A Sermon On The Second Coming of
Christ
Called Unto Liberty, John Hargrove:
Founding Era Sermons
continuation part 3
It is likewise
evident, from the phraseology of the text before us, that as certain
as the Lord’s second advent will be attended with a grand or general
judgment; so sure also, was His first advent attended with a similar
one.
This is a point highly
worthy our most profound attention; as it will doubtless lead to, or
enable us to form a correspondent or just idea of the true nature of
the grand or general judgment which is also to attend the Lord’s
second advent.
That a grand or
general judgment took place at our Lord’s first advent, will appear,
if we only attend to His own declarations in the Gospel of St. John
(9th chapter, 39th verse) where He thus expresses Himself, “For
judgment am I come into this world”; and lest we should have too
limited an idea of the nature and extent of this judgment, hear Him
again in the 12th chapter and 31st verse of the same gospel, adding,
“Now is the judgment of this world!” Many passages might also be
adduced here, from the prophets, to prove that the first as well as
the second advent of the Lord, was to be attended with a grand, or
general judgment, but perhaps they might be deemed superfluous.
Yes, my Christian
brethren, a grand and general judgment did indeed, and in truth take
place at our Lord’s first advent and that through the very means
predicted in the Holy Scriptures—“By righteousness and truth”; or by
the superior light and grace of the blessed gospel; whereby the long
established errors of heathenism, with all the vain traditions of
the Jews, were explored and detected as fallacious; and a judgment,
a general and final judgment of condemnation and rejection, was then
passed upon them forever.
And, if the Lord God
be still mindful of His Church on earth: If He hath not “forgotten
to be gracious[”]; and if similar causes will produce similar
effects; there is good ground for believing that His second grand or
general advent hath already taken place; whereby the true and
genuine sense of the Holy Scriptures, in which the Lord hath His
more immediate residence, is now revealed from heaven, in “power and
great glory”; dissipating the mere fallacies of the letter, and
effecting another general and final judgment, even upon the
principles of superstition and infidelity for ever more.
O! My beloved, already
“The judgment is set, and the books are opened!” Now, therefore,
every man’s works (or creeds) shall be made manifest, for the day
shall declare them—for now, behold!—“He cometh,” making “the clouds
His chariot, and riding upon the wings of the wind”: that is,
approaching the intellectual faculties of the members of His true
spiritual Church, by and through the medium of the literal sense of
the Holy Scriptures, rightly explained by rational doctrine.
I am well aware,
however, that many plausible objections against the doctrines of the
New Jerusalem Church, on the subject in question, can be urged from
the mere letter of the sacred pages; for it may be asked, do not the
Holy Scriptures plainly and positively declare, that previous to the
Lord’s second coming, or concomitant therewith, “The sun shall be
darkened, and the moon turned into blood; and all the stars of
heaven fall unto the earth?” And further, that then also “The
heavens shall pass away with a great noise—the elements melt with
fervent heat, and the earth, and all the works that are therein
shall be burnt up?”
To this I answer, that
all these things are certainly recorded in the Holy Scriptures; and
all these things, I verily believe have already taken place in the
world (or rather in the Christian Church)—not in the literal sense,
however, but in the spiritual, as every truly illuminated or
spiritual Christian may clearly perceive, soon as he looses sight of
the mere letter, in the splendor and transcendent glory of its
spiritual sense.
I have then to
request, upon this particular and solemn occasion, that every
impartial and enlightened Christian now present, will continue to
lend me his entire and most profound attention, while I endeavor to
reply to all the most formidable objections that can be urged
against us, from the mere surface of the Scriptures; after which, I
wish no other conclusions to be drawn, than those which your
rational faculties, aided by the good spirit of God, may prefer.
In the 2nd chapter of
the book of Joel we have a very memorable prophecy respecting the
first advent of the Lord, and its effects. “Behold” (saith the
prophet), “the day of the Lord cometh, it is near at hand: a day of
darkness and gloominess, of clouds and thick darkness,” &c. “Then”
(says He) “the earth shall quake, and the heavens shall tremble, the
sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their
shining,” &c.
Now let us look into
the ii. chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, which relates the
singular transactions of the day of Pentecost; when the Holy Ghost,
or divine influence of the Lord’s love and wisdom, flowed down upon,
or into the apostles, to the astonishment of the multitude, insomuch
that some of them cried out, “These men are drunken with wine.” But
Peter standing up with the eleven lifted up his voice and said unto
them, “Ye men of Judea and all ye who dwell at Jerusalem, be this
known unto you, and hearken unto my words; for these are not drunken
as ye suppose, seeing it is yet but the third hour of the day; but
this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel, (saying) and it
shall come to pass in the last days (saith God) I will pour out my
spirit upon all flesh, &c. And I will shew wonders in heaven above,
and signs in the earth beneath, blood, and fire and vapor of smoke;
the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood,
before that great and notable day of the Lord come.”
Here, then, my
attentive hearers, you may perceive St. Peter plainly and positively
declares that a fulfillment of all the wonderful antecedents and
concomitants of the Lord’s first advent into the world, as announced
by the prophet Joel, actually took place in the true sense of the
words, on the day of Pentecost: To wit, That in the last days (that
is, doubtless, of the Jewish Church), “The sun should be darkened
and the moon turned into blood,” &c. But, I would ask, did these
things actually take place then, in the literal sense? No, my
beloved, they did not; they certainly did then in the spiritual
sense, or the word of the Lord is not true. Yes, my Christian
hearers, they did take place then in the spiritual sense, upon those
principles of the Church which correspond to these bright luminaries
of heaven. The love of God, in that Church, was then darkened
indeed, by self-love, and the love of the world; and there was no
true faith then existing, but what was injured and wounded by their
foolish and vain traditions; and hence it was, that the divine mercy
of the Lord, constrained Him to descend at that time into the world,
by a powerful influx of His divine love and wisdom (through the
medium He was pleased to assume), in order to redeem mankind, and
establish a New Church.
When, therefore, we
are told in another place, by the same apostle, that at the second
coming of the Lord, “The elements shall melt with fervent heat, and
the earth and all the works that are therein shall be burnt up[”];
we are not to understand the words in their mere literal sense (for
this is forbidden both by the dictates of illuminated reason, and
the known principles of science); we can, therefore, only correctly
view them in the same sense in which St. Peter understood Joel; to
wit, in a spiritual sense.
For, with respect to
the natural elements, he could not possibly allude to these; as he
must have known, that three out of four, usually called elements,
have always been in a fluid state; consequently, there would be no
propriety in announcing that air, fire or water should be made to
“melt with fervent heat,” at the second coming of the Lord; no my
beloved, the elements that shall then melt, or pass away, must
certainly mean those erroneous elements of theology which have too
long obtained in the Christian Church, and brought it to its
consummation: These shall melt away, I verily believe; yea, they are
even now melting fast away, before the increasing influence of the
sun of righteousness, which, I am happy to believe, is rising with
heavenly rapidity, to the meridian of the human mind—and gradually
dissipating, in its blessed progress, those dense clouds of
superstition and infidelity, which have too long obscured its sacred
beams from the spiritual earth, or Church of Christ.
As to the natural
earth, on which we live, I am far from believing that it is to be
burnt up, or destroyed at the second advent of the Lord; this
certainly was not the opinion of the royal and inspired Psalmist, or
his wise and learned son Solomon. The last observes, that though
“One generation passeth away, and another cometh, yet the earth
abideth forever”; and the former declares, in the 78th psalm, and
69th verse, that “The Lord hath built His sanctuary (or Church) like
the earth which He hath established for ever[”]: And again, in the
93d psalm and 1st verse, He assures us, that “the earth is
established,” so, that “it cannot be moved.”
Again, what occasion
for the heavens “to pass away with a great noise,” in consequence of
the inhabitants of this little world having sinned? Or by what
medium will the “great noise” which will accompany their dissolution
reach us here? And further, if it be the abode of angels that we are
to understand by the heavens, it may be asked, where are they to
abide when their place of residence is destroyed?
If however, on the
other hand, these heavens signify the erroneous principles which
have obtained in the Christian Church, for many ages past, and from
which many fanatics have formed to themselves an imaginary heaven,
we may perceive the propriety of the apostle’s expression, when he
tells us, that they shall pass away “with a great noise”; for this
great noise will doubtless take place among the different
denominations and sects of Christians, while each will endeavor with
loud clamor, to contend unto death, for their favorite but
superstitious creeds.
It is true, it is also
written, that at the second coming of our Lord, “all the stars of
heaven shall fall to the earth”; but if any Christian understands
these words in the mere literal sense, he betrays his great
ignorance of the vast magnitude and indefinite number of those
mighty worlds, and systems of worlds, which the Almighty Creator
hath exhibited to our wondering view, as well as of the universal
and immutable laws of gravity and attraction.
By the “stars of
heaven” then, which are to “fall unto the earth,” previous to the
second advent of the Lord, I understand, that at that period, all
illumination, respecting the word of the Lord, will fall into its
lowest state, so that the sacred pages of divine inspiration, may be
said to cease yielding their heavenly light, and be, as it were,
extinct in the firmament of the Church.
That the above, is
actually the true sense of “the stars of heaven falling unto the
earth,” will, I presume, appear sufficiently evident to the candid
and pious Christian, who is conversant with the sacred pages of
divine inspiration.
The prophet Daniel in
his 8th. chapter tells us that he once saw (in the spiritual world
no doubt, and not in the natural world) a “He-goat, which waxed
great, even unto the host of heaven, and cast down some of the host,
and of the stars, and stamped on them!![”]
Again. In the 12th
chapter of the Revelations, St. John informs us, that when he was
let into the spirit (or spiritual world) he there saw “A great red
dragon, having seven heads and ten horns”; and that “his tail drew
down the third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them to the
earth.”
Now my Christian
hearers, what are we to think of this “He-goat,” and this “dragon”?
Or rather what are we to think of these stars, which they were
permitted to draw down from heaven unto the earth, and stamp upon?
What can we think, or believe them to be, but divine illumination,
or the knowledge of the truths of the word of God? which the
antichristian principles of error and of evil—of superstition and of
infidelity (signified by this He-goat and this dragon) have been
long endeavoring (with too much success I fear) to draw down into
contempt, and to extinguish—which is here represented by stamping on
them.
Yes, my respected
audience, this must be the meaning of these passages, and now, even
now, are they fulfilled in a very powerful and painful degree; so
that, as a certain poet expresses it,
The Sun (of Love) no longer shines,
The Moon withdraws its light,
The Stars (or heavenly truths), decline,
The Church is sunk in night.
Yet I trust it may now
also be added with equal truth,
But lo! the mighty God appears,
On clouds behold Him ride,
He comes to dry His Zion’s tears
And cheer His mourning bride.
(Please continue to part 4)
TO CONTINUE :
Introduction
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Part - 4 -
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