brought their ensigns into the temple, and placed one of them against the eastern gate, and sacrificed to them there; which was the greatest insult and outrage that could possibly be offered to that wretched people *."

When therefore this desolating abomination, this idolatrous and destructive army appeared before the holy city, "then," says our Lord, "let them which be in Judæa flee into the mountains; let bim which is on the house-top not come down to take any thing out of his house, neither let him that is in the fields return back to take his clothes:" These are allusions to Jewish customs, and are designed to impress upon the disciples the necessity of immediate flight, not suffering themselves to be delayed by turning back for any accommodations they might wish for. "And woe unto them that are with child, and to those that give suck in those days! And pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:" that

De Bell. Jud. 1. vi. c. 6. s. 1. p. 1283.

is,

is, unfortunate will it be for those who, in such a time of terror and distress, shall have any natural impediments to obstruct their flight, and who are obliged to travel in the winter season, when the weather is severe, the roads rough, and the days short; or on the sabbath-day, when the Jews fancied it unlawful to travel more than a mile or two. These kind admonitions were not lost upon the disciples. For we learn from the best ecclesiastical historians, that when the Roman armies approached to Jerusalem, all the Christians left that devoted city, and fled to Pella, a mountainous country, and to other places beyond the river Jordan. And Josephus also informs us, that when Vespasian was drawing his forces towards Jerusalem, a great multitude fled from Jericho into the mountainous country for their security*.

And happy was it for them that they did so, for the miseries experienced by the Jews in that siege, were almost without a parallel

* De Bell. Jud. l. iv. c. 8. s. 2. p. 1193. Ed. Huds.

a parallel in the history of the world.. "Then," says our Saviour, "shall be great tribulation, such as was not from the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be." This expression is a proverbial one, frequently made use of by the sacred writers to express some very uncommon calamity *, and therefore it is not necessary to take the words in their strictest sense. But yet in fact they were in the present instance almost literally fulfilled; and whoever will turn to the history of this war by Josephus, and there read the detail of the horrible and almost incredible calamities endured by the inhabitants of Jerusalem, during the siege, not only from the fire and sword of the enemies without, but from famine and pestilence, and continual massacres and murders from the fiend-like fury of the seditious zealots within, will be convinced that the very strong terms made use of by our Lord, even when literally interpreted, do not go beyond the truth. Indeed

* Ex. x. 14. Joel ii. 2. Dan. xii. 1. Maccab. ix. 27.

a

deed Josephus himself, in his preface to his history, expresses himself almost in the very same words: "Our city, says he, of all those subjected to the Romans, was raised to the highest felicity, and was thrust down again to the lowest gulf of misery; for if the misfortunes of all from the beginning of the world were compared with those of the Jews, they would appear much inferior upon the comparison*." Is not this almost precisely what our Saviour says, "There shall be great tribulation, such as was not from the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be." It is impossible, one would think, even for the most stubborn infidel, not to be struck with the great similarity of these two passages; and not to see that the prediction of our Lord, and the accomplishment of it, as described by the historian, are exact counterparts of each other, and seem almost as if they had been written by the very same person. Yet Josephus was not born till after our Saviour * De Bell. Jud. Procem. p. 955. Ed. Huds.

Saviour was crucified; and he was not a Christian, but a Jew; and certainly never meant to give any testimony to the truth of our religion.

The calamities above mentioned were so severe, that had they been of long continuance the whole Jewish nation must have been destroyed; "except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved," says Christ, in the 23d verse; "but (he adds) for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened." They were shortened for the sake of the elect, that is, of those Jews who had been converted to Christianity; and they were shortened by the besieged themselves, by their seditious and mutual slaughters, and their madness in burning their own provisions.

"Then," continues Jesus, "if any man shall say unto you, Lo; here is Christ, or there, believe it not for there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch that (if it were possible) they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you

before.