Excerpt from Essays on the Advent and Kingdom of Christ, and the Events Connected Therewith I. The questionable propriety of studying and of discussing prophecy, especially unfulfilled prophecy, is one of those objec tions, which must be met in the outset.* It chiefly consists in the alleged impossibility of understanding or judging of a pro phecy, until tlze event has proved its meaning. But how con trary is this to the experience of the Church! Promise, the greater portion of which is unfulfilled prophecy, is declared in the New Testament to be a principal means whereby we are made partakers of the Divine Nature b which could not be, were it entirely vague and indefinable and under the Old Testament dispensation, the Church was chiefly sustained and nourished by prophecy most of the burning and shining lights raised up in it being prophets. The very first promise, that the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the serpent, was an unfulfilled prophecy, to which the Church took heed for 4000 years. Noah prepared his ark, moved by the fear of an unfulfilled prophecy or promise and Abraham saw afar off and rejoiced in the day of Christ by means of another. Joseph would not have directed his bones to be removed, had he not depended on prophecy for the going out of his people to which prophecy the Lord afterwards referred Moses and Aaron, as the pledge, that he would redeem them. The Is raelites were encouraged to labour for their deliverance from captivity, by the prophecy concerning 'it: for as Jeremiah had prayed for and obtained an understanding of the restoration of his people, when they were about to be led into captivity C so Daniel understood the times from the study of the writings of Jeremiah d just as the faithful were afterwards waiting for the Consolation of Israel from the study (as is presumed) of the book of Daniel. It was through attention to unfulfilled prophecy, that the Christians left Jerusalem and escaped to the mountain, when the city was beseiged by the Romans and the Lord hath, equally for our admonition, foretold the signs of that greater destruction, of which the overthrow of Jerusalem was but a type. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.