAT TIME, will I cause the branch of right

eousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.* I refer also to Isaiah ix. 6, 7, where, after the promise of raising up Christ to sit upon the throne of David, of the increase of whose government and peace there shall be no end, it is emphatically added, The zeal of the Lord of Hosts SHALL PERFORM THIS.

:

The times of fulness, or fulness of times, referred to in the Syriac, are evidently then the same with the dispensation of the fulness of times IN WHICH God shall gather together all things in Christ, (Ephes. i. 10.) i. e. that time when he shall receive dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, and nations, and languages, should serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not be destroyed. They are also the same with the days, the those days, and that time of Jeremiah. Now, let Mr Faber himself say what time this is but the Millennium. So far then is the learned author's gloss from receiving the least support from the Syriac, that, on the contrary, the rendering of that version, when strictly analysed and compared with other passages, supports, in the most decided manner, the doctrine of the literal advent; for, I need not remind Mr Faber, that the Branch of Righteousness which grows up unto David is Messiah, and the whole description is evidently a counterpart of that in Isaiah ix. 6, 7; and if the heavens are to receive our Lord until those days and that time spoken of by Jeremiah, and until the dispensation of the fulness of times, revealed in

* Jerem. xxxiii. 14, 15.

† Dan. vii. 14.

Ephes. i. 10.; and if these times coincide with the Millennium, then the inference necessarily is, that Christ comes again at the Millennium.

Next with respect to the Arabic, which Mr Faber reads, until the times in which all the things shall be perfected or finished, I remark, that Dr Gill gives it differently,- Until the times which will confirm the perfection of all the words that God hath spoken; and it is evident, if Dr Gill's be the true rendering of that version, that the times therein spoken of are the same dispensation of the fulness of times of Eph. i. 10., and the times when God will raise up to David the righteous branch, i. e. the Millennium.

Nor are the renderings of Irenæus and Tertullian foreign from the above sense of the passage. They were both Millenarians, expecting the literal advent and reign of Christ just at the time that we modern Literalists look for them. And as Irenæus expected a renovation of the whole lower world, and interpreted, according to the very letter, the change in the animal creation promised in Isa. xi. 6-8. as to be accomplished at the resurrection of the just, when the whole animals shall obey man, and return to their first food, the fruits of the earth; it is evident that this is the disposition or setting in order of all things which he speaks of, when he says, that the heavens must receive Christ till the times of the setting in order (dispositio) of all things, which God hath spoken by his holy prophets. Now, this being the case, it is rather hard that Mr Faber should bor

*

*Iren. Advers. Hæres. lib. v. cap. xxxiii.