while the application of it, consequent on 1 Thess. iv. 17., clearly has, as to the substance of it, to begin. I say, the substance of it, because, in tracing the evils to their sources, and developing the various subjects, there are many connecting links, with antecedent facts and events; and this not only in the more hidden sources, but, while the dispensation of judgment is quite distinct from the dispensation of patience, the tares which are judged in the one, are often to be spiritually discerned in the other: and hence it is that the book is given to the Church. The judgment of God in power, supplies force to the conduct and judgment of the Church in patience. It seems to me, then, that they are both alike practically wrong, who have slightingly rejected the one or the other, and thus respectively, deprived the Church of each.
A difficulty may perhaps present itself to some. It will be found, that many points, familiar to modern students of the prophetic words, are taken for granted; as, for example, the idea of a personal Anti-Christ is assumed to be just. The answer to such an objection, if these papers should be subjected to such, is that they are not written to demonstrate truths already elementary to those to whom they could be interesting. The writer is
