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with a good conscience, except when they would thus offend their weaker brethren. So little was the authority which St. Paul attached to the express injunction of a general and even apostolic council!

1 Cor. x. 25," Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience' sake: (26) For the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof. (27) If any of them that believe not bid you to a feast, and ye be disposed to go; whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no questions for conscience' sake. (28) But if any man say unto you, This is offered in sacrifice unto idols, eat not for his sake that showed it, and for conscience' sake; for the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof: (29) Conscience, I say, not thine own, but of the other: for why is my liberty judged of another man's conscience? (30) For if I by grace be a partaker, why am I evil spoken of for that for which I give thanks? (31) Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God: (32) Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God. (33) Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved."

VIII. As in the remarkable prominence given to motives drawn from the nearness of these events (see V. above); so, even more strikingly, in the no less remarkable absence of motives (now so familiar) drawn from the shortness and uncertainty of life, and the approach of death.

Motives of this latter class are so familiar to our own minds, and hold so large a place in the exhortations of the pulpit, in hymns (that suspicious, because so imaginative and yet unsuspected, source of doctrine), in other exercises of public and private worship, and in popular

religious books, that we are in danger of not observing their absence in the discourses of our Saviour, and in the writings of his Apostles. They are so fixed in our own minds, that we unconsciously supply them ourselves in reading the Scriptures; and it is perhaps little suspected by most preachers and religious writers, how many texts they use, by way of accommodation, as containing or implying such motives, which, in their proper sense, are entirely devoid of any such force. It is possible, therefore, that not a few may be surprised to learn that, in the New Testament, often as we find the word "death," yet,

1. There are no warnings to PREPARE for death, but for the coming of the Son of man.

2. There are no precepts to WATCH with reference to death, but to Christ's coming.

3. It is nowhere said that death "will come as a THIEF IN THE NIGHT," but the day of the Lord.

4. There is no promise to believers of REST at death, but "when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven."

5. It is never urged as a motive to REPENTANCE that death is near, but that "the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

6. It is never presented as a motive to sobriety and prayerfulness, that the end of life is at hand, but the end of all things.

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It is needless to multiply these particulars; but let me ask, Are they not absolutely inexplicable, if our proposition be false? That "the coming of the Son of man,' "the day of the Lord," "the kingdom of heaven," "the end of all things," &c., are mere periphrases for death, no one, of course, will seriously urge.

So various, abundant, and conclusive are the proofs in favor of our proposition that "The Apostles evidently expected, that the Second Coming of Christ, with its associate events, would take place before the death of some who were then living.". So important, nay, so vital, was the connection of this expectation of the Apostles with all their preaching and all their life. Deny our proposition, and you make many of their words enigmas, and much of their history a riddle. Admit it, and you have a key of wondrous power to unlock the secrets of their views and feelings, of their language and their lives. I have endeavoured to set forth its evidence as clearly and as fully as our limits would allow; and yet I feel that any impression made by detached passages must fall far short of the strong, deep, firm conviction produced by simply reading carefully and continuously 'the whole priceless series of the apostolic writings.

The generation addressed by our Saviour and his Apostles has long been numbered with the generations that have passed away. The men who composed it have all been lying in their graves nearly two thousand years. The events, therefore, which, according to the declarations of the Saviour and the expectations of the Apostles, were to be fulfilled before that generation should pass away, must have long since taken place. No prediction of our Saviour can have failed of its fulfilment within the predicted time; and any expectation of its fulfilment out of this time, unless ignorantly entertained, must be a presumptuous questioning either of his knowledge or of his veracity. But we have seen both how variously he intimated, and even how explicitly he declared, that his Second Coming, with its associate events, would take

place before the death of some who were then living; and also how clearly and abundantly the Apostles, both in their discourses, in their writings, and in their lives, manifested a corresponding expectation. Is it then possible for us to avoid the inference expressed in the following proposition?

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PROPOSITION V.

THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST, WITH ITS ASSOCIATE EVENTS, THE END OF THE WORLD, THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD, AND THE GENERAL Judgment, MUST HAVE ALREADY TAKEN PLACE;

AND ALL EXPECTATION OF THESE EVENTS AS STILL FUTURE IS FORBIDDEN BY THE SCRIPTURES.

The question of TIME determined, that of MODE SUCceeds. "How have these events taken place? In what has consisted the fulfilment of the predictions relating to them?" These are questions alike interesting and important; but they open a new and broad field of inquiry, into which we cannot now enter. Let it here suffice to ascertain in what direction this field lies. It is needless to say that we shall search in vain all the volumes of history to find any thing like a literal and outward fulfilment of these predictions. Even the predictions of the end of the world or age, which in its proper sense has literally come to pass, are too much involved in imagery to be made an exception. It requires no argument, therefore, to establish the following proposition as an unavoidable conclusion from those which have preceded.

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