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be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken-and then shall they see the son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory; verily I say unto you that this nation, (as it should have been rendered) shall not pass away, till all these things be done.*-Take ye heed,

Mr Mede says, "In the prophets every kingdom and body of government, resembleth the world-and the parts also, the heavens, the earth-the stars serve for that repreesntation--vid. Isaiah, li.-15, where this speech is of the deliverance wherewith God delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt, that of them he might found a kingdom or commonwealth for himself in the land of promise-out of which also, it will not be hard to gather, what that new heaven and new earth may he in the same prophet, ch. lxv. 17, and lxvi. 22d.—to wit, a new world of the same form-according to this representation therefore, Heaven in the prophetical notion shall express whatever is lofty in the state of any kingdom or eommonwealth→→ by the earth, that which is inferior-the stars those who attain and bear place in that height, by which reason the sun and the moon, the principal lights in heaven, will point out the first and chiefest majesty and dignity of a kingdom and the next in order."-Vid, also Haggai ii, 6, 7, 21, 22.-Jerm. iv. 23d. Isaiah li. 15, 16. xxxiv. 2, 5,

Mr, Mede in his reply to Mr Hayne, who applied this sentence of Christ to the destruction of Jerusalem, says, "whilst you endeavor, in this manner to establish a ground for the first coming of Christ, you bereave the church of those principal passages in the scriptures, whereon she hath always grounded her faith in the second coming-2dly. You ground all this on the ambiguity of the word generationwhereas genea signifies not only atas, but gens, natio progenies

watch and pray, for ye know not when the time is, for the son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch-and what I say unto you, I say unto all, watch."And in the institution of the Lord's supper, he ended it with saying, " verily I will not drink any more of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I shall drink it new in the kingdom of God."-And when Jesus was arraigned before the high-priest, he asked him, "art thou the Christ, the son of the blessed? And Jesus said, I am, and ye shall see the son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven."

and so ought to be here taken, viz. " the nation of the Jews should not perish, till all these things were fulfilled."

THE GOSPEL

ACCORDING TO LUKE.

THE gospel of Luke does not diminish the testimony, for he sets out with establishing this important fact," and the angel said unto her, fear not Mary, for thou hast found favor with God, and behold thou shalt conceive and bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus-he shall be great and called the son of the highest-and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his Father David; and he shall reign over the house of Jacob, forever and of his kingdom there shall be no end." And Zachariah had expressly asserted, that the coming of Christ was to perform the mercy to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swear to our father Abraham." What was this covenant and oath; but that he should inherit the land of Cannan, and that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed.-And when Jesus addressed his disciples on the propriety or rather the necessity of taking up their cross daily to follow him, he adds, "whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my words, of him shall the son of man be ashamed when he shall come in his own glory, and in his father's, and of the holy angels."

Our Lord himself also taught his disciples very early to look forward to this great event, by making

it their duty in their daily prayers, to pray, "thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory."-Jesus Christ encourages his people, "fear not little flock, says he, it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom-let your loins be girded about and your light burning; and ye yourselves like unto men, who wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh you may open to him immediately; blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when he cometh, shall find watching."

The Lord was then with them, and therefore he must have had reference to his going away and his after return. The parable of the nobleman going into a far country, to receive for himself a kingdom and to return, further confirms the doctrine and the consequences to the careless and slothful servant.Christ continues the same language, "be ye therefore also ready, for the son of man (who was then speaking to them) cometh at an hour, when ye think not; for as the lightening, that lighteneth out of one part under the heavens shineth unto the other, so shall also the son of man be, in his day; but first, he must suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation (or as it should be, of this nation) and as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it also be in the days of the son of man; they did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood

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came and destroyed them all: even thus shall it be, in the day when the son of man is revealed. And there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars, and upon earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring-men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things, which are coming upon the earth-for the powers of heaven shall be shaken, and then shall seen, the son of man coming in a cloud, with power and great glory: when these things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads, your redemption draweth nigh."*-Our blessed Lord then, notwithstanding his humble appearance and low state not having a place to lay his head, informed his disciples" that he appointed to them a kingdom, as his father had appointed unto him, that they might eat and drink at his table in his king

for

The order of time in which the events predicted by our Lord are to follow each other is, first the powers of heaven, or the kingdoms and governments of Europe shall be shaken, that is, they shall be removed from the political universesecond, they shall then see the son of man coming in a cloud, with power and great glory-thirdly, when these things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift your heads, for deemer draweth nigh-But Matthew says, in (or after) the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened, &c.

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Dr. Sykes says, when speaking on these words, "when ye see and know that these things are come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand," when ye perceive that the monarchies of Europe, and aristocracies of the world are falling to pieces, be assured that the Messiah is coming in his kingdom.

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