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Christians would fall into gross and licentious habits, and so dishonour their profession. Love to Christ is the only preservative from sin; and especially when all example strongly enforces it, and the public standard of morals is low. When man is not upheld by outward circumstances, he can only be sustained by some inward principle; and that which renders sin most abhorrent to the will, is "the love of God shed abroad " in the heart. But if by little and little, by unwatchfulness, and compliances with the example of others in smaller things, the vigour of that affection is suffered to decay, then the more powerful temptations prevail, and the divine principle of love becomes extinct. For by growing cold, we are not to understand the lukewarm state, but an entirely lapsed condition; the fire is not merely cooled, but gone out. For that, in this strongest sense, we must take the word 4vxw, appears, from our Lord promising salvation, in the next verse, only to those that should endure to the end; which sufficiently indicates that those whose love had grown cold had fallen into a state by which salvation was forfeited.

Verse 13. But he that shall endure to the end, &c.-Not to the end of these persecutions and troubles; for men may outlive their sufferings for Christ's sake, and the grace too which carried them through the trial, and fall away in times of subsequent ease and prosperity. Much less are we to understand, with others, by being saved, being delivered from the calamities of the siege of Jerusalem; for these words, like the preceding verses, refer to Christians throughout the world, and not merely to those in Jerusalem, or even Judea. The salvation, as the connexion shows,

is eternal salvation; and it is promised to them that endure. Here the word voμEFW may be taken in the sense of remaining when others apostatize and depart; or in the sense of patiently sustaining all the afflictions, and conflicts, and temptations spoken of, to the end of life; for then only is our salvation secure and certain.

Verse 14. And this gospel of the kingdom, &c.-This good news of the spiritual kingdom of Christ, being established by his death and intercession, so that all men might become its subjects and receive its great immunities, shall be preached in all the world, ev oλn Ty orbuerg This phrase sometimes signifies the Roman empire, which then embraced the greater portion of the civilized world. It is so used in Luke ii. 1; and this is the sense here, although in some cases the gospel before the destruction of Jerusalem was carried beyond this limit. We have, however, in these words, one of those portions of this series of prophecies, which have a double reference; and the prediction in the text will be most literally accomplished before that end of time and of the mediatorial dispensation shall come, of which the end, as it is intended of God's forbearance with the Jews, was a type. That cannot arrive until all flesh has seen the salvation of God, through the publication of Christianity.

For a witness unto all nations.-The term witness, μаρтuρiov, appears to be used in a similar sense as in 1 Cor. ii. 1, where St. Paul calls the gospel, "the tes timony of God." It is that which witnesses and attests the love of God to the human race, and authoritatively makes the offer of salvation as from God, to all who hear it.

Verse 15. When therefore ye see the

e

tains:

abomination, &c.—Our Lord now proceeds to point out the signal at which his followers should provide for their own safety by flight, lest, being enclosed by the Roman armies, they should share in the common calamity. The abomination of desolation is several times mentioned in Daniel, to whose words our Lord refers, as to be then fulfilled. The Roman eagles which were carried as the standards of their legions, and were sacrificed to as divinities, and therefore as idols were called an abomination by the Jews, are here referred to. The Roman army also carried with it other idols, so that collectively it was "an abomination;" and of the desolation which it inflicted the Jews had frequent and severe experience. The holy place must here be taken in a large sense; for when the Roman standards were planted in the temple, the city was taken, and the possibility of flight cut off. But the city and its suburbs were considered as holy in consequence of the proximity of the temple; and it is remarkable that Jerusalem was invested by the Romans under Cestius Gallus, prefect of Syria, some time before the final siege was commenced, but that general withdrew his army, and thus afforded all who believed the words of Christ opportunity to escape. Early and uniform tradition states, that the Christians universally fled, after the Roman standard had thus

been seen in the holy place, and remembering these very words of our Lord, they retired beyond Jordan, and in other directions; so that, when Titus sat down before the city, there was not one Christian remaining in it. Thus they were saved by their faith.

Verse 17. The house top.—The flat terrace which formed the roof, from which a person might descend by stairs, not into the street, but into the gateway, without going into the house. The exhortation presses haste, although it was not perhaps designed to be taken literally.

Verse 18. Return back to take his clothes. It was necessary for those employed in labour to lay aside their long, flowing, upper robes; which in this case being deposited in the house, or at some distance in the field, they are cautioned against going back to secure. This again is to be understood emphatically,―Fly without delay for your lives.

Verse 19. But woe to them that are with child, &c.-Pregnant women, and those who had children at the breast, would not be in a condition to escape, or must endure great miseries in attempting it. Of the sufferings of helpless females and children during the invasion of Judea, and the siege of Jerusalem, and the horrible famine there, frightful accounts are found in Josephus.

Verse 20. In the winter, &c.—Not in the

winter, because of the difficulty of travelling, the want of food in the fields, and the inclemency of the weather: nor on the sabbath-day; not because it was unlawful to travel more than five furlongs on that day, a rule which, as it affected the Jewish sabbath, Christians would not regard; but because the gates of cities were kept scrupulously closed on the sabbath-day. Thus we read in Nehemiah xiii. 19, "And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till after the sabbath." Persons without burdens might indeed go in and out; but no beasts could pass, on which the fugitives might be taking their flight; nor could they take any burden of provision and necessaries for their journey, which circumstance would render the attempt in many cases hopeless. Those who believed Christ's words would be the only persons to attempt to escape; but the Jews, infatuated with a persuasion of their safety, would in consequence uphold this law of their sabbath in all its strictness. For these reasons, not that he by these words establishes the Jewish sabbath, our Lord directs his disciples to pray that God would so order the matter, that the necessity of escaping should not fall upon them either in the winter or on the sabbath. And were the march of Roman armies, and the decisions of Roman councils, to be interfered with in answer to the prayers of a few poor Christians? Let philosophy scoff; but let faith adore so it was. The first Roman army which surrounded Jerusalem retired; and when Vespasian succeeded to the command, various delays, arising out of the intestine troubles of the empire, occurred before the siege

was finally undertaken; and not only was the opportunity afforded for flight, but the urgent moment fell neither upon the sabbath, nor in the depth of winter.

Verse 21. Such as was not from the beginning of the world, &c.-This is not a hyberbolical expression; for no one can read the narrative of the Jew Josephus, without acknowledging that this national calamity has no parallel. This narrative appears to have been written and preserved under a special providence, of which Josephus himself was unconscious, that future times, in the testimony of an eye-witness, and he not a Christian, might have full and unsuspected proof of the exact accomplishment of the words of Christ. In this verse critics have not failed to remark the force of the triple negatives, oud' ou un yernlai, which we render more feebly, no, nor ever shall be. On surveying the calamities brought upon the Jews, Josephus exclaims, "If the misfortunes of all, from the beginning of the world, were compared with theirs, they would appear much inferior; no other city ever suffered such things, as no other generation from the beginning of the world was ever more fruitful in wickedness."

Verse 22. But for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.-The elect are the Christian Jews, who had fled to the mountains, where they must have perished but that the subjugation of Judea, and the termination of the war, were hastened, partly by the valour of the Romans, and partly by the intestine divisions of the besieged, who might, if united, have held out longer. But both these were under the special direction of God. The numbers which perished in this terrible war are calculated, by Josephus, at upwards of a million of people, during the siege of the

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capital alone; and the number sold into captivity, at more than one hundred thousand. After some time, many of the more peaceable Jews were allowed again to settle in Judea; among whom we find the Christians who had been thus so signally preserved, by attending to the warning of their Lord.

Verse 23. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo here is Christ, &c.-The caution refers to the time preceding the siege, that which was occupied by it, and even to the period that followed; and the renewal of this warning against false Christs and false prophets, shows to how great a danger the Jewish disciples were exposed through their national prejudices: for all these pretenders addressed themselves to the passions, and before the destruction of Jerusalem, held out the delusive hopes of deliverance, under an assumed divine commission; or afterwards promised the restoration of the nation.

Verse 24. Great signs and wonders.-What these were we have now no means of judging; whether deceptions, or the result, to a certain extent, of a permitted supernatural agency. From the detected character of Popish "signs and wonders," which bear so strong a resemblance to those of Jewish and Pagan miracles, we may conclude it probable that they were impostures, and "lying wonders," but artfully contrived by the more skilful to mislead the ignorant mass, prepared for delusion by that gross superstition and belief in magic which prevailed amongst them. Simon Magus bewitched the people of Samaria with his "sorceries; " and Josephus calls the false prophets who appeared at this time among the Jews μayo and yoŋles, magicians and sorcerers. As to amulets, charms, sorceries, and enchantments, the

Jews of that age were notoriously credulous; and as incredulous as to the real miracles of our Lord and his apostles! The truth of these miracles obtains from this a stronger evidence, and the unbelief of the Jews a MORAL solution. By a credulous people they must have been admitted as demonstrative of the doctrines in confirmation of which they were wrought; but they hated the doctrine itself, and this passion overpowered every mental habit, and changed, as to those glorious evidences of pure and holy truth, the whole character of their minds. Nor is this case without parallel. The CREDULITY OF INFIDELITY in our own age has often been remarked; and it is exemplified in the readiness with which both those who entirely reject the holy scriptures, and the critics who would explain away their supernatural character, admit the most absurd theories in opposition to them, and the deceived confidence with which they teach them to others.

If it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.-The elect are the Christians as distinguished from the Jews; and the words express the powerful efforts to deceive made by the seducers, and the great difficulty in succeeding with Christians.

This would arise from the abundant evidence they had of the truth of Christ's mission; the witness in themselves, in their own moral experience, of the certainty and excellency of his religion; and from that elevation of the intellect, and that dominion over superstition, which Christianity truly received never fails to produce. Accordingly, we find that the body of Christians remained unmoved by the most plausible of these pretenders. But those that should argue from the words, "if it were possible," or more simply, if possible, e duvalov, that

the seduction of the elect, that is, of even true Christians, is impossible, forget how solemnly our Lord warns them to "take heed," and to "watch" and "pray;" all which supposes danger, and that of no common kind. Nor does the phrase ει δυναίον express more than great difficulty. Thus, Acts xx. 16, "He hasted, if it were possible for him, eɩ dvvalov avly, to be at Jerusalem the day of pentecost." It was difficult, but clearly not impossible; he might or he might not. So also, in Rom. xii. 18, "If it be possible, & duvalov, live peaceably with all men;" where the matter is difficult indeed, but if impossible, the exhortation would have been superfluous. Nor, when the circumstances of the Jewish Christians are considered, will it appear that they were out of the reach of this seduction. Like others, they felt the sting of Roman oppression, and the flame of patriotic feeling cannot be supposed to have burned less ardently in their minds than in those of the unbelieving part of the nation; and that various Jewish prejudices, as to the superiority of their nation, and the perpetuity of their institutions, so far as they were national, clung very closely to the early converts, we have sufficient evidence from the New Testament. Now, if these feelings were not strictly regulated, and these prejudices kept in subordination to great Christian principles, the judgment would naturally be darkened by the feelings, and their attachment to Christianity be shaken from the moment they began to regard it as anti-patriotic, and opposed to the national liberation from a foreign yoke, and its future hoped-for civil glory. Here their danger lay, and this would expose them to the delusions of artful men. That few were led aside, proves that it was difficult, indeed, to deceive the very elect; but that none fell into this snare, is impro

bable. This, at least, we know, that they were in danger, or they would not have been so solemnly warned; and if they escaped, it was, as we must all escape evil of every kind, by "taking heed." Behold, says Christ, I have told you before; so that if you fall, you will be without

excuse.

Verse 26. He is in the desert.-Several of the false Messiahs collected their deluded followers in the deserts or wilderness, probably not only for the sake of secrecy, but under some notion that the delivering Messiah would issue out of the desert for their redemption.

In the secret chambers.—Taking counsel with the heads of the people, and maturing his plans, so that all are to hold themselves in readiness to join him at the first signal. Believe it not. We may also probably infer from these cautions, that some Christians even, still clinging to the idea that our Lord, as the true Messiah, would interpose by a manifestation of himself to save the state from utter ruin, might look for his visible appearance, although they rejected the false Messiahs; and might therefore listen to reports of his being in the desert, or in some secret place. A notion was certainly held by the Jews subsequently, that the Messiah lay hid in some obscure place, as in an island of the sea, or the walks of the garden of Eden, with other similar absurdities; and some notion of this kind might be held under the influence of strong Jewish feelings by some of the weaker Christians, respecting their Saviour. This affords an obvious reason why our Lord in the next verse describes the manner of his real coming, which would be publicly and suddenly, though not visibly, except by the effect, and not to save, but to execute judgment.

Verse 27. For as the lightning, &c.—In