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LECTURE XXX.

THE FALL OF JERUSALEM.

"He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus."-Revelation xxii. 20.

In my first discourse on these words, I showed how frequently the advent or second coming of our Lord is referred to in the New Testament. In my second discourse, I endeavoured to show you the order of this event; and I think the texts I adduced clearly prove that Christ comes first to our world, and then the Millennium, or the reign of happiness and joy and peace, shall follow. In this lecture I wish to direct your attention, in connection with this text, to the last prophecy of our Lord relating to the destruction of Jerusalem: distinguishing how much of it relates to that event which is mentioned in the text-the coming quickly of the Son of Man. Next Lord's-day evening, if spared, I will show you the other intervening event between the first and second advent of Christ-the Man of Sin; and then, in the last discourse I shall preach upon this portion of this book, I will show you what are the signs and symptoms, as far as I have gathered any fresh ones, of the nearness of that great and hopedfor event. The prophecy then-which I will illustrate as briefly as I possibly can, by quoting illustrations of it-is contained in Matt. xxiv. In that prophecy, so much, as I have told you, refers to the destruction of Jerusalem, which was near; so much, to the advent of Christ, which was beyond it: this subject will show us that nothing is to take place between the destruction of Jerusalem and the coming of Christ, in the way of spiritual prosperity and happiness to the church universal; but, on the contrary, the prolongation of the great tribulation which is to overtake the Jew, and the ruins of his noble capital; while all the land of Israel will continue in a state of desolation until Christ comes, and then, and only then, it shall cease. It appears, from

the first verse, that Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and his disciples came to him to show him the buildings of the temple, and that Jesus said unto them, "See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." He that made such a prediction as this, amid the circumstances of strength, of splendour, and of greatness which surrounded him at that moment, must either have been a maniac, speaking in his madness, or he must have been He to whom the past, the present, and the future are equally luminous. It is added, “And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him." I think it is important to explain this prophecy, because many persons say that the predictions which relate to the downfall of Jerusalem apply also to the second advent of Christ; and others apply the whole to the second advent of Christ, and overlook the plain and palpable fact, that the great bulk of it was fulfilled in the destruction of the Jewish capital and the Jewish polity. They said, "Tell us, when shall these things be?" I beg of you specially to notice the words "these things," because they are referred to again and again. "When shall these things be?" is the first question; and, "What shall be the sign of thy coming," (zapovoía, personal appearance,) "and of the end of the world?" This is the second question. The word rendered "world" is not zóopos, which means the created world, but alù, which means a dispensation-When shall be the end of the age?—alòv vv, "that now is," being the usual form for the present dispensation; and ɑ?ùy μéàìæv, "the age to come," being the form for the millennial dispensation, described in Rev. xxi. xxii. There are here three great questions stated: first, When shall these things be? secondly, What shall be the sign of thy coming? thirdly, And of the end of this dispensation which is now begun? Jesus proceeds instantly to answer these three questions in succession; and in distinguishing the contents of the chapter, you distinguish what is fulfilled from what remains to be fulfilled, and thus gather what is to intervene between the destruction of the Jewish capital, and the erection, the coming down from heaven, of that New Jerusalem-"that city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."

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Jesus thus proceeded to answer and explain them: "Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. 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 famines and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. 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;"-addressing plainly the disciples: the disciples asked the question, and to the disciples, as representing the Christians, he addresses himself:"And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, love of many shall wax cold: but 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 nations; and then shall the end come. 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 Judea flee into the mountains: let him which is on the house-top not come down to take any thing out of his house: neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And wo unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath-day: for then shall be great tribulation, such as was not from the beginning of the world to this time; no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, no flesh should he saved; but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." (Verses 4-22.)

Down to this, he seems to me to refer specially to the downfall of Jerusalem; then, from verse 23 onward, he guards them against misinterpreting the signs of his advent. From verses. 23 to 29, and from verses 30 to 41, he describes his own second coming, and the end of the aid, or age. To show you that his predictions from verses 4 to 23 have been strikingly fulfilled, I

will read to you some extracts, made from different writers, which will prove how strictly and literally the past has been fulfilled, and how strictly and literally we may expect the future to be fulfilled also.

The first sign he gave is the appearance of false prophets : "Many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ." Now, Josephus informs us that there were many who, pretending to divine inspiration, deceived the people, leading out numbers of them into the desert. He does not, indeed, expressly say that they called themselves the Messiah or Christ, yet he says that which is equivalent; viz. that they pretended that God would there show them the signs of liberty,-meaning, redemption from the Roman yoke, which thing the Jews expected the Messiah would do for them. Among these was Dositheus the Samaritan, who affirmed that he was the Christ foretold by Moses; Simon Magus, who said that he appeared among the Jews as the Son of God; and many other examples are also given by Josephus, of pretended Messiahs who appeared at that time. And this led Tacitus to make the remark, that "there prevailed a common opinion throughout the East, of some one who should be Lord and Master of the world;" the expectation of the Messiah leading many to put in a claim to be so.

The next sign was, that there should be " wars and rumours of wars." The rising of nation against nation portended the dissensions, insurrections, and mutual slaughter of the Jews and those of other nations who dwelt in the same cities together; as particularly at Cæsarea, where the Jews and Syrians contended about the right of the city, which contention at length proceeded so far that above 20,000 Jews were slain, and the city was cleared of the Jewish inhabitants. At this blow the whole nation of the Jews were exasperated, and dividing themselves into parties, they burnt and plundered the neighbouring cities and villages of the Syrians, and made an immense slaughter of the people. The Syrians in revenge destroyed not a less number of the Jews, and every city, as Josephus expresses it, "was divided into two armies." The rising of "kingdom against kingdom" portended the open wars of different tetrarchies and provinces against one another. But, as Josephus says, "there was not only sedition and civil

war throughout Judea, but likewise in Italy, Otho and Vitellius contending for the empire." So strictly and literally was this prediction fulfilled.

The third sign of the destruction of Jerusalem was "famine and pestilence:" the fulfilment of this is even stated in the Acts of the Apostles, xi. 28, as predicted by Agabus: it is also mentioned by Suetonius, Tacitus, Eusebius; and was so severe at Jerusalem, that Josephus informs us many people perished for want of food. Pestilences are the usual attendants of famines, as scarcity and badness of provisions almost always terminate in some epidemical distemper. That Judea was afflicted with pestilence, we learn from Josephus, who says, that when one Niger was put to death by the Jewish zealots, besides other calamities, he imprecated famine and pestilence upon them all; "which imprecations God confirmed against these impious men."

The next sign is "earthquakes." If these mean literal earthquakes, as I believe they do, we read of one at Crete, in the reign of Claudius, and others at Smyrna, Miletus, Chios, Samos, and other places, in all of which Jews were settled. Tacitus mentions one in the same reign, and says that in the reign of Nero, the cities of Laodicea, Hierapolis, and Colosse were overthrown, and that the celebrated city of Pompeii, in Campania, was overthrown and almost demolished by an earthquake; and another earthquake at Rome is mentioned by Suetonius, as having happened in the reign of Galba.

The fifth sign was fearful sights and signs from heaven. Josephus, who was not acquainted with the prophecy contained in Matt. xxiv., records simply as an historian, irrespective of any religious view whatever, the following facts. The Lord said there should be sights and signs in heaven; and this prediction is repeated in the Gospel of Luke. Many prodigies are related by Josephus, particularly "that in Judea, at the commencement of the war, and before the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, there broke out a prodigious storm in the night, with the utmost violence, and very strong winds, with the largest showers of rain, with continual lightnings, terrible thunderings, and amazing concussions and bellowings of the earth, that was in an earthquake. These things were a manifest indication that some destruction was com