afterward, together with the signs, so that they might make their escape. For the coming of Christ to gather together the elect, was not before, but immediately after the tribulation of those days. And although they were to be gathered together at his coming, yet if they did not make their escape, they must share in all the tribulations which should precede his coming. Therefore it stood the christians in hand to observe carefully the signs foretold by Christ, lest they, if they did not escape, must be involved in the general ruin. It appears that the calamities had begun in some measure, to come upon this devoted peo ple, when Peter wrote his epistles. For he says, 1 Peter iv, 17. 'For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.' In Dr. Clark's commentary on this passage, we find these words "I have on several occasions shown, that when Cestius Gallus came against Jerusalem, many christians were shut up in it: when he strangely raised the siege, the christians immediately departed to Rella, in Calosyria, in the dominions of king Agrippa, who was an ally of the Romans; and there they were safe and it appears from the ecclesiastical historians, that they had but barely time to leave the city before the Romans returned under the command of Titus, and never left the place till they had destroyed the temple, razed the city to the ground, slain upwards of a million of these wretched people, and put an end to their civil polity and ecclesiastical state.' Verse 29. Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be shaken.' I think this verse should be considered in connection with verse 35. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away.' To speak of the end of the world, and to say that the sun shall be darkened, the moon shall not give her light, the stars shall fall from

heaven, the powers of heaven shall be shaken, and that heaven and earth shall pass away, as things which have already transpired, sounds strangely to people who are not familiar with the scriptures. But the Saviour after speaking of these things, and also of his coming in the clouds, says, verse, 34, 'Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled.'Some have attempted to evade the force of this by saying that by "generation" in this passage is not meant that these things should take place while that generation should remain on earth. Some say it is to be understood the generation of the Jews. Others say it means the generation of the righteous. But all these things are mere shifts, in order to make the word of God bend to human notions. Generation in this passage means the same as in the chapter next preceding, verse 36. 'Verily I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation. No one would have the hardihood to say that generation, in this passage, does not mean generation.Not only so, but the Saviour speaks to the disciples as if they were, some of them at least, to live to see these things. When ye shall see these things.' Not when they shall be seen at some future generation; 'but 'when ye shall see all these things come to pass, then know of your own selves.' Isaiah lxv, 17. 'For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind.' Now notice particularly the next verse, and see how well it agrees with the doctrine which Peter held concerning the new heaven and new earth. Remember the coming of Christ was to be sudden, as a thief in the night. It was the time also, when heaven and earth should pass away. 2 Peter, iii, 10-13. 'But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent

heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burnt up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

Let any one compare this passage in Peter's epistle carefully, and he cannot fail to see that it agrees perfectly with what the Lord said to him and the other disciples on the Mount of Olives. Christ compares this time to the time before and at the flood. 'For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away: so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.' Upon the authority of this, Peter says in. the same chapter, 'For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, whereby the earth that then was, being overflooded with water perished.' 'The world that then was perished.' Now to say that the world perished, is something like saying that the earth shall be burnt up. But it is evident that in one case he spoke of the people which perished in the flood, and in the other, of the Jews who would perish in the overflowing scourge, which was soon to pass through.And in truth, the Jewish world was literally destroyed by fire, according to the prophecy of Isaiah. "Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and our beautiful house where our fathers praised thee, is burnt up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste.' And when the former

heavens passed away, no more to be remembered, nor to come into mind, then were the elect to rejoice in the new heavens and new earth which the Lord should create.As said Peter, 'We, according to his promise look for new heavens, and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.' So in Rev. xxi, 1. 'And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea.'

Surely this must have been fulfilled at the second coming of Christ, for then was heaven and earth to pass away. And I hardly think that any reasonable person will contend that these passages do not all refer to one and the same time.

Then read what follows. "And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will be with them,and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." The same thing also is to be understood by the following passage in Job xiv, 10 -12. "But man dieth, and wasteth away; yea,man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood desayeth and drieth up; so man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. Should not this be understood to mean that when the heavens shall pass away, or be no more, then, and not till then shall they awake, or be raised out of their sleep? The words which follow, show beyond doubt that Job alluded to the resurrection, when the heavens should be "Oh that thou wouldest hide me in the

no more.

grave,

that thou wouldest keep me secret until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me! If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change [to immortality] come. Thou shalt call; and I will answer thee: thou will have a desire to the work of thine hands., Paul in his 12th chapter of Heb. after exhorting the bretheren to faithfulness and diligence, "lest they should fail of the grace of God," goes on to speak of Mount Sinai, and then says," But ye are come to mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assem bly and church of the first born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of Just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spoke on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: whose voice then shook the earth: but now has he promised, saying, yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, yet once more signifieth the removing of those things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Now mark what follows. 'Wherefore receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear.'

Is it not plain that the righteous were to receive this kingdom which could not be moved, when heaven and earth should be shaken, or should pass away? All these things are very easy to be understood, were it not for that impious unbelief which denies that the scriptures have been fulfilled according to the explicit declarations