Jesus Christ, in the subjection of all things (metonymically) in heaven and on earth, to his Father, who will then be all and in all-He will be to all the Father, and in all by His Spirit, constituting all His Sons.*

The first aionos, age or dispensation, was closed at the giving of the Law, and separating the nation of Israel, choosing them, to the rejection of the Gentiles or the nations, as the peculiar people of God, and committing to them His oracles, and giving them a Covenant. At the close of the second aionos, age or dispensation, Jesus Christ, the Messiah appeared. He gave the Jews a sign, as we have already considered, as the test of the truth, etc., generally, as well as particularly of his predictions of the end of that aionos, age or dispensation during the then generation of living men; and of His coming, at the destruction of their City and Temple, and the end of the Jewish Church and ceremonial worship. In the metonymical, and parabolic sense, He came "in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory." When the disciples of Jesus inquired (Matt. xxiv.) of him, and requested him to inform them particularly of his coming, to end the

* I would urge the reader to a serious consideration of the following: A comparison of the various testimony is indispensable to a knowledge of the truth. Compare Colos. i. with John i., and both with Gen. i. 26, 27. The plural form of the phrase, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness," etc., expresses the joint action of God the Father, the Agent, and His Son; the Elect of God, two distinct beings, and not a trinity, or three persons, constituting the modern monstrosity of one being! And God's Elect Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, affirmed of himself in the true relation that exists, that the Son of himself can do nothing; for the reason, that the Father, the Great Agent, doeth the work, etc. Therefore a prospective understanding of Gen. i. 26, 27, in a true conformity to John i., and Colos. i. shows the sense of the passage as follows:-God's only begotten Son, the Elect, or patient of the great Agent, existed at the beginning the beginning of man as a sentient being is announced as the joint act of the Father and Son, or only begotten, the Son participating. But the phraseology points to future times, and important results-"Let us make man in our image," and this is not all, but, also, "after [according to] our likeness." And in the new creation, that the Gospel of Christ announces, we learn that "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself"Therefore, when that life and immortality, that the Gospel of Christ brought to light, shall be the state of man, and all men shall be raised in the heavenly image, incorruptible and immortal, the new creation will be complete, for then it will be finished by every man being made "after [according to] the likeness" of the Father and Son. Then, emphatically, will be realized the truth of the sublime declaration, that God will be all in all. The Great Father will be the Head of Jesus Christ His Son, and His Son the Lord Jesus Christ, will be the Head of every man; who, as members of his body, by this

aionos, and do the certain things previously spoken of in his parables, and especially, in the parable of "the tares in the field,” (Matt. xiii.) they inquired emphatically in a direct reference to the sign-"Tell us, when shall these things be?" What things? Answer, in the words of Christ's disciples-" and [also] What shall be the SIGN of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" aionos, age or dispensation. And Jesus, in his reply, solemnly assures his disciples, that "The SIGN of the Son of Man should appear in the heavens, and they should "see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.' And he affirmed of the time, within which these things should happen, or be fulfilled, "Verily, I say unto you, this generation [e genea aute, eveà aurn, the men of this age,] shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away." Here the terms heaven and earth, are, by a metonymy, put for the things that the SIGN denoted the fall of, viz: the Jewish Church State, and the Jewish power, or dominion, and identity as a nation, contained in Judea, of which Jerusalem was the Capital. These were

divine union, will participate in the likeness of God the Father, and His only begotten Son.

Reader, you here behold the truth, as it is seen in its true position, between the two extremes of error and falsehood, viz :

First-The monstrous doctrine of a trinity of persons, with its long train of contradiction and absurdity.

Second-The Socinian hypothesis, which, as the other extreme of error, degrades God's only begotten Son to a level with sinful man, as a common descendant from the earthly Adam. This modern hypothesis contradicts the whole tenor of the Scriptures, in their affirmations of the pre-eminence of God's only begotten Son.

Now in order to steer clear of both these human dogmas, the Trinitarian and the Socinian, we must receive the witness from above, the testimony of God, of His Son; and the testimony of the Son, of the great Father; and remember, that, although man was made, in a certain qualified sense, in the image of both, Father and Son, the creation is a spiritual creation in the heavenly image, that the only begotten of the Father was begotten to, incorruptible and immortal, that maketh, when the work of redemption and salvation shall be finished, man " after [according to] the likeness" of the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent; in conformity to His eternal purpose, good pleasure and will, to reconcile all to himself. For, be it remembered, man, at first, was made subject to vanity, in a bondage to corruption; and God's Son, who with the Father maketh all things new, a complete restitution, partook of flesh and blood, the medium of man's corruption, for the express purpose of destroying death, etc., the cause of corruption; and delivering all who are in bondage from the earthly, to the Heavenly image; according to the Divine image and likeness. See Rom. viii. 20-23; Heb. ii. 14, 15.

predicted to cease, to come to an end, or pass away; and these things, being accomplished, were the glorious fulfilment of the Messiah's predictions; and the complete overthrow and discomfiture of the power of darkness, the blinded nation of Jews or Israelites. And these events, that fulfilled all the predictions of the Messiah, are metonymically spoken of under the figure of an appearance of power and great glory. It was, in very deed, a glorious accomplishment of the Messiah's predictions; and a powerful attestation of the truth of his Divine mission, his Gospel, and the falsehood and wickedness of his persecutors the Jews, who denied his pretensions, pronounced him an impostor, and consigned him to the infamous death of the cross; impiously declaring-" His blood be upon us and our children.'

But there is a still farther and more extended sense, of the SIGN of the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ. It points as an Index to the morning of the third day, the third and last Dispensation or aionos age, viz: The Gospel Dispensation, which will end, and bring the glorious period called the "Dispensation of the fulness of times;" when shall happen "the RESTITUTION of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world [aionos, the second dispensation under the law] began." (Acts iii. 21.) And Paul (see Ephes. i.) speaks of the same dispensation of the fulness of times, as the period when God would "gather together in one, all things, (inetonymically men) in Christ, whether they be things in heaven or on earth." And Jesus in the parable (Matt. xiii.) of the three measures of meal, in which the leaven is hidden that is to leaven the whole lump, by a metonymy, speaks of himself, the quickening Spirit, or "the resurrection, and the life," under the figure of the leaven-also, the three measures of meal, in which the leaven is hidden, as the three Dispensations, viz: From Adam to Moses-From Moses under the law, to the morning of the third day, when the Gospel Dispensation commenced, as the sign, by the destruction of the Jewish earth and heaven, and end of the second Dispensation. And Jesus is represented by Peter, as being

* I refer the reader to Vol. I. pp. 395-397, for a full definition of the Greek phrase, e genea aute, rendered "this generation;" and also, for illustration, etc., by a reference to the various passages where this phrase occurs; and divers authorities, &c. &c.

retained in the Heaven, "until the times of restitution of all things;" metonymically men, when the kingdom of the Messiah, or Mediator, or King in Zion, will end, by the subjection of all to his Father God.

The LAST DAY now claims our attention, for it is at the last day, emphatically, when Jesus as the leaven, or quickening Spirit, hid in the three measures of meal, metonymically, three Dispensations, shall raise the dead. "And this is the Father's will [purpose, or design, says Jesus,] which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing; but should raise it up at the last day." This is a full and unequivocal declaration of the resurrection of all the dead, because "the Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hands." (John iii. 35.) But the connexion specifies, in addition to the universality of the resurrection, or the leavening the whole lump, all the meal in the three measures of meal, that a special order shall exist, in the leavening, or quickening, or raising the dead. Viz:

"And this is the will of him that sent me, [i. e. in addition to what is previously expressed in the connexion,] that every one that seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day." All are to be raised; but he that seeth the Son, and believeth on him, hath everlasting life; the knowledge I have particularly explained, etc. (John vi. 39, 40. See also iii. 16.)

Again it is affirmed-"For God so loved the world, [kosmon] that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Here, also, a specific case is introduced, showing that unbelievers perish, and believers are saved from perishing in this world. For the connexion explains" He that believeth not, is condemned already." Not shall be condemned after the resurrection. The condemnation, or perishing, is in the body of corruption, in the flesh, in this world; and is immediately explained as follows:-"This is the condemnation, [the decision,] that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." This as I have shewn, in my remarks on the knowledge of the believer, and the ignorance of the unbeliever, in respect to a future state and the Gospel of Christ, which, as a state of darkness, or moral death, is the antithesis of the believer's condition.

VOL. II.-14

But there is a peculiar and restricted sense of the term perish, that had a primary reference to the Jews, who are spoken of as Christ's own; to whom, in a peculiar and literal sense, Christ came; and who would not receive him, but rejected him as an impostor. They perished in the destruction of their city and temple, at the coming of Christ, on the morning of the third, or last day or Dispensation. Eleven hundred thousand Jews perished with their city and temple. Emphatically were those saved from perishing, who saw the Son, believed his predictions, and the Sign, and fled from the devoted city.* But in the general sense, there is the specific case, as it exists, in opposition to unbelievers. Believers in the flesh, in this world, have the everlasting life, or knowledge, etc., that delivers them from darkness, doubt, and uncertainty. But unbelievers are in darkness; and they have no hope that does not perish, when alarm seizes them. There fore, the unbeliever may be considered as perishing, when any evil befals him, as a consequence of his unbelief, and the darkness of his mind. His condition is that of moral death. The joy and peace, the righteousness of Christ's Gospel, he is a stranger to.

The resurrection, therefore, whether moral, or literal, (i. e. the first, or second,) is, emphatically, the work of the last day-the third day, that dawned when Jesus Christ rose from the dead; but was, emphatically, ushered in, in power and great glory, when the cloud appeared in the new Heaven; and the new earth, or dominion, and the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ commenced, after the full end of the second aionos. Then "the fire was in Zion, and God's furnace in Jerusalem." (Isa. xxxi. 9.) Metonymically, as expressed by Peter (2 Peter iii. 10,) "But the day of the LORD will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." (See connexion.) Peter uses the very phrase that Christ

* There is a singular coincidence, between the case of Joseph and bis brethren, and Jesus and his brethren according to the seed of Abrahamn, the Jews. Joseph wept over his guilty brethren. And Jesus wept over his guilty brethren-"O Jerusalem! Jerusalem!" Joseph's brethren, were, in God's hand, the instruments of salvation from famine; from temporal destruction. Jesus' brethren the Jews, were, in God's hand, instruments of fulfilling God's purposes of mercy to all men, in the resurrection of the dead by Jesus Christ our Lord.