thing with predicting the termination of the whole system. They evidently, therefore, supposed that they were propounding an inquiry concerning events which were to be synchronical. To predict the whole truth, without at the same time plainly announcing the Gentile dispensation (which the disciples were not then able to bear, and to which they afterwards gave a late and reluctant consent), was a difficulty which Christ had to meet in wording his reply, and which will in some degree account for the difficulty we experience in expounding that reply.

1. Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no mun deceive you: : for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. (Matt. xxiv. 4, 5.) Your present danger lies in the expectation that the kingdom is immediately to be restored to Israel. In consequence of such an expectation, you are liable, and even likely, to be deceived by some impostor pretending that he is Christ the King. Take heed, therefore, &c. This part of the prophecy was accomplished in the few years which immediately followed our Lord's ascension: "Theudas arose, boasting himself to be somebody: after him, Judas of Galilee, in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him." Against such delusions the Lord's disciples had their appropriate warning in the words just quoted.

And ye shall hear of wars, and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be fumines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places. (Matt. xxiv. 6, 7.)

The wars primarily predicted in this passage were the wars of Cestius and Vespasian, Nero's generals, whose disastrous progress is so minutely detailed by Josephus. In the midst of the calamities which then befel the Jews, and threatened even Jerusalem itself, the Lord's disciples had this prophetic exhortation or record, See that ye be not troubled, accompanied by an assurance that the end of the temple and city would not be just then. This predicted respite was remarkably fulfilled. Vespasian was in a full career of success against the Jews when Nero died. This event, followed as it was by the flagrant enormities of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, was felt throughout the empire: it arrested Vespasian's progress, and led eventually to his being proclaimed Emperor and returning to Italy, leaving the Jewish war unfinished. The end was "not yet:" the predicted destruction of the temple was reserved for Titus. In this passage, however, the language of the prophecy swells into an application to greater things than these: and, the winding-up of the Jewish dispensation being typical of the winding-up of this more enlarged dispensation under which we live, the language is trans

ferable from the one to the other, and predicts political commotions towards the close of this dispensation, to be succeeded by a pause of peace previous to the end.

If, as many imagine, the French Revolution, with its accompanying symbolical plagues and earthquakes, be the commotions here predicted; then the pause in which we now breathe, since the general peace, is marked by the end is not yet. That is, the Jewish war under Vespasian was to that expiring dispensation of God's dealing with Judæa, what the French Revolution has been to this expiring dispensation of God's dealing with Christendom; the pause of peace which followed, was to that dispensation what the present interval is to this; and the conclusive war under Titus, was to that what the coming of the Son of Man will be to this. If this be so, let us remember, to our unspeakable comfort, that between the departure of Vespasian and the coming of Titus, the elect Jews were drawn out of the city, and gathered to a place of safety.

The next verse of the prophecy implies that the sorrow, which should begin with the close of the Jewish dispensation, would not end there, but would indeed prove only the beginning of sorrows: All these are the beginning of sorrows (ver. 8).

Thus far the parallel passages in the three Evangelists agree: compare Mark xiii. 5-8, and Luke xxi. 8-11.

But, observe the remarkable difference in the next passage. Matthew says, "THEN shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you; and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake: implying that the predicted sufferings of Christ's disciples would be subsequent to those events which he had just characterised as the beginning of sorrows. Mark says,

But take heed to yourselves, for they shall deliver you, &c., without saying any thing as to the period. But Luke says, BEFORE ALL THESE, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, &c.; distinctly declaring that the persecutions of the disciples would precede the beginning of the great tribulation. Now I do not for a moment set this saying of our Lord by St. Luke against that other saying of his by St. Matthew; neither have I recourse to any verbal criticism to make them harmonize. I believe they were both uttered: that in the one, the disciples personally had the needful warning for their own time; and in the other, the warning of similar affliction is extended to all faithful disciples, during the continuance of those sorrows of which the Jewish dispersion was to be the beginning. What, in this instance, was accomplished by two distinct passages, appears to me to be done in other instances by so ordering the language as to make the same words predict two events, similar in their nature, but differing in their chronology. This I apprehend to be the structure of the prophecy in many suc

ceeding clauses; beginning with the disciples themselves under that dispensation, and swelling into greater things, applicable to all true disciples to the end of this dispensation.

And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another; and, because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. These words presuppose, not Apostles and faithful disciples only, but also false professors; many of whom would be offended because of the reproach of Christ's name, and would betray their brethren: so that the deadening effects of their abounding iniquity would paralyze the church itself under a hateful lukewarmness. In the midst of this, there would be many false teachers, who would deceive many, or make many to wander (λavnσovo Toλλovç.) These words found (πλανησουσι πολλους.) a fulfilment in the state of things in Jerusalem previous to its destruction and it would be difficult to find any words which contain a more accurate and comprehensive description of the state of things in Christendom at this day.

The next verse supplies our warning at this eventful moment, and during whatever troubles may arise to put our constancy to the trial: He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all the nations; and then shall the end be. These words also found a fulfilment in the state of things previous to the destruction of Jerusalem. The Gospel was preached in all the empire (ɛv oλn în oikovμevn), for a witness to all the nations composing the body of the fourth beast (a TOLÇ εOVEOL). Then came "the end" of the temple of Jerusalem, and all the institutions of that dispensation.-The words predict also what is now going forward, to the blind admiration of multitudes, who little think of the sudden and overwhelming end of this dispensation which is to follow in the train of Bible and Missionary testimonies. The parallels to these verses are Mark xiii. 9-13, and Luke xxi. 12-19.

The next passage in Matthew is, When ye, therefore, shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet stand in the holy place (whoso readeth let him understand); then let them which be in Judæa flee unto the mountains, &c. In Mark it is the same but in Luke it is, When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh; then let them which are in Judaa flee to the mountains. This sufficiently identifies the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet with the destruction of Jerusalem; and, consequently, should prevent the application of it to any subsequent event in the early ages of the Gentile church.

Here, then, the prophecy gives warning, to such disciples as should be in Jerusalem at the time, not to hope for her deliverance, for fall she must: their safety, therefore, could only be in

flying out of her. We have seen how graciously an opportunity was afforded them of availing themselves of this warning. Jerusalem should not only fall, but be trodden down for a considerable time, even during the whole of the times of the Gentiles: There shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people: and they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. Those are the "times of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled." In them shall be begun the great tribulation, which, beginning in those days of the dispersion of the Jews, shall prove in the end the greatest tribulation that ever has been, or shall be. It shall affect the Jews as a nation, the elect church from among the Gentiles as an aggregate, and all the children of God as individuals; and it shall endure throughout the whole of the times of the Gentiles. In the course of it, fresh delusions and temptations shall arise; some of them with such plausible pretensions to a Divine origin as to deceive all but the elect, and, if it were possible, even them also. The false Christs and false Prophets, the signs and wonders, predicted to mark this period of tribulation, direct our attention to the great apostasy of Christendom; under which the Jews as a people, and the elect as a church, have been bitterly oppressed; and concerning which the Apostle writes, that it would come "after the working of Satan with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish....speaking lies in hypocrisy, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats."

Among the attempts at delusion to be practised in the course, and it would seem peculiarly towards the close (ver. 22), of that period, false announcements of the Lord being come already would occupy a prominent place. Against these the elect were warned; and distinctly told, that the coming of their Lord would be an event not to be mistaken (Matt. xxiv. 26-28). Upon these verses I adopt and quote the observations of Bishop Horsley: "Give no credit, says our Lord, to any reports that may be spread that the Messiah is come, that he is in this place or in that my coming will be attended with circumstances which will make it public at once to all the world; and there will be no need that one man should carry the tidings to another. This sudden and universal notoriety that there will be of our Saviour's last glorious advent is signified by the image of the lightning, which in the same instant flashes upon the eyes of spectators in remote and opposite stations. And this is all that this comparison seems intended, or indeed fitted, to express. It hath been imagined that it denotes the particular

:

route of the Roman armies, which entered Judæa on the eastern side, and extended their conquests westward. But had this been intended, the image should rather have been taken from something which hath its natural and necessary course in that direction. The lightning may break out indifferently in any quarter of the sky; and east and west seem to be mentioned only as extremes and opposites. And, accordingly, in the parallel passage of St. Luke's Gospel we read neither of east nor west, but indefinitely of opposite parts of the heavens: 'For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under the heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven, so shall also the Son of Man be in his day.' The expression, his day, is remarkable. The original might be more exactly rendered his own day; intimating, as I conceive, that the day, i. e. the time of the Son of Man, is to be exclusively his own; quite another from the day of those deceivers whom he had mentioned, and therefore quite another from the day of the Jewish war."And again: "It is probable that the eagle and the carcase was a proverbial image among the people of the East, expressing things inseparably connected by natural affinities and sympathies. Her young ones suck up blood,' says Job, speaking of the eagle; and where the slain is, there is she.' The disciples ask, Where, in what countries, are these calamities to happen, and these miraculous deliverances to be wrought? (Luke xvii. 37). Our Divine Instructor held it unfit to give further light upon the subject. He frames a reply, as was his custom when pressed with unseasonable questions, which, at the same time that it evades the particular inquiry, might more edify the disciples than the most explicit resolution of the question proposed. Wheresoever the carcase is, thither will the eagles be gathered together. Wheresoever sinners shall dwell, there shall my vengeance overtake them, and there will I interpose to protect my faithful servants.' Nothing, therefore, in the similitude of the lightning, or the image of the eagles gathered round the carcase, limits the phrase of our Lord's coming' in the 27th verse of this xxiv th chapter of St. Matthew to the figurative sense of his coming to destroy Jerusalem. His coming is announced again in the 30th verse, and in subsequent parts of these same prophecies; where it is of great importance to rescue the phrase from the refinements of modern expositors, and to clear some considerable difficulties, which, it must be confessed, attend the literal interpretation."Here therefore, as in other clauses, the prophecy begins with an appropriate warning to the Lord's disciples at the winding-up of the Jewish dispensation: "If they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert, go not forth: Behold, he is in the secret chambers, believe it not ;" and then