HOPE AND DUTY OF THE CHURCH.
By Matthew Henry
Matthew Henry was born in Flintshire, England, in 1663. He was a pious dissenter, and deservedly eminent as a commentator of the Scriptures. Wm. Romaine declaring, "There is no comment upon the Bible, either ancient or modern, in all respects equal to Mr. Henry's." We give extracts:— ON Luke 12:45, 46: "Our looking at Christ's second coming as a thing at a distance, is a cause of all those irregularities which render the thought of it terrible to us." On watching: "To watch implies not only to believe that our Lord will come, but to desire that he would come, to be often thinking of his coming, and always looking for it as sure and near, and the time of it uncertain. To watch for Christ's coming is to maintain that gracious temper and disposition of mind which we would be willing that our Lord, when he comes, should find us in. To watch is to be aware of the first notices of his approach, that we may immediately attend his motions and address ourselves to the duty of meeting him." On 2 Pet., chapter 3, of the final fire he says: "It is yet to come, and will surely come, though we know not when nor upon what particular age or generation of men; and therefore we are not, we cannot be, sure that it may not happen in our own times." On John 18:19: "It is meet that disciples should be warned of the haste and end of time, and apprised as much as may be of the prophetic periods of time." On Rom. 8, Henry makes "the creature" to mean "the whole frame of nature, especially that of this lower world; the whole creation, the compages of inanimate and sensible creatures;" the vanity and bondage and corruption is the curse to which the whole creation is subject, now "hastening to a total dissolution by fire." He says: "The creature that is now thus burdened shall, at the time of the restitution of all things, be delivered from this bondage into the glorious liberty of the children of God. They shall no more be subject to vanity and corruption, and the other fruits of the curse; but, on the contrary, this lower world shall be renewed, when there shall be new heavens and a new earth; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1; and there shall be a glory conferred upon all the creatures which shall be (in the proportion of their natures), as suitable and as great an advancement as the glory of the children of God shall be to them. The fire at the last day shall be a refining, not a destroying, annihilating fire." Compare with this Ps. 96:10-13; 98:7-9; "Let the heavens rejoice," &c. On verse 19: "At the second coming of Christ there will be a manifestation of the children of God. Now, the saints are God's hidden ones, the wheat seems lost in a heap of chaff; but then they shall be manifested. . . . And this redemption of the creature is reserved till then; for it was with man and for man that they fell under the curse, so with man and for man shall they be delivered. All the curse and filth that now adheres to the creature shall be done away then, when those that have suffered with Christ upon earth shall reign with him upon earth. This the whole creation looks and longs for. Verse 23: "We groan within or among ourselves. It is the unanimous vote, the joint desire of the whole church; all agree in this. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. The groaning denotes a very earnest and importunate desire, the soul pained with the delay, . . . groans, not as the pangs of our dying, but as the throes of a woman in travail, groans that are symptoms of life, not of death." 2 Pet. 3: "That time which men think to be the most improper and unlikely, and therefore are most secure, will be the time of the Lord's coming. Let us then beware how we in our thoughts and imaginings put that day far away from us; let us rather suppose it to be so much nearer in reality by how much further off it is in the opinion of the ungodly world." "The first coming of our Lord Jesus Christ was what the people of God earnestly waited and looked for; that coming was for the consolation of Israel. How much more should they wait with expectation and earnestness for his second coming, which will be the day of their complete redemption, and of his most glorious manifestation." "They (the wicked) will still attack us till the end of time; till our Lord is come, they will not themselves believe that he will come; nay, they will laugh at the very mention of his second coming, and do what in them lies to put all out of countenance who seriously believe and wait for it." On Luke 18:8: "Now when he comes will he find faith in the earth? The question implies a strong negative; no, he shall not, he himself foresees it. . . . In general, he will find but few good people, few that are really and truly good; many that have the form and fashion of godliness, but few that have faith. Even to the end of time there will be occasion for the same complaint; the world will grow no better, no, not when drawing toward its period. Bad it is, and bad it will be, and worst of all just before Christ's coming; the last times will be the most perilous. In particular, he will find few that have faith concerning his coming. It intimates that he will delay his coming so long that wicked people will begin to defy it, and to say, 'Where is the promise of his coming?' They will challenge him to come; Isa. 5:18, 19, and Amos 5:18, 19; and his delay will harden them in their wickedness. Even his own people will begin to despair of it, and to conclude that he will never come, because he has passed their reckoning." On Matt. 25: "As Christians, we profess not only to believe and look for, but love and long for, the appearing of Christ, and to act in our whole conversation with regard to it. The second coming of Christ is the center in which all the lines of our religion meet, and to which the whole of the divine life hath a constant reference and tendency." On Dan. 12:10: Henry, though looking for an extensive proclamation of the gospel, looked not for its universal reception, but says: "As long as the world stands, there will still be in it such a mixture as we now see there is of good and bad. We long to see all wheat and no tares in God's field; all corn and no chaff in God's floor; but it will not be till the time of ingathering, till the winnowing day comes. Both must grow together until the harvest. There is no remedy but that wicked people will do wickedly; and such people there are and will be in the world till the end of time." On Rev. 22:20: "This is Christ's farewell to his church, and Christ's promise. Come, Lord Jesus! Thus beats the pulse of the church, thus breathes that gracious spirit which actuates and informs the mystical body of Christ, and we should never be satisfied till we find such a spirit breathing in us, and causing us to look for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. What comes from Heaven in a promise should be sent back to Heaven in a prayer. Come, Lord Jesus, and put an end to this state of sin, and sorrow, and temptation, and gather the people out of this present evil world!"
So writes the pious Henry in a commentary, the superior excellences of which, says Dr. A. Alexander, are admitted by "thousands of judicious theologians," and of which Dr. Adam Clarke affirms, "It is always orthodox!" Henry died in 1714.—Ancient Landmarks.