PUBLIC LIBRARY ASTOR, LENOX AND 1807. LORD JESUS CHRIST, WHO AT THY FIRST COMING DIDST SEND THY MESSENGER TO PREPARE THY WAY BEFORE THEE; GRANT THAT THE MINISTERS AND STEWARDS OF THY MYSTERIES MAY LIKEWISE SO PREPARE AND MAKE READY THỶ WAY, BY TURNING THE HEARTS OF THE DISOBEDIENT TO THE WISDOM OF THE JUST, THAT, AT THY SECOND COMING, TO JUDGE THE WORLD, WE MAY BE FOUND AN ACCEPTABLE PEOPLE IN THY SIGHT, WHO LIVEST AND REIGNEST WITH THE FATHER AND THE HOLY SPIRIT, EVER ONE GOD, WORLD WITHOUT END. ΑΜΕΝ. ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1842, by J. P. K. HENSHAW, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Maryland. Jos. Robinson, Piute. The following Lectures, delivered in the ordinary course of parochial instructions, are now published to gratify the earnest desire of many who heard them, and in compliance with the recommendation of some valued clerical friends, whose advice was solicited. The views herein advocated are the same which were maintained by many of the earliest Fathers, and by some of the Reformers, and which have found powerful support in the writings of the learned and pious Mede in the 17th century, and in those of Bickersteth, McNeile, Melvill, Dodsworth, Noel, and other distinguished divines of the Church of England in our own day. The object of the Author will be gained, if this humble inquiry shall have any influence in directing the attention of his clerical brethren to an important, but, it is to be feared, too much neglected branch of Biblical investigation, or in awakening the minds of Christian people to a livelier faith in, and a more diligent preparation for, the coming and kingdom of our Lord. Baltimore, March 2d, 1842. CONTENTS. 27 162 201 LECTURE FIRST. THE SECOND PERSONAL COMING OF OUR LORD. Acts, CHAPTER 1. VERSE 11. “ Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” The holy season upon which we have this day entered* has been observed in the church for more than fourteen hundred years as a solemn preparation for the great Festival of Christmas. In the prayers, hymns and lessons, in the gospels and epistles provided for her public services, the Church of Christ lifts up her voice-she lifts it up on high, and says to all her children “BEHOLD YOUR GOD!” Behold him as he came to visit us in great humility, by his sufferings and death to redeem the world! Behold him as he will come again in his glorious majesty to judge the quick and the dead! Receive the grace-be thankful for the mercies brought by his first coming! Prepare for the glories and solemnities that will be connected with his second coming ! *Advent. In conformity therefore with the services of the season, and in the belief that the subject is of the deepest interest and importance, we would now invite your attention to some inquiries respecting that “ glorious appearing of the Great God our Saviour" which is the grand subject of promise and of hope to his Church. Our Lord Jesus Christ had frequent interviews with his disciples during the forty days which elapsed between his resurrection and ascension. He appeared to them, not for an instant only, and then vanishing like an apparition. But he held free and affectionate intercourse with them on various occasions and under different circumstances. He ate and drank with them; allowed them to touch his sacred person; and even permitted Thomas to put his fingers into the print of the nails, and thrust his hand into the wound which the spear had made in his side. He afforded them every possible means of proving his identity, and of obtaining the most full and satisfactory evidence of the fact of his resurrection. We are even infor what were the leading topics of his conversation with them. He instructed |