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OF

CHRIST'S SECOND ADVENT;

CONSISTING MOSTLY OF

LECTURES

DELIVERED BEFORE LATE GENERAL CONVENTIONS, IN THE CITIES
OF BOSTON, LOWELL, AND NEW YORK;

VINDICATING

THE LORD'S PERSONAL AND GLORIOUS APPEARING ON EARTH, TO JUDGE

THE WORLD, "AT HAND,"

WITHOUT

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FIXING THE TIME; WITHOUT A PREVIOUS MILLENNIUM; OR RETURN OF THE

JEWS TO PALESTINE.

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selected, AND IN PART GIVEN,

BY HENRY JONES,

PRINCIPLES OF INTERPRETING THE PROPHECIES,"-" SCRIPTURES SEARCHED,"

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686 ADV. JONES

INTRODUCTION.

THE doctrine of the Second Advent of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the glorious theme of both the Old and New Testaments, most dear in all ages of the church to the faithful heart. The hope of Jesus' near coming to make an end of sin and of suffering, and to bring the eternal rewards of the righteous and of the wicked in the dissolution of this present evil world, and in the constitution of the New Heavens and of the New Earth, was the strong support of the martyrs and confessors of the first three centuries, and also of the great reformers, and the martyrs of the Protestant church in the sixteenth century. In all her afflictions, in all her sufferings with Christ, the church has cherished a lively hope of soon reigning with him; that the time is at hand, when the enemies of our Lord shall be made his footstool, and he will sit for ever on the throne of David, ruling over the house of Jacob in a kingdom without end.

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From the days of the apostacy under Constantine, Christians slumbered, until the voice of the reformers waked them up from the pleasing dream of the kingdom in this world, to the faith of the kingdom in the world to come. A relapse came upon the reformed churches in the latter part of the seventeenth century and since, which is equally manifest by comparing the present faith of the sects with the confessions and standards adopted by their founders, and with the Holy Word. But within twenty years last past, much attention has been awakened, both in England and in America, to the primitive faith of the Lord's appearing, Many English works have been published on this great theme, which have been extensively circulated in this country. The Editor of this volume is encouraged to hope that a work,

embracing the views of many distinguished advocates of the Bible doctrine on this side of the Atlantic, will not be unacceptable to his countrymen who wait for the coming of their Lord. He puts forth this as an experiment; not being by any means all he could wish, but all he had in his power to do. Should it succeed, the work will be enlarged in a subsequent edition, and introduce a wider field of view, and embrace the labors of many other eminent advocates of the duty of preparing for the speedy coming of our Lord, whose names are held in honor in the American churches.

The title page sufficiently indicates the doctrine of the following discourses in respect to the times and seasons, which also is briefly expressed in these words of Holy Writ: "For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry." Heb. x. 37. "But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I should write unto you for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night." 1 Thes. v. 1, 2. H. J. New York, July, 1842.

EXPLANATION.-The manner of paging this work, though in some respects unusual, is as regular as circumstances would permit, inasmuch as a part of the work is printed from stereotype plates, used for reports, &c. heretofore published. The discourse on "THE HOPE OF ISRAEL," signed H. D. W. at the close, was given by Henry D. Ward, of this city, at the Tabernacle Convention in October last, and since published in the Methodist Quarterly.

LECTURE

ON THE NATURE AND EVENTS OF

CHRIST'S SECOND COMING,

BY HENRY JONES, OF NEW YORK,

Before the 2d General Conference on the Advent, at Lowell, Ms., June 15, 16, 17, 1841.

CHRIST's personal coming in his kingdom and in his glory, to judge the world at the last day," is now, and long has been, a doctrine admitted by all his followers. And yet, most of those prophecies which foretell his second coming, his coming again, his coming to set up his everlasting kingdom, his coming to make his abode with the saints, and his coming to reign with them on the earth, are considered by many, including even the masters in Israel, as having their fulfilment in anything else than Christ's coming at the final judgment, or in "the great day of his wrath." On this question, therefore, we are now hearing on every hand, as foretold by Christ, the proclamations of, "Lo, here is Christ, or, Lo, he is there," --" Behold he is in the desert,""Behold he is in the secret chambers;"* or, behold he has come already, in some spiritual, invisible manner, which has fulfilled those promises of his coming; while some would have it that these and similar prophecies were designed not to be understood by any, until explained by their coming to pass. Such manifest discordancy and grossness in the views of multitudes on these most interesting and solemn portions of prophecy, may be very naturally understood as a signal fulfilment of the ancient prediction,-" Behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people."+ "And the vision of all has become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I

*Matt. xxiv. 23, 26,

+Isa. Lx. 2.

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