arms the return of the chosen race to the holy land, and the re-establishment of their kingdom. And if this be the probable interpretation of the signs in the sun and moon, the advent which is to succeed those signs can hardly be any other than the real advent at the last day. In my first discourse upon this subject, I had occasion to obviate an objection that might be raised from the declaration which our Lord subjoins to his parable of the figtree: "This generation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled," I showed that the words "all these things" do not denote all the particulars of the whole preceding prophecy, but all the things denoted by the same words in the application of that parable, namely, all the first signs which answer to the budding of the fig-tree's leaves. Great stress has been laid upon the expressions with which, as St. Matthew reports them, our Lord introduces the mention of those signs in the sun and moon which are to precede his advent: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun be darkened." The word "immediately" may seem to direct us to look for this darkness of sun and moon in something immediately succeeding the calamities which the preceding part of the prophecy describes: And as nothing could more immediately succeed the distresses of the Jewish war than the demolition of the city and the dispersion of the nation, hence, all that goes before in St. Matthew's narrative of these discourses, hath been understood of the distresses of the war, and these celestial disorders of the final dissolution of the Jewish polity in church and state; which catastrophe, it hath been thought, our Lord might choose to clothe in "figurative language, on purpose to perplex the unbelieving persecuting Jews, if his discourses should ever fall into their hands, that they might not learn to avoid the impending evil.” But we learn from St. Luke, that before our Lord spoke of these signs, he mentioned the final dissolution of the Jewish polity, in the plainest terms, without any figure. He had said "They" i. e. (as appears by the preceding sentence) this people "shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be VOL. I. E led away captive into all nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles." And to what purpose should he afterwards propound in a figure what he had already described in plain. words? or how could the figurative description, thus accompanied with the interpretation, serve the purpose of confounding and perplexing? I apprehend, that the whole difficulty which the word "immediately" is supposed to create, in that interpretation which refers the signs in the sun and moon to the last ages of the world, is founded on a mistake concerning the extent of that period of affliction which is intended by "the tribulation of those days." These words, I believe, have been always understood of those few years during which the Roman armies harassed Judea and besieged the holy city; whereas it is more agreeable to the general cast of the prophetic language, to understand them of the whole period of the tribulation of the Jewish nation, that whole period during which Jerusalem is to be trodden down. This tribulation began indeed in those days of the Jewish war; but the period of it is at this day in its - course, and will not end till the time shall come, predetermined in the counsels of God, for the restoration of that people to their ancient seats. This whole period will probably be a period of affliction, not to the Jews only, but also in some degree to the Christian church; for not before the expiration of it will the true church be secure from persecutions from withoutfrom corruption, schism, and heresy, within. But when this period shall be run out, when the destined time shall come for the .conversion and restoration of the Jewish people,- immediately shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light; great commotions and revolutions will take place among the kingdoms of the earth. Indeed, the re-establishment of the Jewish kingdom is, in the nature of the thing, not likely to be effected without great disturbances. By this interpretation, and I think in no other way, the parallel passages of St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. Luke, may be brought exactly to one and the same meaning. I shall now venture to conclude, notwith standing the great authorities which incline the other way, that the phrase of "our Lord's coming," wherever it occurs in his prediction of the Jewish war, as well as in most other passages of the New Testament, is to be taken in its literal meaning, as denoting his coming in person, in visible pomp and glory, to the general judgment. Nor is the belief of that coming, so explicitly foretold, an article of little moment in the Christian's creed, however some who call themselves Christians may affect to. slight it. It is true, that the expectation of a future retribution is what ought, in the nature of the thing, to be a sufficient restraint upon a wise man's conduct, though we were uninformed of the manner in which the thing will be brought about, and were at liberty to suppose that every individual's lot would be silently determined, without any public entry of the Almighty Judge, and without the formality of at public trial. But our merciful God, who knows how feebly the allurements of the present world are resisted by our reason, unless imagination can be engaged on rea |