"At the feast of Pentecost, as the priests were going by night into the inner court of the temple, they felt a quaking, and heard a great noise, and after that they heard the sound as But the of a multitude, saying: 'Let us remove hence.'” sign which Josephus considered the most impressive, was that of a man named Jesus, who, four years before the war, at a time of entire peace, having come to the feast of tabernacles, began suddenly to cry aloud: "A voice from the east-a voice from the west-a voice from the four winds-a voice against Jerusalem and the holy house-a voice against the bridegrooms and the brides; and a voice against the whole people." With this cry he went through all the city, day and night. No severity of punishment; no acts of kindness could silence this voice. He spoke neither good nor ill to any, whether they gave him food or scourging. For seven years and five months, his solemn cry continued; until its warning was just about to be fulfilled. A little while before the city was taken, as he was going round upon the wall, he cried with his utmost force: "Wo, wo to the city again, and to the people, and to the holy house;" and just as he added, wo to myself also," a stone from one of the engines killed him immediately.*

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However incredible the narrative of these signs may seem to some, it is not a little in its confirmation that the Roman historian, Tacitus, speaking of the same time and place, says: "There were many prodigies presignifying their ruin, which were not to be averted by all the sacrifices and vows of that people. Armies were seen fighting in the air with brandished weapons. A fire fell upon the temple from the clouds. The doors of the temple were suddenly opened. At the same time there was a loud voice, declaring that the gods were removing, which was accompanied with a sound as of a multitude going out. All which things were supposed by some to portend great calamities." Whether all these

* Wars, &c. b. 6, c. v. § 3.

+ Lardner, iii. 613. Tacit. Hist. b. 5, c. ix.-xiii.

things did really take place, or whether some or all of them were not the conceits of superstitious and excited minds, I shall not discuss; nor is the question at all material to our present object. Certain it is that they were regarded as realities at the time, and consequently were in effect, “fearful sights and great signs from heaven" to the Jews, whatever they may have been in reality. It required as much of the spirit of prophecy to predict that the Jews should believe such things to have occurred, as to predict any thing else that did certainly occur. Whatever we may conclude, therefore, concerning the singularly concurrent testimony of the Jewish and Roman historians, the prophecy of the Saviour was most impressively fulfilled.

V. From the calamities of the nation and city, our Lord continued his prophecy to those of his own followers: “Before all these, they shall lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake."*"They shall kill you; and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake." "I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist." For the proof of the accomplishment of all this, the Acts of the Apostles afford abundant evidence. Remember how Saul made havoc of the church, entering into every house; punishing the christians in every synagogue, and persecuting them even unto strange cities. Peter and John were delivered to councils. Paul was brought before kings. The former were also imprisoned. Paul and Silas were not only imprisoned but beaten. There was given them indeed a wisdom, which their adversaries were not able to gainsay nor resist. The very discourses of Peter that caused his persecution subdued thousands into obedience to the faith of Christ. The murderers of Stephen

* Luke, xxi. 12. + Mat. xxiv. 9.

Luke, xxi. 15.

§ Acts, viii. 3-xxvi. 10, 11.-iv. 5.-xviii. 12.-xxiv. and v.-iv. 3. Acts, ii. 41.

were not able to resist the wisdom with which he spake.* The jailor that incarcerated Paul and Silas in the evening, was their convert before the morning.† Felix trembled, and Agrippa was almost persuaded to be a Christian, under the speech of Paul. Stephen and James were put to death. There is reason to believe that none of the original apostles or evangelists, but John, died a natural death. Christians were counted as the fifth of the world, being literally hated for the very name they bore. About six years before the destruction of Jerusalem, arose the tremendous persecution under Nero, when it was enough that any one was called by the name of Christian, to lead him to torture. Tacitus bears witness, not only to their exquisite sufferings, but also to the fact that they were held in universal hatred on account of their religion and name.‡

VI. "Then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and hate one another; and because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." The apostle of the Gentiles, in his epistles, complains of Demas, and Phygellus, and Hermogenes, and many others in Asia, who turned away from him; and that when he first appeared at the bar of Nero, no man stood with him, but all forsook him. And Tacitus speaking of the persecution by Nero, says: “At first, those who were seized confessed their sect; and then, by their indication, a great multitude were convicted."¶

VII. Immediately after the prediction of the outward persecutions and internal defections by which the servants of Christ were to be troubled, there follows this remarkable prophecy: "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. 29** The end, referred to, was that of the Jewish polity, which entirely ceased at the destruction of the Jewish metropolis and temple. Jesus prophesied that before

Lardner, iii. 498. Tac. Ann. 15. c. 44. 2 Tim. i. 15.—vi. 10.—iv. 16. T Ann. b. xv.

* Acts, vi. 10. † Acts, xvi. 32-4. § Mat. xxiv. 10-12.

** Mat. xxiv. 14.

this, that is, in forty years from the time when he uttered these words, the gospel would be preached in all the world. Of all that was then in futurity, what could have been more improbable, or to human view, more impossible than this? The gospel was then received but by a handful of unlettered Jews. In a few days after, its author was crucified as a malefactor; his disciples were scattered and discouraged; his enemies triumphant, and the gospel seemed at an end. When the infant church was gathered together in Jerusalem, immediately after the ascension of its Head, the number of the disciples that could be collected, was but one hundred and twenty. What, but the omniscience of God could have foreseen, that in less than forty years that church would be extended into all countries of the known world? But thus it came to pass: "It appears from the writers of the history of the church, that before the destruction of Jerusalem, the gospel was not only preached in the Lesser Asia, and Greece, and Italy, the great theatres of action then in the world, but was likewise propagated as far northward as Scythia, as far southward as Ethiopia, as far eastward as Parthia and India, as far westward as Spain and Britain."* The epistles of Paul, in the New Testament, were directed to churches then flourishing in Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colosse, and Thessalonica. In the Epistle to the Romans, he asserts that the christian faith was then (ten years before the end) "spoken of throughout the world." To the Colossians, about three years after, he asserts that "the gospel had (then) been preached to every creature under heaven,” ‡ meaning that to all nations, without distinction, it had been published. Tacitus bears witness that, in the sixth year before the destruction of Jerusalem (Nero's persecution), the religion of Christ had not only extended over Judea, but through Rome also; and that its followers were then so numerous, that "a vast multitude" were apprehended and condemned to martyrdom. Thus, impossible as such an

* Newton, ii. 257. 8. + Rom i. 18. + Col. i. 23. § Tac. Ann. b. xv.

event must have seemed at the time when this prophecy was uttered, the end did not come until the gospel of the kingdom of Christ was preached "in all the world." We know not which should be considered the most impressive evidence that God was with the gospel; this wonderful fact, brought to pass by such means, and in the face of such universal and deadly opposition; or the prophetic eye by which the Saviour predicted, in circumstances so unpromising, that thus it would be.

VIII. The next prophetic sign brings us almost to the awful catastrophe. "When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies," or, as the expression is in Matthew: "When ye shall see the abomination of desolation stand in the holy place," "then know that the desolation thereof is nigh." "Then let them which be in Judea flee to the mountains: let him that 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."*

By the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, Matthew expresses the same thing as when Luke speaks of Jerusalem being compassed with armies. The standards of the Roman armies had on them images to which idolatrous worship was paid, and which were therefore an abomination to the Jews. On this account, we read that a Roman general, when conducting his army through Judea towards Arabia, was besought by the principal Jews to lead it another way.† "Every idol and every image," says Chrysostom, "was called an abomination among the Jews." These idolatrous ensigns being connected with a desolating army, constituted them the abomination of desolation; and when the Roman army planted its standards around the holy city, the abomination of desolation literally stood in the holy place, or on holy ground. This the Saviour predicted. It was to be the signal to Christians that the desolation of Jerusalem was nigh. Then they were to escape with haste * Luke, xxi. 20. Mat. xxiv. 15, 16, 17, 18.

† Ant. b. 18, c. vi. § 3.