his character and mission, until the day of Pentecost : but when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them, then they saw him to be indeed " the Son of God, the Saviour of the world p." They had seen him, and conversed familiarly with him after his resurrection, for the space of forty days; and had now received the promised effusion of the Holy Ghost; so that there remained no longer any doubt upon their minds : and hence St. John, speaking of him as the incarnate " Word," the eternal Son of God, says, " That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of life .... that which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you .... And these things we write unto you, that your joy may be fullq." How clear their knowledge was, in comparison of that which men possessed under the Mosaic economy, will be seen to advantage by reading the Epistle to the Hebrews ; where the whole of his work and offices, as depicted in the ceremonial law, is fully developed and explained. Hence, then, it was justly said by St. Paul, " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him : but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit1."]
We must however, for the full understanding of the text and views which are there spoken of, we must, I say, look forward to, III. Those which shall be enjoyed in the latter day —
To this period our text has a still further reference —
[Doubtless many of the Jews were converted to Christ, and many of the Gentiles also, through the ministry of the Apostles : but the bulk of the Jewish nation rejected their testimony, as did the great mass also of the Gentile world : so that Zion still needs to be " brought again," no less than at the first promulgation of Christianity. It cannot yet be said that " the Lord hath made bare his arm in the eyes of all the nations, and that all the ends of the earth have seen the salva- tion of our Gods." But that period shall arrive, as the prophet has said ; and then only shall my text be fully accomplished.]
Then, indeed, shall men behold our Lord " eye to eye"—
[Some have thought that Christ will appear again per- sonally upon earth, and be seen amongst his followers. Cer- tainly, if that should be, our text will then receive a most
P 1 John iv. 14. <J 1 John i. 1 — 4.
* 1 Cor. ii. 9, 10. s ver. 40.