Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 6.djvu/885

Rh all that leads to sin, or that looks like sin, 1 Thess. 5. 22. solemn ascription of glory to the great God. Note, Whatever is the subject or argument we have been treating of, ascribing gloiy to God is fittest for us to conclude with, v. 24, 25. Note further, God is able, and he is as willing as able, to kee/i its from falling; and to present us faultless before the /irese/ice of his glory; not as those who have never been faulty, (for what has once been done can never be rendered undone, even by Omnipotence itself, for that implies a contradic- tion,) but as those whose faults shall not be imputed to their ruin, which, but for God's mercy and a Saviour's merits, they might most justly have been. Before the presence of his glory. Observe, 1. The glory of the Lord will shortly be present ; we now look'upon it as distant, and too many look upon it as uncertain, but it will come, and it will be mani- fest and apparent, every eye shall see him. Rev. 1. 7. This is now the object of our faith, but hereafter, (and surely it cannot noiv be long,) it will be the ob- ject of our sense ; whom we now believe in, him we shall shortly see, to our unspeakable joy and com- fort, or inexpressible terror and consternation. See 1 Pet. 1. 8. Observe, 2. All real sincere believers shall be pre- sented, at the Lord Redeemer's appearance and coming, by him their glorious Head, to the Father, in order to his approbation, acceptance, and reward ; they were given him of the Father, and of all that •were so given him he has lost none, nor will lose any one, not an individual, a single soul, but will present them all perfectly holy and happy, when he shall surrender his mediatorial kingdom to his God, and our God; his Father, and our Father, John 6. 39. withc/z. 17. 12. 1 Cor. 15. 24. Observe, 3. When believers shall be presented faultless, it will be ivith exceeding joy. Alas ! now our faults fill us with fears, doubts, and sorrows ; but be of good cheer; if we are sincere, we shall be, our dear Redeemer has undertaken for it, we shall be presented faultkss ; where there is no sin, there will be no sorrow ; where there is the perfection of holi- ness, there will be the perfection of joy. Surely, the God who can and will do all this, is worthy to i2ie glory, majesty, dominion, and poiver, ascribed to him, both now and for ever J And to this we may well, with the apostle, affix our hearty jimen
 * Lastly, The apostle concludes this epistle with

IT ought to be no prejudice to the credit and authority of this book, that it has been rejected by men of corrupt minds, such as Cerdon and Marcion, and doubted of by men of a better character; for that has been the lot of other parts of holy writ, and of the divine Author of the scripture himself. The image and superscription ot this book are trulv sacred and divine, and the matter of it agreeable with other prophetical books, particularly Ezekiel and Daniel ; the church of God has generally received it, and found good counsel and great comfort in it. From the beginning, the church of God has been blessed with prophecy ; that glorious prediction of break- ing the sei-pent's head, was the stay and support of the patriarchal age ; and the many prophecies there were conceiTiing the Messiah to c<»ne, were the gospel of the Old Testament. Christ himself prophesied of the destruction of Jerusalem ; and about the time in which that was accomplished, he intrusted the apostle John with this book of revelation, to deliver it to the church as a prediction of the most important . events that should happen to it, to the end of time, for the support of the faith of his people, and the direction of their hope. It is called the Revelation, because God therein discovers those things which could never have been sifted out by the reasonings of human understanding ; those deep things of God, which no man knows, but the Spirit of God, and those to whom he reveals them.