But to annihilate the figurative hypothesis of these well-meaning Commentators at once, it will be only necessary to bring forward the testimony following. 1.  The other Evangelists make an express distinction between the destruction of Jerusalem and the coming of Jesus; and not only so, but represent him as saying, that after that event, (i. e., the destruction of Jerusalem, “in those days,” i. e., in the same era in which that event took place,) “the son of man shall come,” &c.  Witness for me, Mark, chapter xiii. 24:—­“But in those days, after that tribulation, (i. e., the destruction of Jerusalem) shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken.  And then shall they see the son of man coming in the clouds, with power and glory; and-then shall he send his angels, and shall gather his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth, to the uttermost part of heaven Verily, I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be accomplished.”  This is decisive, and cannot be evaded.

2.  The Apostles and Primitive Christians believed that Jesus would come in that generation, as is evident from many passages of the New Testament.  Paul’s Epistles to the Thessalonians prove this, and contain an argument to them, intended to allay their terrors, or their impatience.  John says in his first Epistle, chapter ii. 18, “Little children, it is the last hour; and as ye have heard that Antichrist should come, even now (or already) there are many Antichrists, whereby know that it is the last hour.”  Many passages of similar import might be brought forward.  The meaning of it is this—­It appears from Paul’s 2nd Epistle to the Thessalonians, that just before the second coming of Jesus, there was a personage to appear who was to be called Antichrist, i. e., an enemy to the Messiah. (This notion they got from the interpretation given by the angel of the vision of the “little horn” in Daniel.) John, therefore, seeing many Antichrists, i. e., opposers of the pretensions of Jesus, considered the sign, and thus knew that it was ’’the last hour,” and that his master was soon to appear.

It appears from the 2nd Epistle of Peter, chapter iii., that there were many in his days who scoffed at his master, saying, contemptuously, “where is the promise of his coming?” And Peter replies by telling them that their contempt is misplaced, for that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”  John, in the 1st chapter of Revelations, says, concerning the coming of Jesus, “Behold he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.”  And in the last chapter of Revelations he represents Jesus, as saying, “Surely I come quickly”!