תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

so doing, what will he do with us? He will come in an hour that we think not and cut us off and appoint our portion among hypocrites and unbelievers, where shall be weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth. But we will suppose that he will not come in so short a time as your speaker believes, still what do I ask of you, my brethren? Nothing but what Jesus Christ and the apostles required 1800 years ago. I ask you to compare these views with the bible. Is this wrong? No. I ask you for holy conversation. Is this wrong? No. I ask you for heavenly mindedness. Is this wrong? No, no. I ask you to stir up each others pure minds, to make improvement on your one talent if no more, to come out of this cold and luke-warm state, to trim your lamps and be ready. Are these requirements wrong? Certainly not; no, no. I ask you again to compare scripture with scripture; to read the prophets; to stop your revilings; to take warning by the old world; to flee from sin and the wrath which is to come; to hide yourselves in Christ, until the indignation be over and past; to look "for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." Is this wrong? Then be the wrong on my head.

And now, my impenitent friends, what say you? We, say you, "know nothing about it." Do you believe the old world was deluged? Why-yes. What makes you believe it? Because our philosophers tell us there is a great many signs remaining of the flood, and we can believe them. And is there no signs of the near approach of the judgment day? What say the prophets, apostles and Jesus Christ? Are they not equal to your philosophers? Examine your bibles and see; weigh well the evidence; your eternal happiness, the salvation of your immortal souls may depend on your decision. But what say you more? We, say you, were very unwise to fix on the year 1843 or sooner for this day to come, for it will not come, and then you will be ashamed. And I hope I may be able by the grace of God to repent. But what if it does come? You cannot with any propriety say positively it will not come, for you make no pretence to divination. But I say what if it does come? Where will you be? No space then for repentance. No, no, too late, too late; the harvest is over and past, the summer is gone, the door is shut and your soul is not saved. Therefore it can do you no harm to hear and believe and do those things which God requires of

you, and which you think you would do, if you knew he would appear. First I ask you to repent of your sins. Would this be right? Yes. Next I ask you to believe in God. Is this right? Yes. And I ask you to be reconciled to his will, love his law, forsake sin, love holiness, practice his precepts, obey his commands. Would these things be right? Yes, yes. And last of all and not least, I ask you to "look for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ."

Amen.

[ocr errors]

LECTURE II.

REV. xx. 6:

Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years.

The term "blessed and holy" is often used in scripture, and in many places is applied to man; but in no place without giving some characteristic mark of his being born of God, or inheriting the fruits of the divine spirit; and very often the word blessed is used standing in immediate connection with the resurrection and coming of Christ, either expressed or implied, as in Isa. Ixii. 11, 12, " Behold the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, say ye to the daughter of Zion, behold thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. And they shall call them the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord: and thou shalt be called sought out, a city not forsaken." Isa. xxx. 18, "And therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you; for the Lord is a God of judgment. Blessed are all they that wait for him." Daniel says, xii. 12, "Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the 1335 days." John says, Rev. xiv. 13, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." "Write, blessed are they which are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb." "Behold I come quickly, blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book." "Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. "By these passages I show you that all the children of God are included in this blessing, and not the martyrs only, as some will have it. The next thing which will claim our attention will be to explain the resurrectien spoken of in our text, called the first resurrection. The word resurrection signifies to revive or resuscitate, or bring to life again one now dead, which was once alive. It no where in the word of God

conveys an idea of a new creation, and the word is no where used in the bible expressing any thing less or more than a union of soul and body and deliverance from natural death. The word resurrection is no where used in a figurative sense; it in all places has its own simple meaning, unless our text is an exception. And without the objector can show some rule of interpretation by which we shall be warranted to understand the word in a different sense, we must beg leave to attach to it the simple meaning, coming to life from the grave. I know some have supposed that regeneration is resurrection, but I cannot believe this unless they show some rule. I know some pretend to show us in John v. 25, "Verily, verily, I say unto you the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice. of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live," as a rule, but in order to make this a rule, they must prove that Christ meant regeneration; until this is shown we cannot admit it as any proof.

We shall therefore consider the word resurrection, as coming up out of the grave, and pass to the word first. "The first resurrection." The resurrection of the saints is first as it respects order and time, wherever the word resurrection is used in connection with life or damnation, the one unto life always comes first, as in Daniel xii. 2, "Some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." John v. 29, "They that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation." Here are two samples as it respects order. One or two as it respects time: I. Cor. xv. 23, "Christ the first fruit, then afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming. Then cometh the end." And again, I. Thes. iv. 16, "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first." And then our context and text shows that the blessed and holy are raised a thousand years before the rest of the dead. If we are correct then Christ will come before the millenium instead of afterwards, as some believe; and the millenium is a state of personal and glorious and immortal reign on the new earth, or this earth cleansed by fire, as it was once by water, and it will be a new dispensation; new heavens and new earth. This will be our next proposition to prove. And first we will examine the 20th Chapter of Rev. 1st verse, "And I saw an angel

[ocr errors]

come down from heaven." This angel I consider no less a being than the Lord Jesus Christ, for it only can be said of him" having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand, see Rev. i. 18. "I am he that liveth and was dead; and, behold I am alive forevermore, amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." And Christ only has power to bind satan. "That he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil." Heb. ii. 14. 2d verse," And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and satan, and bound him a thousand years." I suppose this verse needs no explanation. It can only be understood in a literal sense, for it explains itself in the figures used, as dragon and serpent, often used as figures, are explained to mean the devil and satan. If the thousand years had been used in this chapter or any where else in the word of God, in a mystical or figurative sense, it would have been some where explained, but as it is not I consider we are to place upon it the most simple construction, and I shall therefore understand it literally. 3d verse, "And cast him into the bottomless pit." By bottomless pit, I have shown by the proof on our first verse, that it is hell. See Rev. i. 18, "And shut him up and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled, and after that he must be loosed a little season. "" This passage must be understood in its simple, plain meaning; no mystery in this. 4th verse, "And I saw thrones and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them." Here we have a prophecy of the fulfilment of a promise that Christ made to his disciples in Math. xix. 28," And Jesus said unto them, verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me in the regeneration, when the son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." "And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upor. their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years." In this description we have the whole family of the redeemed, for all that had not worshiped the beast or his image, or received a mark, and in one word all that were not the servants of satan or sin, lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5th verse, "But the

[ocr errors]
« הקודםהמשך »