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NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS
OF THE PARABLES
OF THE NEW-TESTAMENT,
ARRANGED ACCORDING TO THE TIME IN WHICH
THEY
WERE SPOKEN.
BY THOMAS WHITTEMORE.
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR, 40, CORNHILL.
BOSTON: 1832.
"Some
recent authors have expressed much surprise, that
Universalists of the present day should apply so many
passages of the New Testament to the destruction of
Jerusalem. To name no other, Rev. Parsons Cooke speaks 'of
the credulity of those who embrace the system of
Universalism,' in believing 'that so large a part of the
Bible should relate to the destruction of Jerusalem.'
'If ever I succeeded,' says he,' in digesting the monstrous
absurdity, I would be honest enough to call things by right
names, and label the New Testament, "JERUSALEM'S DESTRUCTION
FORETOLD."
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" It is a circumstance which confirms our application of the
parable, that the Son of man sends forth his angels to
destroy his enemies, for this language is invariably
applied, in the New Testament, to the destruction of
Jerusalem, whenever that event is described. " |
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"The reapers are the angels. What did Jesus intend by the
angels? Familiar traditions have confined the application of
this word almost exclusively to superhuman beings; but
surely the attentive reader of the Bible need not be
informed that the term angel is precisely synonymous with
messenger, and that it is applied not only to mankind, but
even to inanimate objects. Jesus always represented himself,
when coming to destroy the Jewish state, as being attended
with angels. " For the Son of man shall come in the glory of
his Father, with his angels; * * * verily I say unto you,
there be some standing here which shall not taste of death
till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom." Matt.
xvi. 27, 28. Mark viii. 38 and ix. 1. Luke ix. 26, 27. Here
the coining of Christ, with his angels, is confined to that
generation. On another occasion Jesus said, " they shall see
the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power
and great glory : and he shall send his angels with a great
sound of a trumpet," to which he immediately adds, " this
generation shall not pass, till all these things be
fulfilled." Matt. xxiv. 30, 31, 34. See also Matt. xxv. 31
and 2 Thess. i. 7. It is a circumstance which confirms our
application of the parable, that the Son of man sends forth
his angels to destroy his enemies, for this language is
invariably applied, in the New Testament, to the destruction
of Jerusalem, whenever that event is described.
In the parable before us the angels, or messengers, were to
be the agents of destruction to the enemies of Christ; and
by comparing this 13. These are also called the elect in
Matt. 22, 24. And Ecclesiastical history informs us, that by
a divine admonition the faithful Christians, retired from
Judea before the rain of it by the Romans, and were
preserved. See Matt. iii. 12. xxiv. 22. Luke xxi. 18, 36. |
