ickly"!

In short, the Apostles, when they wanted to encourage their
desponding proselytes, they usually did it with such words as
these,--"Be anxious for nothing, the Lord is at hand."--"Behold!
the Judge standeth before the day."--"Be patient, therefore,
brethren, (says James) for the coming of the Lord cometh nigh."
And this persuasion did not end, as might be expected, with that
century; for we find that the heathens frequently laughed at the
expec-tations of the Primitive Christians, who, till the fourth
century, never gave up the expectation of the impending advent of
their master. Nay, so rooted was the idea in their minds, that,
understanding the words of Jesus concerning John, "if I will that
he tarry till I come, what is that to thee," to mean that that disciple
should not die, but survive till the glorious appearance of his lord,
so far were they from being convinced of the vanity of their
expectations by that Apostle's actual decease, that they insisted,
that, though he was buried, he was not dead, but only slept, and
that the earth over his body rose and fell with the action of his
breathing!!

It is now hardly necessary to add, that Jesus did not at all answer
the character of a true prophet, when tested by the criterion laid
down in Deuteronomy for ascertaining the truth of the claims of a
prophet to a divine mission.

Let us now see, whether he taught the worship of other beings
beside the Eternal, for if he did, the other test laid down in
Deuteronomy will also decide against him. Now, did he not
command the worship of himself in these words, "All men should
honour the Son, even as they honour the Father?" This, certainly,
commands to render to Jesus the same homage which is rendered
to God. I might prove that his disciples did worship him, by
referring to many passages in the New Testament, especially in the
Revelations, in the latter part of which, Jesus is represented as
saying, "I am the Alpha, and the Omega, the beginning, and the
end, the first, and, the last," terms applied to the Eternal in Isaiah,
where God says, (as if in express opposition to such doctrine) that
"there is no God with him: He knows not any; there was none
before him, neither shall there be any after him." I could also
adduce many passages relating to the Eternal of Hosts, quoted
from the Old Testament, and applied in the New to Jesus. Witness
"the following:--John xii. 41, alludes to Isaiah vi. 5; Revelations
i. 8,.11, 1