9, 10.

were not deficient in any gift, waiting for Cor. i. 7. the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ." In truth, this aspect of waiting is given as one of the two great characteristics of the conversion of the Thessalonians to God. "How 1 Thess. i. ye turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven." Their total and entire change is included in these two facts. With the Thessalonians, indeed, it appears that there was an error of excess rather than of defect, for St. Paul prays that the Lord would direct their hearts "into the patient waiting for 2 Thess. iii. Christ." Such, apparently, was their ardent desire for the Lord's advent, that it almost trenched upon the grace of patience. How very different must the feeling of the church then have been from what it is now, to make this petition (which was to them a precautionary precept) necessary, the apostle of the Gentiles having to rein in their ardour; whereas our sluggishness needs much goading. But with those who have the assurance of hope, and are living in the sense of God's favour, the Thessalonian would be

5.

the more likely state of the two; they would 1 Pet. i. 13. be "hoping for the grace which is to be brought unto us in the revelation of Jesus Christ;" which is not only the desire of the church on earth, but that of the church triumphant also; for those glorified spirits, in their song before the throne, declare, with Rev. v. 10. joyful anticipation, that they "shall reign on the earth." And if our conversation were in heaven, we should be looking from thence Phil. iii. 20. "for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:" we should, in all holy conversation and god2 Pet. iii. liness, not only be looking for, but “hastening on the coming of the day of God."

12.

Hence we find it to be the church's prayer Isa. Ixiv. 1. to Christ-" Oh! that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down;

. . for since the beginning of the world [men] have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God (i. e. Christ), besides thee, [what] he (i. e. God the Father) hath prepared for him that waiteth for him;" which St. Paul, remark1 Cor. ii. 9. ably enough, turns into "for them that love him;" implying, apparently, that it would

2 Tim. iv.

be impossible to love him, and not to love his appearing; as certainly it would be impossible to love his appearing, if we did not love him: hence it is distinctly said, that "the crown of righteousness" is "laid up? for . . . . all those that love his appearing:" and not only so, but it is apparently only for those; for it is "unto them that Heb.ix. 28. look for him" that he will " appear

unto salvation." In that day the church

8.

9.

will say, "Lo, this is our God; we have Isa. xxv. waited for him, and [therefore] he will save us: this is Jehovah; we have waited for him, [therefore] we shall be glad and rejoice in his salvation." The iteration seems to mark that the waiting was an evidence that these blessings would then come upon them; and the reason may be, because this hope has such a purifying efficacy, that "every man 1 John, iii. who hath this hope," of Christ's appearing, "purifieth himself.” Such will be the

3.

1.

"perilous times" of the last days, that 2 Tim. iii. those who are not watching for Christ's coming will be ensnared; SO our Lord says, "Watch therefore; for ye know not Matt. xxiv.

Luke, xii.

39, 40.

what hour your Lord doth come."

"Be

Rev. xvi. hold, I come as a thief; blessed is he that

15.

34.

watcheth." In short, light or darkness upon this point is the distinguishing mark between 1 Thess.v. the righteous and the wicked. "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief," &c. The "but" here is a particle of opposition, by which St. Paul distinguishes the brethren from others. So St. Peter gives wilful ignorance as the characteristic of the wicked scoffers in the last days, attributing to them 2 Pet. iii. this inquiry-" Where is the promise of his coming?" Hence he expressly warns the beloved not to fall into this error of the wicked. And I believe I may say, that the Expecta- expectation of the Lord's advent has always been the aspect of the true church: it was

3, 5.

2 Pet. iii.

17.

tion of the Lord's

advent, the aspect of the church.

so in the apostolic days; it was so with the Fathers for the first three centuries; and it was so with the early reformers.* Our

* The church says, "I look for the resurrection of the dead," &c.; but I believe no one denies that the resurrection will be simultaneous with our Lord's personal advent. The opinions of the

church, therefore, teaches us to say, "I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come." We do not merely state our belief, that there will be a resurrection of the dead some time or other

-a thousand years hence, or a hundred years hence, or even a year hence; but we declare that we are in the attitude of expectation and hope, looking for that event. "I look for it." I know neither the day nor the hour.

Fathers respecting the Lord's advent have been so much discussed of late, that I do not deem it necessary to bring forward any authorities in support of my assertion respecting them. A concession from an able millennarian writer shall suffice, in support of the doctrine of the Reformers. "It is a remarkable fact, therefore, that whilst the single tenet of the one thousand years was, by the generality [of the early Reformers], carefully avoided, all the important truths connected therewith-as the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, to set up a glorious kingdom on earth, in which all the saints should partake; the dead being raised, and the living changed; the literal restoration of the Jews to the literal Canaan; the earth being then renewed, and Jerusalem rebuilt; and the previous manifestation and destruction of antichrist, were almost universally entertained by the Reformers."-Brooks on Prophecy, p. 78.