Christ with all his saints." Jude 14: "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints." And they are to be presented without fault, before the presence of his glory. Col. i. 22: "In the body of his flesh. through death, to present you holy and unblameable, and unreprovable, in his sight." Jude 24: "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory, with exceeding joy." Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. 1 Thess. iv. 16, 17: "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord." Then, too, he comes to take vengeance on those who obey not the gospel. 2 Thess. i. 8—12. All these texts show conclusively that these things were not fulfilled at the destruction of Jerusalem. : Verse 31: "And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet," (this agrees with 1 Thess. iv. 16,)" and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." No one has ever been able to show how, or where, Christ ever did gather his elect at the destruction of Jerusalem; and this of course remains to be fulfilled in a future day. 32, 33: "Now learn a parable of the figtree when his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors." "These things are the things that are meant in our text, and the parable of the fig-tree is here given us to illustrate the idea, that we may know when the coming of Christ is near, even at the door. Some suppose we cannot know when Christ will come, because Christ has said, verse 36, "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." But in the verse under consideration he plainly and distinctly tells us, "So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things" taking place and fulfilling before you, then "know that he is near, even at the door." And Paul, in corroboration of Christ's words, says, 1 Thess. v. 4, "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief." Therefore, although we may not know the day and hour, yet the time near may be understood, and will be by the brethren, and all that will look for and love his appearing. Then comes in our text: "Verily, I say unto you, this generation shall not pass until all these things be fulfilled." All what things? I have shown, that all wars and rumors of wars must cease; nation must cease to rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; famines, pestilences, and earthquakes must be ended; false prophets must no more deceive; the love of Christians will no more grow cold, nor iniquity any more abound; the gospel kingdom will be finished, and the powers of heaven be shaken; the Son of man will have come in the clouds, his angels sent forth to the four winds of heaven, to gather his elect, before "this generation shall pass." And will this generation then pass? I answer, yes; for heaven and earth shall pass away. But you may inquire, what is meant by "generation," in the text? I will now, III. SHOW WHAT CHRIST MEANT BY THE WORD 66 GENERATION," IN THE TEXT. The strict and literal meaning of the word generation is, children of one common parent, and is applied to many things, such as classes of like nature, or sprouts from the same root; cattle from the same stock; the human race from the same common parent; all men living at a certain age, being the children of that age; children of one family, because they were all from one parent; children of God, because they are begot ten of God, having one Father, which is God, and one mother, which is the new Jerusalem, the mother of us all, both Jew and Gentile. Also, the Jews are called a generation, because they are the children of Abraham. The wicked are called a generation, because they are the children of the devil, and of the earth, earthy. I believe these are the several ways in which the word is used in the Bible, or among us at the present day. The question now is, In what sense did Christ use the word in the text? I answer, he could not have used it in the sense of children of that age. Why not? say you. Because the things he had spoken of were not fulfilled or done in that age; for the major part of those things are yet fulfilling, and some have not taken place yet. Again; another reason is, he was not talking about the age he then lived in, any more than any other ages down to the end of the gospel kingdom. And another reason is, he was not talking to, nor in the presence of, the multitude, but only a few of his disciples. Yet he says, "this generation;" meaning a generation then present. I think, then, it would be ungenerous to construe the words of our Savior in that way that the whole conversation could not be strictly literal and true, when there can be no manner of use in it: for all must agree that the Bible uses the word in other senses, and Christ says in our text, "but my words shall not pass away." Secondly. He could not mean the children of one parent, or man and woman. Why not? You all answer at once, it cannot be. Because he was not talking about any one family of children, nor to them. Do you believe this is the reason why no commentator ever applied the word in this way, as it is used in Matt. i. 1? Certainly we do, and it is perfectly consistent. Very well then; my argument on the generation of that age is certainly as good as yours. But some tell us he meant the Jews, as in Luke xvii. 25: "But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation." This would be, in my opinion, a more consistent rendering than either the other ways which I have mentioned; and it is possible, and even probable, that there will be some Jews alive on the earth when Christ shall come; but I think it might be a hard task for any of them to prove clearly their pedigree, except by their profession. And I am of opinion that there is one insurmountable difficulty, as in the other cases: the Jews were not present, and, of course, Christ could not be talking to them. Yet he says, "this generation." Some few un |