as the agency of the judgment which He executes. If, however, these things are to be revealed to the church in prophetic vision, it becomes necessary that it should be done by external imagery manifest to the senses, since the things themselves cannot be seen by mortal eyes; and we are struck with wonder at the exact adaptation of the imagery of Daniel to that which is intended. The reign of the Eternal Father over the earth at this epoch is signified by the removal, as it were, of his throne to the atmosphere of this globe. The Beast and his lawless Horn are by figure summoned to the bar, and the sentence of death is passed on them, and its execution begins. At length the Son of Man is presented before the throne, amidst the mighty thunderings of the symphonies of acclaiming thousands and ten thousands, that He only is worthy to receive this power: and he is solemnly invested with the kingdom. Now, seeing that this Son of Man is our brother, one with us, and we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones, and He is the Bridegroom come to take to himself the Bride, the Immanuel, God with us, and seeing that all Scripture assures us that his second coming shall be with clouds, and every eye shall behold him, it is therefore just at the moment when he appears, that we believe the transition takes place, from the figurative to the literal, from the spiritual to the corporeal, from the invisible to the visible; and when our opponents continue to symbolize after the coming of the SON OF MAN, and to tell us, contrary to all Scripture and the unanimous voice of the ancient church, and the very express Scriptural declaration that He shall destroy the MAN OF SIN with the brightness of his coming, that Christ "does not require to come personally" for that end, we must say in answer, let God be true and every man a liar; and though all shall join as one man in this unequalled perversion of the Divine testimony, we shall say, let God be true and every man a liar. The third point upon which the anonymous writer animadverts, is the assertion of Mr. Begg, confirmed by the testimony of Mr. Faber, that it is while the Ancient of Days was sitting in judgment (Dan. vii. 9, 10) that one like the Son of Man came with clouds and was brought near before him. The anonymous author, however, asserts that so far as the testimony of Daniel goes, the judgment was finished before the Son of Man appeared.t * 2 Thess. ii. 8. Although I have argued this point below on grounds distinct from the direct testimony of Daniel himself, yet even from this testimony it is plain that the Son of Man comes during the sitting of the Judgment. For is it not while the Ancient of Days is sitting on the throne which is placed for the judgment, that the Son of Man is brought near unto him? Also in ver. 21, 22, it is said Mr. Faber has been known as a writer on prophecy for twenty-eight years, and I have been writing on it for twenty-six years, nor did I dare to take up my pen on so high a subject till after a previous study of four or five years. Now, here is a point on which Mr. Faber and myself, who have so often been engaged in controversy, are perfectly agreed, viewing it as quite indisputable. Without apparently having looked into Mr. Faber's Sacred Calendar, where the point is discussed at some length, this author quarrels with him for not producing the evidence. In my dissertation on the Apocalypse, which is the result of thirty years' labour,t I have by Scriptural induction established an order of events, which necessarily includes the point under discussion. But without having apparently seen my work, this writer quarrels with me because in a small Tract of forty pages I have not produced the evidence. Since, however, he does ask for evidence, it shall be given him. Let him know then, that his own very next paragraph contains the evidence which he requires. He there admits, that it follows from what is said in Rev. xix. 11-21, that the Beast is destroyed by the special agency of the Son of Man. Now, if so, the Son of Man, being the agent in executing the judgment and treading the wine-press, must be come before the work is done, i. e. before the judgment of the Ancient of Days, which ends in the destruction of the Beast, is finished. This, verily, is a mere truism. It simply affirms that He who actually treads a wine-press is present at the scene of operations. I pretend not to any gift of sagacity in discovering this, and I am sorry to take up my own time and that of my readers with such an argument. We shall give a second proof. The seven vials of the wrath of God are the Apocalyptic representation of the same events as are signified in Dan. vii. by the judgment of the Ancient of Days. This judgment ends in the giving the body of the Beast to the Burning flame, and in like manner the vials end with the treading of the wine-press and the casting the Beast and False Prophet alive into the lake of fire. Now, from Rev. xiv. 15-20, it is manifest Christ comes with clouds, and reaps the harvest of the earth before the wine-press is trodden. From Rev. xvi. 15, it is equally manifest that he comes during the vials, and consequently, for both reasons, he that the Little Horn prevailed against the Saints, not only until the Ancient of Days came, but until judgment, potestas judicandi, judicial power, is given to the saints of the Most High. It hence follows, that before the complete destruction of the Horn, the Son of Man and his saints are invested with the power in entire harmony with Rev. xix. * Mede also says, "While this judgment sits, and when it had destroyed the Fourth Beast, the Son of Man, which comes with clouds, receives dominions," t I mean the third edition. &c. certainly comes during the sitting of the judgment of the Ancient of Days. I hope the foregoing arguments may convince the anonymous author that the above position, which he has rashly asserted to be gratuitous, is supported by the most irrefragable evidence. As it is now time for me to draw these strictures to a close, I shall content myself with very briefly noticing one or two other points. The anonymous author affirms that Christ is even now ruling the nations with a rod of iron. I must, however, assure him that this is an error. The Lord must be set as King on his holy hill of Zion, i. e. He must receive the kingdom of his Father David, before he takes to him his iron rod. When he is first revealed coming with clouds, he wears not yet the sada, Diadem, but only the reparos, Crown. Nor is he first manifested as the minister of wrath, but of mercy. Sitting on a white cloud he reaps the harvest of the earth, which is the gathering of the remnant of his elect; the 144,000 sealed ones having been previously caught up. Now, let me here ask the author to explain to us the exact signification of some of these symbols, as, for example, the Stephanos, or Crown, and the Diadem. Am I doing him injustice when I express my firm conviction that it has never even entered into his imagination that they have any special meaning, and, therefore, that he knows nothing at all of their signification, and of the connection of these various symbols with the order of Apocalyptic events, and the progressive manifestations of the Kingdom of God? I must refer him to my Work on the Apocalypse for the signification of these symbols, and he will learn from what I have written, our reasons for believing that the Lord's ruling the nations with a rod of iron belongs to a period subsequent even to his first appearance with clouds to reap the earth. He asserts that all the members of the Church cannot be present at the marriage, if it take place before the Millennium. I reply, in the first place, that it is undeniable, from Rev. xix. 7, that the marriage does precede the Millennium. Secondly, It is plain that this author overlooks the distinction between the Church of the First Born, that is, the Bride, and the Virgins which are the companions of the Bride. I must therefore state what we believe on these points. When the wise virgins go in with our Lord to the marriage, it is our belief that the Church of the First Born or First Fruits is completed, and that door for ever shut; nor shall one of the race of Adam thereafter enter it. * Compare Psalm ii. 6-9, with Rev. xix. 15. + Psalm xlv. 9, 14. The saved afterwards do not, and cannot, inherit that glory. They shall indeed walk in the light of the New Jerusalem,* but they are not citizens of it. They shall inherit a felicity which eye hath not seen nor ear heard; but to be joint heirs with Christ-to sit with him on his Throne-to be the sharers of his dominion over all worlds, and the heralds of his high behests of light, of purity, of love, and of blessedness, to all orders of intelligent creation, and the most distant regions of immeasurable space, we believe to be limited to those who, having suffered with Christ, shall also reign with him, even the Church of the First Born, whose names are written in heaven.t We know that these high mysteries must appear strange to those who drink only from broken cisterns. But the body of the Church, in these days, being contented with elemental truth, cannot but remain, as to knowledge, in a state of infancy. Still let me add, (to prevent the imputation of boasting,) that we do not by any means count ourselves to have apprehended. We deeply feel our remaining ignorance. It is extremely probable, that, with regard to the order of events at our Lord's advent, we are mistaken in some things, and there are other things which we confes our inability to explain. But we are assuredly not mistaken in placing the Advent itself before the Millennium, this point being unanswerably demonstrated from the Scriptures, in the Tract, of which a second edition is now sent forth. We are assuredly also not mistaken in placing the conflagration which destroys the Roman Empire before the Millennium, and there will be enough of fire there for the perdition of every ungodly man on earth.§ Once more, we are assuredly not mistaken in placing the MARRIAGE OF THE LAMB previous to the Millennium, since, in Rev. xix. 7, we are informed that it happens before He goes forth to tread the WINE PRESS. Now, as a marriage in the absence of the Bridegroom is an utter solecism in the economy of human life, so do the songs of praise which, in the above passage, ascend up in celebration of the arrival of the celestial nuptials, make it evident, even to demonstration, that the days of the fasting and mourning of the children of the bride chamber, on account of the absence of the Bridegroom, are passed away for ever. September 17th, 1833. Rev. xxi. 24. May not rous gonλóras in Eph. i. 12, refer to the Church of the first born, and may not the meaning of the Apostle in Eph. ii. 7, be to mark or designate by the word ὑπερβάλλοντα the grace which shall distinguish in the ages to come [EV TOLS DINS STERx quas] the "first born" from those who shall afterwards be saved? Macknight's note from Chandler on Eph. i. 12, is not entirely satisfactory. Dan. vii. 11. Rev. xix. 20. § Matth. xiii. 41, 42. Several paragraphs of the author's prefaces of a controversial character, and others not important to the argument, have been omitted from this reprint; and the publisher has taken the liberty of omitting some of the author's notes to the following tract and a part of the Appendix for similar reasons. |