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ness and practical force to these warnings, by applying them to the nearness and uncertainty of the hour of death. But is not such an application mere accommodation? Is there any thing whatever in the Scriptures to show, that, in these passages, our Saviour used the expression" the Son of man cometh " as a euphemism or circumlocution to express death, or that any of his hearers so understood him? On the contrary, is it not evident, from the connection in which our Saviour introduced all these warnings, that he had reference to his promised Second Advent?

The precepts recorded by the Apostle John, in the Book of Revelation, from which fuller extracts will be given under the next proposition, are still more express in respect to the nearness of Christ's coming.

Rev. ii. 25, "But that which ye have already, hold fast till I come."

Rev. iii. 11, "Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown."

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Rev. xxii. 7, "Behold, I come quickly blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book."

II. The express declaration, that there were some standing before him, who would not taste of death till they should see his coming.

Mat. xvi. 24, "Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. (25) For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake, shall find it. (26) For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (27) For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to

his works. (28) Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom."

The expression in verse 28, "shall not taste of death," is manifestly an emphatic pleonasm for "shall not die." This is rendered still more evident by a comparison of the other passages in which a similar expression occurs.

John viii. 51, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. (52) Then said

the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. (53) Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself?"

Heb. ii. 9, “That he [Jesus] by the grace of God should taste death for every man."

The only way, therefore, of evading the express testimony of verse 28, is by denying that the words "coming in his kingdom" refer to Christ's Second Coming. But this denial is rendered very difficult, if not impossible, by the two following considerations.

1. If we examine v. 28 by itself, we are required, by the general tenor of the New Testament, to refer the expression "coming in his kingdom" to the Second Coming of Christ.

I cannot expect that this consideration will be fully appreciated by those who have not attentively studied the view presented in the Scriptures of the new kingdom which the Messiah was to establish, most frequently called the kingdom of heaven," or "the kingdom of God," but have contented themselves with the very

vague notions which are so common upon this subject. I regret that my prescribed limits absolutely forbid any attempt at a full exposition of this view, which would require a treatise by itself. In general, the view presented in the New Testament is evidently the following: That, as the first coming of Christ was in humiliation, to labor and suffer, so his second coming would be in glory, to establish his kingdom upon the earth, and reign with his saints that as he came the first time as a sacrifice and as servant of all, so he would come the second time as King of kings, introducing an entirely new age, raising the dead, changing the living, taking account of all past actions, rewarding his friends, punishing his enemies, and establishing a new and universal empire of transcendent glory. "What are the particular evidences of this view?" and "What is its meaning, when divested of its imagery?" are questions of great interest and importance, but which we must here waive, simply adducing, in illustration of the verse under consideration, a few other passages associating the Second Coming of Christ with the establishment of his kingdom.

Luke xxi. 27, "And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud, with power and great glory. (28) And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads: for your redemption draweth nigh. (29) And he spake to them a parable: Behold the fig-tree, and all the trees; (30) When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. (31) So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand."

Luke xxiii. 42, " And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom."

2 Tim. iv. 1, “I charge thee therefore before God, and

the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom."

This familiar association of the Second Coming of Christ with the establishment of his kingdom explains the use by other Evangelists of the expressions "the kingdom of God come with power," and "the kingdom. of God," as equivalent to "the Son of man coming in his kingdom." Thus,

Mark viii. 38, "Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels. (ix. 1) And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power." Luke ix. 26, “For whosoever shall be ashamed of me, and of 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. (27) But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste ⚫ of death, till they see the kingdom of God."

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2. If we examine v. 28 in connection with the preceding verse, we shall see that it loses all its appositeness and natural connection of thought, I had almost said its intelligibility and propriety, if the comings spoken of in the two successive verses are not the same, and that, too, without any intimation of a change.

It seems obvious, in reading the passage continuously, that v. 28 was designed to give additional urgency to the motives drawn from the Second Coming, in which "the Son of man" would "reward every man according to his works," by teaching the nearness of this coming.

The attempt of some to find a fulfilment of v. 28 in the transfiguration, of which an account immediately follows, and which occurred "after six days," is incumbered with peculiar difficulties. The different expressions used by the three Evangelists, "the Son of man coming in his kingdom," "the kingdom of God come with power," and "the kingdom of God," are certainly all very strange ones to denote a mere change of personal appearance, however glorious, before three witnesses, who were not to disclose it till some time after. We may well wonder that any boldness of figurative expression should shock those who can thus interpret. Besides, would not this impart an air of trifling to our Saviour's solemn declaration? "Verily, I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see an event which will take place in the course of a week! No one, of course, will think of drawing any argument from the fact that the Cardinal Hugo, in dividing the New Testament into chapters, in the thirteenth century, made a different division in Mark from that in Matthew.

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I see not, therefore, how we can avoid the conclusion, that the Saviour, in the emphatic assurance, " Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom," expressly declared that his Second Coming would take place before the death of some who were then living.

III. The special intimation that the Apostle John would not die before his coming.

John xxi. 20, "Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved, following; (which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that be

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