THE

RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS.

66

66

PART I.

CHAPTER I.

Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of the restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

Yea, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days."-Acts iii. 19-21, 24.

Two objects are now to engage our attention, the one being preliminary to the other. Of these the first is, To endeavour to ascertain to what subjects St. Peter refers, as having been spoken of by all God's holy prophets, since the world began.

The other, To search out some parts of their writings, in which the holy prophets have spoken of these things, whatever they be. And may that Spirit, "who spake by the prophets," and giveth wisdom unto the simple, prosper this work!

B

In pursuing our first enquiry, it will, I think, be found in this, as in many other cases, that the plain unstrained meaning of the words is their true meaning, notwithstanding the criticisms which have appeared to the contrary. Peter and John, having healed a lame man at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, the people ran together to them greatly wondering. The former apostle took the opportunity of preaching Christ crucified; and having set forth the great sin of which they had been guilty in killing the Prince of life, declared that God had raised Him from the dead; that of this fact they (the apostles) were witnesses; and that it was through faith in the name of this crucified and risen Saviour, that, perfect soundness had been given to the cripple, in the presence of them all. He then ascribes their participation in this sin to ignorance; and urges them to repent by this, amongst other motives, that their sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. For this same Jesus, who was then preached unto them, and whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, God shall send, "which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began."

At page 53, Vol. II, of the Investigator,1 the

1 The Investigator, or Monthly Expositor on Prophecy, commenced 1831, and conluded 1836.

correctness of our authorized version, in conveying the general meaning of the original, is satisfactorily shewn by a correspondent, though he suggests what will render it still more literal, and, at the same time, more strikingly set forth the truths which a common understanding would draw from the passage. That writer decides the question, whether this restitution, or resettling of all things, is to take place before Christ's second coming, by shewing that the adverb axpi cannot be translated during, (as some would wish ;) but must be translated unto or until; and that karasaois cannot mean settlement, but the act of settling; and therefore, that axpi αποκατατάσεως must mean until the act of resettling.

It is not my intention, however, to confine the reference of the pronoun relative "which," in ver. 21, to "the times of restitution of all things;" as the context may require for it a more comprehensive meaning, viz. a reference to the first, as well as to the second, advent of the Lord. For St. Peter immediately quotes the words of Moses, in which Christ's appearing as the Prophet of the Church was foretold. This office He bore at his first coming. If therefore this idea be correct, are we not justified in expecting, from this assertion of St. Peter, a reference to be made in the words of

1 Deut. xviii, 15-19.

all the holy prophets to one or other of the advents of Christ? And when we consider how this same apostle, when speaking of the testimony of the prophets, connects "the sufferings of Christ" with

the glory which should follow," which glory will not be fully manifested until "the dispensation of the fulness of the times," when every knee shall bow to Him, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, we are, I think, confirmed in our conclusion.

Having thus shewn the correctness of our authorized version of this passage, the time when this restitution of all things shall take place is fixed by our text: in which St. Peter teaches, after the ascension of Christ, that the heavens must receive Him for a given season, the termination of which should be marked by the arrival of these "times:" when He would return to perform this work. For, as in minor transactions, the original maker of a piece of complicated machinery is the fittest agent to restore it when deranged, so Christ, Creator of the ends of the earth," is the befitting person to renew its now deformed face, and to restore those things which by sin are out of course.

Before we proceed further, it may be well to remark, that the resettling of all things, which had been unsettled by the sin of the first Adam, had been promised by Jehovah to his Holy One, as a