Practical Reflections On the Second Advent

, (namely, that the second coming of our Lord is the event, to which the eye of the believer ought to be continually directed, in patient hope, and joyful expectation of the glory then to be revealed,) rests on a scriptural foundation. I say of primary importance; because, if the opinion be not established on the sure and incontrovertible basis of the written word of God, no matter how specious the arguments by which it may be supported, or how important the advantages by which it may appear to be attended, it is not entitled to be respected or received by those, who are resolved to weigh every doctrine in the balance of the sanctuary, and reject every opinion, however attractively engaging in its aspect, or plausibly advocated by human ingenuity, on which we cannot set this scriptural seal, " It is written." On the other hand, if it be plainly revealed, and that, too, as a truth of paramount interest and importance inthe Christian scheme, we must not be deterred from assignmg to it, in our private meditations or public ministry, that place which we find allotted to it in the Word of God, either by our apprehensions of the mischief which may result or our observations of the mischief which actually has resulted, from this revealed truth having been fastened on by men of enthusiastic temperament, mingled with their own unwarranted speculations, and thus so perverted from the purposes for which it was revealed, as to have been made a powerful means of injuring th...