Thes. iv. 15, 16. No language can be plainer than this to teach not only the coming of Christ at the resurrection; but that a distinction shall then be made between the friends of Christ and his enemies. "And I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." v. 23. "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord." James v. 7.

Many other passages might be adduced, but these are enough for our purpose; which is to show, that the apostles expected the coming of Christ at the resurrection of the dead.

2. The circumstance of the Jewish calamity, or Christ's prediction of them, is recorded by two of the other evangelists, which indicates that they were also present with Matthew, when he spoke to his disciples upon the Mount of Olives; but were not present at some other time when Matthew heard him deliver the substance of the 25th chapter of his gospel, in which he describes his last coming at a general judgement. Had the other evangelists been present to hear such a grand and sublime description, it cannot be supposed they would have omitted it. This is strong presumptive evidence that these two chapters were not both delivered at the same time; and did not both refer to the same event.

3. There was nothing in the events of Jerusalem and the Roman armies to accord with the language of our Lord on that occasion. There is no sense in which "all nations" were gathered before him. The Jews were gathered together for war; and a large army of Romans besieged them. But this was not the gathering together of all nations, Universalists insist on the word all in the Bible to mean not a part. And in such an expression, no sophistry can limit its meaning to a few Jews and Romans. In what sense, were all nations gathered before him at the destruction of Jerusalem? They were not all, nor a prin

Neither was any principal

that time, executed upon

cipal part, engaged in the war. or distinguished judgement, at all the corrupt and wicked nations, nor were the good generally admitted to any distinguished favour, or especially rewarded at that time. The unbelieving Jews to be sure were conquered and suffered much as a people; but the successful Romans were idolators. Who were the righteous so signally blessed at this judgement? Why, the universalists will tell us, they were the christianized Jews, the disciples of that nation. Well, in what manner did they come, at that time, and "inherit the kingdom prepared for them?" &c. Why, it is said they entered into the enjoyment of the gospel! Look again. The disciples of Christ, who were already enjoying the gospel, when the Romans destroyed their city, entered into the enjoyment of the gospel! But it is said, they were saved from the calamities that others suffered, and escaped the Roman sword! And was this all? It cannot be proved, that the disciples, at that time, received any signal blessing only they escaped the sword. Again when "all nations were gathered together before him," and the King said to them on the left hand, "depart from me ye cursed," &c. who and what did he mean? Why the wicked persecuting Jews. Well, let these stand for the wicked of all nations. How did they depart into (aionion) everlasting fire; and go away into (aionion) everlasting punishment? Why, they were slain by the sword and by famine, and went to the everlasting joys of heaven! Monstrous absurdity! Let us see the absurd thing once more, in form of a paraphrase. "When the Son of Man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him, (when the Roman army shall besiege Jerusalem,) then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory (invisible and unknown both to Jews and Romans,) and before him shall be gathered all nations; (the Jews and Roman army shall come together,) and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from

the goats. (The believers shall be separated from the rest of the Jews.) Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand; come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. (Come ye blessed of my father, ye shall escape the sword and the famine now at the destruction of Jerusalem; and ye shall live to suffer all the horrours of persecution—to be sawn asunder, imprisoned, and burned to death, by the Roman Emperors, after they get through punishing the Jews, and sending them to glory!) For I was an hungered and ye gave me meat, &c. (For you christianized Jews did this to one another.) Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. (Depart from your country and lives, ye cursed, unbelieving Jews, into death and immediate everlasting happiness in the kingdom of glory, prepared for the Jewish nation, the enemy of Christ, and the high priests, and Judas, and all his adversaries!) And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal. (And these shall most of them die, which all must do soon, and go away into age-lasting punishment, a state of immortality and bliss; but the righteous into life age-lasting, the enjoyment of the gospel of Christ, by which they shall be persecuted from city to city, bleeding under the lacerating scourge, during life, and at last they shall come to the same place,) or if that will not do, say, (these shall die and go to heaven, and a remnant of them shall be scattered abroad in the earth; and their posterity shall not come to a knowledge of the gospel for many ages; but the disciples shall continue to enjoy the gospel which they have enjoyed before.)

The exposition which universalists give this parable is no better than the above, though they may clothe it upwith a little better gloss. If this is believing any thing more than its varnished sense, we will admit the author

must be mistaken. Christ's hearers never had acumen enough to so understand him. Neither had any body ingenuity enough to understand him so, till the dazzling flood of light recently poured upon the Scriptures by universalists. Indeed, the light is so piercing and dazzling that none can gaze on it with any satisfaction without first veiling their faces!

Does not this construction make our Saviour a fabulous narrator of nonsense? But let his words mean what they unequivocally declare; and the description is powerful and full of meaning. The promised award to the righteous stands in the 46th verse of this noted passage, in exact contrast with the punishment of the wicked. The one is aionion life, and the other aionion punishment. That the aionion life is expressive of the everlasting happiness of heaven generally in the Bible, cannot be disputed. We have seen it was used, as the most common and familiar phrase, to denote the glorious hope, the heavenly inheritance of the disciples. We have seen too, that the adjective which qualifies its duration, was the very same, which was usually employed to denote endless durationthat no other word at the time was so generally employed in that sense-that no other word, in use, was so proper, either from its root and derivation or its familiarity and well known application, to denote the everlasting duration of a thing, as that very word. Over against this everlasting happiness, thus expressed in language usually employed to denote the deathless felicity of the righteous, there stands on the other parallel side of the antithesis, a description of punishment. Look at it. It is aionion punishment, and aionion life. No stronger word in the Bible is applied to the duration of heaven, of God, of angels, or any other thing, than is here applied to the bliss of heaven, and the misery of the wicked. Universalists will dispute this, of course; for it perfectly upsets their theory; and of course, must be disposed of. But the learned criticks of past ages

will sustain this proposition; and every learned man, who will examine the subject for himself will know it is true. If any thing, as vague and imperfect as words, can prove the endless misery of a portion of the human race, then it is proved abundantly; and in the strongest possible manner.

swer.

4. It will be objected, that Jesus said nothing here about the resurrection of the dead; and if he had meant to describe future judgement he would have noticed that. AnThe people well understood, that such a judgement as he there describes must be at the resurrection, as matter of course. He had frequently told them of a judgement at the resurrection. For instance thus, "Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation."John v: 28, 29. Read again, "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement." Much ingenuity has been exerted to make this text mean, that the judgement does not come after death. But their explanations have no weight against the plain declaration of truth, They have never invented an explanation of the text, that had any plausibility in it. Read again, "Because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness." Read, "And he commanded us to preach unto the people and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick (the living) and dead.”— Was he ordained to be the judge of the dead as well as the living, yet were all the dead judged and rewarded and punished before they died? Hear Paul to Timothy, "I charge thee, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the quick (living) and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom." Did Paul here mean to teach Timothy, that the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, in judgement, would be at the destruction of Jerusalem; and that he would then judge both the living and the dead; and