Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/250

 that they should show signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect: by signs, are meant the persuasive reasonings by which errors would be defended; and by wonders, the seductive influence they would exercise. To deceive, if it were possible, the elect, signifies that those arts would become so subtle and refined as to render it difficult even for the virtuous to detect and avoid their mischiefs. Hence the Divine exhortation to prudence, ''Behold, I have told you before. If therefore they shall say, Behold, He is in the desert; go not forth: behold, He is in the secret chambers; believe it not. By the desert, is meant faith in which no wisdom can be discovered; by the secret chambers,'' are denoted those charities in which selfishness abounds; and, because these things are not the faith and charity which the Word inculcates, they are not to be followed or believed. For, as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Thus the perverted Church will regard all the Divine teachings concerning the Lord's second coming merely as a flash of intellectual light, to be instantly dissipated as a thing of nought. The Lord foresaw this fact, and has therefore related it. How many beautiful truths upon this and kindred subjects have been taught to the professors of common Christianity! How frequently have they been accepted as brilliant thoughts for a moment, and then as suddenly rejected! The light, indeed, came from the east, that is, from the Lord and His Word; but in attempting to shine unto the west, that is, in a direction opposite to itself, it became extinguished by the falsehoods which there prevailed. Such is the treatment which the Son of man, at His coming, is to receive from the perverted Church, whensoever it may please Him to accomplish His predictions of that event. This is the cor-